I hate my band

Going in for an upper GI this week.  I have had nothing but problems with my band.  I always feel as if I have a huge lump of air in my throat when I eat, ( even after 2 bites).  I wait and then I slime and throw up a " jelly fish of mush".    Its like a slime with a big air bubbles. Gross .. sorry. 
 This goes on for a while, I go on liquids and am fine for a few days and then back to the lump again and jelly fish then it all repeats itself.  .   I have gone in for unfills, then fills again .  I gain and then lose.   I feel like if I could burp out that lump of air, I would be fine.   I tried Gas X .. nothing.,   I was put on Prilosec. Nothing.,  I have tried the papaya enzyme.. nothing. 

The only thing that helps give me a tad relief and can stop the jelly fish from thrusting out of my throat is mixing some liquid Amino fuel with gatorade and slipping it slowly.  Its like liquid plumber. 


I am not getting stuck because I chew and chew and chew.  and i never throw up a lump of food, ever.  Its always a mush of slime.  I am not overeatting because I will get that way on a few bites.   I CANNOT imagine the rest of my life like this, I always worry if I will throw up when I am out somewhere.  and thats NOT good.  Some days I can eat salad , chicken etc and be fine. others I can take a spoon of grits or oatmeal and feel as if I have a golf ball in my throat and out it will come.

I am worried about a  stricture???  Not sure entirely what that is but he wants me to have an upper GI done.  I know before I had this band in , I had an issue with my espophagus but tests ruled no problem with banding??   Has anyone else had a similar experience with this trapped air in the throat.. its right above where an adams apple area would be.  Any advice will help me understand this.  Thanks.

Hi I have the exact same thing going on...and its miserable for sure. Im afraid to go out half the time. Or if I eat in the car I have to bring bags incase I vomit....Do you feel completely fine once you throw up? I do

Yep.. once it comes out, I continue on with whatever I was doing ( except eating).  Its so embarrasing though..  especially if I am out eating with people.  I will get that feeling and I can't talk because of that lump.  I swallow and swallow hoping it will go down and finally start to vomit it back out.  its gross. 
It usually leads to a chain reaction.  so I go on liquids for 24-48 hours and all is fine for a few days to a week.  I finally went in a few weeks for a slight unfill.  I felt great .. but I gained 3 lbs back.  so they re-added the fluid and here we go again. lol. 

Renee.. are you feeling like me some days like " what the heck did I do, I should have had something else instead" lol.  I hate this feeling.

I really want someone to say.. oh this is normal and will pass or something lol

Ugh...I remember vomiting in my car. Yech.

Have you decided if you are going to try a slight unfill to see if that helps?

ETA: I would also feel completely fine after I would vomit. Whenever I knew it was coming, I would begin to wi**** would just go ahead and hurry up and happen because it would at least bring relief afterwards.

I am so sorry you are going through this. If I were in your shoes I would feel frustrated and mad, in fact pissed, too. If all your UGI, endoscopy, etc. are clear you might consider having a slight (or more) unfill while letting things heal up. They are very inflamed by now. You will have to be especially vigilent to avoid regaining but unless you get extremely hungry despite having only dense protein, veggies, and comples carbs then I would give it 6 weeks or more. Then only tiny fills. We fear those regains to our detriment sometimes. Hear is what happened to me.

 I was having a slightly different problem from late Oct. to the end of Dec. I would get stuck very easily. I would do the liquids, be fine for several days then stuck again. I would get an appointment for an unfill and then be great so I would cancel. Of course it would start right back up. My band had tightened on it's own but by the time I was smart enough to really keep an appointment everything was so irritated that we did a larger unfill, of 2 cc out of 4.5cc. I had an ugi that was fine. The PA recommended we stay at the lesser amount for 6 weeks and I was terrified I would gain a ton! Since I still had pretty good restriction (due to all the swelling and irritation) and I didn't want to have problems while out of state we left for Mississippi with me still having 2.5cc in a 10cc band.

Surprisingly, I could still get stuck if I wasn't careful, (I get distracted while eating very easily), I didn't start getting more hungry until March. I could have gone to a surgeon in that area but decided to wait. I gained alright, 10 pounds over goal and 15 over my low weight in late Nov. However, I must state that primarily it was my poor choices that caused it. If I had stuck to dense protein, veggies and complex carbs I would have had no problem except to have to use those as snacks between meals. I chose to eat cupcakes, waffles (with sugar free syrup**** cream, chips, etc. and a lot of them. I was thrilled though that on our day trip to New Orleans I could eat a part of my Muffaletta, fried gator appitizer, and 1 bengiet. I tried valiently to eat the rest later but it was a no go.

After arriving home the first of April I was having issues with severe back pain so didn't go see the surgeon until May 13 for my year check up. I got a 1cc fill and haven't had a problem. I can eat more than I think is right, but would rather have to behave myself than to be too tight. When I get extremely hungry between meals all the time I will consider another fill. I am down to 5 lbs. over goal and that is comfortable right now. I would like to lose that 5 but not more. I don't put any real effort into maintaining this weight so with some vigilence I know I do it. I decided yesterday that it is time to get serious about this. If my body wants to keep these extra few pounds fine, but I have to give it a try.

If in spite of everything you do there is no improvement then you may be one for whom the band is just wrong. That is terrible since you invested heavily in this thing, but you could consider revision. If insurance won't cover it then consider going to Mexico to have it done. In the meantime, do the very best you can with the tool you have. Keep it loose enough to avoid the current problem and work hard with the rest.

I sure wish I could give you a miricle solution right now, but I do send you best wishes for good luck.

I had the same problems in my second year with the band. One day I would be able to eat fine and then randomly I wouldn't even be able to ge****er down. It was always a mystery and difficult to live with definitely. I had numerous unfills and fills and felt like I was always going in every 4-6 weeks.

My surgeon even began to do my fills with fluoroscopy and things would look fine on the imaging, but I'd go home and a couple of weeks later...it would start all over again.

I am sorry you are going through this. It will be interesting to see if the upper GI reveals any problems. Please keep us updated.

Best of luck,
Lindsey

I'm sorry.

OK, I don't know how to say this delicately, so it's probably going to come out all oaf-sounding. This is what the band does for a lot of people. It "bunches" up the esophagus because it has to work SO hard to get the food to go down through the stoma. And it sits there... and then starts coming back up the esophagus. If you leave it like that too long, the esophagus starts to stretch out of shape, kinda of like an accordian. And then you have a dilated esophagus.

If you can get unfilled, I would. You might be one of the unlucky ones whose physiology reacts really badly to restriction. (And there are more of us who do react this way than not, so you're not alone.)

I'm truly sorry you're having this problem.

Thanks for all the responses!  I just have to take it one day at a time. I hear so many people saying how wonderful the band is and they never PB or have trouble with stuff and they lose so much weight.   I am either hungry all the time if I have a slight unfill or I can't eat more then 2 bites.  My scale thinks I am crazy.  Up and down up and down. lol.

I don't have any advice...just wanted to throw some support your way.  It sounds awful to deal with & I'm sorry you're going through it.