Hi, I am looking for any input on what might be wrong with me! I have no insurance (paid for the band myself - or will be paying it off for the next 4 years), and my recent problems have been really scaring me, and I'm not exactly sure what to do.

To start off, I was banded in mid-October of 2007 at NWWLS in Everett, WA, which is a 4 hour drive from where I am in Portland, OR. My last (second) fill was about a month ago, and I am not over-filled. I'm not feeling that much restriction, and I saw the Fluid go through under flouro. However, after this fill, I was quite light-headed for a couple of days (even turned around and went back to Everett for the flouro and reassurance that everything was OK) but this eventually subsided, and everything was fine until a couple of weeks ago.

Recently, I've been very fatigued and have random dizzy spells or periods of light-headedness and nausea. Usually when this happens and I try to throw up, nothing comes up but some foam. (I'm also quite foamy - more often than not, I could spit up some foam at any given time if I tried.) Sometimes these episodes are accompanied by heart palpitations, and since this is all kind of scary without insurance, I usually have a bit of an anxiety attack. And I always get very sensitive to cold. Other times, I feel just fine for the most part.

I feel constantly tight in the chest and a little bit short of breath, and I do feel a sensation (wouldn't call it pain really, more like pressure or acute awareness of something) in my chest, just to the right of center, though I would say I notice it more in my back. And even when I'm not having one of these episodes, I feel a little cloudy-headed.

About a week ago, something like this happened out of the blue, while we were on the couch watching TV. I had eaten a relatively unhealthy meal about 4 hours prior (Chinese, with fried wonton things, I know, bad idea) and while we were watching TV, my boyfriend gave me one of his potato chips that I had said that I wanted to taste. So I ate the potato chip (which I chewed completely) and then suddenly just a minute or two later my upper back started hurting a lot, and just got progressively worse. I got light-headed and nauseated. I had a little bit of diarrhea (nothing major), tried to throw up, but at this point all that would come up was foam and that one potato chip. I went back into the kitchen and was standing there telling my boyfriend about how I was feeling, and then WHAM I thought I was going to pass out. I kneeled on the floor and put my head on the floor, and then after a minute of completely freaking out, heart palpitations, truly AWFUL upper back pain, and chest pressure, I got more nauseated, crawled into the bathroom, threw up some more foam, had some more diarrhea, and then everything just started getting better as fast as it happened. In 10 minutes I was back on the couch again, feeling mostly OK.

The next day, I went to an urgent care clinic, and told them what was going on, and they did bloodwork (a CBC, thyroid panel, and complete metabolic profile.) Everything came back mostly OK. They said I wasn't considered anemic, but that my red blood cells were a little bit small, and that I would benefit from more Iron in my diet or a Multivitamin with iron (which I already take, but OK I will increase my iron.) And they said it seemed like I was a little over-hydrated, and that I should limit my fluids to 64oz/day. I don't buy that second part at all, because I struggle to get in 40oz of fluids per day, and can't even remember the last time I had 64oz in one day. So basically I spent a ton of money doing this bloodwork and it is telling me absolutely nothing. That doctor said he thought that an EKG would be next if the bloodwork didn't show anything, but that's goingto be expensive, and heart disease of any kind does not run in my family. Plus this all started after the banding, so I can't help but think that it's related.

If it was a problem with my gall bladder, would it show up in that kind of bloodwork? My mom had to have her gall bladder removed due to massive gall stones when she was about 45 years old.

I don't know what to do at this point!! I'm so tired of feeling miserable, and terrified, and exhausted!

Thank you so much if you read all of this! Please, any ideas of what could be wrong with me, or any advice on what I should do would be greatly appreciated!

I joined this forum as a concerned husband and not a patient just to make this post. My wife is having almost the EXACT same issues. I decided to do a little research and found you lovely people. First off I want to say that the surgery has done wonders for her and so many others. I just wanted everyone to understand that I'm not taking a negative stance on the surgery at all. I am very supportive of her and anyone who decides to change their life for the better.

She had the surgery about 4 years ago and the dizzy sPells have gotten progressively worse. Actually here are a list of her symptoms.

1. Almost daily dizzy spells getting progressively more constant.

2. Nausea and throwing up almost every couple days. Sometimes due to eating too fast though.

3. Anxiety and panic attacks

4. Shaky hands (especially during and after a dizzy spell)

5. Very weak and tired

I have seen others post that it may be dehydration but it's not in her case. drinks plenty of Water and about 1-2 liters of Gatorade a day.

It also isn't a gallbladder issue either. She's had an upper GI and ultrasound.

She also has had blood work that shows no sign of any mineral deficiency or abnormalities.

We were referred to a cardiologist and she has had an EKG and wore a halter for 24 hours with no abnormalities. She also had a tilt test performed with nothing out of the norm.The cardiologist suggested a device called a reveal which is a device that records your blood pressure if it falls below or above normal. You can also hold a remote to your chest to activate it during or after a spell. It's about the size of a USB thumb drive. She got that surgery about a week ago and will have it installed up to 3 yrs.

Thank god for forums like this otherwise we may have never thought this may be a cause. I now have another avenue to look at thanks to all of you that posted. So TY!

Unfortunately I started looking for answers tonight because she had one of her worst spells ever. She was on the verge of passing out for almost 5 minutes and her hands were trembling. She was fighting for her eyes to not roll back the entire time. Once she came around she had a cold sweat, headache, and was exahusted. It was really scary and I felt helpless. It's my job to protect her and make everything ok.

I want to thank everyone for helping me feel not as helpless and hopefully will help to solve the problem. I will keep this forum updated on her progress as to possibly help out others that may be having the same issue wether it ends up being a lap band issue or not. I wish you all the best of luck in reaching your weight loss goals and while I can not speak on the disease of obesity I do understand the struggle to a certain extent. I am a recovering drug addict and alcoholic of 9 years and am still baffled at how similar the diseases are. Ty again for all your help.

HI, I'm the original poster. It's been a while since I wrote that.

My problem was most definitely my gall bladder. I had it removed last year and was instantly better, but I ended up in the ER 3 or 4 times before they finally decided to take it out. The ultrasounds showed that my gallbladder had a few stones, but they couldn't see any huge ones and my gallbladder wasn't enlarged. And my liver enzymes were never elevated in blood work either.

Finally after another trip to the ER and probably my 6th or 7th ultrasound, they saw that (while it still didn't look too bad) they decided to remove it. The surgeon looked at it after it was removed and it was FULL of stones, and one of them was quite large. I don't know how they missed all this on the ultrasound, but... they did.

The GB attacks I had were terrifying. I felt like a 300-pound man was sitting on my chest, I was dizzy and sweaty, my heart was racing, I'd have diarrhea and sometimes vomit during all of this... awful. I'd usually end up kneeling, with my head on the floor. All this would go on for 1-4 hours. I am SO GLAD that they finally took that thing out. I haven't had anything like that happen since the surgery.

It's very astute of you to notice the similarities between drug addiction and eating disorders/obesity. I didn't notice this myself until I was watching a TV show about drug and alcohol addiction and I realized that I was acting just like the addicts, but with food and not drugs. That really helped me to understand my own behavior better. (Some of the things I have done for food are just flat out embarrassing.) I wish that more people would understand that maybe not all, but at least some obese people have a real problem and can't just "eat less" like everyone tells them to, any more than an alcoholic can just "drink less" or a drug addict can just "use less."

Jason,

Has your wife been looked at for epilepsy?

Jason,

Has your wife seen a neurologist yet? After my banding I started having horrible episodes of passing out and after an EEG and brain MRI they found I was having seizures in my brain. They don't know if having the band and the huge changes to my body triggered it or if it was something that had been going on for a while and was progressively getting worse. I really think an EEG might give you some answers though if it's something neurological. Keep us posted.

I have had similar issues and I'm currently sitting in the ER waiting to have kidney stones removed and I also have pancreatitis. The pain, feeling of passing out, light headedness, shaky hand would come and go, but when it's bad it's sooooo painful. They found it through bloodwork and ultrsound.