Ask Dr. Curry?

Hi Dr C,
I had  lap band surgery on Feb 24th. I live in an area of Canada where the WLS program is in it's infancy. Until very recently the government made approval of WLS  difficult & very few surgeries were approved to save money ****il they finally realized it was a false economy). I am my GP's first ever WLS patient. I am wondering what blood tests I should be having and how often. How often should I see my GP to manage my many medications? Since there isn't any post-op support where I live, I have to build my own team. What other professional should I involve in my support team?
Sorry for all the questions, but I have search abd searched the internet for this info to no avail.
Eternally grateful!
Charline

Charline,
I dietitian is important, who knows about surgical weight loss.  As far as blood work, band patients usually don't need a whole lot as long as there are no vomiting issues and you are taking a quality chewable multivitamin daily.  Your usually blood work you would get from your internist should suffice.  If you got a Lap Band you may qualify for Allergan's new Lindora program, which is online/phone support with dietitians.  Not sure if that's only for US cititzens though.  Look on LapBand.com if it applies to you.

Hello Dr. Curry, I just have a couple of questions.

Are you familiar with the program Lindora TLC and if any of your patients have tried it and have had great success with the band. The program is linked on with Lap band .com.

The next questions is have any of your patients on birth controll complained about slow weight loss and increase cravings.

The last questions is, is it safe to take and appetite supressant such a phentermine with the band?

Thanks so much for all you do.

I am somewhat familiar with Lindora, we had an inservice on their program and I met some of the folks involved.  It seems like it'll be a good thing for band patients, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to try it.

I don't think you can say across the board the birth control pills slow weight loss - some may, some may not.  We have not seen it as a regular occurence.

There is no reason not to use appetite suppressants along with the band, unfortunately none of them are very good and they tend to have a lot of side effects.

Hi Dr. Curry,

Thank you for your support and wonderful expertise/advice on this board.  :)

My question is...if I have had ulcers in the past, am I still a candidate for the lap band?  If I would develop an ulcer while banded, would I have an erosion?

I am going in Tuesday (3/10) for an upper endoscopy to check for ulcers/hernia.  I'm just nervous that if I have any ulcers, I won't be able to get my band.

Thanks in advance.

Lindsey
Missouri

Most garden variety ulcers in younger patients are down in the lower part of the stomach.  As long as it was uncomplicated and healed with a routine course of medications, I wouldn't have a problem with it.  Might want to ask them to do a biopsy to make sure you don't have H Pylori while they're in there.  These types of ulcers would not predispose you to an erosion in my opinion.

Dr.Curry,
I'm curious about my REALIZE band, the book I received with my information said it was a 9cc band, and my first fill was 3 cc.... how much of that fill remains in the tube or port, and how much actually goes around the band?  Do REALIZE bands come in one size.... I know that my surgeon told me he wouldn't know what he would use until he got in, and checked out my anatomy.. But my impression was that it would either be the REALIZE band, or Lap band...

Thank you
Barbara

My husband and I both had a stomach virus this weekend.  It was the most painful and violent virus that we have ever had.  My husband threw-up and felt better sooner than I did.  I had my surgery on 2/5 so I'm barely a month out.  I couldn't  throw-up.  I kept having horribly painful dry heaves.  And I do mean dry - not even any spit.  I did this for about 12 hours.  My whole torso is so sore that I can barely breathe because this lasted for so long. I guess whatever was in my stomach finally moved on down because my diarrhea has lasted much longer than my husband's.  It still continue's even though I'm taking Imodium.   I feel like it would have been over sooner if I could have thrown-up.  Why couldn't I?  Is that normal?

The reason may be because the band is acting as a valve at the top of your stomach.  It's sort of holding everything in the stomach that's trying to get up from below.  This is why reflux often goes away after banding.

I have a very dear friend who was banded a short time ago.  He is an occassional scuba diver and went diving shortly after his first fill.  No problems.  But when he went back for a second fill he told her he had been scuba diving.  She told him she heard of someone whose port burst after scuba diving.

His fill person is a nurse, not a surgeon.  His surgeon never warned him against diving.  He has 6 cc's in a 10 cc band after 2 fills.  He has no restriction.  She did NOT remove the first 2.9 cc's before adding the next 3.1 cc's.  Now he is thinking that he might have damaged something, has a leak, etc.  He has a call in to his surgeon's office.

Have you EVER heard of any band problems caused by diving, or parachuting, for that matter?  Both pressure fluctuation issues.