:girl_hug::scared2:I have been banded for 1 year as of sept. 17th and have only lost 45 pounds, I'm grateful for any weight loss but have struggled with something called "Esophageal stacking" where my esophageous acts like a stomach and I can eat more than I should be able to.I know I have this as I had a barium swallow test done and my surgeon could see the food stacking up in the esophageous, he(my surgeon) has no answer for this except to offer to take ALL my fluid out and leave it out for 2 months then slowly put the fluid back in to see if this would correct the esophageal stacking problem. obviously I am apprehensive to do this as I'm afraid I'll start to gain the weight back. I'm wondering if a low carb diet will work for me as I've tried low carb diets prior to my lapband,always with success but then I couldn't stay on it and would ultimately "fall off the wagon" Does anyone out there think it would be different with the lap band interms of success??.

Any help is appreciated as I'm feeling like a failure and feel like I have no options, other than pshchotherapy and I don't even know if that would help.

I feel for you, I have had a feeling that maybe this is happening to me too. What I did was go back to liquid high Protein liquid phase for a couple days to clear me out and then I only ate small portions of protein at a meal. I just did one type of food at a time and stayed with mushies for a while (like 2 weeks). Now I am avoiding carbs as much as possible and am continuing to loss weight. Hang in there.

Dancingbear

The most beneficial dietary program I've followed included hard Protein and lots of Water throughout the day. And way more garden veggies than any kind of flour product.

Good luck.

LOL...Jack way to funny but how true.

Cindy

I am afraid I may have this problem too, have never heard about it until this post though.

OMG! I too am suffering from this problem. My band date is 2/2/07. I had a "significant" fill on 10/29/07 and dropped 65 pounds in three months.

Slowly and surely I gained 20 pounds back. Last week I had the barium x-ray and discovered my band was TOO tight and the food was stacking and decaying in my esophagus! I was choking and vomiting any night I ate after 4 p.m.

My band was drained today, and I am terrified!:shades_smile:

My doctor wants to give my body a chance to recover. He will begin to refill it in stages starting in 4 weeks.

Honey...You are TOO TIGHT...The food is stretching your upper pouch...in time your band WILL SLIP if you maintain your current restriction. You need to have an unfill-at least half the saline removed from your band, and give your pouch at least 4 weeks to rest and shrink. During this time you will need to limit your food intake to no more than 1 to 1 1/2 cups at each meal...Sure this doesnt sound fun, but this problem is correctable without surgery...band slippage is not....Best of Luck Theresa R

I'm not sure if I had what you have, but in Dec. I got to the point of not able to eat hardly anything without it getting stuck and had to throw up. Not because of nauseousness but it was uncomfortable. Even applesauce would lay there for 2 hours. So I had an upper GI (barrium swallow with a radiologist) and he said I was too restricted. I hadn't had any fill adjustments for almost 2 years so it was weird that something changed in my band restrictions. So I wanted to have like 1 cc removed but no ....... they took it all out (about 6 cc), ever since that day I have been eating way too much and have gained back 12 pounds. I am very upset with the place I went to and they will only give me back tiny adjustments which are ridiculous. Take off work, drive 2 hrs and walk out with no restriction. I'm going somewhere else and hoping they will cooperate a bit more. Hope this helps. I know its uncomfortable to have food laying there but if I could do it over again I would just limit myself to protein shakes and liquids instead of back to square one and weight gain.

You need to relax and accept that you ae having a short holiday, in the way that Muslims do during Rammadam, who can have the band emptied to allow them to eat during their religious event