I have been banded since Jan 2005 and after some success lost 56 pounds it was determined that the band shuts down my esophagus muscles and i can not tolerate any fill at all,even .1 was too much, after 1 month it became unbearable,I was not pbing or unable to eat solids, i began to have weakness and back pain ,it is hard to describe I was litterally miserable, me and my husband thought maybe I was having a reaction to a flu shot I had gotten the day before, but I just knew it was the band, I was getting so weak and ill that I called the band dr who met me at the emergency room and took out the .1 fill,we could not believe how immediately I was back to normal?I went from squirming in misery all the way to the doctor to being able to go shopping in litterally 5 minutes.I dont get it ,I could eat and drink but I did have reflux during the nite,why if it was so tight did it not keep me from eating?What do I do now ?empty the band does not cause me any problems but very little restriction?I read all these forumns and I never see anyone who has these weird symptoms they know they are too tight when they can not drink?Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

This certainly is something I've never heard before. You have had the band a year so I assume that you are without anything in the band? Could they have put a too little band on so you have restriction because of the small band? I can't tolerate fills over .3 at a time. If they try to put more in I get restriction 6-10 days later and start PBing. I can't recover from it. However, you can't even tolerate .1 so not sure how you could ever get a fill.

I also get immediate relief when they do an unfill. They have taken fluro shots of me with the barium prior to the unfill when I couldn't even keep spit down. The barium went through fine. As soon as they took some fill out I could drink a bottle of Water. I don't understand it either.

I would continue to work with your doctor to see if they can pinpoint the problem. Good luck to you.

Hmmm. That is weird. Maybe when he placed the band he hit those gastric nerves spot on.

I know that the placement of the band causes food to linger at the top of your stomach where the nerves that give the "full" signal are.

Maybe yours are just in a slightly different place than most peoples and he actually put the band on top of them? I don't know. Hope you and your doc get it figured out.

Hugs!

You sound exactly like me... I had my banding in April of 2006. I have lost about 140lbs to date.. REALLY FAST!! When the doctor did my very first fill, he had problems getting into the port so we did it under flora... When he finally got it. I felt really restricted but he said, just try it.. about 10minutes out of his office I started throwing up.. did not stop for two days, went back, had the fill taken out. Everytime I try to fill the thing.. I am sick so currently, I have had nothing in my band for almost 7 months and I continue to lose. Just one week ago, I had a endoscopy ( a scope) to see what was going on. It appears that scar tissue had built up on the inside of the band,(inside my stomach) so he balloned it and streched my band back out. Thus really releaving my restriction.. It appears to me that this surgery is not without its complications, but I truly believe that I would do it again. at least right now I would do it again.

That sounds a lot like what is going on with my band too. I was just to the doctor yesterday and had a upper GI and endoscopy and the doctor said everything looked fine with my band. The problem is it's not. I throw up all the time and some days can't keep anything but garbage food down. I have also thrown up liquids. The doctor told me the next step was to remove all the fluid from my band to see if that helped. He said if that doesn't help he is concerned that something is wrong with my esophagus. I went to this doctor looking at a revision, but he won't do anything until he figures out why I can't keep food down. Not so sure I would do the band again knowing what I know now.

Dawn

Ihave experienced these sort of problems, for me I was diagnosed as having Multiple sclerosis that caused nerve damage to the esophagus so that it did not contract efficiently to push food down- I have had the fluid removed but because it took a long time to wok out what the problem was, i ended up with a diverticulum ( bulge out the side of the esophagus)- for a while it looked like I may have to have the band out, fnally I have worked out ( with the dieticians etc) how to modify the diet to foods that I can eat and I have lost 56 pounds since nov. Although ms was my problem, apparently some of us just simple have slightly less efficient esophagus motility than average- they can do tests to see how well it functions.

Do I regret having the band- no not at all, it was bad luck that I developed another health issue. even without fluid in the band,if I am careful i will still eat less than with no band at all. No body says that there are no risks with wls, it is major surgery- you make the best decision you can with the information you have at the time!

Kesba, I did have the test to see if the dysmotility was caused by a immune disease and all the test came back fine. So it was determined that it was just the band , I have no problems if I leave it empty, I too feel that I have some restriction with just the band and no fill ,but I am struggling with not gaining any weight back. I can eat pretty much all foods but of course I am trying to continue the rules, I still do not eat bread or pasta ,no cheeseburgers ect,I am hungry more often but it does not take much to fill me up.I am glad to hear you also have restriction with a band and no fill, I thought maybe that was all in my head. Good luck to you with your MS, I know that must have been a scary diagnosis,but it sounds like you are learning to handle it well. Thanks Becky

OMG. this is the thread I've been looking for!!!! I too have had weird problems with my band. I've had one fill of .5, then 3 weeks later had to have an unfill of .25, I was sooo tight I couldn't keep anything down. I was originally banded 8/28/06, things were fine, I was losing, slowly. As I was healing, I got tighter. I had that unfill in November, things were good, still losing about 1 lb./week -slow but steady. Now again, I'm having food get stuck and it comes back up with almost everything I eat, except for junk..cookies, ice cream, funny how those stay down, no problems. Wed. I have an appt. with my doc, maybe another unfill or barrium swallow to see if it could be my esophogus. I already had narrowing of the esophogus and GERD prior to surgery and had my esophogus stretched a few times before, but they didn't feel it would bother me to get the band. Unfortunetly, I'm affraid it could be that.

we will see what he says, I'll let ya know. I live in the Orlando Florida area, where are you guys from???

Trish I am from Texas and I use A Dallas doctor, he told me when they first started trials for the lapband their were major concerns about it having some major problems concerning the motility of the esophagus but went on with the band as it affected only a few not everyone, well after a year I became one of the small percentage, my only option is empty band or switch over to gastric bypass.I am below 200 pounds about 165 and i am not going to do that drastic of a surgery.Their is no getting around a esophagus motility problem, it is not band friendly.Good luck with your test and I hope you just need to be stretched again.They can fix that.

Becky,

We're starting to learn more about patients with symptoms like yours. It appears that the presence of a hiatal hernia (which is often very difficult to diagnose once you're banded) can cause problems exactly like this. I've taken a few patents back to surgery and repaired their hiatal hernias and voila, all is well.

Good luck,

Dr. C

Cincinnati, Ohio

www.TheBandDoctor.com 877.442.BAND

DISCLAIMER: I am not your surgeon, any comments made by me are not meant to be taken as medical advice, just general guidelines. Contact your surgeon about your specific problem!

I have been banded since Jan 2005 and after some success lost 56 pounds it was determined that the band shuts down my esophagus muscles and i can not tolerate any fill at all,even .1 was too much, after 1 month it became unbearable,I was not pbing or unable to eat solids, i began to have weakness and back pain ,it is hard to describe I was litterally miserable, me and my husband thought maybe I was having a reaction to a flu shot I had gotten the day before, but I just knew it was the band, I was getting so weak and ill that I called the band dr who met me at the emergency room and took out the .1 fill,we could not believe how immediately I was back to normal?I went from squirming in misery all the way to the doctor to being able to go shopping in litterally 5 minutes.I dont get it ,I could eat and drink but I did have reflux during the nite,why if it was so tight did it not keep me from eating?What do I do now ?empty the band does not cause me any problems but very little restriction?I read all these forumns and I never see anyone who has these weird symptoms they know they are too tight when they can not drink?Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Dr. C thanks for the information,can you tell me what test would identify a hernia? I was scoped to see if I had a narrowing, would it have showed up in that test?Thanks Becky

An upper GI may identify it but a few patients I just took back because I had no other explanation and sure enough they had one. You CANNOT tell on a scope, if anyone tells you they can they are misinformed (gastroenterologists do this all the time).

Dr. C

Cincinnati, Ohio

www.TheBandDoctor.com 877.442.BAND

DISCLAIMER: I am not your surgeon, any comments made by me are not meant to be taken as medical advice, just general guidelines. Contact your surgeon about your specific problem!

Dr. C thanks for the information,can you tell me what test would identify a hernia? I was scoped to see if I had a narrowing, would it have showed up in that test?Thanks Becky

Dr. C could the hernia make the esophageal muscles weak?I ask this because I actually had the manometry test done and it did indicate weak muscles. I was extremely tight before all this started and actually had alot of pain one morning when I think this could have happened.I just want to make sure before I approach my doctor with this?I am afraid if he goes in to look and does not find one he will want to remove the band, I have no trouble at all with it empty but he seems to think it is useless with not fill, I disagree , I still have some restriction.

It's hard to say Becky it's the old "Which came first the chicken or the egg" question.

Dr. C

Cincinnati, Ohio

www.TheBandDoctor.com 877.442.BAND

DISCLAIMER: I am not your surgeon, any comments made by me are not meant to be taken as medical advice, just general guidelines. Contact your surgeon about your specific problem!

Dr. C could the hernia make the esophageal muscles weak?I ask this because I actually had the manometry test done and it did indicate weak muscles. I was extremely tight before all this started and actually had alot of pain one morning when I think this could have happened.I just want to make sure before I approach my doctor with this?I am afraid if he goes in to look and does not find one he will want to remove the band, I have no trouble at all with it empty but he seems to think it is useless with not fill, I disagree , I still have some restriction.

geez

I was just told I have hiatal hernia, when I did research it seemed like it said i had Gerd.. well duh .. I DID have gerd, two years ago.. BUT I have had NO symptoms since.

BUt my food sits on top of my esophogis (daily) until I induce it to come back out..

are these things linked?

I am confused as heck

Nykee, what test showed your hernia?I dont know much about hernias but I do know the Gerd and hernias are strongly related.I have called my doctor to ask if I can be checked for a hernia, but I think he is going to say the test already ruled that out.