Hi All! I went for a doctor visit today and was asked the usual questions by the RN; left shoulder pain, keeping food down, etc. I told her everything was fine but I then said that I have a little heart burn, not much and not often. She advised me to get the test where you drink that nasty drink (it taste better now than it did 3 years ago) and lets see if the band slipped. Thank goodness, the band did not slip (it looked fine), but she did a treatment of taking some fill out (5.0 down to 3.0) for 30 days, liquids for 14 days and then soft for 14 days, and do a test after 30 days to see if everything is ok and to see if it healed. She stated we got it in time. She explained that since I eat too much (by my admission), at times the food sits on top of the band and my stomach acid is going up there to get the food and digest it. The stomach is expandable (?), I think that's what she said.

Has anybody heard of this before? Obviously, the thought of doing 14 days liquid and 14 days of soft are unbearable, but if its what needs to be done, it needs to be done.

Thanks for any feed back you may provide.

Oh, btw, I TRULY love my band: I lost 70 pounds in 3 years; can do more but grateful for my band's accomplishment so far :-) Yes, you read that right, I tried to do it on my own for MANY years and could not lose an ounce until my band entered my life :-)

So is she saying you have a dilated esophagus?

What you are experiencing is stretching of the pouch above the band. This happens when your band is tight enough for you to feel the restriction, but your portions are too big for the upper part of the stomach to accommodate them. Eating smaller portions and going easy on your stomach should make the stomach go back to it's previous size.

When that happens to our patients, we do advise them the same diet restrictions as your clinic. The important part is for you to either stop overeating or deflate the band so that the excess food can go down easier. Prolonged overeating with a tight band band can put you at risk of slippage, so if you feel like you would like to eat larger portions talk to your physician.

In terms of the reflux, we advise our patients to try not to eat later than 3 hours before sleeping and eat less heartburn causing foods. For many, trigger foods are tomatoes, coffee, chocolate, bell peppers, garlic, onions, and in general foods that are hard to digest.

Hope you feel better!

Best,