I see a lot of people posting about gas and gas pain etc. I have not yet been banded-right now I am doing the 6 month diet required by BCBS and I hope to be banded in June/July 2008.

With this gas that you refer to-is it just after the surgery or is it a "side effect" of the band? When "passing" this gas is it in the form of flatulence or burping ? I hate to sound stupid but I just assumed it was flatulence until I saw a post where a person was talking about constantly burping.

I experienced two types of "gas" pain. The pain in back and shoulders from the gas used with the anethesia in surgery and then gas as in stomach/intestinal gas from food. People say that walking helps with the pain. I experienced stomach/intestinal pain once I moved to soft/mushies. I have never experienced pain like that before. Kept me up plenty nights. I could feel the pressure against my port and hard to lie down. Usually happened mostly at night for some reason. I tried Maalox, Mylanta, Gas-X, you name it. Finally the only thing helped me was Beano (pills found on row with the other gas medicines). I would chew two of those before eating and poof, no gas whatsoever. Was a lifesaver. Keep that in mind if you find that nothing else works. Everybody is different so it is hard to tell you exactly what to expect. I suffered for like 2 weeks before discovering Beano but I survived and do not regret that experience considering where I am at today. Good luck to you.

When you watch the surgery shows, notice how the patients abdomen is REALLY swollen? And that there's 'room' inside the abdominal cavity when you're looking through the camera? Well, in order to see what's going on, they basically use gas to help inflate the area for surgery. It's this gas leaving the body that causes this pain. And, it hurts! Gas-X strips, walking and heating pads seemed to help.