Alexandra

I wondered that too, but with all the erosions lately I was on board with the endo. A barium swallow wouldn't have been able to tell the condition of the lining of my esophagus, and personally that was what worried me the most. The ongoing irritation of my esophagus and stomach was the really unusual symptom that brought me to the doctor in the first place. Footnote: I FEEL GREAT TODAY!! I slept ALL NIGHT in my bed next to my ever-patient hubby, and woke up totally refreshed for the first time in weeks. YAHOOOO!!! :clap2: :clap2: :clap2:

Thanks, everyone! I am indeed relieved. What I meant about my doc's assessment not really jibing with mine is this. Here's the timeline: Early September: small fill, everything's fine Late October: I come down with a bad case of bronchitis that persisted with significant coughing, finally resolved by narcotic medication. Band still feels fine, eating as normal. Late December: Bronchitis returns, I'm afraid I have pneumonia but doctor says no. More meds, resolves cough. Band still feels fine, eating as normal. Mid-late January: I start to have the odd episode of heartburn, treatable with Rolaids. Mid- to late February: Occasional episodes of heartburn suddenly get a lot worse, plus nightly reflux with lots of phlegm. From this point forward I can't sleep lying down. I have pain in my stomach that almost feels like an ulcer, and irritation in my esophagus and stomach that verges on making me panic. There were two episodes of small amounts of blood being vomited up, and by early March I can't eat much in the way of solid food. This is when I see the gastroenterologist. Mid-March: I've been sticking mostly to liquids since the first week, until my endoscopy and unfill. Prevacid has made me feel much better, and soon I'll try sleeping lying down again. I'm not going to eat anything really solid until next week. My doctor thinks all of this may be from my band being too tight back in September, and my not knowing it. He suggested that my bronchitis was a result of aspiration, and that the heartburn and esophagitis was because my esophagus was irritated from my using it to store food. He didn't have an answer as to why it would have come on so quickly. Esophageal dilation, he says, happens to some people and not others, and it's unpredictable. His explanation doesn't take into account what I think are significant factors, to wit: 1. The illnesses I had in October and December were initally caught from my children. 2. I had some very strange hormonal stuff going on in January (I'm getting to be that age, you know) and I'm told gastric symptoms can accompany that sort of thing. So mild heartburn wasn't so off-the-wall. 3. The sudden onset of symptoms in February directly coincided with severe congestion I suffered after staying in a house with pets (to which I'm quite allergic). 4. The irritation wasn't only in my esophagus but also in my stomach, and Prevacid helped a lot. My surgeon seemed to think there was no point in staying on it, since it "isn't doing anything." (I'm staying on it, anyway.) 5. I have always been able to, and can still, feel my esophagus doing its job and food and Fluid moving along. Maybe I'm grasping at straws, seeking answers that don't involve permanent issues with my band. But I just don't have a sense that this problem all stems from the same thing. The coughing I had last fall wasn't reflux-related--I've had that sort of cough and this was different. This was the full-body, deep-throated, uncontrollable cough that comes with infectious disease. If that made my band slip, I honestly wouldn't be very surprised. A small slip, then, might have combined with the allergy-related excess congestion I had in February to just tighten things up way too much. Clearly an unfill was called for, I'm not disputing that AT ALL. I'm just not also inclined to agree that there's anything necessarily wrong with my esophagus. Hey, I can hope, right? :nervous So that's my story, and I guess I'll know more on April 5 when I have a barium swallow.

These are great! Thanks for the St. Patty's day laughs, everyone. Happy celebrating!!

No one will EVER accuse me of being "thin," that's for sure. But for now I am indeed at what I would consider a "goal" weight. In fact, just over the last few weeks because of my gastritis/esophagitis, I lost a few more pounds and actually started feeling a little weird about it. I just really can't imagine being truly slender, so I'm happy at my current shape. The "brakes" on this vehicle are self-regulating. Let's say you've gotten your calorie intake down to 1400 a day, at which point you're losing 1-2 lbs a week. Once you lose 100 lbs, the same calorie level won't mean any weight loss because your body no longer needs more than that to maintain itself. So don't worry, P'Nut, you won't waste away to nothing! :biggrin1:

Congratulations on your approval! Glad it was nice and easy--that's the way it should be. Synthroid pills are small enough that they don't need to be crushed or broken. At least, mine sure are. Anything smaller than a pencil eraser will be fine, pretty much whenever.

Yeah, I tried it too. Didn't do a thing for me. It was nice and relaxing, but that was it.

YIKES! You mean NOT eroded, right? But thanks!!

Honestly? I wouldn't do it unless you are TOTALLY positive you won't be motivated to eat on top of it. Not that the booze would hurt you--it won't--but the relaxation of your stoma and your inhibitions might cause you to take a chance you woulnd't otherwise take. A brand new fill can take some getting used to, and you don't want to be doing that in the middle of a party. But the booze itself won't hurt you.

What a wonderful daughter you are! This is a tricky minefield indeed, but it sounds like you are really empathetic and understand the many layers of feeling that might be evoked by this gesture. She should be very proud of you. :thumb:

First things first: NO EROSION! :biggrin1: :bounce: :rockon: Next: The verdict of the gastroenterologist was that my band is too tight and my esophagus is dilated. My surgeon says that the protocol for that is a complete unfill (which I am FINE with) and see where things stand in a few months. He put a dark spin on it, as he is wont to do, by saying that the band will have to come out if in a few months my esophagus hasn't recovered. His take of how this happened doesn't quite jibe with my experience of the way symptoms progressed, so I'm just going to see how things go. He took out as much of my fill as he could, about 1cc, and sent me on my way. Clears for a day, fulls tomorrow and then on to mushies. I'm going to continue taking Prevacid for a while since that really helped with the heartburn, and I'm going to have a fluoroscopy in early April to check the position of the band. By then my symptoms, or lack of them, will probably tell me if there's anything to worry about. Thanks for everyone's good thoughts. Keep 'em coming! I could really use a good night's sleep in my own bed.

Machelle, this is a really key point that you have made: YOU KNEW YOU WERE FULL. This is HUGE!! You have a physical sensation of being full that possibly was absent before banding. Now what you have to do is surrender to it, allow it to dictate your behavior and not fight the feeling. This is the whole point of banding, to FEEL FULL and then to STOP EATING. The band helps with the first part, which is its miraculous power, but nothing can help with the second part until we're ready. I found, early on, that sometimes when I reached that point I had to physically get up and walk away, throw away my food and just wrench my mind into doing something else. Sometimes this involved yelling, briefly. :hat: But each time, after a very few minutes it would be clear to me that really, I didn't need any more food and I was in fact done eating. The next meal would come soon enough and there'd be more food then. Now throwing food away is second nature. Here's hoping it will be for you too, soon. THROW IT AWAY!! That's how we lose weight with the band.

Diana, I know how it looks, believe me. I've been hanging around this and other support groups for three years, and the truest thing anyone ever said is that people with problems are the most frequent posters on support groups. MOST people come, get banded, lose weight, leave and don't come back at all. Those who DO come back do so because they are experiencing trouble of one sort or another. The majority of bandsters are off living their newly healthy lives. I know it's hard to credit sometimes, but it's true. Ask your doctor for some referrals to their patients who AREN'T having problems. They're out there, I promise.

I'm sorry I missed this; I didn't know you had posted since your surgery. Don't worry, it DOES get better, and pretty fast. In a week you'll look back and be amazed at how good you feel. Congratulations, Eileen!! Welcome to Bandland! :welcome2:

LEENERBUPS!! How did it go??? How are you feeling??? Congratulations!!

My endo isn't scheduled until Thursday, sorry! I'll keep y'all posted. The good news is that the Prevacid I got last week seems to be helping, and I'm feeling much better. I'm no longer convinced I have an ulcer or worse, just think I had a nasty bout of gastritis and/or esophagitis, plus ongoing, really bad reflux. Since I'd never had any of these things before, I pretty much thought I was dying. Thanks for thinking of me, Kathy! I'll let you know what the answer is...

Happy Bandiversary, sweet Crystal! May year 2 be the year you find all the success you deserve. :hug:

Hi Dr. Pam! Welcome! All best of luck to you in your banding and weight loss. Hope to see more (or less!) of you on LBT in the future. :bounce:

How do they say Happy Birthday in Malawi-ese?

I'm thinking of you too, Jonathan. All best for a swift recovery and hope to see you soon!

Of COURSE it's not up to him! We all know the "magic" formula for losing weight--diet and exercise. If you want to lose more weight, you know what to do. Why think it's up to your doctor? At one point my doctor said that I may have lost all I'm going to with the band, and I recall feeling a bit like you do. But he may be right--my band may have done all it's going to do for me. That doesn't mean it's leaving me totally defenseless, though; the capacity I had before banding will not suddenly return just because of some words my doctor said. I'm still eating a fraction of what I ate pre-band, so the weight will stay off. And if I want to lose any more, I know how. I've always known how, and so have you. It's always been, and always will be, completely up to us.

Having been overweight ALL my life, I have come to many "turning points" before. There have been many times when I swore THIS was going to be the time, the difference, the real work was going to begin. And every time I'd give up, move on, resign myself to being fat. Until I had children. That just changes everything, and my focus was suddenly not on the inconveniences being big caused me, but on the DANGER my size put my kids in. I couldn't chase them if they ran into traffic, for example--which is something that actually happened...thank god my husband was around! It was a new vision of my future that got me off the couch and into the doctor's office. Two little girls who called me "Mommy."

Good luck with everything, Kellie!! And when you get back I want to see a new username and title, k? Here's to a whole new you!!

Hi Karen, I don't have any ideas for you but wanted to wish you good luck with everything. It's so unpleasant when we're not feeling right and don't know why!! Good luck with the gastro and I hope he finds out what's wrong, and that's it's a whole lot of nothing. :hug:

A sticky thread in the References section is a perfect idea for this! I'll take care of it.

Kati, does it feel as though the oatmeal wants to come back up? If it does, go ahead and let it. If it's not coming back up you might try walking, stretching, moving around so as to help it pass through. Don't drink anything; that might make it worse. Welcome to the land of restriction! This is called negative behavior reinforcement.