My Lap Band caused Esophageal Cancer

[Momto3redheads 18]

So sorry to hear about your complications! One encouraging note - I have a close friend who has the same medical condition you do, though she has never had a lapband, and she has been doing wonderfully for years...they check the cells yearly and everything has been fine. So I hope it goes as smoothly for you too!

Kim

[Desdemona 48]

I want to thank you for posting this. As others have said, it's really disturbing but when we stop and really think about it -- it does make sense that all that pressure against human tissue can damage. I will look for the research articles. Thank you for thinking of us and I will certainly be thinking of you and hoping that all is well.

[123crod 170]

R,R.

I will be praying for you. I hope they can remove it and no cancer, Blessings to you!

Blessings

Cheri

[jreneeupnorth 0]

Hi,

I have been banded 4 years, Lost 75 pounds by the end of the first year, and have been stable, satisfied with results, and have dealt with the band well during the past 3 years and am currently at 175. No fills at all the past 2 years. The past couple of months I had NO restriction, and my doctor decided to scope me, and after doing the endoscopy , found I have a bleeding esopageal ulcer, he says is caused by the band. Sounds just like you describe, as I have no GERD or heartburn symptoms, but the stomach acids must be pushing up, causing the ulcer. I had to have my band deflated, and let it heal... Now I am wondering if I dare try to fill at all again, as I am worried I will ulcerate again. Should I just bite the bullet and get the band removed? Has anyone else out there dealt with esophageal ulcers that healed, then went on to fill again with no problems? Comments please... thanks

[Wallace06 5]

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

Haven't been on in a while, and hate to be a downer. I used to get on here to motivate and cheer people on. I had my band placed almost 6 years ago. I initially lost 170 pounds in the first year. I had never heard of or been informed that the band could cause cancer! I have no family history, and am only 37 years old. I have had my band inflated and deflated numerous times over the years, but never experienced true esophageal reflux or heartburn. Over the past year, I kept having what I thought were hunger pains in my stomach. I would then eat something and the pain would go away. I never correlated the pain to being an acid issue, as it didn't really come before/after meals..it would occur at all different times of the day. I just assumed my band was too loose and I needed another fill at some point to get rid of the hunger pains. I have gained a large amount of my weight back, due to eating when my stomach hurts.

Then about a month ago, I went to my family practice doctor because I was having pretty severe abdominal pain over my liver area, and I had already had my gallbladder removed. Eventually, I was referred to a GI doctor who performed an EGD (or a scope of my upper esophagus and stomach). He found what I can only describe as looking like blisters (aka lesions) and polyps all throughout my lower esophagus. He took biopsies of the area and told me results would be back in 2 weeks. I just received a phone call yesterday that the results were high grade dysplasia (aka the cells that occur right before full blown cancer). He wants to see me asap and refer me to a specialist/talk about the treatment plan. I am now planning on going to mayo clinic to have an experimental ablation procedure done where the cells are burned off.

I say all this because now doing research, I am finding articles on line from as recent as December of 2010 on "Barrett's esophagus: a late complication of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding." I can't believe it! Wondering what I have done to myself, and all for what?? The articles are saying that they have now associated the band with pre-cancerous cellular changes in the esophagus due to the band squeezing the stomach and causing acid to sit there and in some people seep up into the lower esophagus. Remember, I have never had the typical heartburn or typical symptoms of GERD. I used to say to people, even after multiple complications post op (such as port infection and removal, herniated tubing through my abdominal wall, and gallbladder removal) that no matter all the complications, I would do it over and over again. Now I'm not so sure....Cancer is a whole different ball game.

Just venting, and hoping that if anyone else does a search on either esophageal cancer with the band or Barretts esophagus with the band I can let them know that there are others out there going through the same thing.

[Colombe 0]

Hello,

I am sick and in pain, but mostly I am ashamed of what this band has created for me. I don't dare tell my husband about the mega esophagus, esophagal dilation, chest and back pains, nausea and pressure on my chest that feels like bronchitis. I went to have my band emptied completely after at least two months of procrastination. I had a endoscopy and colonoscopy in June and the doctor said that while my stomach was empty, I had a second stomach full of waste just sitting there. She said that the problem was not medical, but mechanical. I didn't feel alarmed because she wasn't. That sack of food waste sat there for months and I had assumed that my discomfort was just how the band worked. I feel guilty about my naiveté. I am sure that I have something terrible and don't dare mention it to anyone.

At least what I am going through is not just my imagination. I would like to know how you are coping.

All the best,

Colombe

[Wallace06 5]

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

Hello,

I am sick and in pain, but mostly I am ashamed of what this band has created for me. I don't dare tell my husband about the mega esophagus, esophagal dilation, chest and back pains, nausea and pressure on my chest that feels like bronchitis. I went to have my band emptied completely after at least two months of procrastination. I had a endoscopy and colonoscopy in June and the doctor said that while my stomach was empty, I had a second stomach full of waste just sitting there. She said that the problem was not medical, but mechanical. I didn't feel alarmed because she wasn't. That sack of food waste sat there for months and I had assumed that my discomfort was just how the band worked. I feel guilty about my naiveté. I am sure that I have something terrible and don't dare mention it to anyone.

At least what I am going through is not just my imagination. I would like to know how you are coping.

All the best,

Colombe

[upset Marsden patient 0]

I truly feel for you. Three years ago I had to undergo an esophagus biopsy to rule out Barrett's esophagus. It was negative however today I found out some disturbing news. My doctor placed my band on my esophagus 18 months ago. Now my new doctor has to remove it on 12-9. To say I'm pissed would be an understatement. At this time I have no idea what

type of damage has been caused. This surgery was not worth it. I've been in pain from day one. All of my complaints of throwing up mucus and pain in my left shoulder was ignored. All this just to lose 16 pounds in 18 months. Please DO NOT have weight loss surgery. It's not worth the pain or the risk to your life.

[Takeyoursymptomsseriously 0]

I had a football size mass removed from my body that had wrapped around my lap band. And the lower 10% of my esophagus removed. It was the start of Barrett's. It was a horrific experience. It took one year to discover the tumor. I had every test under the sum, minus insurance. They thought I was bulimic, because I lost over 100 lbs. in six months. I couldn't keep anything down. I begged my lap band surgeon to remove it finally and it turned into a five hour surgery. He said if they had just took an XRay of my back they would have seen the tumor. I became malnourished, if you have had stomach surgery or issues you cannot absorb B12 effectively and are also folate deficient. So I'm on Vitamins to replace those deficiencies. I also now have high blood pressure even though I'm no longer obese. I never had BP issues while obese. To anyone considering surgery read everything! This is not a quick solution or easy thing. Make a list of pros and cons. Get more than two opinions. Question everything. It does not matter how nice your doctor is, mine was supper nice, it's your future. You can lose the weight on your own! Just believe in yourself. Take my story in to consideration before you decide.

[Tweety39 0]

I have a question for all of you? Did you have to have the band removed because of the cancer? I just found out that I have the precancerous cells in my stomach. I had a endoscopy done because I have not been able to keep food down. It showed that the food was getting trapped and not passing the band. The band is very tight. But there is no Fluid in the band. I have read that some people think that the band causes this. Cancer that is. Now I'm scared not sure what to do.. If anyone was any info or advice let me know.

[Takeyoursymptomsseriously 0]

For me, they suspected Barrett's and I forced them into band removal. The results came back benign. But it was the best decision in my case. My port had built up a lot of scar tissue as well.

[Tweety39 0]

So did they suggest taking out the band? Did it help once the band came out?

[Boniluuu 25]

Dang. Wish I knew that before.

[Boniluuu 25]

Dang. Wish I knew that before.

[lalaj 108]

This scares me to the max! I have two kids, I got this surgery to help me prolong my life, not possibly shorten it.

I'm so sorry to hear all this. It saddens me and brings me to tears. This is sad

I pray for all of you who are going through this