Away2me

I am having (have been having for awhile now) serious issues with my band. For the past 1 1/2 years I've had a complete unfill because I was trying to get pregnant. Now my twins are 1 and I'm ready to get my band removed instead of filled. :sad: The complications are terrible for me. I slime so badly and I get spasms when the food passes through the band. The spasms are so bad, I can put my hand on my sternum area and feel them from the outside. Every meal hurts. I can't eat veggies and many other foods that are good for me. Lean chicken makes me puke 3 or 4 times. It seems totally counter productive for me to have this band as I end up eating band friendly foods that are bad for me. I had a fluro at the last unfill and had a second doctor reviewed the fluro (they did a video of it and put it on disk for me) so that I can confirm that my band placement is good. Second doc confirmed the band placement was perfect. Anyone else have excessive sliming and spasms while eating. I'm miserable.

I realize that, that's why I put in the post that I had the surgery done in Mexico. Fill center USA's closest location is 2 hours from me. It might be my only option, but I decided to come here first to check. Thanks.

I had my band done in Mexico nearly 2 years ago. I had a complete unfil prior to getting pregnant. Now my twin boys are 7 months old and I need to jump back on the "band wagon". The problem is I can't get to Mexico for my fills. I need to find a local doctor. Does anyone know a doc, who will do fills for a band done in Mexico, in the Palm Desert area?

Yep, that was my biggest struggle. That and choosing an "elective surgery" when I have a child and husband to consider. But I have no regrets. Good luck with your surgery! Update on me. I had a complete unfill. The complications were driving me nuts and we are about to start IVF for a second child. Knowing how little water retention can effect my band and given my other issues the docs and I decided to do an unfill and wait till either I have a baby or give up on it. At the unfill I had 2 cc's taken out. The doc said that considering all my complications I shouldn't have had that much in there. He was disappointed in his associate for leaving me that filled and disappointed in me for not coming back sooner for an unfill. He said when I do go back to getting fills they are going to start ultra conservatively, like 1/2cc to start with and then only give fills at 5 week or longer intervals. Conservative and slow to avoid problems. The other cool thing that you guys might appreciate is I got a video of my Fluoroscopy! I put it on my blog. (Pm me for password) It is really neat. It shows fluid passing my band when it was super tight and then after the unfill as it started to relax. Not a huge difference, but the doc said it will take awhile for the area around the band to relax, like 5 hours or so. The other good news is, I have a friend who's mom works for another Lap Band doc and she sent him the video of my Fluoroscopy for review and he said that my band position looks great, everything looks normal. He thought I had some serious pouch irritation coupled with the hyperactive esophagus. So taking a break from fills and going back easy when I start fills again was his advice too. Nice to have a second opinion that concurs with the first one! Hope everyone else is happily loosing!

Yep, two fills and one unfill. I didn't think I was that tight, but I guess I retain more Water than I previously thought as about a week before TOM I get really tight. We have had some stress here too which I think is contributing to the tightness. I actually woke up in the middle of the night and could feel my band being tight. No food or drink and I could feel it. I drank plenty of water and within an hour or two I couldn't feel a thing. I'm pretty sure I'm chewing well enough. Sometimes though, even the tiniest bite, super well chewed will go down like someone is dragging a rake against the inside of my sternum. It hurts! The slime being "stuck" just creates more slime! Viscous circle.:biggrin:

Warning.... I'm pretty blunt and graphic about the description of my sliming episode:....... :biggrin: So here's the deal. I've been banded 4 months and I have to say, so far it isn't the way I thought it would be. My biggest problem is I get slime EVERY time I eat. Even if food isn't stuck I get a certain amount of slime which gags me. If I do get something stuck or tight, I get TONS of slime. And when I say tons, I mean to the point that I can gag up a least 3 times a huge handful of clear goopy slime. Sometimes the sliming occurs right at the time of eating, sometimes it is 10 mins later. Sometimes even longer than that. Any suggestions, anyone else go through this? Is it just a matter of being too tight maybe?

As of this morning I'm down 21 pounds total. Slow but it is coming off. Because of my esophagus issue I can't be too tight. Certain days I can't eat hardly anything solid. Especially during TOM. :thumbs_up: Glad you are doing well.

You sound over filled to me. I did the same thing and had to go back and have a unfill.(Same doc as you) If you are having issues with cold fluids (if you can feel it going through the band) you are probably over filled. Be VERY careful. I actually didn't loose any weight during the 5 days I was over filled. My body retained water cause I wasn't drinking enough and my metobolism slowed down. You know your own body better than anyone, so maybe this will work for you and things will loosen up. Keep us posted.

No, not too tight. I had a unfill cause I was too tight after the second fill. I can still consume too much food if I let myself. The issue is with the esophagus. They have meds to help with it, but I'm hoping time will help and learning to avoid certain trigger foods will help. Actually it is mostly learning to relax my mind before I eat. But that is difficult with a near two-year-old to have meals with! :smile2:

For me, if that was the case, I would never be able to eat. Seriously, I slime badly over minimal things. Foods that I do great with one day, I can't even get one tiny bite down the next day and it isn't about my band being to tight. I have a fickle esophagus. Warning **** TMI **** TMI Ahead****** Yesterday I had tiny piece of chicken for a snack and for 2 hours I had issues with it. I barfed 6-8 times and nothing came up but slime and a bit of discolored or should I say, chicken colored slime. This type of thing, not necessarily this bad, happens at least 5 times a week. I've gone to liquids for 24 hours after an episode and it makes no difference when I go back to regular food or even soft foods again. It is hit or miss. Drives me nuts! :grouphug:

Yes, my doc told me about that. I have to go through a test first before they will prescribe it. So they said to try things for a month after the unfill to see if things get better.

I've had 2 fills and an unfill since surgery. Let me tell you, it is not fun to be too tight, especially when we have to drive all the way down to TJ. Currently I am having issues cause I have a hyper active esophagus. Which means anything feeling tight or stuck causes me to throw up. So I can not make any mistakes or it is awful. I don't even attempt bread.