her surgery to update on the results.

My prayers are with your co-worker and her family.

Mrs. P, I hope your friend is all right!!

It is, or should be, common knowledge in the banding community that ongoing and persistent reflux can lead to significant esophageal problems. This is why everyone recommends that reflux be cured, not just treated with medications. Loosening the band is something that a lot of patients don't want to face, since they assume it will lead to stalled weight loss or even weight gain, but if reflux is a persistent problem it must be done. And if that doesn't address the reflux, band removal is the next step.

But even given that it sounds as though your friend had other issues going on. She must have been having serious symptoms if her esophagus is damaged enough to require removal! And it's possible that even pre-banding she may have had a compromised esophagus or been suffering from reflux. I'm not discounting that the band may have added to her problems, and the story dramatically points up the need to be alert to symptoms and issues post-banding. I'm just saying that for the situation to have become as serious as it sounds, medical attention may not have been sought as soon as it should have been.

Once again, I hope her surgery goes well and she heals quickly!!

I'm a PA (physician assistant), currently in Gastroenterology, and have published quite a bit on GERD (acid reflux). Even though my knowlege base relating to the LB is limited, I can shed some light.

As common as GERD is, it not that frequent that it becomes ulcerative esophagitis. Some patients with significant GERD can have a precancerous condition called Barrett's Esophagus. Even with Barrett's, only 1% of those turn into frank esophageal cancer, a deadly cancer, sometimes requiring radical treatments to include in some cases an esophagectomy.

Furthermore, it's not common in the nonLB world to see problems in the esophagus WITH peptic ulcer disease PUD: ulcers in the stomach (gastric ulcer) and small intestine (duodenal ulcer).

This is where it appears that more likely your friend suffered some complications where the lapband itself was a major contributing factor.

As far as LBS is concerned, like any other medical procedure, risks are always there.

Every day I explain that to my patients.

For most of us, that risk is small.

Best wishes to your friend.

Thanks for the info.

I hope your friend will do well this morning.

This all makes me determined to eat and drink even slower!

Reflux can lead to pre cancer condition called Barrets esophagus (sp), but it takes a long time to devolp and in most cases it never moves to cancer. Esophagul cancer is Very rare not a side effect of banding, must likly it is a mutaition of the same gene that carries colon cancer. If they are talking about removing the esophagus she most likly has esophagul cancer, which is highly aggressive. They would remove the esophagus and then make the stomach into a long tube which would allow for swallowing liquids, she would require a feeding tube.

My Mum has this, she is tested every month and as soon as the cells advance she will have her esophagus removed. She did have uncontrolled reflux for years and then controlled reflux for about 7 years. But she never had weight loss surgery, or smoked, or drank. The Dr.s' say the reflux has sped up the process, but she had to have the rare underlying gentic predispostion for this to happen.

I wish your friend all the luck.

Nora

Thsi makes me real nervous for I get sick at least once a day. I believe i eat to much and to fast. Its hard to get use to very small portions when you have always had big sizes.

I wish your friend the best.

Cheryl

May22 banded-215

Today-182

Mrs. P

Sorry to hear of you friend. But you need to get correct information about HER status not from office chatter. Things are blown out of proportion and until you hear directly from HER, I wouldn't worry or stress about what "maybe" happening. Go see her or call her at get the TRUTH first. Then look into what is actually going on.

Best wishes to her and you too.

Pb'ing should not cause that extreme of a condition. The reflux will but when I PB it is just the food and saliva that I have swallowed. PB'ing should have no acid in it at all. My doctor says that PB is food comming back up, vomiting is when there is acid involved. ~Mandy

I'm sorry for your friend's misfortune. Many patients fail to report PB'ing and vomiting to their MDs for fear of receiving an unfill. A PA at my surgeon's office told me that several patients ASK to be overfilled so that they can lose weight quicker and "toss" the extra food if they overeat.

An overfill not only leads to inflammation of the esophagus, but also can result in weight gain as people go back to mushy foods which are often higher in calories than solid proteins.

I have to ask a dumb question.........what is pb'ing. New to lapband talk.

I've done some pretty hard slimeing through this surgery and only have thrown up 2, it is the getting food caught that really takes a tow on me. Especially when it lasts for a long period of time. Anyway I called my surgeon and he said not to worry, this was just something I was going through in learning how to eat and what to eat, also chew, chew, chew, that was not stressed enough.

If pbing which I think that is slimeing, is bad I'm in serious trouble and so is my surgeon for telling me it's not.

PB means productive burp, it is when food is eaten too fast, not chewed well enough or the band just doesn't like it, it comes back up in the form of a burp. There is no stomach acid therefore not vomit. It is almost like when a baby spits up, just the food that has recently been consumed comes back up. I for example can't eat rice and most pastas, that's a PB just waiting to happen. Too many PB's and a slip is possible, it's best to avoid pb'ing if possible. ~Mandy

This might also help http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=7959 ~Mandy

Whether or not PBing involves stomach acid, I think the fact is that if you're PBing all the time, you're either abusing your band (overeating and eating foods that get stuck) thereby causing mechanical stress or there's something not right with your band in the first place.

Although it may not have much to do with stomach acid and thereby esophagus problems, its still not good!

The OP has disappeared for me, I cant read it so dont know what happened to your poor friends, but it does seem as if some people's bodies are just plain more tolerant of the band than others.