Lap Band Woes
Well, I've been a lurker on here for the past several weeks because I have been having so much pain when eating and drinking, and it was almost too overwhelming to post about. I was really scared. I'll give you the brief roundup now that it's all over.
After talking to my nurse last week about possibilities for the severe pain when I ate or drank, she guessed possibly gallstones or an ulcer, so she suggested I try an acid blocker pill each day. That didn't help. So on Monday of this week, after three days of not being able to eat or drink, I started calling my doctor's office asking if I could come in to have my band let down so I could start going to the doctor to see what was up with my tummy. Got the runaround from the office receptionist, and my nurse couldn't return my call that morning, so i went to the emergency room for the first time in my life.
Got some pain meds started, and had to drink two cups of crystal light contrast. (remember, drinking made me vomit white foamy stuff, so that was HARD). got a CT scan done, and it showed nothing. so they sent me home (after 8 hours) and told me to go to my lapband doctor the next day.
went to lapband doctor the next day (who miraculously WAS in town, despite what the receptionist said) and he had his staff do an ultrasound and an x-ray to see if my band had slipped. No slippage, and they only saw one little soft thing in my gallbladder.
So bottom line, maybe my band was too tight, so every bit of the fluid is out. I've been able to eat and drink this week. Religiously eating a pre-measured amount of food, following all my bandster rules, and not testing to see "how much can i eat now?" I have not had any head hunger OR body hunger, which is good.
I'm guessing i'll do this for a week or two to let my tummy completely heal up from whatever was irritating it so much, and then will go back to start the fill process again. Any advice for a bandster whose band is turned "off" at the moment? Thanks. casey
After talking to my nurse last week about possibilities for the severe pain when I ate or drank, she guessed possibly gallstones or an ulcer, so she suggested I try an acid blocker pill each day. That didn't help. So on Monday of this week, after three days of not being able to eat or drink, I started calling my doctor's office asking if I could come in to have my band let down so I could start going to the doctor to see what was up with my tummy. Got the runaround from the office receptionist, and my nurse couldn't return my call that morning, so i went to the emergency room for the first time in my life.
Got some pain meds started, and had to drink two cups of crystal light contrast. (remember, drinking made me vomit white foamy stuff, so that was HARD). got a CT scan done, and it showed nothing. so they sent me home (after 8 hours) and told me to go to my lapband doctor the next day.
went to lapband doctor the next day (who miraculously WAS in town, despite what the receptionist said) and he had his staff do an ultrasound and an x-ray to see if my band had slipped. No slippage, and they only saw one little soft thing in my gallbladder.
So bottom line, maybe my band was too tight, so every bit of the fluid is out. I've been able to eat and drink this week. Religiously eating a pre-measured amount of food, following all my bandster rules, and not testing to see "how much can i eat now?" I have not had any head hunger OR body hunger, which is good.
I'm guessing i'll do this for a week or two to let my tummy completely heal up from whatever was irritating it so much, and then will go back to start the fill process again. Any advice for a bandster whose band is turned "off" at the moment? Thanks. casey
Casey
Lapband 6/20/2007
Dr. Mark Gibbs
Baptist Hospital, Little Rock, AR
Lapband 6/20/2007
Dr. Mark Gibbs
Baptist Hospital, Little Rock, AR
Man, Casey, this really stinks!!
I went through all of those nasty tests back in Mar/April when I was having so much trouble. The x-ray w/contrast didn't show the twisted small bowel that was causing all my pain. The ultrasound showed some "sludge" which was enough evidence for Dr Gibbs to go in and look around. He found my gallbladder bad, an internal hernia and my small bowel was twisted and starting to necrose. Thankfully he suspected something was "up" and found it, or I wouldn't be posting this!!
Glad you're un-fill has helped, and hope it continues to improve. Stick by your new habits and I'm sure you'll get through all of this. It still stinks, but I'm sure you'll get better soon.
I'm surprised you had a bad time with the office staff.....they're usually above that sort of thing.
On a personal note, my shampoo is here, but the labels aren't. If you want a bottle of each (shampoo and conditioner) w/o labels let me know.
Hope today is better than yesterday
I went through all of those nasty tests back in Mar/April when I was having so much trouble. The x-ray w/contrast didn't show the twisted small bowel that was causing all my pain. The ultrasound showed some "sludge" which was enough evidence for Dr Gibbs to go in and look around. He found my gallbladder bad, an internal hernia and my small bowel was twisted and starting to necrose. Thankfully he suspected something was "up" and found it, or I wouldn't be posting this!!
Glad you're un-fill has helped, and hope it continues to improve. Stick by your new habits and I'm sure you'll get through all of this. It still stinks, but I'm sure you'll get better soon.
I'm surprised you had a bad time with the office staff.....they're usually above that sort of thing.
On a personal note, my shampoo is here, but the labels aren't. If you want a bottle of each (shampoo and conditioner) w/o labels let me know.
Hope today is better than yesterday
Susan
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