fa18mhr

Be warned that when I asked my doctor to reduce my fill, he took WAY too much out (2.5cc to 1.5cc). I am now back up to 2.2cc and that is just about all I can stand. I am just recommending that you be prepared to justify a tiny defill if he/she tries to talk you into a larger one. Good luck.

I do not have heartburn or slime when I am asleep, so I do not think my port is overfilled. I do have some reflux while asleep but by taking Ranitidine, it is not too acidic. Where I have a real problem is if I get some of the reflux into my windpipe (Bronchial tubes). That wakes me up like RIGHT NOW! :confused: Anyone else have this problem? I have found that when I take Ambien, a sleeping aide, I do not have nearly as many occurances of inhaling reflux than when I do without Ambien. It is not a "never" or "always" occurance, either with or without Ambien, but it follows enough times for me to make a definate connection. My General Practioner (G.P.) doctor recommended that I ask my Bariatric doctor about taking the drug Reglan to help minimize the amount of slime I am currently dealing with. I haven't talked to my Bariatric doctor about it yet but I plan to on my next visit. Has anyone out there have any experience with its effectiveness?

The reason I am taking it is not to unstick a food blockage, but to get the thick mucus flowing out of my pouch/stomach into the intestines. I have mucus issues all the time, not just once in a while as most have reported. I have been taking the Papaya enzyme for a few weeks now and I cannot say that it really does much good. I will probably knock it off, not out of fear of it eating my stomach lining, but just because it does not seem to help. Since your stomach is made to function in the presence of digestive fluid (acid), I cannot see where the enzyme would do any harm. As a matter of fact, I am amazed that food PB'd does not have the acid burn in the mouth that a full on regurgitation produces. I am still looking for something that will reduce the slimes, other than spitting it up before or during the start of every meal. That was getting old many months ago. Any other suggestions?

As some feedback on the use of the Papaya Enzyme, it seems to be helping me get "unblocked" but it takes an hour or so to be effective. I am now taking one pill in the mornings as a "premptive strike" against getting the slimes in the first place. Becasue of what it is, I can see no issue with taking it on a regular basis. It seem to help keep thing moving and prevent blockages in the first place. When I get blocked, I take one or two more and wait the hour until it clears. I feel the daily dose is necessary for my situation because without doing this, I have a difficult time even drinking enough water during the day to keep me hydrated.:spit::phanvan If anyone sees any reason not to take one Papaya Enzyme in the morning on a regular basis, please let us know. :attention::help:

My name is Mark and I had my Lap Band installed in April 2006 by Dr. Felix who works in Fresno CA. I started my program at 361 pounds and by mid Aug 2007 I weigh 298 pounds. I have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gastro-esophigeal reflux disease (acid reflux), edema (poor circulation) in lower legs, some loss of feeling in my feet, and artheritis. To say I qualified for this surgery is an understatement. The good news is that everything is currently controlled with medication and other than physical limitations inherent of being overweight, I really have full functionality and range of motion. I do not exercise like they want and my weight loss is fairly slow (~1 pound per week), but I am still taking the weight off so I am not really unhappy with the way my program is going. I have been having major problems with productive burp (PB) and heavy thick mucus (slime). The slime seems to fill my small stomach and until I can get it cleared by spitting it up or flushing it through, I have little hope of getting and keeping food and sometimes even Water down. Unfortunately, when I do get it cleared, I can eat way more than I should...and of course I am an idiot and I then do over eat. My fill got up to 2.5cc I weighed 299 pounds but I had to cry uncle and asked Dr. Felix to remove some saline from my port. I wanted to go down to 2.0cc and he wanted to go down to 1.0cc. We compromised at 1.5cc. Over the next 12 weeks I gained 21 pounds! He said I had absolutely NO will power and I told him he took too much saline out of the port.:rolleyes I am now back at 2.2cc and the weight is slowly comming off again (298 pounds). This site has opened my eyes to others that have similar problems with PB and Slime. That has helped me decide to stick it out and forge ahead. I was comtemplating having the lap band taken out. I now know that all of my PB and Slime issues will go away just by removing some saline from my port, but it also means that with my current eating habits and life style, I will put back on the weight in no time flat. My personal goal is to weight 210 pounds, even though my doctor wants me to get to something like 165 pounds. Heck, I weighed 190 pounds when I graduated from high school, and that was 40 years ago. In 1991 I moved from the coast to the desert and weighed about 220 pounds. Over on the coast I belonged to the Sheriff's Search and Rescue unit, was an EMT, on the vehicle team, ground search team, hiked around the hills for fun, went SCUBA diving, and basically kept active and my weight was under control. Being here in the hot desert, I did not want to get outside any more than necessary and with none of the friends and activities to keep me active, the weight just piled on. My current passion in life is long distance motorcycle riding (Iron Butt Association #6027). Well, I have rambled on enough and probably everyone who reads this is bored by my story. Hope this site keeps me on track and helps me resist the urge to abandon my Quest for a smaller body and healthier life style.

I get slime build up almost every day. It does not seem to make any difference what I eat, how well I chew, or how much time I take to eat. I wake up every morning with my stomach and pouch filled with the stuff. My daily goal is to get it out so there is room for some food without the whole mess coming back up. I suppose I could try going back to a liquid diet, but that is so depressing.:phanvan

I was not getting any useful information from my doctor about how to deal with what this group calls "PB" and "Slime". He told me that approximately 3% of the people that get Lap Bands done have a problem with thick stick mucus (slime). He called up some Lap Band guru on the East coast while I was in the room and didn't get any help there either. This web site ROCKS! :clap2: I did not have any problems until I started to get my port fills about 9 months after my Lap Band was put in place. To relate it to fill amount, it started at about 1.8cc and got progressively worse. When I reached 2.5cc, I yelled "uncle" and asked for some to be removed. I was expecting it to be brought down to 2.0cc but he wanted to go to 1.0cc. We bargined and settled on 1.5cc. Over the next 6 weeks I GAINED 21 pounds!!!! $%^&*()! My doctor said I had absolutely NO will power and I said he took too much fluid out. He brought me back up to 2.1cc and I am starting to loose again, but at a very slow rate. That is fine with me. Some have asked what is the problem if you PB/Regurgitate (throwing up) too much. My doctor said he is concerned about the esophagus (throat between the pharynx and stomach) getting stretched. He order an upper GI (gastro-intestinal) when I first told him of the problem I was having and he order another one to be done by my next visit. His course of action if that test came back positive would be to remove the Lap Band. I think anyone having problems with PB/Regurgitate more than 2-3 times a week should talk with their doctor about running an upper GI just to be safe. Maybe my doc is over reacting...but maybe he is not. That determination is between you and your doc. Fore warned is fore armed. Unlike most have said here, the occurance of Slime and PB does not seem to be directly related to overeating, eating too fast, or eating too large of bites. My occurance seems to run in cycles. I will have days that even keeping water down is a struggle and solid food is out of the question. The next day I can almost eat like a normal person. I will give the papaya enzyme a try to see if getting a blockage broken up with fix the problem. If that is true, then I might even have my port filled a little more. Thanks again for being such a wonderful resource. You have given me hope and some possible solutions that my doctor could not. :whoo: I was getting so frustrated that I was considing having the Lab Band removed. And if I did that, I would not even consider having a R-n-Y because it is so invasive.