Curious pain after 18 months banded

[steph_co 9]

I know, I know - only a doctor could tell me for sure. But I don't have insurance and I'm not anxious to rack up a doctor bill. My band doctor is 4 hours away and I can't really afford to drive there right now, either. So I was more wanting to ask just to see if anybody else experienced something similar and could maybe give me a hint if I should panic or not.

I'm down only 60 lbs total from where I started. A lot of that due to my own falling off the wagon. But I don't want to hear about it.

The main thing is that I have had zero problems with the band up till now. I have excellent fill such that I can eat a small amount and stay full for awhile. I recently was back "on" the wagon to really push hard and get down to my goal before my 2-year anniversary. I was doing excellent, even started exercising a TON. Well, after much research, I felt I was too low on my calories and wanted to kind of reset my system/metabolism. Went back to eating the "bad" foods (sugar, etc) for a couple days. Well, there's where my trouble starts.

On Saturday I ate a couple of tacos and a plain cheese quesadilla (one taco and the quesadilla was enough to fill me up...I ate the other taco later). Hours later, I also had some ice cream. So, basically, nothing absolutely horrific. Nothing that I would think would cause the pain that followed. I work nights. I ate the ice cream maybe about 1am? About 4am I decided that I would try and eat the other taco. Well, that's when the absolutely terrible pain started. I only got halfway through the taco. It came on kind of slow - the pain. But it was SO BAD 4 hours later when I was preparing to go to bed that I took a vicodin (with milk to coat my stomach) and OTC sleeping pills just to get the edge off enough to fall asleep.

The pain was right where my band would be. The only thing I could relate it to was how I felt when I first got the thing put in. I had the localized pain right at the site that HURT if I breathed too deeply. Then I had the radiating pain to my back between my shoulder blades. The more I stood and walked around, the WORSE the pain was. It alleviated only slightly if I double over a bit. Sitting or lying down seems to help the most. When I sat in my car to drive home from work (1-hour drive), the radiating pain moved from between my shoulder blades down to just above my pelvic bone (still on the back).

Now, maybe somebody will say food poisoning and blame the taco. But I had zero nausea, no vomiting, no diarrhea. Also, on Sunday I had basically no stomach trouble at all.

Then yesterday morning about 7am, I had the pain hit again (the last time I had eaten was probably an hour prior - some turkey jerky). Granted, it was less intense, but it was the same that I described before. Only this time I didn't take anything for pain. I was at the grocery store and had to hurry out of there to get back to my car to sit down. I carried a 24-pack of bottled Water from my car into the house and thought I was going to collapse, the pain was so bad. Again - physical exertion of any kind to include standing made the pain unbearable.

When I woke up at 6pm last night to prepare to go to work, I was still in a little bit of pain, but it was easy to deal with. I did start eating a pear, pulverizing the thing in my mouth and swallowed it as the equivalent of apple sauce and it felt STUCK. I had to toss the pear. So my band was wicked-tight almost like things were inflamed. After about an hour, things calmed to include the pain and I've eaten normally since then (good foods - I'm back to eating the good stuff). My stomach is not hurting...it's...gurgly-feeling. Hard to describe.

So I guess...what does it FEEL like to be eroded or slipped? I'm scared that something has happened to my band and I was not abusing the band - just my nutrition. Which, fair enough, I'd deserve a lecture. But what happened to the band???

[Cleo's Mom 257]

You should call your doctor and describe what you have describred here. Ask if you can get a script for an upper GI at a local, closer hospital. Something is going on after all this time that indicates a problem. Probably going on soft foods and mushies for awhile until you get answers might help. But it is nothing to fool around with. Pain is an indication that something is wrong. You need to get it investigated or it's likely to happen again. If it happens again, go to the ER. Slippage and erosion don't always produce symptoms. Good luck.