Affects of Flying with Lap Band?

[lyndalafe 1]

:faint: I had reached finally my sweet spot and was doing great! for two weeks and then I got on a plain last week......so much for sweet spot!

Arrived at hotel 4 hrs later and had some Soup and salad and PB'd for 5 hours??????????? should have gone on liquids; but was at a business function and dinner was part of it......so switched to soft foods...then flew back next day and really got my self in a bad state.

So how many others have problems with the band getting tighter when they fly?

Lynda:flypig:

[Wheetsin 714]

Hmm... I asked my surgeon and he said flying would not effect the band. Pressure decreases in a plane, but they do pressurize it... not sure why that would have any impact. Once you land I'd think everything would normalize. It would be possible under the right circumstances for the Fluid to expand, but I wouldn't think it'd be an issue after grounding. I contacted Inamed about pressure effects on the band way before my surgery, because DH and I are avid scuba divers, and they assured me that under normal diving conditions there would be no problem...granted that's adding and not subtracting atmospheres.

Hmm... sorry, I was thinking out loud, but it's an issue that interests me (I fly frequently, and dive frequently). Here's something I found from an older post:

Some say it seems to make you a bit more restricted for a day or two, then goes away. Could be stress-related? Could be the cabin pressure, etc? No science backing that up that I know of, but folks have reported such things.

[Pianoman 0]

I've just got back from a long flight, and I can confirm there's no change to my restriction.

The only change from my last non-banded flight, is I can now easily fit in the seat!

[leatha_g 4]

I fly almost weekly and there have definitely been times when my band surprised me by tightening up. Interesting thing to look at sometime.. take a water bottle and watch it contract...

[lyndalafe 1]

I'm wondering too if it has something to do with the amount of your constriction.

I flew in December after 1st fill of 1cc; but didn't seem to notice change. Now I'm at highest fill so far which is 1.9 and just that difference could possibly be the difference.:hungry:

[Wheetsin 714]

Ok, I'm thinking about this way too much. I'm definitely an analyzer. :rolleyes

When you take something underwater, e.g. the pressure is greater, it contracts. You can fill a balloon with air, take it diving with you, and it will look empty because the gases have been compressed. When you surface with the same balloon, it's exactly as full as it was before, because there's no change to the amount of gases in the balloon, just how much space they take. This is why if a diver ever has to ascend rapidly, they need to exhale the entire way - otherwise the air in their lungs will expand and basically their lungs will explode like an over-filled balloon (so much for what you see in all those Bond movies!)

The higher up you go, the less pressure (called atmospheres) is put on you. Planes have to pressurize their cabins equivalent to the natural pressure at 8,000 feet. Mt. Everest is just over 29,000 feet, so we're talking over 1/4 of the way up Everest. That's significantly less pressure than we're used to. At less pressure, the saline in the band would expand. So I could def. understand more restriction during a plane. But once you land, the saline should return to normal (actually it would happen slowly as you descend), just like the air in the balloon returns to normal when you ascend.

There's no way flying in a plane givse you more fill. It's impossible. All it can do is let the fill take up more volume... but as pressure is added, the volume would decrease.

Def. going to have to run this one by all of DH's physicist friends and see what's missing...

[vinesqueen 2]

Well, when I fly I'm definately tighter.

When my DH comes to visit me in Pocatello, he gets SUPER tight. Seattle is basically sea level, while Pocatello is more that 4,000 feet in elevation.

Some folks find their band becomes an instant baromiter, while other people don't notice any change with the weather.

I don't care what the literature says, if you experience it, then you experience it.

[Penni60 45]

When I was banded and I flew (which was alot) I always had more restriction for a few days. Never failed. You don't get more fill with a plane ride. But here is my theory of why there was more restriction.

If your band essentially gets tighter around your stomach this could possibly cause some irritation and swelling. That being the case it is not surprising that there would be some restriction. I always tried to do liquids for the first 24 hours after landing.

Inamed and doctors can all spout the way a band should work. I tend to listen to more what others actually experience and use that as my ruler of what I might experience myself.

[Wheetsin 714]

You know - that's an aspect I hadn't thought of -- difference in environmental atmospheres between your destination and your departure locations. Of course that would impact (in "kicking myself", not in "you dummy" kind of way). Maybe that's what happens? The flight itself will let your 1cc take up more than 1cc in your band, then you land somewhere with higher altitude than you live and that 1cc never reduces quite back to normal until you're back home.

I haven't seen literature on this, do you know of any? This def. has me wanting to figure it out.

[PhotoNut 7]

Very interesting subject. Wheetsin, I hope you get it all figured out before Dawg and I fly to England! That's not only a lo-n-n-n-n-ng flight, but it's also going from high altitude to sea level. Will I be tight in the air and loose on vacation? *rubs chin* Hmm.. very interesting, indeed.

And you know, I could have sworn that Dawg quoted Inamed's site where they recommend getting an unfill before flying. I'll have to look at that again.

[Wheetsin 714]

We're in the same boat! DH's family is in Sweden are we're scheduled to visit later this year.

All I know for sure is it's physically impossible (as in, basic physics) for any elevation change to put more saline in the band. All it can do is make the saline already in there take up more or less space. How people feel after flying - totally different subject.

I've sent the highlights of the discussion to DH to pass along.

[PhotoNut 7]

Here's another thread about this topic:

http://lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?p=175834#post175834

Dawg's post about Inamed recommending an unfil is on there.

[donali 57]

liquids are not subject to the same effects as air under pressures, so atmospheric changes would not affect a purely liquid filled band.

I guess it's possible that there might still be a little bit of air in the band system, but their supposed to flush it so it only contains saline.

What is more likely is that you are just swollen in general, as some people tend to swell when they fly (even if they never noticed it before). Generally it's due to dehydration and inactivity.

[giveyouthemoon 4]

Everytime I fly, I end up tighter for a couple days. Noticably tighter. Even when I go from my sea level home to my sister's sea level home. I often forget that flying makes me tighter and end up PB'ing a go-go on the first night of my stay.

It's also senstive to weather. We're having big weather right now and I'm having a hell of a time.

Also....I feel wide open during PMS but can hardly choke down a thing during my actual period (my dr ascribes this to retaining Water thus making the stomach tissues more engorged which makes it feel tighter....: shrug : )

Hell, my level of restriction changes minute by minute during the day. The other day I was eating fine then my boyfriend decided to engage in a heated debate with me on a sensitive topic. Trink (my band) immediately seized up and I couldn't eat another bite of my eggs.

Weird. This is one of the most fascinating aspects of the band.....it's never the same two days in a row. I would NEVER have guessed how much can effect the whole esophagus/tummy system!!!

[gunn4ya 0]

Yes, I have lots of restriction when I go on an airplane. I went to Chicago for a week and was tight the whole time I was there and three day after I came back. Mentioned it to the doc and he was not sure why it happened.