Help I think I have an ucler

I have been reading all of these websites about heartburn symptom and I thought I had heartburn but now I'm starting to think I have an ulcer. I am freaking out and getting nervous. Has anyone gone through this?

 Yep.  I had heartburn for over a year, even while on OTC PPI's.  After a few break through episodes of heartburn, I went for an endoscopy, and they found a small ulcer.  I was completely unfilled (had to be for the endo, anyway), and put on a prescription PPI (Dexilant).  I haven't had any heartburn since, so I assume that either the unfill is making the difference, or the ulcer has healed, or the PPI is doing it's job.  

I'm due to get another endo within the next few weeks.  If it's healed, I'll be taken off the PPI.  Then it will get interesting...will I still produce too much stomach acid even with no fill?  Will I be able to get re-filled if I choose to?  Is my excess stomach acid caused by the band, by too much fill, or by my eating/drinking habits, or genetics/biology?  I dunno.  I'll take it one step at a time.  

Tami

I have no fill in right now and when I call the doc today he put my on malocx and zaltc it's helped a little but now I'm freaking out

Yea, just went through it and finally had it confirmed today. For about 6 months I had a burning sensation when I would consume acidic foods like OJ, marinara sauce, salsa, etc. At the time I didn't put two and two together to notice the connection to the acidic foods I just knew some foods hurt like hell going down. I only suffered from heart burn while lying down and it was rare. However incidently at the same time I had blood work that came back with low iron. Then over the course of the 6 months when I tried to take iron to raise my level I discovered that vitamins hurt even worse. I would pace and pace and it would take about 20 minutes for the burning to pass. So I upped foods rich in iron to help my levels only I started getting severe symptoms of iron deficiency despite the supplements and iron rich diet and then my blood results came back anemic. When I could no longer take it I saw my lapband Dr. and explained all of the above and she immediately believed it to be an ulcer. She unfilled me completely and scheduled me for an Endoscopy.

Ok, so as soon as I was unfilled the pain was gone so it seemed to be right on my band line. It took 5 weeks before they got around to getting my EGD done and by then it appeared to be just slight irritation according to that Dr., but today my lapband Dr. looked over my results and confirmed it was indeed an ulcer that was nearly healed by the time the EGD was done.

Sorry for the novel, maybe can you get your blood drawn to check your iron levels, request an EGD, and try for an unfill to let your pouch/ stomach heal for a bit. I can tell you it did a world of good for me physically as well as mentally to get back in the game. Best of luck!

That's just it I had no problems til my fluid was taken out and I have gone three weeks just fine and then all of a sudden last night it hit me. It was awful. The doc put me in maloox and Zantac so far but this was because when I called him I thought it was heartburn but I truly believe it's an ulcer. I'm really scaring myself and can't help it. I have never had anything like this. So yours was healing on it's own? Is that typical? I'm call the doc again tomorrow.

Yea, it did heal up on its own, but not until my band was unfilled. It was sitting right along the line of the band above my pouch so being filled tight and over eating was just continuing to irritate it. Its sounds like you're having pain even when you're not eating, it could be that you have a non band related ulcer which would explain maybe why its worse with your band unfilled now that your acids are less separated. Though honestly I am not that educated on it so I could be reaching here.

One thing though is that at least if its an ulcer they should be able to treat it fairly easily with antibiotics once they can determine if thats the problem. The biggest annoyance beyond the burn is the time it takes. Keep us posted on what you learn.