Emjay,
There is an oral allergy associated with a Ragweed pollen allergy. If you're allergic to ragweed pollen, eating certain foods will cause some swelling in your mouth and lips. This lasts around 10 to 15 minutes and goes away with no long-term issues. Normally, this is all. It doesn't effect your stomach enough to notice.
With the LAP Band, these foods can cause swelling of the area around your band, tightening the opening.
I was having trouble eating pretty often and food wasn't getting stuck but it was getting very uncomfortable and caused me to stop eating until the feeling went away. I knew I had a ragweed allergy because I'd experienced the swelling in my mouth and lips but eventually realized that it was probably effecting my stomach as well.
I tested this theory several times to see if the foods I'm allergic to were causing an issue. Avocado is one of the foods on the list. I tried a sandwich with guacamole and had problems almost immediately. I drank a little bit of Water, waited an hour then tried another sandwich without guac and had no issues. I've tried several times and had the same result.
Here's the list of foods known to cause an allergic reaction in people with ragweed allergies:
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Honeydew (All melons are an issue. This is just a short list of common melons.)
Avocados
Cucumbers
Bananas
Zucchini
Sunflower Seeds/oil
Chamomile
Echinacea
Green pepper
Paprika
Artichoke
Hibiscus
If you've eaten any of these and had an issue with your band immediately after or within a few hours after, its probably the food itself causing the problem, not the ragweed allergy in general. Some people have worse reactions to certain foods than others. I can't eat cantaloupe AT ALL but I'm usually ok with zucchini. Cooking the foods also reduces the likelihood of reactions.
Sunflower oil and paprika are sometimes hard to know about ahead of time but have caused issues with my band before.
Try avoiding these foods and see if your issues go away. Good luck and hope this helps!
