Band Tightening

So prior to say September, as I lost weight, I would lose some restriction.  Now as I get towards goal, it seems as I lose I get tighter, has anyone else experienced this?

Yep the farther out I got the tighter my band got until I finally had it emptied, too much trouble to deal with! My personal theory is that we keep building up scar tissue so it causes tightening but that's just my personal opinion.

Yep exactly what happened to me.
And as you both mentioned I too am almost at goal.

My Surgeon calls it "spontaneous tightening" ......hmmmmm !

I did the back and forth for a few fills and unfils over a 4-ish month period and we finally have me at an excellent fill level again. Yay !

Hang in there, it is frustrating when you have been cruising along happily for a while.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Tara

Happened to me, in fact I had a unfill in November and plan on having some put back in on the 26th.....

I hadn't had a fill in more than a year, and became so tight that barium wouldn't go through (imo I think that stuff is way too thick lol).

My Surgeon explained that the stomach is a muscle and over time as the stomach continually pushes food through the stomach (even works harder if a little on the tight side, I was able to eat steak and didn't think I was too tight but: ) because it is a muscle and as any other muscle the more it is worked it can get bigger..........he said not real big but big enough to make the difference between being at the high end of the green zone to being in the red zone aka too tight............

Crazy but makes sense when you think of the stomach as a muscle it does......it may not be what happened to you but in my case that is what it was.

Michele

It could be from adhesions. Or your stomach and surrounding tissue might be inflamed.  It's pretty normal to develop adhesions after abdominal surgery. It's only when they start causing a lot of problems that you really should worry. (I'm at that point. I had so many "corrective" surgeries while banded that the left side of my intestine has a really sharp "bend" in it from adhesions. And it hurts!)

I assume you've already gotten your band loosened some?  You might need to get it radically unfilled to save yourself from problems down the road.  Best  of luck to you, Jamie.

~Nicci

 

 

From emedicinehealth:

Adhesions Overview

An adhesion is a band of scar tissue that binds two parts of tissue or organs together. Adhesions may appear as thin sheets of tissue similar to plastic wrap or as thick fibrous bands.

The tissue develops when the body's repair mechanisms respond to any tissue disturbance, such as surgery, infection, trauma, or radiation. Although adhesions can occur anywhere, the most common locations are within the abdomen, the pelvis, and the heart.

Abdominal adhesions: Abdominal adhesions are a common complication of surgery, occurring in up to 90% of people who undergo abdominal or pelvic surgery. Abdominal adhesions also occur in a small number of people who have never had surgery.

• Most adhesions are painless and do not cause complications. However, adhesions cause the majority of small bowel obstructions in adults, and are believed to contribute to the development of chronic pelvic pain.
• Adhesions typically begin to form within the first few days after surgery, but they may not produce symptoms for months or even years. As scar tissue begins to restrict motion of the small intestines, passing food through the digestive system becomes progressively more difficult. The bowel may become blocked.
• In extreme cases, adhesions may form fibrous bands around an entire segment of the intestine. This constricts blood flow and leads to tissue death.

I go in tomorrow morning. If they tell me they won't do anything until I go under fluro I will scream, as I left a message about that Monday. Even soft foods are giving me trouble. My body hates me for living on protein bars & shakes right now.

I began to experience random tightening just after my 1 year mark, but I was no where near goal.

I had multiple unfills and everything would look fine under fluoro, but 4-8 weeks or so after my unfill, it would start tightening again.

I hope you have a more successful experience.

Keep us updated,
Lindsey

I look at this way the stomach is a living tissue and it reacts to conditions in the body such as stress, menstrual cycles, colds and illness, I have come to realize I have to adjust my saline as required. That is just the nature of the beast of living with the band. I recently got a small unfill because I had cold and my band tighten up to the point I started having frequent coughing and I knew this was not a good sign.

When I got the small unfill all symptoms disappeared and I actually feel a whole lot better and can eat in comfort and still have good restriction. Whenever my band gives me warning I don't ignore them, if I need to get a small unfill I do so, let my band rest and try again if I need to, but right now I am feeling too good and have good restriction to add more saline. I will never take my band for granted if any problem persist I usually see my surgeon and so far it has kept me complication free gong on 7 years.

Naomi, seriously, the idiom is "take for GRANTED" not "granite." 

Granted, it's funnier your way! 

...she gets the point.