By: Gloria Samuels

If you are a member of the Banded Living community, you know that I'm in my 5^th year since being lap banded and that I'm maintaining a normal healthy weight and that I love my lap band.  My journey however has not been a straight line; just like life, I've had my ups and downs.

Back in 2008 I experienced a lap band port leak.  This is a relatively minor complication.  I certainly learned a lot from the experience.  I've used a copy of my doctor's chart to help me re-tell the story.

My surgeon has a comprehensive form that I complete at each visit so that the medical staff knows about any changes in my medical status, how I'm working my tool, and how I'm feeling about my journey.  In January of 2008, right after the holiday season, I reported my overall feeling as a "10 out of 10." I commented that:

• I was getting used to (my weight) stabilizing
• I was having good days and bad days, but my life was no longer ruled by "feeling fat"
• I was feeling a little tight, was not eating as much fresh fruit and vegetables as I would like; I was starting to resort to "soft foods" so I wanted to try taking some fluid out of my band"

So, I had a slight "un-fill."

I had forgotten how much my band helped with satiety.  After 1 1/2 years I began to take a normal appetite for granted then I had a lesson in what life was like before my band.

The next day after having a tiny bit of fluid removed, I was ravenous.  With my lap band I finally felt like a normal person, with a normal appetite.  Suddenly those old horrible feelings of being hungry all the time came rushing back; it felt like my worst nightmare.  I called my doctor in a panic; he saw me right away.  He said the fear I exhibited was palpable.

My surgeon tried to remove the fluid from my band, but only a small amount came out.  He gave me more fluid and repeated the process a few times over the course of a week, then concluded that my port might have a leak.  In addition, my port site was very "prominent" and was becoming quite painful.

My doctor always puts my health first, so he scheduled me for an endoscopy (this is a procedure done under anesthesia, where they put a tiny camera down your throat to see the esophagus and stomach from the inside out; you've heard of a colonoscopy - think of looking inside from the other end of your digestive system).  The purpose is to rule out any serious band complications.  If the results of the endoscopy were fine, he would go ahead and replace my port with a low-profile port.

My band appeared fine; there was no sign of serious complications, thank goodness.  My port was replaced with a new low-profile port that was less prominent.  Replacing a port is a relatively simple procedure.  In my case it was done in the OR because my doctor wanted to rule out more serious complications.

Lap band port problems can happen.  You can read about them on pubmed (also known as medline which is an online US Government index of abstracts of medical papers) or on the manufacturer's websites.  I've read a lot of variability about how often this actually occurs, and I suspect that's because of all the factors involved; one factor that I know is critically important is using the correct needle.

Soon after, I had a fill using my new port.  No problems.  The feeling of satiety returned immediately; the difference I felt was quick and dramatic.  For me, this turned out to be not much more than a bump in the road on my journey.

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