So i missed my 1-year surgiversary. Partly because I was a little bit disappointed. I have been below 200 pounds for exactly 1 day. Overall, I have lost 165 pounds (+/- depending on the day), and quite a few more inches beyond what I had lost at 6 months post-op. But I've been sick or recovering for a while now and I'm starting to try and find a way to make peace with the possibility that I won't see a size 8/10 or 175 pounds.
On March 10 I had emergency surgery for an internal hernia with complete incarceration of the alimentary limb of my small bowel. I started to have intense stomach pain and GI upset at dinnertime on a Sunday evening and was in the OR by breakfast time on Monday morning. Even that amount of time was almost too much wait, as the surgeon informed us that my small bowel was a lovely shade of aubergine when they got in. That recovery went OK, I was pretty sore, life began to approach normal again.
In March and April our 8 year old son had 2 separate inpatient psych admits to try and get his meds sorted out and remove him from our home for physically aggressive behavior. The second of these seemed to help a lot and our kid has seemed more himself and we have better support for him now. So, overall stress level through the roof sort of continuously there.
In May I developed what we thought was either a thrombosed hemorrhoid or an anal fissure. Suffered for about a week, tried the sitz baths and OTC remedies, went to my PCP who thought internal hemorrhoid. She RX'd percocet for the pain and said to use Rx suppositories (as if anything was going in that area !!)(#@*)!(@*(). Within 5 days I found a CRS who got me in, diagnosed that Herm was actually a fissure, and RX'd valium every 8 hours for spasming, sitz baths, and a special suppository from compounding pharmacy called a rectal rocket. So.... the valium and sitz baths helped a lot. the rectal rockets did not dissolve as supposed to, and pain continued (although markedly less). This takes us up to father's day weekend in June.
We loaded up the car and I made sure I had both valium and percocet available to allow me to tolerate the 8 hour ride to my in-law's house. halfway there, I noticed upper abdominal discomfort (pain) in spite of the single percocet i had taken that morning at 6 am for traveling comfort. It felt sort of like bad trapped gas so I tried to burp it out. Chewed gas-x, found seltzer to help burp, rode in pain, denied that it was anything serious. Thursday evening pain pretty serious and breaking through real dose of pain meds within 1 hour. Husband insists we go to local ER. They do exam, abdominal u/s and say they really think it's gallbladder. Easy diet, pain meds, zofran, rest, get it checked back at home next week. Come back Friday morning for a real U/S to make sure. After the morning U/S, they are pretty sure it is gallbladder. Force my husband to take me to buy birthday gifts for my son (Saturday was his bday), so it would be done. Eat a bland dinner - by 7 pm am in agony. Husband throws me in car and we go to the regional medical center that knows about bariatric surgery, 40 minute drive. by the time we get there, i'm puking for real and the pain has moved to center of upper abdomen. Long story short, I had another internal hernia with bowel obstruction. Spent 8 hours in ER, taken to OR for 3+ hours. They tried to do laparoscopic but kinks in bowel were too tight so she had to convert to open. Woke up with an 8 inch vertical incision with staples in upper abdomen. I was in hospital until Tuesday afternoon. Very conservative recovery and diet advancement. not allowed to leave until had a BM. They took it very seriously. We came back home on Thursday and I'm trying to get myself back to normal. Whatever that normal is?
So - internal hernias and bowel obstructions - any other frequent fliers post DS with these? Dr. Glembot said he's only had 3 bariatric patients that have had 2 of these (I'm #3), and no patients who had more than 2. I guess I am looking for some reassurance that there is a low likelihood of a 3rd occurrence.
If you got through my epistle, thank you. I am trying to be a better participant here. I put this partly as a record for myself too.
thanks for all the support gang!