Ulcers

I have bee having pain on and off for years.  It gets worse each time. they determined my gall bladder wasnt functioning perfectly but before they decided to remove it, they ordered an upper endoscopy. They found that I had ulcers, a LOT of them! two very large and other small ons. One of them as even bleeding! I wonder if anyone else has had a problem with ulcers? Could my band have caused this?

 Also, the bariatric surgeon from that hospital came down to remove the fluid from my band before the endoscopy. i told him I am over tight and can not eat well, but he said that was odd because he was only able to take out 1cc! How can i be so tight then?

Well don't know about the ulcer issue but can tell you that lots of us after about 2-4 years out start having iassues with our bands tightening for some reason. I don't know this for a fact but I suspect the scar tissue builds up under the band and makes it tighter. I finally had mine emptied since it hadn't done any good for me anyway. Good luck hope they can get everything settled down for you!

On my very last ER visit right before my band was removed, the ER doctor told me I might have a peptic ulcer. I kept going to the ER with burning and stinging port pain. My port area kept swelling too. They did a cat scan and my band looked fine, in fact it looked to be in perfect position. I had my band removed less then two weeks later only to find out it had slipped and eroded.

Call your band surgeon and find out how many CC's should have been in there. If you find out that there is a discrepancy in your CC's then you may want to have your tubing checked and see if you have a leak.

I had some chest pain earlier this year -- that was eventually diagnosed as peptic ulcers and severe esophogitis.  I was able to see 8 ulcers on the scope pictures that I was given.

The gastroenteroligist prescribed daily Dexilant and after 6 weeks, a second endoscopy showed that the ulcers had resolved themselves and my esophogus was much less enflamed.   I will be on the medication for life.

I had 'silent' reflux --in that I never thought I had symptoms, but in looking back, I have had a bit of a persistant sore throat for several years.

I had a very small unfill during the time I was dealing with this pain and diagnosis -- but both endoscopies showed that my band is properly placed and my pouch is healthy and normal sized.

I got a small fill about 3 weeks ago --- and seem to be doing fine, back to regular bandster eating and losing a bit or maintaining my weight loss.

I can't explain your fluid situation, but hope you will visit with your surgeon again and ask how much fluid is supposed to be in there -- and see what else he can extract.

thanks for the information. I have heard that ulcers means losing the band...i can see thats not true in your case so that is a good thing i guess...although i might be ready to lose this band anyway! we'll see. time will tell.

Have you been on a protein pump inhibitor (PPI)?  These drugs are Nexium, Prevacid, Protonix, etc.  If not, these usually work very well and should heal the ulcers.  Some cases are bad enough that the doctor will add an H2 blocker to supplement the PPI, these drugs are Zantac, Tagamet, Pepsid, Axid, etc.  If you have open, bleeding ulcers, you may be prescribe a coating type drug called Carafate.  Often this drug is crushed before taking to coat the esophagus for protection.  I wish you well!

I have a lot of ulcers NOW. I didn't before banding. I did immediately after the band came out, however. Hiatal hernia, too. And gastritis.