HELP: Major DS Complications!

[Freebird86]

Shonda, you and I are surgery sisters in a sense. I also had my surgery April 13 2015 with Dr. Ng at Rex. Mine was in the afternoon so maybe yours was in the morning. Anyway, I hope you are getting some relief or a good idea that things are improving today. I haven't had any issues besides still having the runs because of the liquid diet, but I'll be thinking of you and catching up here to see how you are doing. You will get through this.

Hello surgery sister! I am so glad to hear that you're recovery is going a lot more smoothly then mine was--and I think you're surgery probably was right behind mine that day!

 

[hilary1617]

Glad you are feeling better! On track to a healthy future!

 

[bearmom]

Not uncommon, and in addition to the excellent advice already given, you may need to get your anti nausea med via suppository to give your stomach some time to heal. I had to have several meds in the bum post op, but I was dealing with a blockage I wouldn't be aware of for several days still. I also went through a lot of SF popsicles as the melting ice helped my inflamed stomach.

You do need to keep with the doctors though, as there are several kinds of strictures or blockages that may or may not completely block food from going through, and it doesn't sound like you've digested any thing eaten by mouth yet. I've had several blockages, but one was only days after my surgery and it was from some intestine poking into a surgical incision. It can become life threatening very quickly, so do keep your surgeon in the loop.

 

[Freebird86]

I definitely have noticed how much better I feel in the hospital versus as soon as I get home. I finally figured out that it's because there is continuous IV fluid to help with hydration and everything goes to the IV port, my stomach doesn't have to do anything but heal and that is slower going then they might realize. I go back Thursday and hopefully things will feel a little better, I'm really not trying to need a 3rd admission, but they discharged me at the first sign of any improvement Friday and probably should have given it another day or two to make sure it stuck.

 

[Larra]

It sounds like you are feeling a lot better and that the keys are 1) letting your stomach heal at its own pace, and 2) staying hydrated while letting the stomach heal. Unfortunately many hospital discharges occur at the very first sign of the slightest improvement these days. If you find that things are once again going downhill at home, don't hesitate to get yourself back to the hospital or ER and get rehydrated. The longer you wait, the worse things will become.

 

[Txkat]

I had my surgery at Duke in February, and while I didn't have as much trouble as you did, my stomach hurt like crazy when I drank more than an ounce at a time for a long while. One thing I would suggest for you I'd to get something like Isopure. It's a clear protein, kind of like Kool Aid. It was much easier for me to stomach than all of the whey and dairy protein products. Also, eat a sugar free popcycle before each "meal" the cold really helped with my swelling.

 

[Freebird86]

I'm finally home after spending almost a week in the hospital with severe dehydration/malnutrition. While was there they decided to place a jejunal feeding tube and I'm currently NPO and getting all my meds and feeds through that for the time being. I just got discharged home and started my feedings by home pump and so far everything is going fine. I feel about a million times better with this constant supply of nutrition and water. The plan is to give my stomach more time to rest and heal for a while and then later slowly try to start through the liquid stages again again until I work my way back to real food and taking in everything by mouth. I am so grateful to everyone that chimed in with well wishes and/pr advice, I needed more medical support than usual. but now I feel like things are under control and I can go forward with my recovery and in a few weeks hopefully work my way back to the usual path.

 

[Larra]

Glad you're home and improving. Did they do any kind of work-up to see if there is any specific reason for the slow recovery of your sleeve?

 

[Freebird86]

They did a swallow study, a CT, and two scopes as well as exploring thoroughly while they were putting in the feeding tube. At this point there was nothing obvious but persistent swelling with the sleeve. They can't give me any kind of concrete timeline of when it will be "all better" so we're just taking it one day at a time. I go back to see the surgeon May 19th.

 

[Larra]

Sounds like they did a thorough work-up and that you just have a stomach that is much slower than usual to function. I think the feeding tube, allowing you to rest your stomach completely for awhile, could make a big difference.

 

[Freebird86]

Sounds like they did a thorough work-up and that you just have a stomach that is much slower than usual to function. I think the feeding tube, allowing you to rest your stomach completely for awhile, could make a big difference.

I think that's it too, Larra. There are definitely moments were I have an irrational fear that it will never start working right again--but I remind myself that's not realistic. My surgeon said it's not common for someone to have the severe complications I've been happening, but it's certainly not unheard of, and he's had seen it before, so he's confident time and resting the stomach will be most important.