Hello my fellow banders. So, I don't know if I should really count this as a complication but here's the story. Every time when I eat I get a really bad pain in my left shoulder. Its not like the gas pains I got when I first had the surgery this feels more like a really bad cramp, as if I slept on my shoulder wrong. So I tried to tough it out and mentioned it to my doctor my last fill. He then said to me that if I still have the pain to call him. So naturally I did and now that want to do an EGD. For those who don't know what that is, basically they're going to stick a tube down my throat to see what could be causing the problem. I'm a little scared and it sucks (1) I have to be on a liquid diet for 4 days prior and (2) I had to reschedule my 3rd fill for a week later. I know that doesn't really sound like a big deal but it is a little frustrating. I have no other problems really, I mean every now and then I do PB but its because I either ate too fast or didn't chew well other than that I eat just fine. I do hope they figure out what's wrong because that pain is really annoying and painful. Has anyone else had to do this or know anyone who has been through this? Thanks in advance!

I feel your pain, I mean really feel it. I am having the same problem and have been since 3/19 which was just 4 days after surgery. When it started I was only on liquids it didn't seem to matter whether I had food or not. Hasn't changed much since I started eating so I can't figure out what triggers the pain. Pain isn't as intense now, but still have about 4 hours every day. My Dr and everything I have read says that it is referred pain from something irrating the diaphragm, make no sense how something in your stomach only affects the shoulder. I had a CT scan done 3 1/2 weeks after surgery, which shows no problems with the band, my Dr said it wouldn't show a problem with the diaphragm, so hopefully the test you are having will show something. He says the only thing that I can do is wait and see if the pain goes away or he will go in and do exploratory surgery and if he can't see anything wrong he will have to remove the band.

I had my 1st fill today, not much of a fill because of the shoulder pain, the Dr. didn't want to tell me the amount of the fill, said it was only a number. I feel it was very small since I have no restriction. I told him that it wasn't an option to remove my band, that he needed to find someother way to fix if it didn't stop on its own or refer me to another Dr. I have waited to long to get to this point and the last thing I want after all of this is for the band to have to be removed. I have a realize band and the rep for the band told my Dr that he hadn't heard of anyone having shoulder pain. I told him to log onto this website to see how many people had problems with this. My Dr. did tell me that he had one other person who had this problem and that he had to remove the band. He also talked to another Dr. who had done thousand of lap band surgeries who told him it usually goes away after several months. So that is what I am waiting for at this time. I hope for us both something is found to make it better or it just goes away on it own. I don't think that I can live with it forever.

Please keep me updated about what happens either here or you can send me a personal message. Good luck to you, hope things get better for you.

Joanie

I would love to hear what they find. I get that pain in my shoulder when I eat "too much"!

Thank you Joanie and Tyman311, I will keep you both updated.

I was banded in Nov '07 and still get that pain at least a couple times a week, most times after eating too much. I never really thought much of it so I'll be curious to see what you find out.

Good luck!

I don't understand why there are sooooo many patients with left shoulder pain and at the same time so many doctors that are clueless and claim they haven't heard of it before. It's common. Just do a search on shoulder pain and you should find quite a few threads.

For some people it's just their hard stop, they ate too much.

Thank you everyone for responding to my post. I will keep everyone updated when it happens.

Hey everyone,

So I just got back from my EGD and they found nothing!!:redface: So the next step is the wanna do an MRI on my shoulder and if that doesn't show anything they want to do a scope through my navel to see the outside of the band. Sorry I don't have any good news to report :crying:

Sorry that you didn't get any answers from your test. My shoulder is actually getting a little better. I realized last week one day that I had actually made it all day thru work without any pain in my shoulder. That was the 1st time to make it thru a day at work without pain. I hope that they find out something soon for you, please make sure that you keep us updated. Good luck to you!

I'm sorry you're experiencing such pain.

I'm not yet banded, but my surgeon mentioned that for some, pain in the left shoulder is their cue to cut back on the amount they take in (food and fluid).

Definitely get it checked out as thoroughly as possible--but I thought it might be reassuring that it's not always a sign of something ominous.

Are you sure it is not your gall bladder? his is a symptom of needing your gall bladder removed, as well.

I was banded in 2/07, I too have experienced the same shoulder pain. I spoke with my doctor about it and he told me that quite a few lap band patients experience the same type of shoulder pain.

He told me it is caused by the tubing rubbing aganist the diaphragm causing referred pain to the shoulder. Most shoulder pain that is not a direct result of some sort of injury is referred from some place else in the body, thats why gallbladder disease causes shoulder pain.

When I get this pain I stretch out my side for a few minutes and the pain goes away. Hope this helps.

I will try stretching too maybe it will help I actually went to a ortho doc about it..didn't find anything of course