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Indegestion and Foamy vomit

I just got my 3rd "true" fill last week. Since then, whenever I eat I get really bad indegestion (belching and burping) to the point that I vomit. But when I vomit, it's not the food that comes up, but foam. Am I too tight? I have 5cc in my AP Standard LapBand. It's not painful to eat, and I don't throw up my food, just foam. I don't want to cause an erosion, or slippage of my band. But I know at 4cc I felt no restriction. This is the first time I've felt any restriction, so I don't know if this is normal for beginners, or if I'm eating too fast, or if it's acid reflux, or ..... lol I just don't know.

:blink:

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  • I had .5 taken out yesterday, they told me that the band was definatley too tight. The vomiting causes the swelling and within a few more days I would not of been able to get Water down. Feeling be

  • Thanks Bama! Trust me I understand just how you feel...the first time I had the unfill I gained about 10 pounds back but now looking back it was a slight hiccup! I am a little sad now that he took S

  • Georgegirl - good for you! I thought it was restriction at first too but with the throwing up and stuff I knew it had to be something more. Luckily most of the time it is a quick fix with a little unf

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I was the same way I just had my last filll and I feel restriction I vomit my food up but at times its been foam and I burp often when drinking fluids, but I put up a similar post like yours and the feedback I got was my band may be to tight, but im losing weight now!...so I'm kind of confused also; but if it to the point that you are worried you may want to see your doctor.

I just got my 3rd "true" fill last week. Since then, whenever I eat I get really bad indegestion (belching and burping) to the point that I vomit. But when I vomit, it's not the food that comes up, but foam. Am I too tight? I have 5cc in my AP Standard LapBand. It's not painful to eat, and I don't throw up my food, just foam. I don't want to cause an erosion, or slippage of my band. But I know at 4cc I felt no restriction. This is the first time I've felt any restriction, so I don't know if this is normal for beginners, or if I'm eating too fast, or if it's acid reflux, or ..... lol I just don't know.

:blink:

I had talked to my Doctor about this and he said the band is too tight.

Maybe if you have just ,one half a cc removed, it would make a difference.

I just went through this and in my situation it was because of seasonal allergies (hayfever). This is what happens to me. The drainage from my sinuses drain into my stomach but now is the pouch which is so much smaller than the full stomach. The drainage causes me to spit up foam. The solution if it is due to allergies.

1. May have to get a slight unfill

2. Do nasal irrigations with salt Water (ocean water at walgreens) once or twice a day depending on which pollens are active and you are allergic to. You can also make your own ocean water with non-ionized salt and distilled water.

3. Take Chlorltrimeton every 4 hours as needed. My doc says I can also use Zyrtec or Clariton.

4. Drink pineapple juice when you feel the foam building or wanting to come up. I'll have 1/2 cup right before each meal. The acid from the Pineapple juice neutralizes and forces the stuff down into the stomach.

5. Warm liquids also help push the foam down into the main stomach.

Hope this helps if it is allergies.

  • Author

Yeah, I'm starting to see the numbers go down, so I really don't want them to take any out. I already feel "behind" b/c I have to have a port revision back in Feburary. I talked to my aunt (who was also banded, just a few months before I was) She said her doc said it was most likely due to her stomach still producing enough acid to digest the volume of food she was eating. She had to take Prilosec for a couple of weeks and it's been fine since then she said. So I think I will try that. My next dr appointment is in 2 weeks, so if it hasn't stopped before then I will deffinitely ask him to tke just a little out.

(And I have had sinus drainage too, I live in the south and they have just started plowing the feilds around my house, and all of the honeysuckle, azeleas, and dogwoods are in bloom. I'll deffinitely do the nasal solution, and drink the pineapple juice. I'll have to see my primary care for a refill on my allergy meds. Thanks :) )

You might be swollen or over filled. This happened to me last year and I tried to live with it and it was hell.

I went for a small unfill and it didnt do anything, went for 2 more within 2 months and finally I was better. Just bceause the scale is moving doesnt mean you're losing weight the right away.

Now I am filled back up agian I was over filled at 5.5 went down to 4 and now I am at 6 and basically at my sweet spot maybe need just a little more. I wish I had gotten my first unfill sooner and a larger amount.

Being overfilled isnt good or safe. If you get unfilled, once you heal and your stomach goes back to normal you can always get fills again.

Had my last fill approx a month ago. After 3 weeks I really started feeling everything getting stuck. Had to walk out of a couple of business lunches to make the restroom to throw up. I am going to get an unfill this week it's amazing how just a .5 difference in your fill makes.

I had a fill about 2 months ago, and I've experience a lot of throwing up, foaming, sliming, you name it... Especially when I laid down to sleep. The moment i'd fall asleep, it would come back up. Either undigested food or saliva. I couldn't sleep unless sitting upright. Yet I felt more hungry than usual so I didn't think I was overfilled. Well, I had an upper GI done, and it showed that the barium wasn't going down, it just sat in my esophagus.

What I learned was being too tight isn't a good thing, it doesn't allow the food to go to the stomach and therefore you really don't get "full", you just get miserable. At first, I really fought not to have a slight unfill, I had thought that it will make me lose more weight. I was wrong, I had hardly lost any weight. So, in the end, I had 0.2 removed and I feel so much better, and the weight loss will begin again. I can actually feel the food in my stomach (versus sitting in my throat) and I can get the signals of being full after a little bit of food.

  • Author

Thanks everyone :) I went and had .5cc taken out today. I was miserable! I was staying hungry and had hardly any energy (because I could only eat such a very small amount before I would be in such pain I'd have to stop eating. I could only eat 3 or 4 small bites of fish and even less chicken. Even yougurt hurt.) I can't eat until tomorrow, but I hope I can eat a little, feel some restriction, but not be in pain or throw up. Thanks again everyone :D

Thanks everyone :) I went and had .5cc taken out today. I was miserable! I was staying hungry and had hardly any energy (because I could only eat such a very small amount before I would be in such pain I'd have to stop eating. I could only eat 3 or 4 small bites of fish and even less chicken. Even yougurt hurt.) I can't eat until tomorrow, but I hope I can eat a little, feel some restriction, but not be in pain or throw up. Thanks again everyone :D

I had .5 taken out yesterday, they told me that the band was definatley too tight. The vomiting causes the swelling and within a few more days I would not of been able to get Water down. Feeling better now. Good luck.

  • 2 weeks later...

PLEASE people whenever you are throwing up ANYTHING GO TO THE DOCTOR FOR A SLIGHT UNFILL!!!!

I was banded in 2008 and first had a reflux/vomiting/foamy (NASTY MESS LOL) issue in 2009 due to allergies as many others have stated. I went to my surgeon, had a slight unfill untill the irritation from all the vomiting went away, and slowly had Fluid added back. I also started taking OTC allergy meds more regularly to help. I had my last fill in January 2010 up until last week, May 2011.

I started having the issue again December 2010 and took Mucinex, drank hot fluids, ate earlier in the evening, etc. and none of that helped my problem. Sometimes even when I didn't eat anything I would have the issue, to where often I wouldn't eat at all just drink due to the pain, and embarassment of trying to eat and it immediately coming back up. As nasty as it sounds, sometimes I would have slime come up in the middle of my sleep and wake me up. During that time I was finalizing a divorce and moving to another city so I didn't see my doctor as I was caught up in other things. Fast forward to last week when I finally saw a surgeon - he did a fill/unfill under fluro - my lower esophagus and my pouch were both SUPER SWOLLEN!! He took out about 1/2 of my fluid and I immediately felt relief.

Doc said basically the band over time had gotten too tight and wasn't allowing everything to get through. Add post-nasal drip, and irritation from the vomiting, and swelling and irritation came. After the unfill my pouch immediately went down in size, and he said my esophagus should take a few weeks to go down also. That night I did NOT have any issues, and I haven't to this day. The longer you go with the issue the worse it can get, including slippage or erosion of the band. I was super scared, but it was a simple fix.

  • Author

@LaMonica: First, WOW! so proud of you! 134 is OUTSTANDING!! lol Secondly, I'm so sorry you had all of that on your plate. It had to have been soooo stressful. I'm so scared I'm going to mess my band up. I've already had to have my port replaced less than 3 months after getting banded. I'm afraid to do ab workouts now! I was just asking because I had read some other posts and seen where they'd gone to or called their doctors and they were told it was just acid refulx. So I tried the prilosec for a week and it helped with the belching and the foam. But I still had pain when I ate small amounts and I was sooo scared I was going to cause a slippage or band erosion, so I went in to talk to my doctor about it. I had a small unfill done, and I feel great now. I just have to get back in the routine of working out everyday.... cause when you take a 2 week break b/c you don't have the energy to walk out to the mailbox.... it's hard to get back in to the groove of things. I've gained 4 of the 9 pounds I lost last month

I was having this problem too. Went to my internist who first suggested I have the lapband. He thinks I have thrush from the acid reflux. He put me on neproxen and flonaize and also a rinse for my mouth for the rush. I have been gargling with the stuff since this afternoon. I feel a little better. Shall see what the next few days bring.

Thanks Bama! Trust me I understand just how you feel...the first time I had the unfill I gained about 10 pounds back but now looking back it was a slight hiccup! I am a little sad now that he took SO MUCH out but he basically had to because of how severe my swelling was...and thinking back on it, must have been that way for several months! So I can eat more of course, and unfortunately my appetite has slightly increased so I'm back to drinking 1/2 gallon water/day and am going to try to start the Couch 2 5K program to combat the increase in calories. I am thinking maybe in 2 months or so to go back to get SOME fluid put back in, but not all of it because I don't want this problem to creep up on me again, plus I really just want to build muscle and maintain my weight, not lose anymore. Congrats to everyone on their weight loss so far and keep up the good work!!!

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