Epic FAIL

I totally have my days messed up.

I forgot about the appointment that never happened in between my last visit with the FNP and my visit this Tuesday with the surgeon. My original appointment with the surgeon was Tuesday, April 20th. The appointment was at 11:30 so I arrived around 11. After sitting in the lobby for about an hour, I was told that the person with the 11am appointment hadn't even been seen yet. I couldn't wait too much longer because I had a 2pm meeting. So after about an hour and 1/2 of waiting - and not seeing the doctor - I had to reschedule.

Cut to this past Tuesday, April 27th. There I was bright and early for my 9am appointment with the surgeon. Now I haven't laid eyes on this man since I was in the recovery room on October 2, 2009 so I was pretty excited to get to see him. I arrived about 8:30 knowing full well that I was going to stay there until I saw him. I had taken the whole morning off to deal with this and if need be I would take the afternoon off as well!

When I checked in they informed me that Dr. Enochs was already running late and that it might be awhile. I sat in the lobby for about 45mins before they called me back to a room. I asked the nurse if he was there already and she said no. I told her that I would much prefer to wait in the lobby as there is a TV out there than to be stuck in a room with nothing to do. She then informed me that the PA was going to see me.

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!! I had waited nearly 3 months for some resolution here and now I was going to be seeing the PA? I told them that I would be happy to see the PA but that I wasn't leaving until I saw Dr. Enochs no matter if I had to spend the night!

A different nurse came in and asked me all the standard questions. She told me that I should try a fill under fluoro. No ... really? That's what I've been trying to do for 2 months to no avail. She tried her best to calm me by telling me how good Brett (the PA) was at giving fills and that if anyone could hit my stubborn port it would be him. So off I went to the fluoro room. Drank the barium (again) to show that I still have no restriction (like it was going to magically appear with no fill) and waited for Brett.

Finally I meet the miraculous Brett. He then begins his 45mins of poking. Again with the lay down, sit down, stand up, lean this way, twist that way, tighten, relax. POKE POKE POKE! They even had me stand in the fluoro machine so they could see where the needle was when they were poking me. At one point he said to the nurse .. I think I am going to get the longer needle! Excuse me, those needles are already pretty long. He kept telling me that "this will be the last stick" but I swear it was never ending.

When he finally decided that he had had his fun he told me he was going to ask "the doctor to take a pass at it." I was interested to see if Dr. Enochs could hit this dastardly problematic port. But instead of my surgeon in walks a different surgeon - Dr. Bruce. So still no Dr. Enochs. At least Dr. Bruce was really nice but then he started stickin' me with needles!

After about another 15 mins, Dr. Bruce recommended that I have a port revision surgery. It was like angels from heaven shining down on me. He said the words I had been waiting to hear for nearly 3 months! If the damn thing is broken - please let's fix it! He said that if Dr. Enochs' schedule was too full and I was ok with it that he would do it himself.

So after 3 months and nearly 3 total hours of poking, I am scheduled for a port revision surgery on May 14th. This time they are going to sew it to some mesh to give it more stability when they sew it to my muscle wall. Please let it stay this time. I'm not sure I can go through any more appointments like the ones I've had lately.

And I know my stomach doesn't want to look like this anymore!


I've circled each pock mark to illustrate just how many times they tried to hit my port. The ones with the bruises are where they entered the same hole more than once and/or did a lot of dancing around once they had it in there.

the Banded and the Hungry

Previously on the Banded and the Hungry, I was having issues getting in to see the correct doctor and hoping that my next appointment would be a fill under flouro.

Cut to over a month later and ohh what fun we have had!

I got to see my FNP Lisa shortly after my last post. She had me do the flouro to see how much restriction I had. Guess what it said ... I had practically NO restriction. That barium just flowed right on through things. That being said she decided to put 2ccs into my band. I am supposedly at 7.5ccs already in a 14cc band and by the look of things on the x-ray, I am no where near the restriction I should be at 6 months.

So we went into the other room and she proceeded to give me my fill ... well not so much. She poked and poked and poked. She had me lay down, put a pillow under my back, make a crunch, stand up, sit down (fight fight fight). We went back into the room with the flouro machine and she tried it there as well. But try and try (poke and poke) as she might, there was no getting into my dear little port.

She told me that I must have lost enough weight in certain areas that the port is sitting tilted. She suggested that we wait 2 weeks and see if my weight had dropped again hopefully adjusting the way my port was situated.

Mind you -- with all this poking she went through about 6 needles and 45mins of my life laying on a table getting stabbed!

Fortunately, they didn't charge me for that visit either. I scheduled my next appointment for 3 weeks out because unfortunately she wasn't available in 2 weeks.

My 3 week appointment was on April 23rd.

This appointment was much shorter than my last two. She tried to give me a fill 3 times with the help of another nurse. All tries were unsuccessful. She told me that I needed to make an immediate appointment to see the surgeon.

They squeezed me in to his schedule this past Tuesday(April 27th). But more on that in my next post.

Next time on the Banded and the Hungry: more barium, pokes, and doctors!