Susan, I developed esophageal dysmotility. When healthy, the esophagus doesn't just sit there; it massages the food on down to the stomach. Mine stopped doing that. Food would go down a little, move back up, and float around. I couldn't, for example drink water before or during exercising...it would just come back up. I kept insisting that it was happening. Doctors who should have known better kept looking like I was making this up. FINALLY, when I went to have the saline removed before revising to the DS, the doctor (and the radiologist he was training) and my husband and I all observed. The saline was removed, I drank the barium, it went half-way down my esophagus and just sat there. Finally, PROOF. We didn't do anything other than remove the LapBand to repair the esophagus. It had to repair itself...which took about ten weeks. I also had some dilatation--which means that the esophagus widens. Some say that's from eating "too much." It is...BUT...in my case, it was "too much food" because it didn't move to the stomach, but got hung up in the esophagus, and by the time I fiugred out what was happening, it was too late. Also, I was one of those who had no reflux before banding, but plenty of it post-op. Here's a journal article on the problem I was having. Unfortunately, it wasn't published until I'd had problems for two years, so none of the doctors I saw even understood the problem. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/508578 Sue

I would love to email you. Send me your address. or reply back here. So down about all of this

I am 24 yrs out for many yrs I really had only one problem it was low iron...back in the horse and buggy days of wls I just took iron shots firat weekly finally got to everyother month... I slowly lost wt and kept it off.... after 23 yrs, my old surgery finally crapped out.. lots of scar tissue had a redue because of gerd and super scar tissue.. its was so differant the second time around.. because I hadn't gained the wt back... I was one of the few... I don't dump but then I never gave up sugar altogether.. fake sugar and I never like each other.. I have stinky gas from lactuse..pills take care of that.. had SOME skin removed which I thank God I could have it done.... just have to live with whats left (unless I find a rich man) I never regret being one of the first to pave the way..(me and nell carter) even with all the ups and downs (read my profile e-mail me).. I don't have all the answers.. But my body is mine... I love it and choose give up things to keep it you can to hopeful

June 30th 1999

You can go to Yahoo.com and click on groups. Type in Bandsters and a lot of groups will come up. They are free to join. There are several there that have long term bandsters, ExtraordinaryBandsters is for people that had/have extremely high BMI's and have lost a lot of their weight. My personal opinion and this is from reading a lot, quite a few doctors have joined the banding wagon and have little to no experience. So the first 100 or so patients are their learning curve. The lapbanders that have very experienced lapbanding doctors are usually the ones that the best weightloss rate and lowest amount of complications. There are exceptions but this is more the rule. The most experienced lapbanding surgeons are the Mexican doctors. They have been doing this for quite a while, a lot longer than the American doctors. Only downside is unless you can afford to travel to Mexico everytime you need a fill, most doctors here in the US don't want to fool with you. But the Mexican doctors usually help you find fill doctors here in the US. I went to a local seminar and found out that the surgeons were pro-Lapband but had learned to place the lapband by watching another doctor do it. They glossed over this by saying they were very experienced in doing lap surgery. Needless to say I didn't hang around to be one of their guinea pigs. Best thing is you can have the band removed and everything will be back to normal, worse thing is the band not working. Right now there is little experience of Lapbanding by the doctors so a higher rate of problems. Hope this helps you a little bit at least.