Hi, I'm a 28 year old male with a Realize Band. I was banded in Nov. 2009 (weighed 274) and now weigh approx. 222. I lost about 12 pounds from the initial liquid diet, and the rest of the weight loss has been from dysphagia that has been occurring with no fill in the band. I've lost about 35 pounds over the last couple months. I had a bit of fill toward the beginning (a few CCs), but that wasn't enough to cause much restriction. In the early summer, when my left sternocleidomastoid (neck muscle) became inflamed, I had my fill emptied. Most of my weight loss has occurred since that time.

Here are my symptoms:

-Neck muscle (sternocleidomastoid) inflamed and hurting

-Pain in knees and elbows...sometimes in various other bones/muscles/joints

-Pain in various places in my abdomen

-Dysphagia (hard to swallow even a couple bites of soft-serve ice cream...have to gag myself to get it out)

-ears hurt (have already been checked for ear infection; there is none)

-often have back pain

-Unusually dark urine

-heart stometimes feels like it starts beating too fast

-Blood pressure has been all over the map lately

-Massive headaches

I've recently had an upper GI. Also CT scans of my neck, pelvis and abdomen. I've also had an x-ray of my chest. Everything has came back normal. I'm in so much pain that I typically don't want to get out of bed. I'm a college senior, but am not taking classes right now because of this. I almost blew my near 4.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) due to taking classes this summer. I'm concerned that I have scleroderma and will die in my 20's or 30's due to complications related to that. They say not to assume the worst, etc., etc., but my symptoms do seem to match up with scleroderma (AKA systemic sclerosis). I've also read that even though much more women have it than men, more men die from it. I hope that I haven't ended my life before it even starts, but we shall see. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Has anyone here been diagnosed with autoimmune disease(s) as a result of the procedure? I have an appt. w/ a rheumatologist on the 1st.

Regards,

David

Edited September 27, 201015 yr by Daemon

What about rheumatoid arthritis?

Autoimmune means your body turns on it's self. I wouldn't think a band would cause that. It may just be a coincidence that symptoms started around the same time.

I know a lady who is 50 and has had Scleroderma and Lupus since her 20's. She is still fine and still working full time.

What about rheumatoid arthritis?

Well, it's just that dysphagia is a hallmark symptom of scleroderma. But then again, what do I know...I hadn't even heard of such a thing as an "autoimmune disease" prior to having the procedure done. Compared to other areas of study, I've never been particularly interested in biology/anatomy and didn't start educating myself about our inner workings to speak of until earlier this year. Thanks for your response.

-David

I've never heard of an auto-immune disease developing from the being banded, and have never come across anything in my research of the band.

Not being a medical professional, I can't make judgements on what may be causing your problems, but I really do wish you the best. Sounds like you've had a terrible 10 months.

Autoimmune means your body turns on it's self. I wouldn't think a band would cause that. It may just be a coincidence that symptoms started around the same time.

I know a lady who is 50 and has had Scleroderma and Lupus since her 20's. She is still fine and still working full time.

I'm glad she's doing well, but she's an exception. Also, my symptoms started within a couple months of having the procedure done. A bit hard to discount it as being a coincidence, don't you think? I've already read that there's an ongoing investigation about whether or not gastric banding causes autoimmune diseases. I read it at some surgeon's site.

-David

David,

I've never heard of the band causing an autoimmune disease, but who knows what the last straw was when someone's body turns on itself. I hope they find the answer for you soon!

.

David,

I've never heard of the band causing an autoimmune disease, but who knows what the last straw was when someone's body turns on itself. I hope they find the answer for you soon!

.

Hey, thanks. It would be nice to at least know what the hell is going on, even if it is a terminal illness. The factors of "unknown" and "anticipation" are very influential in human psychology.

Hi David. This reminds me of a friend who, within a week of getting gastric bypass surgery, was diagnosed with ALL (bone marrow cancer). We know that the surgery did not cause him to have cancer, but we do feel the surgery caused his body to be weak and stressed, and the symptoms of his disease ALL to come out.... so perhaps that is the case with you. Maybe you already had an autoimmune disease, and the lapband surgery just caused the symptoms to come out sooner? Just a thought. I hope you figure out what's going on soon, so you can feel better.

Hi David. This reminds me of a friend who, within a week of getting gastric bypass surgery, was diagnosed with ALL (bone marrow cancer). We know that the surgery did not cause him to have cancer, but we do feel the surgery caused his body to be weak and stressed, and the symptoms of his disease ALL to come out.... so perhaps that is the case with you. Maybe you already had an autoimmune disease, and the LAP-BAND® surgery just caused the symptoms to come out sooner? Just a thought. I hope you figure out what's going on soon, so you can feel better.

This is exactly what I was going to say - and I do work in the medical profession. Sometimes the smallest trigger and create symptoms where we never saw them before.... Find the best doctor you can and get your questions answered.

I'm glad she's doing well, but she's an exception. Also, my symptoms started within a couple months of having the procedure done. A bit hard to discount it as being a coincidence, don't you think? I've already read that there's an ongoing investigation about whether or not gastric banding causes autoimmune diseases. I read it at some surgeon's site.

-David

A temporal association is not always causality. Talk to a physician.

Hi David. This reminds me of a friend who, within a week of getting gastric bypass surgery, was diagnosed with ALL (bone marrow cancer). We know that the surgery did not cause him to have cancer, but we do feel the surgery caused his body to be weak and stressed, and the symptoms of his disease ALL to come out.... so perhaps that is the case with you. Maybe you already had an autoimmune disease, and the LAP-BAND® surgery just caused the symptoms to come out sooner? Just a thought. I hope you figure out what's going on soon, so you can feel better.

This response seems the most logical, the surgery is very traumatic, and could have triggered a rapid onset of your already existing disease that has been incubating. Either way I hope you are able to get this figured out and possibly fixed. Keep your head up!

This response seems the most logical, the surgery is very traumatic, and could have triggered a rapid onset of your already existing disease that has been incubating. Either way I hope you are able to get this figured out and possibly fixed. Keep your head up!

I agree that seems most logical. Anything that stresses your body can trigger an autoimmune disease. You probably already had the autoimmune disease and it just now showed up.

Edited to add: I've read that if you have an autoimmune disease then YOU ARE NOT a candidate for banding.

Edited September 27, 201015 yr by spoiltmom

I haven't seen any peer-reviewed research linking the band with autoimmune disease, so I'd be inclined to view it as coincidental.

I'm very, very sorry that you're experiencing these distressing symptoms, though--and hope you get to the bottom of it quickly.

Also if you haven't already you can go to the FDA's MAUDE site and look up lap band and realize band. It will give you all the reported cases of side effects, complications and etc associated with the band.

MAUDE - Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience

Hope that helps you!

This is kind of long... I suffer from autoimmune disease and have heard that the band can be good or bad for it. Some docs won't touch you if you have it. The only article I can find linking it to autoimmune disease in a quick search is the one below

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy2.library.drexel.edu/sites/entrez

We report 2 patients who developed sarcoidosis after the implantation of adjustable silicone gastric banding (GB) in Germany. Before implantation, no pulmonary diseases were evident in the medical history of either patient. The 1st patient suffered sarcoidosis 12 months after GB. He has been treated at a hospital specialising in pulmonary diseases. Because of the treatment with corticoids, the patient has regained weight after the initial weight reduction. The 2nd patient developed signs of pulmonary infection on the 7th postoperative day (after GB). Pulmonary sarcoidosis was diagnosed 4 months later after consultation with a pulmonologist.

On the other hand- this article states that it helps:

Bariatric Surgery Improves Asthma, Autoimmune Disease

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 2008 — Obese people with asthma, osteoarthritis or autoimmune diseases who undergo bariatric surgery may be able to say sayonara to their steroids and/or the other immunosuppressing drugs they use to treat these diseases within about 18 months of their surgery. This is according to new research presented at the 25th annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic amd Bariatric Surgery.

And that's a good thing, as long-term use of these drugs can have harmful effects on health. Precisely how bariatric surgery can help resolve or improve these diseases is not fully understood, but losing weight may decrease certain inflammatory markers that are known to be elevated in autoimmune and inflammatory disease, according to study author Elizabeth A. Dovec, MD, a bariatric surgeon at Western Pennsylvania Hospital, a teaching hospital of Temple University School of Medicine in Pittsburgh.

The new study comprised 49 morbidly obese people who were taking steroids or other immunosuppressive medications to treat co-existing chronic autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), myasthenia graves (a neuromuscular disease characterized by weakness of the skeletal muscles) and lupus, or inflammatory diseases like asthma. In autoimmune diseases, the body engages in friendly fire against its own organs or systems.

More than 50 percent of the study patients were able to discontinue or significantly reduce the use of oral steroids and immunosuppressive agents within 18 months. Specifically, 89 percent of people with asthma who underwent bariatric surgery were able to discontinue their steroids. What's more, 33 percent of patients with the inflammatory skin disease psoriasis and 25 percent of those with myasthenia graves were able to stop taking their medication.

In addition to improvements in autoimmune and inflammatory disease, the study participants lost 65.2 percent of their excess weight, and 80 percent of the study participants showed improvements or resolution of many of their other obesity-related diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea and high blood pressure.

"Patients with compromised immune systems [such as occur with autoimmune disease] or taking steroids for chronic inflammatory disease [like asthma] may have been excluded from bariatric surgery because they are at higher risk for complications related to their disease or immunosuppressant medications," said another study author, Daniel J, Gagné, MD, director of bariatric surgery and laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgery at the hospital. "However, this study shows not only that these patients can safely have bariatric surgery, but they can achieve significant improvements or elimination of many diseases." — Denise Mann