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hello, Dec 20 will mark 3 years since my LAGB surgery. I lost about 40 lbs and stayed the same for sooooooo long. Got my last fill in June. And within the last couple months (started school, started going to gym more, activity level increased greatly, less time to eat) I have really started to crawl out of my slump and start using the the band to it's full potential once again. I have lost about 25 lbs in the last 8 weeks or so. My problem is, I always had a bit of GERD issues, but the past month or so (and even more the past week or so) have been having a lot of it-I usually start coughing when it starts, and can't stop coughing until I take zantac or pepcid. I can take tums for a lot shorter period of relief. (I really have an issue with PPI's and will not take them) I do not want to get an unfill b/c I am losing weight for the first time in years and am very happy with my new, improved body. Also, I can eat anything, just small amounts, and have had no trouble keeping anything down when I take small bites and chew. Reflux is mostly in the AM and when I dont eat for much more than a couple hours. I have vomited, but only 3 or 4 times since I got the fill in June and it was because I was stupid and ignored my signals. I have an appt with my Bariatric nurse on friday, any advice/anecdotes/words of wisdom would be appreciated. -Carlie

I was wondering if any of you have had your re-flux issues resolved??? Or just controlled? I am thinking of having this surgery and this seem to be the only thing i cant find any information on. I can find the information that says this is a complication but not how its treated other than meds. Do the meds work? I have never had issues with re-flux but it scares me to think that i could after surgery.

Two questions for those a little further down the line post op. I am 2 1/2 months post op and just started getting what I would call acid reflux, If I eat anything even close to bedtime I wake up 30 min to an hour later with stomach acid coming up in my throat... UGH. My Dr did not prescribe anthing for acid, but I take one occasionally. Would you just start taking one every day or continue only as needed. Or is this a sign of something more serious. This just started recently. And I might add, I can only eat very small portions. 2nd. My brother whom I am very close to and was my inspiraton for having WLS was sleeved by the same doctor in April. He now says his appetite has returned in full force and has gained 10 pounds back! I am terrified this will happen to me, I want to lose weight not gain it back! He does have an issue with his foot which is making it impossible to exercise. But still to regain your appitite after 5 months or so is scary. Is this normal?

After I eat a bite of food, or sip a drink of Water I get the "water-cooler effect" and gurgley air/silent burp or bubble noises that travel up my esophagus/throat from the food funneling downward into my stomach. {If you don't know what i mean by water cooler effect it's like when you press down on a water cooler noossle so the water can pour out, and then bubbles float to the top of the cooler} 1. Is this the same thing as reflux? When the food is funneling down into my stomach, the water cooler effect happens, sometimes with mini mini burps. 2. Is this just minor reflux? 3. Anyone else deal with this water-cooler action or gurgley air bubble noises/silent burp in the esophagus? -I dont have burning acid feeling or heartburn fyi. I dont have bad cough at night or wake up with sore burning throat. -I do sometimes get really loud hiccups. (My Dr. said it could maybe be from the tube of band tickling diaphragm) -Sometimes (very infrequently) I feel a throbbing pain at the site of my actual band after I eat. But then when I sit up with posture the throbbing goes away. I called into the Dr. office, they said it could be irritation because I take a birth control pill every night before I go to sleep and it probably sits and doesn't funnel down all night long, so it's just irritating. Or they said it could be from bad sleep schedule/stress. -Since I've gotten my band, I cant force a big burp like pre-band life burping. I get little mini inside body burps all day long, they just happen on their own (silent air burps) Fun Fact: The nurse that fills me at my Dr office has a band too. He said CC amounts are really different for each body. He said at 9.2 CC he can eat 2 Big Mac McDonalds burgers, but at 9.3 CC he can barely swallow water. So weird, anyone else like this?! Random Question: How come one day I can eat a large piece of pizza no problem, and another day I cant get down 1 bite of pizza? Besides flying, why do bands do this?

Hello everybody! I have just moved my profile over from Lapband Talk to VSGTalk! I am so excited to be here! I had LapBand in Nov, 2009. I started at 297lbs - my highest weight ever. Optifast brought me down to 290 for surgery day. I was not very successful for the first 6 months or so, but once we found the right restriction, weight started dropping. For about a year, I lost steadily. I got remarried, ran my first 5K, got down to 204 pounds... the lowest I've ever been since weighing in at 199 in 8th grade PE! Then the trouble started. After going for a barium swallow for my Crohn's (no complications were occuring, just routine test), the technician thought my band was too tight. Why? Because at 7:30 in the morning, thick, nasty barium wouldn't go through my band fast enough for the test. So he called my LapBand dr and advised I have Fluid removed immediately. So I did. And from that point forward, over the next 6 months, I had fills and unfills because my band was sooooo finicky after messing with it. I began vomiting bile and acid every. single. night. I would wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air and nearly drowning in stomach acid. After about a month, my husband made me go to the doctor. They diagnosed a slip and removed all fluid in March 2012. They waited with hopes it would reposition on its own, but in August 2012 decided to have another surgery to reposition or replace the LapBand. When I woke up from surgery, I was told they had to remove it. The swelling was so bad, they couldn't move the one already there, but had to cut it out and would not attempt to put a new one in. In the meantime, my employer (and insurance) had changed. So it was a fight to get them to approve a VSG. But they did. After nutritionist appointments - again. And more classes - again. And even a visit to the shrink - again. They approved it. I am scheudle for VSG December 4, 2012. I CAN NOT WAIT to start living again. I have gained 60 pounds since the band was deflated and I can't stand the way I feel. Overstuffed in jeans (refuse to buy more). Out of breath at the top of stairs. Aches and pains and exhaustion again. I am so glad to be here and can't wait to get started!

DId everyone see this article on the danger of acid reflux medication? I have been taking it daily since my sleeve 7 years ago. Anyone else concerned? https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/millions-of-canadians-using-acid-reflux-drugs-for-too-long-risking-health-side-effects-1.4409011?fbclid=IwAR04LV_zelKOuCQuEZFt7zKRzhyN68fItehGCQpwU6RYOXURIkP9XqP6WLY

I am reposting this on it's own topic string because I really need advice. I am 6 days out and I feel like I am starving. It is not head hunger, my stomach is actually hurting me. I went to the doctor for my post-op today and I couldn't get him to listen to me about it - he said it is probably head hunger. I think it is stomach acid - at night it hurts really bad. During the day it bothers me, but doesn't hurt as much. I feel if I could just eat something, it would make my stomach feel better. Needless to say, it seems this is how I used to feel and how I gained so much weight in the first place, so it is very frustrating to me. The last thing I want to do is have gone through this only to find myself in the same place. Two nights ago I tried getting up at night and putting something in my stomach when the pain started, so it had something to do - I don't know how to describe the feeling except to say that it feels like my stomach is eating itself. It goes in waves...it will be somewhat quiet and then suddenly a large, almost like a cramp, comes on. It is very painful. Whatever it is, it is what I have associated with hunger pains my entire life. After I eat, it seems to feel better for a couple of hours. I realize if I want to lose weight, I cannot get up and feed it every time it does this. So last night, I ended up having to take pain killers to get through the night. I have noticed the pain in my stomach is similar to something I have had since I can remember. I remember getting up when I was in 3rd grade and throwing up bile every morning - my stomach hurt so bad. I almost failed school because I missed so many days. I learned to control it as I got older, but I never felt good in the mornings. I eventually learned that if I kept feeding myself, the pain stayed gone (with the exception of some bad mornings). I continuously grazed all day, every day. About 8 years ago I started experiencing really bad GERD - the back of my throat and tongue would burn. If I tried to drink Water, which everyone said was so good for me, it was like pouring gasoline on fire - I could feel the eruption. No anti-acids worked. My doctor sent me for an upper GI, but besides finding an irritated stomach, they did not find anything. They determined it was probably happening due to my weight. The GERD eventually calmed down and then it would only happen occasionally, but it made me miserable. I can't tell you how upset it makes me to be right back where I was after having this surgery, and I am determined not to get dragged into this pattern again. There must be a reason for all the acid in my stomach and a way to stop it. I am currently on Pepcid 2x a day, and I have not tried to introduce anything else. In the past, nothing worked - especially not things like Tums and Malanta. On top of that, is if I consume anything that has an artificial sweetener, my stomach reacts badly, but if I go to all natural products, like shakes with vegan Proteins, I get GERD so bad I want to die. I tried a Protein drink a couple of hours ago that I got in the mail today called Syntrex Nectars Naturals, which has no artificial products in it, and now my esophagus and mouth is on fire! I feel so hopeless right now - I have only found one protein mix I can tolerate and even that is bothering me somewhat. I want to eat real, whole, food - not chemically produced Protein Shakes - yet I am not allowed to. Are there others out there who can't seem to drink the protein shakes - if so, what do you do? I am curious if what you are experiencing is in any way similar to what I am describing... you know what they say, misery loves company!

Hello :-) I'm 9 weeks post surgery and honestly this has ruined my life I don't feel this is ever going to stop and I'm so scared. So my story is a little different. I had a laparoscopic gastric sleeve because I had a benign tumour growing on the outside of my stomach. My gastric sleeve is a smaller op than normal because they didn't take as much of my stomach away but I can't understand why I'm suffering so badly. Due to other health issues I've also got dysphagia and have been on a permanent liquid diet since 2016 and already very underweight. This is unrelated to the benign tumour and still being investigated. I never had any issues with acid before surgery. Anyhow, after surgery I was doing really well. The first few weeks I was building up to 4 300ml ensure shakes a day quite well. I felt great but this might have been the painkillers I was on for a pneumothorax. I wasn't taking the anti reflux medication as they couldn't prescribe it in liquid form and the orodispersable ones had hundreds of tiny hard capsules in them which made them difficult to swallow. But I was ok. No reflux problems. Then suddenly everything changed. I started getting the general foamies at first. Which I could deal with as they were quick in passing and after a google search I eased off the ensure shakes a little, drank more slowly and drank more water. I was started on omeprazole capsules that I have to open up and dissolve in water so I'm not really getting the full 40mg of it. I never miss taking this though. Over the past 6 weeks its gotten to the point that I no longer have foamies I have this constant thick sticky slime in my throat which is so bad I'm now losing sleep due to waking up choking and trying to hack it up. Every night is a nightmare. I go to sleep and start producing more thick slime and breathing in acid that I wake up choking and covered in sweat. I'm panicked trying to get the slime up to breathe, coughing up acid, gagging, choking on the slime, gulping on the huge lumps of slime that I can't hack up or swallow and sometimes vomiting. Its now gotten to the point that I'm living on a few cups of tea a day and water as I can't get the ensures past the slime during the day. Even an empty stomach has made no difference. I saw my surgeon and nutritionist finally a few days ago who treated me like I'd had something as simple as a tooth extraction and were unbothered by my weight loss, the fact that I can no longer get ensures down so I'm basically not eating at all and that I'm becoming depressed dealing with this choking slime and acid despite taking omeprazole. He's scheduling an endoscopy but in the meantime I'm honestly just so done with dealing with this. Its completely ruining my life. I can't eat, I can't sleep and I'm tortured every second by this choking slime in my throat. I have a young child to look after and I feel so tired and panicked daily. Has anyone dealt with the slime constantly? Rather than just when eating too much? Has anyone found a way to reduce stomach acid if already on anti reflux meds? Thank you in advance for any replies.

Hi, I would like to address my fears to people who never had acid reflux or gerd before the surgery. But developed those symptoms later on specially the FIRST WEEKS AFTER VSG. Iam currently moving to the fourth week after my vsg and I never had neither acid reflux nor gerd. I developed my symptoms after the second week . My doc put me on pantoprazole 40 twice daily but im never back to normal noting that I never eat anything heavy. Still on soups or full liquids, rarely blended chicken with veggies and I barely have 3 spoonfuls. My worries are all about will it ever get better?? Will I ever tolerate new real food some day without having acid reflux, gerd, stomach troubles wrecking my life? Sending you all so much love

These two make my day a little lighter. Since my surgery I have had like most folks i've seen on here really bad acid reflux. I usually take a PPI - Protonics but my surgeon doesn't want me to stay on them long time he suggested that I get another GI and that I may need to have a revison to the RNY (not happening)! I continue to search for natural remedies to resolve this issue but until then these two are my "Besties"!!

My surgeon prescribed Protonix and I took it for 3 weeks, but I don't feel like it was very effective after 2 weeks. I'm not sure if that particular PPI is milder or more easily tolerated for coming straight out of a surgical procedure on the stomach. Yesterday I told my doctor that I kept feeling extreme hunger all day long that I thought was related to stomach acid or gas and could I switch to Prilosec or Prevacid because the Protonix didn't seem to work very well. He said sure, just make sure it is either a very small pill or an elixer. Which PPIs have you tried and what are your experiences with them? Do you also supplement with Tum's or some other form of antacid?

I am about 5 day out from my sleeve surgery. While in the hospital I experienced extreme hiccups and heartburn, both have subsuded (I think). I am home after an extra day in the hospitl due to some edema (swelling) iin my stomach. Feeling not great, first I think I am hungry, all I want ot do it have a slice pf pizza or candy, I am craving. My mouth is watering and I think I have huger pains. I am sticking to the liquid diet of course, but want more. This morning I had my Protein shake and think I may have downed it to fat, as I am feeling very distended and have diahrea. As anyone had any similar experiences, Is this temporary? AmI really hungry of is this acid (I started taking Prilosec) I so want this to be successful, but I am feeling down.

Hi just checking to see if anyone has had acid issues or their gallbladder removed before or after surgery. I have acid reflux with water only, no food, etc. other than avoiding coffee, egg yolks and bacon, diet doesn't seem to help. My ultrasound showed gallstones. 2/3 of my doctors feel like getting my gallbladder removed will solve the acid issue. Tums, Pepcid and even 2 PPI Previacids a day do not stop the burning. I've heard that if the acid pills don't help it is gallbladder because the PPI medicines only kill stomach acid, not bile. It burns on and off throughout the day and night. Even on an empty stomach, like in the morning 8+ hours after eating and drinking it burns. Eating seems to help. I can eat most fatty foods with no problems or pains (most of the time I eat low fat anyway.) Sometimes I have pain off on the right side, or in the back on the right hand side, but mostly it is acid burning from a few inches above my belly button, to burning throat. I explained this to the gall bladder surgeon, and he ordered an Upper GI, barium test. The test showed no ulcers, but acid reflux firing throughout exam. 2 of the doctors still think I'd be helped by getting my gallbladder out, but the 1 the gallbladder surgeon seems to now think I will need something more serious (like stomach wrap surgery) to address the acid. Would love your feedback on whether or not your acid went away after gallbladder removal. I had my hitial hernia repaired at the time as well, been My gastro also put me on carrafate the medicine for ulcers, and that didn't help at all, and seemed to give me acid reflux too. I have also been tested for H. Polyri and it came back negative. Before surgery, I had stomach polyps before I ever had taken PPIs. I had a colonscopy (clean no polyps), blood tests and nothing else shows abnormal. Looking back, I must have had acid reflux every since I remember, since I've always thought hunger was stomach pain and burning. The gallbladder surgeon seemed to think I have a couple years before the acid is problem, but I am wondering if it continues to burn if that is health concern and could cause other problems. Diet and medicine do not help the acid burning. Any advice or personal experience is appreciated.

So yesterday was my last pre op visit. I was told to swing by my pharmacy and pick up these meds for after surgery. Carafate ,Protonix ,Reglan. As always I get home and look up the meds : * Carafate/Sucralfate is a medication primarily taken to treat active duodenal ulcers. Sucralfate is also used for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease and stress ulcers. * Protonix is used for short-term treatment of Water how realistic is it to think I can take these handful of pills all day while sipping 2 oz at a time? What blood thinner were you prescribed? Was your pain med liquid? Maybe those are given to me at discharge from the hospital pharmacy? any info is greatly appreciated

Hello all! I am considering VSG - but I have heard rumors of worsening acid reflux. My reflux is well managed by a PPI now, I have break through from time to time if I eat certain things. AND when I have lost weight in the past, my acid reflux has gotten better - I was off of a PPI for awhile. I am concerned about vitamin deficiencies associated with the other surgeries, so I think VSG is the best option for me - but this issue has me concerned. Does anyone know the incidence of reflux post VSG? Or can anyone give me any data? Or any insight into this issue? Thanks!

So I have been struggling with the fill amount in my band for almost four months now. I have had two small un-fills and I am now at less Fluid in my band than I have had since mid December. December was when I got my last addition of fluid to the band as I was close but still a little too loose. In the past week I have finally figured out that it is my acid reflux that was irritating my band area and was causing me to be still too tight even with un-fills. I have upped my acid reflux medicine and it has done wonders for my ability to eat consistently. I think I will need to spend the next 2-3 weeks getting back into the groove of eating solid food consistently and not only during the day time (on the days my band permitted). At that point I will probably be ready for another fill. I have discussed acid reflux with my doctor in the past but he never mentioned that it may feel like a too tight band so I never suspected it as a root cause for my band being tight.