Muffin Topping

[roblynn]

When the lapband was first introduced in the US, the problem percentage was around .001%

Since the Super Size Me Americans have climbed onto the band wagon, the percentage of probems has risen to over 4%. Still very low when you think about the problems people have with the bypass.

One of the biggest problems is Muffin Topping or Mushrooming your pouch. Simply explained, you have a relatively tight fill but eat more than you should, stretching your pouch. If viewed on a fluoroscopy screen, instead of a nice "tube" that the barrium flows right through, the pouch looks like a ball that has been deflated, hanging over your band on each side. The barrium sits in there, making it very obvious, that the pouch has stretched.

There are no symptoms really of Muffin Top, other than you have a large fill and can still eat a lot of food and the hunger never abates. If found on a fluoroscopy, the treatment is to take out all or most of the fill for at least a month, hoping that your extra stretched pouch drops back down through the band. If it looks good after a month, then you can start your fills again. If it doesn't, you will need to follow up with your surgeon for possible re possitioning or replacement.

Flouroscopy is recommended for fills by most surgeons, to catch any problem before it gets out of hand. You should definitely get a fluoro if you are nearly to max in your band and still eat too much. You should also have fluoroscopy at least once a year to check it, especially if you are 3 or more years out, they tend to have more problems than newly banded patients.

[LisaLaw]

this is a bandsters worst nightmare...ugh

[MrsParris]

Yeah, It's just one more thing I get to worry (obsess) about.

[BandDiva]

I was afraid I was eating too much and stretched it and they told me I was fine. I am trying not to think about it now. I just eat so incredibly slow....which takes awhile to get used to!

[jhawkchick75]

This always freaks me out, but i'm trying to watch my portions because my body hasn't been giving me that "full" signal in the last few months. I thought I was eating too much, but when I tell my fill nurse what i'm eating she says i'm not eating enough and didn't want to give me a fill, so I guess i'm doing OK. I do overeat, but I try to keep those times few and far between and even then it is so much less than I used to eat so hopefully i'm OK.

I can eat just about anything at dinner but now at least lunch I have to be very careful. Highly doubt they would give me another fill for a long time but I might see if I can go in and they can take a peek in a couple months just to make sure everything is AOK b/c they didn't use Xray on my last fill. Just to get a little piece of mind.

[Red]

This always freaks me out, but i'm trying to watch my portions because my body hasn't been giving me that "full" signal in the last few months. I thought I was eating too much, but when I tell my fill nurse what i'm eating she says i'm not eating enough and didn't want to give me a fill, so I guess i'm doing OK. I do overeat, but I try to keep those times few and far between and even then it is so much less than I used to eat so hopefully i'm OK.

I can eat just about anything at dinner but now at least lunch I have to be very careful. Highly doubt they would give me another fill for a long time but I might see if I can go in and they can take a peek in a couple months just to make sure everything is AOK b/c they didn't use Xray on my last fill. Just to get a little piece of mind.

Hi Shelby,

I can't get over how great you look! Good job. I feel so lucky that I can drive to the border in about 2.5 hours, because I can't conceive of getting fills without Fluroscopy. I am driving down on Monday for my pre-op tests..surgery on Tuesday. I would not want them guessing how much fill I need. I think with Fluro, I will end up needing less fills, don't you think? If I recall, Dr. O says in his video (YouTube) that on average a woman will only get about 2 or 3 fills in her lifetime, but there seems to be alot of people on the forum that have had many more than that. Thoughts?