Advice

I've had my band almost 2 years (in August) and recently I've been having really bad acid reflux at night. It usually keeps me from sleeping. I told my dr about it and her said sometimes tightening the band helps control it. I got a fill and it was better for like a month but now it's back. Today when I woke up I had a burning sensation at the top of my stomache and was in pain. I don't want to jeorodize my overall health. Any suggestions. I'm waiting for the dr. Office to call to schedule an appointment.

Hmm...I've never heard of tightening the band would help acid reflux at night, what do you mean by acid reflux? if you are referring to just burning, yes tightening the band often times will prevent any burning from rising up to your throat and esophagus.

But if you have regurgitating type reflux meaning vomiting in your sleep ...  NO..tightening the band will actually make this worse. Also if you have pouch dilation your band will get loose and you may think you need another fill, pouch dilation symptoms are: suddenly able to eat more food accompanied by reflux and heartburn those are classic pouch dilations symptoms and in-experienced bandster will think they need more saline and this often times make things worse.

Edited to add: You may want to start off with a Upper Gi, but often times Upper Gi's don't show pouch dilation or slippage unless it is severe, but if you are having reflux/vomiting in your sleep at night, this very common with pouch dilation/mild slippage.

If you are having vomiting in your sleep often times this is a sign of pouch dilation (small slippage) and this requires emptying the band in order for the pouch to relax and return to normal if it is not too big and after 6 weeks slowly refilling the band --that is the usual treatment for pouch dilation and reflux -- some will only remove a small amount of saline to get rid of the reflux, but if you remove saline you may no longer have restriction deeming the band in-effective...if the pouch is too big it will require another surgery, if you are 2 years post op, I am assuming you have the AP band system which the band can be unbuckled and the pouch fixed, but it will require another surgery.

Once the reflux at night starts this often times means the lap band is damaged and the pouch may need to be fixed (surgically) in order for your band to be effective with tight restriction without the nightly vomiting in your sleep. Reflux at night could also mean a hiatal hernia which requires surgery to fix, the band can be unbuckled to fix.

Many new lap banders don't realize HOW IMPORTANT it is to NOT eat too much when the band is tightly restricted, once you get a good amount of saline in your band, you CANNOT overeat daily, you can only eat about 2-4 oz per meal, this will cause heartburn daily, and if you don't chew well frequent vomiting and will cause the pouch to dilate and this will cause misery and vomiting in your sleep.

Also when you have tight restriction you MUST chew papaya enzymes (from GNC) after each meal for better digestion to make sure that your food is digested and not clog up in your pouch and eventually stretch your pouch.

You may want to find another surgeon also because I would not trust the one you now have.

Good luck

Thanks so much your response helped me a lot I wish I would've had this information earlier. Yes I was surprised when he said tightening it may work. I just got off the phone with the physicians assistant and she told me to come in fo remove done fluid. She also said we will also look into a running some test to find out what's going on. But I'm afraid that what you described is exactly what I have going on with less fluid I don't feel restriction but with more fluid these are the symptoms I get.

I'm no doctor, but I have experienced reoccurrence of reflux symptoms as a banded person.  It NEVER means you need a fill.  An unfill usually helps, but you need a barium swallow to see if you're a bit too tight.  Please talk to your doctor and see if you can be scheduled for this.  If you get resistance, I would consider a new doctor.  

Thanks. The place I go to is a practice and I requested to see my dr. to talk about my symptoms. He wasn't helpful at all but the rest of the staff are great. I'm going in today to meet with the PA

For me, reflux was a very bad sign and I ended up having my band removed last month because of complications from reflux and pouch dilation.  You could also have a Hiatal Hernia which is common as well.  I take 20 mg of Omeprozole daily to help with the reflux, but don't let it go unattended.  If you surgeon seriously told you that tightning the band would help I would be seriously concerned.  I had to have a complete un-fill and it still didn't do enough to control the night cough and reflux (which can be very dangerous).  I don't want to scare you, but having recently just gone through this, I want to share with you because you may be able to address it by doing something about it early on.  

Best, 

Lisa O.

I agree with Lisa, reflux or burning is never a good sign so please see your doctor immediately too see what is causing it. Best wishes!

When I started the bad acid reflux at night at 3 years our they started UNFILLING.  From everything I went thru and other here have gone thru getting a fill is the worse thing you can do.  I had two total unfill even before the worst night time acid reflux.

Thank you guys so much I had an infill last Thursday and felt a lot better. My band wasn't completely unfilled just a little but it made a big difference. I had an upper Gi series done yesterday - well almost I only had the first part done and the said my band was so tight the barium wasn't moving at all. The good news was my bands location was fine. Seems as though my propblem could be fixed with another unfill. I went today to get a little more removed just to be safe. One issue now. I'm not feeling any restriction. I've been at the same weight give or take 5 pounds so I hoping the unfills won't hinder my weight loss progress. I don't know what to do to beak through this plateau - especially with less restriction.

Glad the unfill helped!