You're not " Stuck " your band is damaging your esophagus

...and it's very painfull, and the longer this goes on...the more severe the pain will become, and the risks of permanent damage are very real.

If your band is functioning perfectly, then just bookmark this for future reference, hopefully you will never ever have to lay eyes on it again.
If your still going forward with having a LAGB implanted, then just bookmark this for future reference, hopefully you will never ever have to lay eyes on it again.
 

How does the normal esophagus function?

The esophagus has three functional parts. The uppermost part is the upper esophageal sphincter, a specialized ring of muscle that forms the upper end of the tubular esophagus and separates the esophagus from the throat. The upper sphincter remains closed most of the time to prevent food in the main part of the esophagus from backing up into the throat. The main part of the esophagus is referred to as the body of the esophagus, a long, muscular tube approximately 20 cm (8 in) in length. The third functional part of the esophagus is the lower esophageal sphincter, a ring of specialized esophageal muscle at the junction of the esophagus with the stomach. Like the upper sphincter, the lower sphincter remains closed most of the time to prevent food and acid from backing up into the body of the esophagus from the stomach.

 

What is achalasia?

Achalasia is a rare disease of the muscle of the esophagus (swallowing tube). The term achalasia means "failure to relax" and refers to the inability of the lower esophageal sphincter (a ring of muscle situated between the lower esophagus and the stomach) to open and let food pass into the stomach. As a result, patients with achalasia have difficulty in swallowing food.

http://www.medicinenet.com/achalasia/article.htm#tocb

What is dysphagia?

Dysphagia is the medical term for the symptom of difficulty swallowing, derived from the Latin and Greek words meaning difficulty eating.

http://www.medicinenet.com/swallowing/article.htm

What is esophageal spasm?

Esophageal spasms are irregular, uncoordinated, and sometimes powerful contractions of the esophagus, the tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach. Normally, contractions of the esophagus are coordinated, moving the food through the esophagus and into the stomach.

There are two main types of esophageal spasm:

• Diffuse esophageal spasm. This type of spasm is an irregular, uncoordinated squeezing of the muscles of the esophagus. This can prevent food from reaching the stomach, leaving it stuck in the esophagus.
• THIS IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND because many banded people think that their food is stuck due to not chewing well or they think they ate too fast.
•  
• Nutcracker esophagus. This type of spasm squeezes the esophagus in a coordinated way, the same way food is moved down the esophagus normally. But the squeezing is very strong. These contractions move food through the esophagus but can cause severe pain.
• Again, this is often explained away by band surgeons and banded patients as eating to fast and/or not chewing well enough.

You can have both types of esophageal spasms.

Check out this link and then see if your surgeon or PCP can order you this test.There is a lot of really useful links here.

What is achalasia?

www.medicinenet.com/achalasia/article.htm#tocb

Esophageal manometry

Another test, esophageal manometry, can demonstrate specifically the abnormalities of muscle function that are characteristic of achalasia, that is, the failure of the muscle of the esophageal body to contract with swallowing and the failure of the lower esophageal sphincter to relax. For manometry, a thin tube that measures the pressure generated by the contracting esophageal muscle is passed through the nose, down the back of the throat and into the esophagus. In a patient with achalasia, no peristaltic waves are seen in the lower half of the esophagus after swallows, and the pressure within the contracted lower esophageal sphincter does not fall with the swallow. In patients with vigorous achalasia, a strong simultaneous contraction of the muscle may be seen in the lower esophageal body. An advantage of manometry is that it can diagnose achalasia early in its course at a time at which the video-esophagram may be normal.

Esophagus

After food is chewed into a bolus, it is swallowed and moved through the esophagus. Smooth muscles contract behind the bolus to prevent it from being squeezed back into the mouth. Then rhythmic, unidirectional waves of contractions will work to rapidly force the food into the stomach. This process works in one direction only and its sole purpose is to move food from the mouth into the stomach.^[2]

In the esophagus, two types of peristalsis occur.

A simplified image showing peristalsis

• First, there is a primary peristaltic wave which occurs when the bolus enters the esophagus during swallowing. The primary peristaltic wave forces the bolus down the esophagus and into the stomach in a wave lasting about 8–9 seconds. The wave travels down to the stomach even if the bolus of food descends at a greater rate than the wave itself, and will continue even if for some reason the bolus gets stuck further up the esophagus.
• In the event that the bolus gets stuck or moves slower than the primary peristaltic wave (as can happen when it is poorly lubricated), stretch receptors in the esophageal lining are stimulated and a local reflex response causes a secondary peristaltic wave around the bolus, forcing it further down the esophagus, and these secondary waves will continue indefinitely until the bolus enters the stomach.

Esophageal peristalsis is typically assessed by performing an esophageal motility study.

 

For someone who despises the band, you are a valuable help to us folks who got banded anyway.   Just wanted to say I appreciate the well written posts of yours and hope you live happily ever after  (or at least happIER) with your sleeve.

Thanks
Jo

Thank you Jo.

 B U M P

 
~ If your band is functioning perfectly, then just bookmark this for future reference, hopefully you will never ever have to lay eyes on it again. ~

I would like to add just one thing to this: No symptoms doesn't mean there is not a band complication. Some of you may remember a post by one of our bandsters here about 3 or 4 months ago. She is 2 yrs. out with her band. She had an upper GI on her 1 yr. aniversary and all was fine. She did the same on her 2nd and she has a band problem. I think it was a slip. She was totally asymptomatic. Now I don't know about the rest of you..........BUT THIS SCARES THE **** OUT OF ME! Not having insurance I am extremely aware of any changes that might indicate a band problems. It wasn't until I read her post that it sunk in that I could have a problem and not even be aware of it.

Feedback please! Has anyone else been asymptomatic and gone for routine testing and found out there was a problem???

TIA

Maria, when you are having to sleep in an upright position to keep the acid from coming back up your esophagus...you are already having band issues.

I know you're right. Even though this is occasional, and recent, I know it is probabaly the "beginning" of my band complications. :-(

Maria F. wrote:

"Some of you may remember a post by one of our bandsters here about 3 or 4 months ago. She is 2 yrs. out with her band. She had an upper GI on her 1 yr. aniversary and all was fine. She did the same on her 2nd and she has a band problem. I think it was a slipI"

just happened to stop in today and see this and I think you are referring to me.

Just so everyone knows and doesn't panic, it was not a slip, never thought it was a slip. It was that my esophogus had dilated and under the upper GI they could see the achelasia (which I can't spell.)  

It's true I had no symptoms that alerted me to this going on, however, looking back I probably should have considered the constant "feeling" of having a something sitting in my pouch a symtpom. It wasn't painful but no matter how slowly I ate or drank, it definitely felt like something was still there for a while. I wasn't often stuck and never PB'd, but apparently this is because my esophogus just decided to stop pushing food down and expand outward instead.

I only had 4.5 CCs in a 10 CC band so please don't think that just because you are not over-filled that you don't need to be diligent.

Ultimately, he took out fluid and left me with 3CCs and I've not felt any of the sensations I did before. I go back soon for a follow up GI study and expect that my esophagus will have returned to normal as my doctor said it would. I probably won't refill my band any though. At least not for now.

While I wouldn't rule you out, I don't think that the post was referring explicitly to you.  There are a number of us who have experienced this feeling.

I'm glad you are under medical care and are not in pain.