Re: Band Slippage and odds and sods.

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

>

> I am really in the dark on band slippage

> so how do you avoid it or what do you think you did wrong to get it?

Hi again ,

I don't think the docs really know what causes the band to slip in most

cases. Sure, if you do certain things, especially in the beginning, it's

more likely to happen...... but in most cases it just happens. I know I did

everything by the book. The main thing, I think, is to try to avoid

vomiting...... seems that is the single factor most likely to cause

slippage. When you are first banded you need to give the band time to settle

and scar tissue to form around it, so it's very important to stick to the

regimen of fluid to mushy to solid food. Other than that, though, there's

really nothing the individual can do to stop it happening. The stomach is a

slippery little sucker, and sometimes pressure from vomiting or from an

oesophagus that's not contracting as well as it should to push the food

through will, over a period of time, cause it to sort of mushroom up through

the band (in actual fact it's not so much that the band slips but that the

stomach slips up through the band. As for the pain factor........ I think

that also varies with the individual. Some people have severe pain, others

have none. Some find they can't hold down any food at all, others are able

to eat without restriction. Doesn't seem to be any particular pattern to it.

I didn't have pain..... what tipped them off in my case was the severe

reflux, and the long-term plateauing of my weight. The only way it can be

diagnosed definitively is via a barium x-ray. The good news for those of us

unlucky enough to have to be re-banded is that it's extremely rare for a

second band to slip due to the amount of scar tissue that's been built up by

having the first band, and this holds the band in place much more securely.

> Then the big scare to me is that if I can't get fills - am I more

> prone to have slippage because there is nothing taking up the slack?

Nope, I don't think this is the case at all. On the contrary....... seems to

me it would make slippage less likely if you're not filled, because there is

so little restriction by the band to what can pass through to your stomach,

so very little pressure will be put on the band.

Are you losing weight without being filled? If so, more power to you.......

I know that, unfilled, I am virtually the same as I am without a band at

all, and in fact can't wait to get my first fill after this second band,

because already at this point (two weeks post-op) I am unrestricted and

hungry all the time.

Regards,

.

PS Gail....... thanks for the words of encouragement. Fingers crossed that

my experience turns out to mirror yours.