Wallace06

My Doc said the acid reflux should go away within the 1st month but to be honest I am not to sure how bad that I have it because I take a pill every day for precautionary reasons. I really never had to many problems with it over the years that I had my lapband either. As far as drinking to fast, it makes me neasus and I have also experienced some occasional cramps from drinking cold liquids. One thing I also forgot to mention in the prior post was that I have developed an intollerance to milk which in the beginning I thought was going to be a real tough one for me but I really have not missed it as much as I thought I would. Now hot liquids like coffee are much easier to drink BUT I can only get myself to drink about a 6 ounce cup when i drink it. I also work in the coffee industry and prior to my sleeve I was drinking an average of propably 64 ounce of coffee a day, sometimes even more. BUT again its something that I have not really missed either. I can promise you that so far I am very happy with my decision. I have read in some other postings however that some have been real challanged with the limitations that there new stomach size has impossed on them. I can only say that the sleeve surgery is a life decision change and one that should not be taken too lightly.

Hi, I am a 45 year old male and i just recently had a Lapband to sleeve revision done on 12/13 and I am doing great so far. I am down 31lbs in a little more than 3 weeks and the only regrets I can tell you that I have had so far is my inability to drink fluids at a faster rate. Just like the person who posted before me I can only drink 3 or 4 ounces at a time and then have to wait about ten minutes in between. I have also experienced some mild accid reflux but i have pretty much kept that at bay with a daily regimen of Zantax 150 / store brand, not name brand. I can also tell you that I was like you debating and debating if I wanted to do the revision but I also have had the pleasure of knowing someone who had her sleeve surgery the same time I had my lapband surgery over 7 years ago and she has lost over 125lbs and MAINTAINED THE WEIGHT LOSS within 20lbs up and down all of this time now. She told me that she still has her good and BAD days with the foods she eats but the one thing about the sleeve is no matter what your stomach will never stretch back anywhere to the size it was before.

I work in the coffee industry and learned in one of the many classes that i have taken over the years the Columbian Coffee is the culprit for many people that are sensitive to accid reflux. The columbian coffee bean is HIGH in accidic content.

Hi everyone, I am Kelli , Stephens wife. Since the surgery in Ocotober of last year alot has been going on. First after the 6 day stayover in the hospital, the incision in 2 different spots started to abcess. Thus I had to do my own wound care until February of 2012. Luckily I am a nurse and it didn't totally gross me out cleaning and packing these 2 times a day. Now they are healed completely, thank God. I had also developed difficulties digesting milk products. I had a food allergy test when all the trouble began last summer and at that time I had NO allergy to dairy. But shortly after Christmas this year I noticed alot of acid reflux, gas, cramping and lose stools. So I put myself on an elimination diet starting by taking gluten out of my diet, that didn't help.I tried to take out all preservatives, no meat,,I also added, Probiotics, Activia, digestive enzymes , even Zantac 2 x day. NOTHING. Then after eating some gluten free cereal I had the worse episode ever and realized it was the milk.No more, cheese, ice cream, cream based soups ans so on. I through trial and error I have developed a routine. Every day I take a Perscription strenght Pepcid, eat one Activia a day (thank goodness yogurt is low in lactose). IF I have any other milk poducts it is lactose free or if I'm out and decide to have cheese on something I take Lactose tabs first. It's a bit of a hassle but at least I can go in public (and work) without embaressing myself. I'm doing well, considering. But the biggest thing is I've gained weight. It's quite depressing but I knew it would happen after all I had become accustomed to depending on my band to keep my portions in check. I have since joined a gym and am having to depend on the "old" method of losing weight. Which got me in this mess because it never worked before. Thanks for all the support, Kelli W

Hi everyone, It has been a while since I last posted but thought it was best to share our story especially after today's doctors visit. First thing first, both me and my wife had lapband surgery back in 2005 in Mexico. She had the Inamed band and I had the Swedish band. We both had fairly decent success with weight loss within the first three years, I myself a little over a hundred pounds and my wife lost roughly fifty pounds. Then the weight loss just platoed and stopped and we kept thinking we need another fill, then another until eventually both of us started seeing some small weight loss again but none in the last couple years. Then everything turned around about 6 months ago where we both experienced problems with our band. My wife started with sharp jabbing pains in her stomach and after a week of extreme pain her doc ordered a MRI to make sure all was well. The test came back and nothing showed abnormal plus the pain eventually just went away. Then my band eroded and lost over 4cc's of the fluid. We tried having it adjusted again and the restriction lasted a day or two then went away and I was told my band had somehow developed a leak and would most likely need to be replaced or removed. I still have some minimal restriction at this point but nothing in comparison to what I had before, and yes I have gained back about 40 lbs of my weight. Now comes the worst part of the story, about 3 weeks ago my wife's stomach pains came back with vengeance and this is where I want you to pay attention because if you ever start experiencing these symptoms you need to be alarmed and see a doctor. She started having incredible amounts a very heavy and extremely foul smelling gas. So much to the point where she would stay up many nights in pain with very little sleep. Then came the very embarrassing and loud belching which had the heavy smell of sulfur within the belch itself "similar to a match being lit" or there would even be days where it smelled like boiled eggs. Things got worse and she got a referral to a gastrologist. At first they ran all the normal test including a stool sample with no results coming back as to what was happening. Then today she went back for an Upper GI which is a scope inserted down into her stomach. Well we finally have our answer, her lapband has somehow caused erosion in the stomach wall lining and the main band circle clamp has broken into her stomach itself. You can clearly see the picture of it with a portion of the band just sitting inside her stomach and it is somehow blocking her digestive track. This is what is causing the foul smell, it is basically decomposed food which the doctor said was most likely high fibrous foods like fruits and vegetables that were having a difficult time breaking down and passing through so they just were simply rotting. She also has massive ulcers lining the stomach walls which the doctor said were most likely caused by the band breaking through and causing an imbalance in her digestive fluids. Well needless to say she was advised to seek a bariactric surgeon for possible emergency surgery to have it removed which we already have scheduled for tomorrow at 3pm. I will keep an updated posting over the next couple weeks with her progress. One last thing, please do not think that the reason I am sharing this post is to possibly scare someone away from having the lapband procedure because I know that everyone's body is different, I mainly wanted to share what was going on with my wife because there maybe people out there on this board that are currently experiencing the same thing and have went in circles with their doctors trying to find answers. Believe me this is the most frustrating part of this, we have already spent over 1k out of pocket after insurance and my wife has went through months of unnecessary pain and suffering.. S. Wallace / Atlanta, Georgia

Hi Colombe, I am sorry to hear that you are going through and please do not be ashamed for it. What is happening to you sounds like just what happened to my wife. I recently posted on here last week that my wife had just had emergency surgery to have her lapband removed. Please, please do not sit on this problem and fool yourself into believing it may go away. If you have rotting food blocked in your stomach then it maybe also possible that you are also experiencing heavy volumes of intestional gas and bloating which I can promise you will only get worse. In fact up untill my wife had her lapband removed last week she was also experiencing extremely foul smelling belching that smelled simular to boiled eggs or even like sulphur. In my wifes case her lapband had completely eroded her stomach lining and according to the surgeon the whole lapband clamp "THE WHOLE THING" ended up pushing itself into her stomach and scar tissue just filled in behind it. Trapped inside her stomach was a yellow mucousy supstance that the GI Doctor said was rotting food that was not assing through fast enough and causing the gas. If you would like to speak about this more directly through personal email, please feel free to contact me and my wife and we will share with you what happened to her and I can even include some of the pictures taken from her GI doctor and also her after surgery photos. My wife is currently in bed here at home and was just released from the hospital this past Thursday. She was in there for over 6 days recovering from the 5 1/2 hour surgery that had to do one her to get her lap band out and she will n ow be home for at least two weeks in bed and not able to pick up anything over a couple pounds for at least a month. Please feel free to email us at our personal email address: wallace06@comcast.net Stephen & Kelli Wallace

Hi everyone, Thank you for your replies and the showing of support for my wife. It is Saturday morning October 8th and I am sitting here inside the hospital room next to her bed side watching her sleep. She had surgery yesterday morning to remove her band but she had multiple unexpected complications during the surgery. Initially we were told the whole surgery should last between 1 to 1.5 hours in total and it would be done laproscopicaly. Unfortunatley once they got into her stomach they discovered the situation was far more advanced and complex than they could had ever thought. We were told that not just part of the band but the ENTIRE lapband clamp and some of the tubing had eroded and pushed itself completely into her stomach cavity. Because of this complication they abandoned the lapiscopic approach and made a vertical inscision about 6 inches above her stomach to go and fix the problem. Once they got in they discovered the ulcers in her stomach were also larger than orriginaly expected and the surgeon ended up having to bassicaly remove a portion of her stomach and repair it with tissue collected from elsewere in the body. The concern now is will the inscisions hold and will her body accept the essentialy patched layers of skin that are being used to repair her stomach. In whole the surgery lasted almost 5 hours and she is on a Morphine pump to control her pain. We were told her recovery time just here in the hospital will be a minimum of 6 to 7 days and the next step will require a barium swallow to confirm there are no leaks in the stomach itself. She also cant eat or drink anything for this entire period which I can only imagine what she is going to be like in a few days with that news. I have to tell you, the more and more I read on here about the simualrities of many people posting their complications of the lapband and what it has done to their bodies and life "ESPECIALY 5 to 6 YEARS LATER" I really have to wonder if this device is miracle that we all once belived it was. Both me and my wife have experienced the joys of weight loss and now unfortunately the cost associated with it. Yes, I am also having complications with my band and even though I work for a major company with thousands of employees and we subscribe to a major healthcare provider here in the US guess what else is happening? We found out the This past Thursday afternoon that our insurance will not cover this surgery at all. It is considered an complication due to a non covered gastric band removal and even though it was also considered emergency surgery, the insurance company is denying the claim. What else can be said, I am not sure but it makes you wonder if all those people out there that use to baulk at us when we told them we had this surgery and how some of them would say we just cheated to loose weight were maybe right. Stephen Wallace / Atlanta, Georgia

Hi Robyn, My name is Stephen Wallace and I just read your post. I am sitting here in a hospital room in Atlanta watching over my wife who is suffering from the pain of having major surgery on her stomach just yesterday afternoon. Her sittuation is a little different as to where her lapband basicaly eroded through the stomach lining walls and from what the surgeon described, almost the entire band itself had pushed its way into her stomach cavity and sealed itself inside her stomach with scar tissue. The one interesting simularity to your story is that when we found out about this "which it all happened very fast" we were in a GI doctors office this past Monday were they performed an Upper GI exam and discovered a major lining of ulcers inside of the stomach itself and they took biopsys of the tissue to check it for anything else. 4 days later she is having emergency surgery. There is allot more to the story with her, in fact both me and my wife had our lapbands placed almost 6 years ago this month and I am affraid that mine is starting to do the same thing. If it is possible, would you consider talking to me over the phone? I have so many questions I would like to ask you regarding your situation and maybe I can share with you some further insite with my wifes complication to see if their are any additional simularities. I will be up here at the hospital all week long, they are projecting a 6 to7 day minimum recovery period before they will even consider releasing her. I would be more than happy to call you or you can call me directly on my cell phone. Please respond back to me by email directly either on here or by my personal email address at: wallace06@comcast.net and I will give you my number. Thank you, Stephen Wallace

WOW, A great deal has changed since I left this last posting over 18 months ago, first of all the clinic in TN is no longer open, I would guess the closest for you would be here in Atlanta if you live up in TN that is. Go to this web link www.fillcentersusa.com to look for the closest location to you, we use NP Darlene Zebley in Roswell, Georgia which is just north of Atlanta. She is great and she also only does her fills through Flouroscopy and charges a very reasonable $120.00 plus the fill which is $165.00 so totalit is $285.00.. Still it is a very good deal due to the fact with Flouroscope you are gauranteed to get a good fill. Me and my wife kelli have both seen Darlene Zebley at least 3 times in the last 14 months and we are both very happy with her. She scheadules appointments on every 1st and 3rd weekend of each month and see's patients on Saturday's & Sunday's as well. Good Luck, Stephen Wallace

Hi everyone, Me and my wife have both used Fillcenters location down in Moultrie, GA for several fills now and believe me we would like nothing better than to see them open an office up in Duluth or Atlanta. We have to drive about 4 hours each way to get their now but still none the less the service we have received from the PA "Darlene Zebley" at this location has been outstanding and well worth the drive. Mrs. Zebley is highly skilled at what she is doing and we will continue to see her even if she does not get an office here in Atlanta. Also needless to say $150.00 a fill is so much easier on the budget especially when you are gettting two at a time. Stephen Wallace / Douglasville, GA Banded 08/25/05 - 351 lbs at heaviest 05/24/07 - 227 lbs now with about 40 more to go.. Kelli Wallace Banded 12/27/07 - 267 lbs at heaviest 05/24/07 - 225 lbs and still loosing..

Hi everyone, This is a re-post from a few weeks ago.. I know how inportant it is to keep the postings fresh but i want to help anyone in need as well. I just want to share with the group that we have finally found a very dependable fill clinic that is close to anyone living in the South East. Me and my wife Kelli drove up from Atlanta last Friday which was only about a 3 hour drive and even though we could have made the round trip in a day we decided to stay on over night and get out an experience Nashville. This was Kelli's first fill since her surgery back on December 27th. She has lost about 30 lbs now and she was very excited about getting her first adjustment. They did the procedure under Flourascopy "which required us to have to follow our nurse over to a imaging center which was about 20 minutes further from the clinic" but I am glad we did it this way so we could confirm 100% where Kelli's access port is. They ended up only putting in .8 cc's which I know does not sound like it was enough but at the time it was all she could handle, any more and she just shut closed completely. The whole procedure only took about 2 hours from the moment we arrived. This clinic is part of the group listed on the Fill Center USA website and their prices are very reasonable at only $300.00 for your first fill and $150.00 for each additional. The Flouroscopy was extra and optional, but if you have insurance they will bill your insurance company directly. We were told that they are very successfull with getting the insurance to pay for the service, she mentioned that it had something to do with how they coded it to get payed. Anyway I feel very comfortable in recomending them for anyone local in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, or the sourounding area. Debra Kleven was super nice and made us feel very welcome. She even gave us her cell phone number and told my wife if she experienced too much restriction she would meet us back at the clinic on Saturday to make an adjustment before we left to go back home. Here is the information on the clinic and the location address: Lamplight Health Care Providers L.L.C Dr. Winston Griner M.D., Debra Kleven MSN ACNP, 2603 Elm Hill Pike, Suite K Nashville, TN 37214 Phone: 615-349-6927 Stephen & Kelli Wallace / Atlanta, Georgia

Hi everyone, I just want to share with the group that we have finally found a very dependable fill clinic that is close to anyone living in the South East. Me and my wife Kelli drove up from Atlanta last Friday which was only about a 3 hour drive and even though we could have made the round trip in a day we decided to stay on over night and get out an experience Nashville. This was Kelli's first fill since her surgery back on December 27th. She has lost about 30 lbs now and she was very excited about getting her first adjustment. They did the procedure under Flourascopy "which required us to have to follow our nurse over to a imaging center which was about 20 minutes further from the clinic" but I am glad we did it this way so we could confirm 100% where Kelli's access port is. They ended up only putting in .8 cc's which I know does not sound like it was enough but at the time it was all she could handle, any more and she just shut closed completely. The whole procedure only took about 2 hours from the moment we arrived. This clinic is part of the group listed on the Fill Center USA website and their prices are very reasonable at only $300.00 for your first fill and $150.00 for each additional. The Flouroscopy was extra and optional, but if you have insurance they will bill your insurance company directly. We were told that they are very successfull with getting the insurance to pay for the service, she mentioned that it had something to do with how they coded it to get payed. Anyway I feel very comfortable in recomending them for anyone local in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, or the sourounding area. Debra Kleven was super nice and made us feel very welcome. She even gave us her cell phone number and told my wife if she experienced too much restriction she would meet us back at the clinic on Saturday to make an adjustment before we left to go back home. Here is the information on the clinic and the location address: Lamplight Health Care Providers L.L.C Dr. Winston Griner M.D., Debra Kleven MSN ACNP, 2603 Elm Hill Pike, Suite K Nashville, TN 37214 Phone: 615-349-6927 Stephen & Kelli Wallace / Atlanta, Georgia

Hi everyone, I just want to share with the group that we have finally found a very dependable fill clinic that is close to anyone living in the South East. Me and my wife Kelli drove up from Atlanta last Friday which was only about a 3 hour drive and even though we could have made the round trip in a day we decided to stay on over night and get out an experience Nashville. This was Kelli's first fill since her surgery back on December 27th. She has lost about 30 lbs now and she was very excited about getting her first adjustment. They did the procedure under Flourascopy "which required us to have to follow our nurse over to a imaging center which was about 20 minutes further from the clinic" but I am glad we did it this way so we could confirm 100% where Kelli's access port is. They ended up only putting in .8 cc's which I know does not sound like it was enough but at the time it was all she could handle, any more and she just shut closed completely. The whole procedure only took about 2 hours from the moment we arrived. This clinic is part of the group listed on the Fill Center USA website and their prices are very reasonable at only $300.00 for your first fill and $150.00 for each additional. The Flouroscopy was extra and optional, but if you have insurance they will bill your insurance company directly. We were told that they are very successfull with getting the insurance to pay for the service, she mentioned that it had something to do with how they coded it to get payed. Anyway I feel very comfortable in recomending them for anyone local in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, or the sourounding area. Debra Kleven was super nice and made us feel very welcome. She even gave us her cell phone number and told my wife if she experienced too much restriction she would meet us back at the clinic on Saturday to make an adjustment before we left to go back home. Here is the information on the clinic and the location address: Lamplight Health Care Providers L.L.C Dr. Winston Griner M.D., Debra Kleven MSN ACNP, 2603 Elm Hill Pike, Suite K Nashville, TN 37214 Phone: 615-349-6927 Stephen & Kelli Wallace / Atlanta, Georgia