Band Slippage (x-post)

[Guest guest]

I had surgery at Albany Medical Center on Monday

3/20/2006. I had expected Dr Singh to repair a Hiatal

Hernia and possibly replace the band with a larger VG

Band. After the surgery I found the band had slipped.

Dr Singh said the reason the upper GI looked like my

Hiatal Hernia had come back (or gotten worse) was the

band had slipped bad enough to show large pouch above

the band. Dr Singh said there was chronic slippage

and adhesions. The slipped band also has some of the

same symptoms like acid reflux. The difficulty

swallowing was caused by the larger part of my stomach

being stuck inside the band. He removed adhesions and

repositioned the band. Dr Singh said he used a

different technique to fasten the band in place. He

said he has seen band slippage two ways. One is as a

result of violent vomiting and the other is a gradual

slippage. The latter is what probably happened in my

case. I had occasional PBing but I only vomited

twice. Neither time was it associated with violent

retching. Also the difficulty swallowing came along

gradually. I had difficulty with more and more food

until I could not eat any solid protein.

I spent one night in the hospital. I returned home

yesterday afternoon. I am doing o.k. I am sore and I

am experiencing a lot of burping. Dr Singh wants me

to take it real slow reintroducing food. I have to do

the liquid diet for a couple of weeks then gradually

try mushy food. I see him again on Tuesday 4/4/2006.

They weighed me before the surgery at 220 then they

weighted me the next morning at 227. That’s seven

pounds of IV’s!! It is kind of discouraging seeing

the weight going in the wrong direction. Now that I am

off the IVs the water weight should drop off. I

expect I will stay home for the two weeks until I see

Dr Singh for the post-op. I was out about that much

time with the first band surgery.

Even with this problem I would say the band has been a

success. I had my first band surgery 2/7/2005. I

lost 35 before the band. In the 58 weeks since my

first surgery I have lost 62 pounds. Therefore, I am

averaging more than a pound a week. I still want to

loose another fifty pounds. The weight loss was

slowed while I was on mushy foods because they are

higher calorie and they do not keep you feeling full

like eating solid protein does. So I fully expect to

get the rest of the weight off. I would be happy if

I got down to less than 200 pounds and stayed there.

Losing almost 100 pounds has helped my arthritis. I

am much more active. I am still a large woman but I

am now into a size large from a 4X and size 20WT from

size 28WT. So yes I would still recommend the Gastric

Lap-Band.

317/282/220/167

Adj Lap-Band 02/07/05

Revision 3/20/2006

Dr. Singh, Albany, NY

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