Weight Gain

Hello, I had my lapband surgery in May of 2008 in Mexico, I quickly lost 30lbs and then kinda leveled out for a year or so, then started losing again, finally leveling out at a wonderful 145lbs for the last 5 years.  I have never had a day of trouble, the first year was rough, still trying to eat like I did before surgery and after that I've been great.  I was on Nexium 2x per day before my surgery and Dr. Huacuz told me that I wouldn't need it after surgery and he was absolutely right, not another day of heartburn after the surgery.

Problem:  In the last 2 months I have gained 12-14lbs, heartburn is bad again and the crazy thing is I can eat anything, just like before surgery.  I can eat things I haven't been able to eat in years. So after googling it, it sounds as though I have a leak in the tubing and the fluid has drained out leaving me with no restriction.  It says it can be corrected in the Dr. Office with local anstedestic.  It said that most of the time the leaks are right at the port.  My question is has anyone else run into this and if so was it that easy and what was the cost.  Would love to be able to run to dr on Friday and have fixed.  Its crazy I've gone from a size 8 to a size 10-12.

Hope someone can help.

Hi vjones60

If you have a leak in your band it's not always in the port, it can be the tubing.  A leak is fairly easy to ck, the Dr. can pull all of the Saline out of your band and measure it, then compare it to the records of the amount that he has previously placed.  it should match with little to no saline loss. Or he can ck with Fluoroscopy which shows radio graphically the Saline and how it flows into the band/tubing.

The symptoms that you describe with being able to eat as tough you have no restriction, and reflux can be from a slipped band or Erosion.

I've included a great article on Band Complications if you care to ck it out. HTH.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3038361/?report=classic