Severe Acid Reflux

[Bardy 6]

I find that I just have to constantly monitor what I'm eating and amounts, as well as continue to take the Prilosec and Zantac and tums alternately to control the acid production. I think it's just part of the deal when you have the lapband due to the restricition around the stomach (with or without any fills). We need to continue to just eat very small portions, chew carefully and not eat anything within 2-3 hours of bedtime ... it is a constant challenge, but I think it can be managed. It's just a PITB. Fortunately even without any fill I still am maintaining my weight at below my goal and in total have lost 90 pounds since getting the band in December 2010. Good luck to all of you!

[Grider 92]

Add one more to the bunch- but not so bad and not evey day. Monday is Dr appt think I'll have him decide what I should do- -not been the best of months, but NOT knowing what is wrong with you or if you hav slipped is the worse,, Unfortunately- working that P-TIME job after reg job-

has me eating later at nite or in a hurry- and now my biggest meal---breakfast I can't do- hardly can get coffee down... geesh

[gizzi1303 0]

Hiya. I had my band done in march 2009 and have lost 112lbs. I still have another 42 to go. I have been suffering with terrible acid reflux over the last few months. The thing that really upsets me is waking up in the middle of the night with the drowning/choking feeling. It's awful. I found that this feeling is worse on the days when I haven't eaten anything at all.

I have had a few ups and downs with my band with over fills and not eating appropriate food or chewing it properly so this year my weight has been up and down with all this. I found that taking any medication earlier in the evening and go to bed with a rennies/tums in my mouth seems to work a treat.

I have often wondered whether I should get a barium meal to see if there has been any slippage/hiatus hernia. I suppose I'm scared to coz a fuss coz I don't want them to take any Fluid away or worse take my band away!!!

[Brian K. 0]

I had LB surgery in 2006 I too have had GERDS for a long time. I recently developed full blown intolerance for lactose. Since eliminating cows milk from my diet I suffer no GERDS at all anymore. If all normal complications and concerns have been looked into try eliminating milk and see if it helps. Within a week I noticed it was gone. I choose not to use Nexium or Prilosec due to them causing me to lose hair.< /p>

[Funwthme63 0]

I have acid reflux when I am stressed or worried about something. If I eat to late at night I make sure I take my pepcid or I will have to get out of bed sometime and take my pepcid and sit in the chair and sleep for awhile.

[Jeannie_mullins 1]

I too am suffering with severe acid reflux. Was banded in July 2011 and in the last 6 months with fills and deflations it has been miserable. Just started nexium today and praying it works. I liken it to spewing hot lava... Not fun but I knew I signed up for this, good and bad.

[Jeannie_mullins 1]

Update: had my band deflated to a 3 and had upper GI. No slippage and reflux gone. My doctor says he has about 25 patients that are ultra sensitive and I'm one of them. Oh well...

[laurigee 545]

I hope that everyone takes chronic acid reflux seriously! It is not OK! My dad passed away a year ago from esophageal cancer! He was constantly taking meds from doctor along with hand fulls of tums! The symptoms he had was a full feeling and pain in his chest! Of course the doctors just kept treating him for acid reflux! By the time they caught the cancer it was stage 4 terminal! Acid reflux is not just annoying or inconvenient, it can cost you your life! Take it as seriously as your vow to lose weight!

[NanBand 2]

I fear that once you have started with reflux, you have started a new chapter. It now becomes managing the reflux rather than maintaining weight and eating healthy.

Reflux can be a very quirky thing. I never had it in my life and then about 3 years after being banded I developed it very abruptly. No slip, no change in diet, just awakened by severe relux one morning. I tried everything conventional and unconventional to treat it. Emptied the band for long stretches and refilled gradually with tiny amounts. I stayed on twice daily proton pump inhibitors for years, tried apple cider vinegar, liquid antiacids, accupuncture, novena's, you name it. I was so determined to hang on to that band. This was not garden variety reflux. I had to sleep upright and I would still find gastric contents (that had come out my nose) on my pillow. There was often projectile reflux if you can imagine such a thing, usually just as I was falling asleep. I know this sounds crazy in retrospect that I put up with this for so long (4 years!). I just could not cope with the fact that the band had failed me as I had been such a believer. When the sleep deprivation and sensation of being in a toxic acid bath became too much I threw in the towel and had the band removed. The reflux resolved immediately. I was truly so traumatised, physically and psychologically, any further bariatric surgery was not something I would consider.

Some of the band literature touts it as a remedy for reflux, this was not my experience.

Each of the major bariatric procedures has had patients who developed reflux and others whose reflux resolved.

By all means, do everything you possibly can to treat the reflux. But do not take it as a personal failure if it keeps coming back. Physiology is a complicated thing and frankly there is alot of over simplistic interpretation and advice appearing on many boards.

I suffered so long, not accepting it needed to go, I simply would not accept defeat. I was the the poster girl, expert, high priestess in the band cult. My preparation was a master class in clinical research and analysis (I am a nurse). I was brainwashed by the oversimplistic mantras on the support group boards (Smartbandsters on yahoo in particular) that fuel the notion that any band issues are completely due to the behavior of the recipient.