sandraei

I had my lap band surgery done in late March of 2009 by Dr Jahnavi Srinivasan. I did this through Emory Bariatric center and the surgery was done at Emory Midtown (formerly Crawford Long) Hospital. I had a complication and had to have a port revision in early May (my port flipped due to awful nausea after the first surgery), but since then I've had 2 fills and am doing very well. Dr Srinivasan is great, very charming and warm, and extremely knowledgeable. Her bedside manner is the best I've ever dealt with. While she is from India, I think she's spent her whole life her in the US and she has a very American accent, so there are no communication issues. She will spend whatever time is neccesary to help you. I highly recommend her.

I was banded on 3/24/09 in Atlanta by folks at Emory Bariatric center. I've been miserable ever since. I'm having terrible abdominal pain on both sides, in the lower abdomen, more on my right side but above my hip bone. I'm very bloated and swollen - my pants hurt (the pants from 80 lbs ago)! I'm taking benefiber some and am not having issues with bowel movements. I'm using gas-ex too. While the surgery was out-patient, I ended up in the hospital 4 hours later with an ugly nausea reaction to the anesthesia, stayed 2 days. (This was a known reaction that I tried to make plain to the anesthesia folks before hand. Guess they didn't believe me.) I went back to my surgeon on 4/7 and she ran a swallow test on me. All looks good from her perspective. But I feel awful, really bad and exhausted all the time. I can eat ok, not great, but getting better. I'm not a surgical novice - 3 c-sections that I only took tylenol for, plus sinus surgery, 2 laproscopic surgeries in the '80's and a crainiotomy in 2005. I'm no pain wussie. But I can't sleep worth a durn and I'm really considering having the band removed. I can tolerate a lot of discomfort for a period if I feel like things will get better, but so far no changes. Am having a good deal of nausea, the dry heave kind where nothing comes up for a while until suddenly I get these giant belches. I'm to see my surgeon again on 4/22. Has anyone else had these issues? Do you have any suggestions?

Doing much better. I ended up having my port placement corrected on May 5 (used MAC anesthesia - so much better!) and am scheduled for first real fill on 5/27/09. My port had flipped, probably from all the vomiting after my initial surgery. This was discovered when we tried to do a fill at the end of April. But I'm much better now, thank you very much!

This sounds exactly like reflux, with maybe a band that's too high or has slipped. The grits by themselves should go down just fine. Talk to your doctor!!

Thanks so much for the encouragement. I'm going to hang in there and see how I do at least for the first 8 weeks.

Did you have the abdominal pain? If so, how long before you felt better? I can put up with almost anything if I feel like it will get better. Yes, I'm concentrating on nutrition. I lost over 10 lbs in the 1st 2 weeks after banding. I can eat ok - making sure I get my Vitamins and Protein.