Stomach Virus: Tight or Slip?

[andrealeigh2116 4]

I don't post here often, but am hoping to get some input from more experienced banders. I have a call in to my nurse and am waiting to hear back. Two weeks ago I had a Stomach Virus that lasted 5 days...thankfully I only had 1 episode of vomiting. Since the stomach bug I've been having discomfort when food goes through the band. Saturday I did 24 hrs of liquids then started back on food Sunday. Sunday was ok, but by Monday I was having discomfort again. My hope is that everything is just still swollen and irritated from the virus and can do a couple of days of fluids. Anybody have any similar experiences?

[smilin_apple 0]

I don't post here often' date=' but am hoping to get some input from more experienced banders. I have a call in to my nurse and am waiting to hear back. Two weeks ago I had a Stomach Virus that lasted 5 days...thankfully I only had 1 episode of vomiting. Since the stomach bug I've been having discomfort when food goes through the band. Saturday I did 24 hrs of liquids then started back on food Sunday. Sunday was ok, but by Monday I was having discomfort again. My hope is that everything is just still swollen and irritated from the virus and can do a couple of days of fluids. Anybody have any similar experiences?[/quote']

I have had very similar pain, let me tell you a little about my journey:

In 2007 I was banded....I had some ups and downs with being too tight, too loose, etc. Then in 2010 I was getting ready to leave out of state for a trip so I stopped off at my surgeons office to have a little bit of an un-fill from my band ( I felt like I had been too tight for the prior 5 months but never made it in sooner because my surgeon is located 2 hrs away). As he was removing some of the Fluid I felt an unusual pain in the band area as the Fluid was moving that I NEVER felt before, mind you at that point I'd had many many fills and unfolds and never had pain before. I ignored it and left for my trip. All seemed to go well on my trip, I was eating good..no PB'ing etc. but a couple days before I was returning home I started having a pain in my back exactly behind where my band is located and also in the front. As the days progressed the pain was so uncomfortable that the day I landed in my home state I called the surgeons office and they told me to come in straight away from the airport.

Needless to say they did a few testes and didn't see anything wrong. The surgeon decided to order an Endoscopy where they put you under and put a scope down to see if there was erosion of the band. He decided to remove all the fluid to make the test easier to perform and when he did that the pain came back worse then the last time! So he decided to admit me to the hospital instead of sending me home.

Web. They did the test they didn't find anything so they left my band un-filled for two months to let it rest. I went back and slowly started to fill it up over the next few months but never got back to a good restriction level. I just dealt with it over the next two years.

About 3 months ago I started having the same pains again and this was all without and fill/un-fill being performed. So I went to see my new surgeon in my home city ( I transferred doctors about 6 months before this incident)

The doctor did the same tests but also came up inconclusive on the results. He figured that last time the infill "worked" to take care of the pain (which I knew was only temporary) so he decided to try it this time. When the performed the Endoscopy this time they found a stomach bacteria and treated me for that. During the treatment period I had a conversation with the surgeon about my continuing pain and my concern that something is really wrong. I told him maybe it would be better to remove the band and "revise" me to a different surgery. He basically told me that he doesn't think I should remove it and that he wold only if I really wanted it but that he wouldn't give me a different surgery in its place even though I still had over 125 lbs to lose. He said I should just be happy with the 100 lbs I lost already and deal with the band.

Of course I asked for a second opinion and when I saw the other surgeon he looked at all my X-rays, films, and pictures from my Upper GI's from day one of the band. He also talked to me about my symptoms and told me that I DEFINITELY have a slipped band! Finally after 3 years a doctor figured it out. He immediately put me on the last to have surgery to remove it. My surgery is coming up in a couple of weeks. Then he wants to let my esophagus and stomach heal some then he will give me a revision surgery to get the sleeve in a couple of months after the removal.

If you have any questions feel free to ask

I hope goes well with you

April