HIATAL HERNIA / dilated esophagus FROM BAND (sleeve revision)

crustymouse23 · November 15, 2016

Hello!

Sleeved on 11/8.

Did any of you with a band to sleeve have a hiatal hernia??

Mine was fixed and so was my dilated esophagus. I needed to wait a year to get my esophagus back to the way it was.

I know my insides are still a bit swollen from everything, but did any of you have a hard time keeping things down at first like when you had the band?

Yesterday was fine, but today I was having trouble in the morning and now I am good again.

I'm PRAYING / HOPING it's from me downing my drinks to fast. I never want to go back to not being able to down anything as I did with the band.

Any positivity would be great right about now. As I feel scared and a bit down. Thank you!!

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Hiraeth · November 18, 2016

Hello! Sorry you are having such a hard time. I didn't have the Band, but I did have the sleeve. I also had a hiatal hernia (the size of a golf ball) that I had no idea I had. I felt exactly how you are feeling right now. It was extremely hard for me to swallow anything. I am a gulper by nature, so it was rough making myself take small sips. I had my surgery on August 4th, and I am now able to gulp again. For me, drinking things was a challenge for at least 3 weeks. I think you'll start noticing things getting easier by the beginning of December. I can honestly say that I am 95% sure that you're having a hard time because you are drinking too fast. Right now, your stomach is still very swollen, and it's not handling the gulping well. Try your best to slow down. Trust me, it is a challenge. If you knew me, you'd know that, lol! :lol:

I heard that the Band is the worst option when it comes to Bariatric surgery. The reason is because, you're putting a foreign object inside your body, to wrap around an organ. The body does not recognize this, so it begins to reject it. (It's kind of like having a splinter in your finger. The skin may heal over the splinter, but you will still feel pain if the splinter is still inside your skin, because the body does not recognize it. It's basically in attack mode of an "intruder".) This isn't true for everyone, though. Some people don't have problems. (Though, 80% of the cases I've heard of have Band complications.) My surgeon is trying to get the the Band out of his practice, because he's noticed a pattern of it being unsuccessful. Most people think it's a safer option because there's no removal of the stomach.

The Band is basically designed to force you to eat/drink things slowly. There's a scientific study on how eating slowly helps you maintain a healthy weight, while eating fast makes you gain. While the sleeve is also [somewhat] designed to help you change your thrifty eating habits, it's not designed that way in a mandatory manner. You'll be able to gulp drinks again. It may take a few weeks, but you won't feel this limited forever. The band is literally wrapping around the upper part of your stomach. It's making it mostly impossible for you to be able to eat quickly. This allows the food to digest slowly, therefore, keeping you from eating as much as you used to. With the sleeve, they are cutting away stretched out, irritated stomach. Even when you have a tiny stomach, it will heal, and allow itself to stretch a bit. (I kinda like to call the Lap Band a "stomach handcuff", because it's restricted, lol.)

I recommend taking this opportunity to try and change your habits. Drinking fast doesn't affect your weight, so no worries there. Just try to not eat as fast, even when you're able to again.