questions...questions...please help

JeanOmeiri · March 7, 2004

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone can direct me to information or has information about how a person heals internally from lap band surgory. I was banded in Mexico by an excellent docotor but he spent so much time telling me not to worry that he didn't really do a good job of educating me on the whole process. I mean I know what happended (procedure to place band) and why but I need to know what's happening now. I didn't even know that organs could produce scar tissue. How can we know that its developing as well as it should? How does food affect the production of scar tissue? Does solid food inhibit scar tissue production? I just need to know what's going on inside my body. I feel a lot of restriction, I'm three weeks post op. I just feel like if I could have information I wouldn't be so worried about everything.

Also I've read about not irritating the mucus lining in the stomach and in the stoma. What irritates it and how would I know? I know I operate under the myth that if I have as much information as possible I can control something.

thanks for any information you could offer.

j

donali · March 8, 2004

Hi Jean -

Your internal healing is pretty much the same as your external healing - you just can't see it. It takes time, and patience. Scar tissue can form anywhere there has been an injury - internally or externally. In the case of the band seating itself, the scar tissue formed by the superficial stitching of the lower part of the stomach to the part of the stomach above the band helps keep the band in place.

The function of food in this is most concerning prior to everything healing. The stomach is a muscle that flexes to move food through to the upper intestine. Once food gets to the intestines, they take over the flexing to keep moving food down into the colon, and so on.

Since the stomach has stitches in it and needs to heal, the goal is to minimize this flexing action as much as possible so the healing is clean and complete. Imagine a deep cut on your knee that needs stitches. If you continually flex your knee before it is healed, you will pull the cut open each time, delaying healing and possibly producing an uneven match between the cut sides.

The same with the stomach. However, once it is healed, the stomach is perfectly capable of performing its duties as before. Once you get restriction, the food you eat sits inside the top part of the stomach, waiting for passage. If you continue to force food inside the pouch faster than it passes you put pressure on the band site and the food also backs up putting pressure on the bottom of your esophogus, usually resulting in pain. If this is a continual practice, the bottom of the esophogus becomes irritated, and the muscles that hold the esophogus closed when not in use can become weakened, allowing food from the stoma back up into the esophagus, creating reflux and resulting in possible esophagitis and/or dilatation.

Some people say that continual pouch packing can result in slippage.

I hope this answers some of your questions!

GeezerSue · March 8, 2004

I hate when they say "Do not open oven door while baking." I want them to say, "If you open the oven door while baking, the souffle will be flat as a pancake and you'll have to feed your boyfriend's mom a Peanut Butter sandwich, you moron." THEN, I'm more likely to follow directions.

Jean, do you have the Inamed bookelt? It is not as informative as it should be, but it's a start.

http://inamed.com/products/obesity/us/patient/lapband/information.html

Then, some of the stuff you learn/make up as you go along. Here's one I finally wrote about, a year or so ago on another board, since I hadn't seen it anywhere...the saliva (also called "slime") thing. One of the things that is probably happening--or will happen once you start eating--is the saliva thing. In a normal, healthy, unbanded stomach, the food just moves on through the esophagus to the stomach. In a banded stomach, the food can move only so far before it gets to the band and the whole process gets hung up. The brain (which has not read the band owner's manual) interprets the "hang up" as food that's stuck and needs to be moved to save your life. So it sends a little saliva to move things along. Then it sends more. Then it sends gallons (or so it seems) of thick, gooey, saliva to really make it move. When that doesn't work (which it can't because of the band being in place) it all (everything north of the band, so to speak) has to come up.

So...my advice to newly banded folks is to head for the bathroom the minute the saliva starts...and start spitting. It may take five minutes or twenty minutes or longer. (And the getting up and walking to the bathroom helps, too.) That saliva has nowhere to go except into your esophagus, which is already blocked at the bottom. So, IMHO, trying to keep it all down is a waste of time. MY goal is to get rid of the extra saliva until the "blockage" has had time to work its way through.

The "cure," which I hope to learn pretty soon, as I have been banded for almost a year and a half, is to eat less, chew better and WAIT between bites. I'm an older patient...I was 55 when I was banded. And I had to get unfilled due to reflux, and kind of start all over. But I apparently STILL haven't figured out that the way my system works, it takes several minutes for the signal that it's time to stop eating gets to my brain. If I keep eating during those several minutes, I am inevitably sorry just a few minutes later. AND, I need to negotiate with myself before I eat (I'm often in restaurants) regarding how much of what is being served I'm actually going to eat.

Today, I'm going out to lunch with a slew of other old farts and fart-ettes. I have already gone online and checked out the menu. Then I called to see what Soups were being served today. Next, I'm going to call to see if I can order a Breakfast at lunch, because that would be easiest and best for me. If not, I'll have a lunch choice and a SECOND choice, because I don't want to spend the time in the restroom. Right now, I'm thinking that the cup of Soup and half a sandwich sounds good...except I'm concerned about celery in the tuna and about chewing everything else well enough.

I'm working on this band thing. I'm obviously a slow learner. This is another reason I'm glad I opted for the band, instead of the bypass. If I had had the bypass, I'd be my thin ideal self by now, but I'd still be just as dysfunctional about food as I am right now. So, after the two year "honeymoon," I'd be one of those bypass people who gains it all back. WITH THE BAND, WHAT YOU LEARN SHOWS, AS YOU LEARN IT. I've learned a little. I'm still learning.

Good luck on your journey,

Sue

JeanOmeiri · March 9, 2004

Ladies,

Thanks so much for your insight. I'm into the thrid week and I'm trying so hard to get used to everything, that I just start freaking out majorly if something feels werid. Your experiences are so helpful.

j