Life After Surgery

Life After Surgery

Its always important to monitor your health after surgery. When in doubt contact your doctor.

After you have had your surgery never forget that you have a foreign device in your body. It is a tool to help you on your weight loss journey and like all tools it needs to be looked after.

It is very important to follow the advice of your clinical staff because it will help you optimise your weight loss but more importantly it will help you prevent complications.

Your gastric band will require a certain number of adjustments to help achieve the optimal degree of restriction that will suit your individual needs. If the band is too tight it can cause a number of complications from difficulty swallowing food to the band eroding. If it is too loose your restriction will be compromised

It is very important to keep the communication channels open with your clinician. Keep all your appointments and if you are experiencing any difficulties contact the practice. Avoid going to doctors that are not familiar with gastric banding – they simply don’t know what to do. Many patients have had complications with their gastric band as a result of going to Dr’s that simply do not understand the gastric band and it’s follow up programme.

Below is a list of symptoms that could be an indication that something is wrong:

* Unable to keep food or even liquids down

* Vomiting / Regurgitation

* Difficulty swallowing

* Reflux / heartburn

* Night cough

* Poor eating behaviour

It is extremely important to contact your surgeon if you are vomiting or have any gastro complaints. If a patient vomits multiple times during the day, this is possibly an indication that the something is stuck in the restricted part of your stomach. If left untreated the stomach will swell causing it to pull through the band. This is called a band slippage and the only way it can be corrected is by surgical intervention. This can be avoided very easily by simply removing the fluid from your band.

As we learn more about gastric banding surgery as a weight loss option, we are realizing that patients who have access to suitable post op support simply get much better results than patients who either don’t have access, or worse, simply choose not to use it.

The golden rule is keep your doctor posted.