shoulder pain after lap band related to diaphragm?

I too had the lapband and have left shoulder pain. It is so bad that i dnt kow what to do. I would hate to have my band taken out. I have only had it for 2 months and havent even been able to enjoy the joys of weight loss.

im gonna try a liquid diet again and go from there.

im actually scared.

 

=(

 

It is perfectly normal - don't let people scare you! Having written that, i have just seen the last post and that lady obviously did have serious problems. But in the three years I have been on this site, she is the first I have seen write on here about having to have her band removed because of this.

The position of the band, near the top of the stomach, puts it in close proximity to the diaphragm. When we get gas, either post-op or from eating too fast etc., then that can put pressure on the diaphragm. The nerve system which serves the diaphragm also serves the left shoulder and so we get referred pain. So if w eat too fast and get gas, then we can get the pain. It happens to many people post-op.

I still get it occasionally even now; for a while, it was actually my soft stop, warning me that I had eaten enough.

Kate

 Hi Kate and thank you. What you say makes a lot of sense -- I need to understand more where things are....such as how close they are to the band. The shoulder pain is a good indication that I have eaten enough - that's for sure too! Thank you for your comment.

~kellogal

I'm having a similar pain - but it is constant.. it doesn't seem to be going away. Is this similar? Just gassy? It goes through my shoulder and up my neck a little.. I haven't had any major injuries and nothing helps it, not stretching, relaxing, vicodin, water, gas-x, nexium..just stays.

Please let me know..

Tabitha

Meeeeeee too!!!!  I have had the symptoms you are describing to the "T" for about a week now.  But mine travels up my neck to the lower part of my head as well and still only on the left side.  I was going to go to the emergency room to have them check my blood pressure.  OMG  it is sooo good to know that someone else knows what I am feeling and it is not just in my mind.  I will be going for a fill (under fluro) on the 16th, so if that pain is being caused by some malfunction with the band, my diaphram or whatever, I will be sure to post it and let you guys know!

Kudos to the original poster.  I got on here today to post that same question, but decided to do a search first and came across your post.

I was just revised from lap band to sleeve 6 days ago. I spent 6 days in the hospital because I was in such horrible pain from my band and had been for some time now.

Left shoulder pain is not normal Kate,

From the bottom of my heart I believe we as bandsters are conditioned to believe that left shoulder pain is normal, but it should never be considered normal except for the first few days after surgery due to gas from the surgery its self.


My lap band removal and subsequent sleeve surgery were completely unplanned and it went down like this.

As you know I had been suffering from esophageal spasms, upper back pain, and sever left shoulder pain for some time now. I was at the point of being more in pain then out of pain.

Extensive doctor visits, urgent care visits, and even more ER visits.

I went into the surgeons office last Monday because I was at my wits end in pain and was finally after several months of fighting denials, being told nothing was wrong with my band was granted an approval to see him. My actual appt was for June 20th.

  Next thing I know the surgeon admits me from his office directly to the hospital and schedules me for an endo on Tuesday. I don't remember much, but I had surgery on Wednesday morning after he popped in at 8:00 AM and said, " I'm taking your band out later this afternoon and you probably will have too much damage to be sleeved, but if I can I will "

Okay so I'm in surgery less then 30 minutes later WTF I thought he said late afternoon.

Next thing I know, I'm without my band, sleeved, and terrified of what the hell I had just done to myself.

As of today I have only experienced one minor episode of shoulder pain, three teeny tiny esophageal spasms and my back pain is slowly diminishing in strength. I am told that it will take quite some time to heal from all the damage that was done to me by my band.


Kate it worries me to no end when I read comments like yours. Bandsters really need to stop thinking that any kind of left shoulder pain is normal in any way what so ever. This is not normal, and should NEVER be considered normal or explained away.....Ever.

I agree, Pumpkin. I'd guess that 3/4 of the people I know who have bands (or had to have them removed) had chronic left shoulder pain. It's NORMAL in that it happens so often with banding... but it's also a danger to your body. People who haven't had severe left shoulder pain will never understand the severity of it. 

I'm STILL healing from the damage the band did to me... and I had it removed in 2004.

I'm curious about the people who posted on this thread... how many are still having issues with left shoulder pain.

I am deeply saddened to see so many bandsters allowing themselves to believe that being in pain is normal. This is insane to me that they are coming here and reassuring each other and others that this is normal.

They need to stop accepting these asinine excuses and start spending time researching why this isn't normal.

GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE.

My original doctor told me to "get a hobby" when I told him I was having such bad left shoulder pain that I wanted to just die. And I wasn't being melodramatic. I woke up in pain, had pain all day and went to bed in pain. I cried more in the couple of years of being banded than I have in my whole life.

But, people get used to just about anything until it reaches the point where you simply CAN'T handle it anymore. And people get brainwashed into thinking that it's "normal" because they're TOLD it's "normal." And we do just about anything to not be fat... including putting a piece of ****ty plastic on our living tissue stomach, causing it to be irritated and damaged.

People NEED to stop telling people who have this pain that it's "JUST GAS." It might be just gas for a week or two after surgery, but after that... it's all due to the band pressing on the diaphragm, irritating the Phrenic-Vagus nerves.The more they get irritated, the longer they take to heal.

The lapband is notorious for causing the referred left shoulder pain. Anyone who thinks it's not related is looking for excuses to NOT believe it.

(I'm SO happy for you that you had the band removed.)
xoxo

Thank you Nicci.

It's because of people like you, Diana and Sue that I stopped jumping off the cliff like a lemming and started listening and learning about why I was really suffering left shoulder pain and why these anxiety attacks I was having were in fact not anxiety attacks at all but esophageal spasms.

Today is the first time I have seen someone else complain about ear pain, and I suffered that during my spasms and left shoulder pain as well. Chock up one more thing the band caused me to feel and I had no clue why till today.