Hey all--

I've had my band for 5 years now. Just a couple weeks ago I had gotten my first fill in a little while. She had complications getting to my port but eventually made it happen. About 1 week later I still had a bruise in that area. That day I started experiencing intense lower back pain. That morning I was able to have a bowel movement, but since then (almost 1 week later) I've yet to have another. I've been feeling blocked up and the lower back pain has not gone away. I had gone in to the ER a couple days ago and they did x rays and said my band was in the right spot and everything was in the right place, and prescribed me pain killers for my back pain. But I'm still backed up and the pain is consistent. I know some band users have said they've experienced something similar, and they found scar tissue that wrapped around the intestine blocking it up. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Am I being too paranoid?

Try Miralax for the constipation. It can cause awful back pain.

Try Miralax for the constipation. It can cause awful back pain.

Only thing is I'm worried about taking laxatives if there is a complication with scar tissue because I don't want to stretch out my intestines. So I'm kind of conflicted on what to do.

miralax is not really a laxative, it only draws water into the bowels. It should tell you on the package

\

another point is if your taking RX pain medications the vast majority of them can cause constipation. So trying a laxative or increasing your fiber should help.

I was banded 11/10 and have had no problems. Last month I develped severe constipation. It was from a combination of pain killers for my back, far too much cheese and not enough fiber. I could not bear down hard enough to have a BM because it would hit the vagus nerve and send shooting pains all through my body. I endedup at the ER at 5AM. To cut the story short the visit included poking, proding, enemias and nothing worked. They finally gave me a script for that awful drink you have to have to clean you out before a colonscopy. Well it worked fast and I was fine. I had to drink about 1/2 the big container. So now I make sure to eat two Fiber Choice tablets a day, and more fluids and very very little cheese! Also, Magnesium Citrate works great for a quick fix. It comes in little glass bottles and are found with the laxatives. If I had know that before I wouldn't have ended up in the ER!