"Carelessness, pain, and hindsight", a cautionary tale for those with the gastric band

[Paige Dukes 58]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to share a horrible experience I had this past weekend while attending a holiday get together with family. This is a pretty long post so I apologize in advance for any long winded-ness.

I was banded back in July of this year. So far, I have had no complications and few, if any, side effects. I have had one fill and so far have lost 73 pounds. I have been very pleased with my experience and results and I do not want anyone to think that the following story is meant as a deterrent to those considering the lap-band, or gastric surgery in general. I am sharing this as a way to provide a perspective from a first hand experience with band abuse/misuse.

A little background:

I have struggled with binge eating disorder since childhood. A lot, if not the majority of people on this forum, can relate to this. I was diagnosed at a young age with major depressive disorder, and I believe that the eating disorders that have plagued me my whole life are a direct result. During a major episode I would purposefully and mindfully eat until experiencing severe abdominal pain. Looking back I can recognize this as an act of self harm. These episodes ultimately led to stomach stretching and weight gain.

I struggled with weight my whole life, and after hitting my highest weight of 325 and my blood pressure reaching stroke level, I decided enough was enough. I took a long, hard look at how I was living my life and did extensive research on how I could turn things around. I knew my track record with weight loss (up and down, on and on), and after reading and talking to a few doctors, I decided bariatric surgery was for me. The rest is history.

I have done very well sticking to the prescribed diet. I recognize real hunger cues, head hunger, and signals that I am full or satiated. I only keep good, nutritious food in the house and when I eat out I preplan my meals. I track my calories and macros and micros. My Water intake is on point. I work out hard 3x a week. I made the lifestyle change happen and have stayed on track. That is, until this weekend.

My husband and I traveled to his parents' home for an early Christmas celebration as I have to work during the holiday weekend coming up. Extended family were in attendance, presents were exchanged, and of course, there was a plethora of food. All of it fabulously rich and fatty. Some absolutely swimming in cream or oil. Every single item smelling and tasting delicious.

As the evening wore on my guard dropped more and more. A bite here, a nibble there, and before I knew it I was painfully full. By the end of the festivities I was miserable, my stomach feeling stretched taut like a balloon. Feeling guilty and sluggish, I retired to the sofa after helping with the clean up. Sitting bolt upright, I concentrated on relaxing and allowing the food to travel through the band and into the lower part of my stomach. After some time, I felt enough relief to shower and retire to bed with my husband. I chocked it up to poor planning and bad decision making and resolved to learn from the experience and get back on track in the morning.

Around 2:00 AM I began experiencing the absolute worst abdominal pain I had felt in my entire life. I can only describe it as someone reaching inside of me and trying to squeeze and rip out my stomach while I was alive and conscious. All of it was located in my stomach. I was not experiencing intestinal cramps or discomfort. I did have some mild nausea but nothing that indicated to me right then that I may need to vomit. I chewed some Tums. After the powder hit my stomach I immediately felt the urge to vomit.

The problem with vomiting with the band is, if the food has already moved past the stoma created by the band, then it is near impossible to actually produce any vomitous. Each time I wretched small amounts of mucus or saliva were produced, but little more. I tried drinking small sips of Water, only to have it come right back up. The pain only became worse and worse. I became pretty scared at this point. My husband kept asking if I needed him to take me to the ER. I held off, thinking "if I can just wait it out, maybe it will go away." I also knew with the symptoms I was presenting any small town hospital would just pop me with some phenergan, maybe give me a GI cocktail, and send me home with a huge bill. My husband was concerned my band my have slipped, which was a major possibility at this point.

My father-in-law heard me wretching and came out to check on me. The pain in my abdomen was so severe that I was unable to even sit down. He offered me a phenergan tablet and a lortab. I took both, hoping maybe I could hold them both down long enough to get some pain relief and to stop dry heaving. (I know, I know, never take anyone's medication but your own. But I had scripts for both of these things at home).

Suddenly, after 5 more minutes of suffering, I felt it coming. I can only liken it to the pulling back of the shores of an ocean before the tsunami. You just knew something bad was coming. I knew right then sh*t was about to get REAL.

I ran to the bathroom, and almost immediately everything came up. I finally, FINALLY vomited, but it was not the cathartic experience vomiting normally is. The narrow opening of the band creates a high pressure area, and it takes a ridiculous amount of force to get partially digested food from the lower part of the stomach back into the pouch and then up and out of the esophagus and mouth. I'm trying to NOT be completely disgusting, but it was very much like when you place a thumb over the end of a water hose.

With the force of a thousand suns, out cam every rich, fatty, and greasy piece of food I had eaten earlier in the evening. The pain was magnified 10 fold for the duration and I felt like my head was going to explode. I have never in my life had my abdominal muscles work in such a fashion. But finally, mercifully, after everything came up, the pain and nausea were immediately gone. Afterwards I went to bed and slept like the dead.

Being so thankful that I was no longer in such searing pain I didn't notice the aftereffects of my episode. I have petechiae covering my cheeks, nose, temples, and forehead. It is so severe it looks from a distance like a bad sunburn. I have included two photos of this.

The hard lesson I learned from this is that I can never, EVER become comfortable or complacent now that I have been banded. Just one night of poor decisions can cause serious damage. I know that I am very lucky that I didn't have a band slip. I don't ever want to experience that kind of pain again. My stomach can no longer handle the kinds of foods I used to eat all the time.

Be careful this holiday season, my friends. Do your best to stay on track while enjoying time with family this year. I discovered on my own that it is all too easy to fall into the over-eating trap again, and I paid for it.

[lisacaron 5,075]

@@Paige Dukes you are 100% right about making good choices in food during the holidays. Those rich fatty foods are no longer on our program and our bodies rebel against them, which is probably the cause of your gastric upset since the food had already passed through the band your body was not able to digest and metabolize the food. It was trying to expel it and your right with the band that makes it VERY difficult to do. Sometimes we are lucky and it will open up the other end and expel it that way which is NOT any more fun...but it saves the pressure on the band. I have had this happen to me before, and learned my lesson when it comes to eating those awesome foods. I can take a taste but no more or pay the price.

You are very luck you did not have an issue with your band from this episode. My advice is to go on liquids for a day or so to give the stoma and stomach a chance to heal from the ordeal.

Just this weekend I myself had a band issue caused from flue and medication that my body did not like. Taking the antibiotic that the Dr. prescribed for a sinus infection caused my stoma to swell nearly shut where I could not even swallow my own saliva, causing horrible acid reflux day and not to the point of not being able to even swallow Water. Thank goodness just a simple unfill of some Fluid has been enough to help settle things down and I am on liquids for the rest of the day and will probably do the same tomorrow and then move to mushy and soft foods to give my insides a chance to heal and for the swelling to reduce.

Knowing our bodies and our bands are the best way to help us navigate through this new way of life we are living and even when we think we know it all....there is something new to learn

Hope you are feeling better today!!

[Paige Dukes 58]

@@Paige Dukes you are 100% right about making good choices in food during the holidays. Those rich fatty foods are no longer on our program and our bodies rebel against them, which is probably the cause of your gastric upset since the food had already passed through the band your body was not able to digest and metabolize the food. It was trying to expel it and your right with the band that makes it VERY difficult to do. Sometimes we are lucky and it will open up the other end and expel it that way which is NOT any more fun...but it saves the pressure on the band. I have had this happen to me before, and learned my lesson when it comes to eating those awesome foods. I can take a taste but no more or pay the price.

You are very luck you did not have an issue with your band from this episode. My advice is to go on liquids for a day or so to give the stoma and stomach a chance to heal from the ordeal.

Just this weekend I myself had a band issue caused from flue and medication that my body did not like. Taking the antibiotic that the Dr. prescribed for a sinus infection caused my stoma to swell nearly shut where I could not even swallow my own saliva, causing horrible acid reflux day and not to the point of not being able to even swallow Water. Thank goodness just a simple unfill of some Fluid has been enough to help settle things down and I am on liquids for the rest of the day and will probably do the same tomorrow and then move to mushy and soft foods to give my insides a chance to heal and for the swelling to reduce.

Knowing our bodies and our bands are the best way to help us navigate through this new way of life we are living and even when we think we know it all....there is something new to learn

Hope you are feeling better today!!

I am much better today, though I still don't feel quite right. I have definitely learned that I can no longer tolerate the foods I ate at the party. And I definitely count myself lucky that I didn't cause permanent damage. Next time I want to eat anything similar I am going to think back to how I felt that night.

[The Candidate 3,215]

You poor thing! Sure hope you're feeling better and lesson learned. And may I just say that you're an excellent writer - really made that whole thing vivid in my head.

[Miss Meg 199]

You poor thing, what a horrible horrible experience. I am very glad that I haven't had an episode as bad as that and hopefully I never will.

I often wonder how the vomiting thing works when it isn't just regurgitation, like if I were to get a tummy bug and the only option is out??

Glad you have learned from it and are feeling better about it now.

Take care and best wishes to you for Christmas.

[Paige Dukes 58]

You poor thing! Sure hope you're feeling better and lesson learned. And may I just say that you're an excellent writer - really made that whole thing vivid in my head.

I definitely learned a major lesson that night. I have never been so thankful as when the pain immediately went away after. I just thank god my band didn't slip.

[Paige Dukes 58]

You poor thing, what a horrible horrible experience. I am very glad that I haven't had an episode as bad as that and hopefully I never will.

I often wonder how the vomiting thing works when it isn't just regurgitation, like if I were to get a tummy bug and the only option is out??

Glad you have learned from it and are feeling better about it now.

Take care and best wishes to you for Christmas.

Best Wishes to you, too! And I imagine vomiting from a stomach bug would be similar to my experience, depending on how much food was in the stomach.

[barbie1978 22]

@@Paige Dukes what you described is a severe stuck episode. The first time I had my band, my first real stuck episode was almost exactly what you described, - any you know if you showing up on my face from vomiting so hard. But after having my that first band for two-and-a-half years, in getting stuck more than a handful of times for sure, unless you have a good size opening still, it didn't pass through your band at all. Because if it actually came all back up, it was literally just sitting on top of the stoma, which is what caused all that pain cuz you it was stretching the top part out.

I say this with the confidence that I do, because I did actually have slippage with my first band, it was removed and was supposed to be replaced after 3 months... Now it's been 3 years and 11 months and I finally just got it back 3 days ago.

Granted yes were all different, & I talk to people all the time about how each person with the lap band is going to tolerate things differently, and deal with things differently... but I know exactly the feelings that you're talking about, because like I said my first experience, which was pretty much my worst one, was almost exactly like yours. And I didn't have that for almost a full year after my first surgery.

@@Miss Meg I also learned that answered the hard way, meaning if you end up with a stomach bug and you have no choice but to let it out? Do not wait, at all! Even if you just think you might have a bug coming on do yourself a favor and go get an unfill.... my first episode was what page Dukes described, my episode that slipped my band was a stomach bug. At first I thought I had just gotten stuck, but it was on food and that was normally a slider food for me, and then even after I realized I had a stomach bug I thought if I just did liquids I would be okay. I can't stress it enough if you think you have a stomach bug ever, do not wait just go get An unfill

[Jack 855]

I'm impressed with the title of your missive, and salute your thoughtfulness to post the travails in such stark language.

Thanks for the lesson, and best of luck in avoiding such misery in the future.

Merry Christmas!

[Debbie3sons 1,936]

This is good information for pre , Post & veterans of the band & what not to do wait & watch for those signals the band gives you whatever the signs & Signals may be so you don't hurt yourself.

[much2gain 12]

Thank you for sharing your story! I'm going to add a little warning on a band slip too, which I am currently experiencing for a second time.

(A little personal background.. I've had my band for just over 3 years now, have lost 230 pounds, generally a healthy eater but always struggle with emotional eating)

Just a month ago, food was not staying down at all, no matter what I ate. A few months prior, my mother passed away and then I went on a cruise that was planned the year prior. Stress, grief, and motion sickness took it's best shot on my body. liquids were the only things staying down until I started to get unbelievable acid reflux. It burned when I was sitting up and felt like I was drowning in it when I layed down. My stomach constantly felt like it was being squeezed. I immediately went to see my doctor and sure enough, it had slipped. He immediately put me on a liquid diet for a month and removed all the Fluid in my band (I was tight and just past "green" into the "red" zone). After about 4 days, the reflux was gone but I still constantly had what I call "tornadoes" in my stomach. Everything I drank made a sound like it was swirling down a drain and through my band and I constantly burped. Eventually, that sensation/sound went away. After the month's time, I went back to the doctor and, luckily, it had moved back into the correct position. I was very lucky! -- Currently, all it took was one bite of chicken and part of a white flour biscuit. I chewed and chewed because I knew it wasn't a wise choice. I was missing solid Protein and it was calling my name. Since that night and one nasty explosive need for it to come back up, I've had the reflux, tornadoes and pain between my shoulder blades. I immediately went back on a liquid diet. I spoke with my Dr. yesterday (it's going into a holiday weekend) and that was his recommendation too. I got advice from my wellness clinic and went on strong reflux medication (OTC). Thankfully, it took the burn away within a few hours. Today (day 3 1/2), I am extremely tired, nauseous and it has taken me 6 hours to sip 16 oz of Water. I'm hoping this slip corrects itself too. But, my Dr. has also warned me that they have seen more and more bands come out around the 3-5 year marks. For some reason unknown, the body begins to react differently to the band. I'm currently in the process of serious consideration of removal and possibly the sleeve. I'm so scared of gaining any weight back but I miss solid healthy food. Thankfully, I love Soups and soft foods so I have been very happy but to have broccoli and solid Proteins again would be pretty nice too.