I had my sleeve surgery 4.5 years ago and did well, all things considered. I lost weight as expected, and have been quite happy about my decision- until recently. About 6 month ago, I started having overwhelming acid indigestion after eating. It's hard to describe; it's like I would breathe out acid fumes, it was so bad. It also didn't happen immediately after eating- but about an hour later, it was awful. I also started waking up at night with my throat full of acid. I mean, this was HOURS after I'd finished dinner. I can't pinpoint what causes it; it happens irregularly, no matter what I've eaten. Heck, it'll happen when I drink water sometimes. Now, in addition to this, I am having post-eating pain. Hours after dinner I will still have pain in my upper chest and lower throat. It feels like whatever I ate is still just sitting there in the top of my sleeve- a hard, burning pain. It's been going on for 3 hours tonight. If I sit or stand up VERY straight and stretched, the pain lessens but the hard fullness at the base of my throat is still there. I don't know what is going on, my insurance has changed and won't cover a visit back to my surgical practice, and in the Time of COvid they aren't seeing many patients (at least those who aren't immediately prior or post-op). I'm measuring my food, stopping when full, following the "no drinking when eating" rule, avoiding carbs and foods I know will "swell" inside, etc. I don't know what this is, but I am pretty miserable a lot of the time, to the point where I'd just rather not eat than to go through what I know is coming.

Hello, I am 5 years out from the sleeve as well, I basically had the same issues with the acid it was waking me up in the night, and almost everything gave me heartburn! I did not experience any pain however. I had a upper gi done and they found I had schatzki ring and Haital hernia. It is circular scar tissue that causes the esophagus to narrow. They were actually surprised that I didn’t have pain, just the terrible heartburn and I also couldn’t gulp water for years, I just thought it was because of the smaller stomach??‍♀️ They did another upper gi were they went in and dialated my esophagus. Ever since they did the procedure in September I have been ?! Before this they were talking about having to convert me to the bypass surgery because of the gerd, which I wasn’t looking forward to. I also went completely low carb/keto type diet to try and relieve some of the gerd, which also helped!

I can't commiserate with you on the severity of the acid symptoms you're experiencing, mine were much less severe. However, I can offer a suggestion on the change of insurance issue. I moved to a different state after I was sleeved. Therefore my bariatric practice was no longer available to me and most bariatric practices don't want to pick up bariatric care after someone else did the surgery. I was having some GERD issues and was concerned about the long-term use of PPIs, so I went to a gastroenterologist. He is good and understands the issues surrounding VGS.

So, if your insurance prohibits you from going to your bariatric surgeon, go to someone who specializes in stomach issues (gastroenterologist).