Hi everyone,

It's been two years since I had my surgery, and recently I've experienced some major changes. I started suffering from really bad night coughing a few months ago, and was vomiting a lot during the day as well. I opted to have a substantial defill, and that helped a lot.

The weird thing is, even though I'm at a much lower level of restriction than I have been for a couple of years, I still experience more unpleasant side effects and complications. For example, I have heartburn constantly--and I never did before, even when I was at a higher level of restriction!

I am not sure if I should get another defill, because I feel like if I had any less restriction I'd have no restriction at all. I can already eat a lot more than I could before, and can eat lots of foods like salads that I couldn't before. I'm worried that another defill will leave me with no restriction at all. But on the other hand, I have heartburn all day until after dinner, and then again a couple hours after eating dinner. I take Tums every single night when I go to bed. (Could that be making it worse???)

Any help or suggestions from those who've been banded for a few years now would be greatly appreciated!

Hi there' date='

I'm afraid I'll need to pick a number in this queue....

My last (and second) fill was in September 2011, and it seemed that I hit the "green zone" with that (my doctor does all his fills under flouro, so that might be why I only needed 2 fills to get there). I was living and losing happily - even during my 6 months post-surgery check up in January this year my doc was happy with the fill level (so I was) and with the position of the band. All was rosy.

However, in February I started waking up with stomach reflux in my throat. After it happened three times I went to see my GP who gave me a tablet I have to take before going to bed to stop the generation of stomach acid through the night. That seemed to work. All reflux went away and I stopped taking the med.

I have to say that I always experienced "tighter" days - mostly in relation to general stress levels, my period and what I was trying to eat and how fast. But they never lasted longer than a given meal or a day or two.

About a month ago all these changed suddenly. I honestly cannot remember exactly when or what happened, but I started to struggle with food in general and sometimes even with liquids. It felt like "out of the blue" and I could not point to any of the earlier causes of tightness. And it just kept happening - and even getting worse. I now cannot eat Breakfast (it used to be yoghurt and fruit/granola or some egg based dish) - only liquids go down very-VERY slowly until midday. Then no matter what I try to eat for lunch, I need to brace myself for struggle and inconvenience/pain. EVERY TIME. And it continues into the evening: no matter what dinner is, I'm going to have the "elephant sit on my chest", and several times a week a PB is the result (just like during lunch). I started to dread every meal. And - of course - my food choices are now becoming based on what I think will go down with less struggle, as opposed to what I suppose to put in my mouth as a weightloss patient... Not good.

The nightly reflux re-started, I now go to bed every evening with a Tum and I have to chew one sometimes in the middle of the night too.

The heartburn comes now after EVERY meal - regardless of what I ate. So now Tums are making their way into my daily routine too.

I cannot help but wonder: why? Why after 7 months after a good, working fill do I experience all these? What happened? Is it dilation? But how did that happen? Can it be the result of just one possible overeating which I didn't even feel? (We had a trip to Rome, which involved some pizza and pastry, but never got stuck or felt as I overdone it...) Hand-on-heart, I cannot think of anything else.

My one year check up is scheduled for mid July, and I emailed my doctor with my current symptoms. He's in my home country and I live in UK, so I cannot just "pop in" for a consultation. But he always responds to my emails so I'm looking forward reading his take on this.

I'm dreading an unfill - but recently the pain I've been in is making me think that even for a couple of months and with the risk of putting weight back on would make it better. I want to go back to where I was in last October-November: making good and sensible choices, keeping the portions under controll, and NOT feeling pain every time I eat or drink something. Is there hope? And what's going on here?

Any insight will be MUCH appreciated![/quote']

I've been having similar issues since I was banded in oct ..can you pleeease let me know what's up. Prudence

Hi all

It might benefit some of us, so here is a little recap of what have I done in the last week and how did that effect my night reflux-night cough-heartburn-constant PBing scene:

• the liquid phase of the 5 day pouch test described above really helped: I started experiencing less and less issues with eating normal food later in the week
  
• as I've always been really tight in the morning, I stick to my Protein shake/yoghurt based breakfasts every morning not to upset my system first thing
  
• I do take particular care to eat taking tiny bites (the nail on your pinky should be the ideal size) and to chew-chew-chew consciously - for me this is the hardest part
  
• My daily diet AGAIN focuses on protein based items - just like at the beginning of my banded life
  

I had been following all these rules and experienced much improvement in the daily pain going away and being more comfortable with regular food around lunch-dinner time.

However, I still had night reflux and night cough issues, waking up cranky and achy every morning, my throat on fire from stomach acid and reflux...

And then my doc sent me an email with some really bad news... The hospital I used had my surgery done closed down the banding programme (governmental hospital, not private - although I was a private patient) and there is no other establishment currently in place to pick up the pieces. And yes, that means that thousands of banded patients at Hungary are left without any after-care for the time being. No adjustments, no follow ups, no new surgeries... The hospital only deals with emergency cases when the band needs to be removed without delay... Don't ask me to explain. It cr*pper than cr*p and I'm busy now finding an alternative solution.

At the bottom of the email giving me this "great" news - basically: I cannot have my adjustment (taking Fluid out) as I planned in July - he left me with 3 temporary solution which "might help":

1. Drink camomile tea 1 hr - 30 ming before going to bed
   
2. Last meal of the day should be no less than 3 hours before bedtime (as I'm normally turning in at 10, that means last piece of food goes down at 7pm latest)
   
3. Do not drink 2-3 hours before going to bed - apart from the camomile tea mentioned above
   

I hate camomile tea, but I had to give it a go... And you know what: it works!!!

I've been doing the above 3 points in addition to my previously mentioned re-discovered good habits and ever since I've been sleeping through the night: no reflux, no coughing - just peaceful sleep all night!

And all this is great, but my main focus must be still to see a doctor as soon as possible and have my current level of fill looked at and evaluated: I believe although the "bad things" has stopped, I still too tight for living with it too long.

And that's my advice: no matter what kind of "home remedies" we come up with here, and how do they work for some of us- if you have recurring reflux issues or the way your band behaves changes for the worst for an extended period of time your first port of call still should be your doctor!

By the way: if anyone from UK reading this: do you know a specialist who might be willing to take up my fill schedule - I'm thinking private?