I am new here. I was banded 1 week ago on 7-18-07 and have had severe left shoulder pain ever since. I will wake up and there is no pain and 2 hours later it starts and by 3-4pm I'm at a 8-9 out of 10 on a pain scale. All I can do is drink this Lortab and it doesn't really help the pain. No one ever mentioned this to me as a possible side effect. What is causing this?

Also I've had esophageal pain and had an upper GI test yesterday. The X-ray MD said it appears that the band is too high and that there is NO pouch. She did not say if it was on my esophagous or not. My surgeon's office has not called me with the results yet and I have called and left messages. I'm so frustrated.

Any advice?:help:

Thanks, rxangel

It may sound crazy, but the shoulder pain is gas! and yes, IT HURTS!!!! Worst pain of my life!! The only thing I could do to ease it was walk, walk, walk, and in between walking, sit upright w/ a heating pad on my belly. Other people have said to get on all fours and rock back and forth. I do know that laying on my side helped quite a bit too. It will get better. Don't worry.

Hi rxangel,

I was banded on the 17th and I've been experiencing the shoulder pain too - horrible, isn't it? I had my barium swallow the other day and the x-ray tech showed me the bubble of trapped gas. Nothing I took really helped it but the doctor said to stay on the pain killers for it and it would sort itself out.

It seems better today - thank goodness!

I found that heat did help and I did try some antacids too. Apparently it will just dissipate whenever it feels like it but the exercise will help.

Feel better!

Carmel

I had the same thing, the waking up at night too. I didn't know it was GAS...wow...who knew. But I did know that it was something to be expected. It got pretty painful and by painful I mean it was like I had pitched 9 innings for both teams with that same arm. Eventually it did completely resolve itself.

Be careful of the pain killers though. . .most of them actually cause gas! Once one of the nurses told me that, I quit taking the pain killers and haven't had a problem since.