Tiara's Thread

[navygrrl]

Enjoy the beach!!! You look great!

 

[ShrinkingMyTiara]

Thank you everyone!! <3 <3 <3

 

[ShrinkingMyTiara]

So over the last week I've been developing these little bruises. First a few on my legs, now my legs, arm, and belly. All are the size of dimes except for the last one that is more blue toned and the size of a quarter, it showed up tonight. I'm going to call the surgeon's office in the morning. I think they might be purpura, which I know can happen with certain vitamin deficiencies and with low platelets... I am religious about taking my vitamins and I take the full list from you guys... But I guess something could still be low.

 

[southernlady]

Vitamin K comes to mind but if tested, it needs specific handling or you get a false reading.

 

[navygrrl]

I had the same thing happening to me and it turned out my K was almost undetectably low. I had inadvertently ordered the wrong dose of K, so although I thought I was keeping up my vitamins, I wasn't with the K. I also tried to incorporate more K-rich foods, but mainly I increased my K dosage.

If your doc does bloodwork, they will probably check your pro-thrombin time and your platelets as well.

 

[ShrinkingMyTiara]

Vitamin K comes to mind but if tested, it needs specific handling or you get a false reading.

I had the same thing happening to me and it turned out my K was almost undetectably low. I had inadvertently ordered the wrong dose of K, so although I thought I was keeping up my vitamins, I wasn't with the K. I also tried to incorporate more K-rich foods, but mainly I increased my K dosage.

If your doc does bloodwork, they will probably check your pro-thrombin time and your platelets as well.

Thanks guys!! The PA agrees it is probably Vitamin K. But she ran all my 6 month labs a month early just in case it was something else. Everything looks normal so far, no iron deficiency anemia, b vitamins look great, and my platelets are in my normal range. But when they drew my blood at the lab I had pooling at the site and it took forever to stop bleeding, so I really think it is the Vitamin K. She said it'll take about a week to come back. Hopefully they handle it well.

She also is concerned about the stomach pressure and inability to eat normally for this stage out from surgery. Especially since it came on so suddenly and has been so consistent. She said sometimes we lose the fat pad around our stomach and it can cause it to push through a hole there into the chest. I'm assuming she means it forms a hernia trapping the stomach. Or it could be some sort of stricture. So she put in urgent orders for a barium swallow and upper GI series, they'll do the whole fluoroscopy thing and watch everything move through. It isn't my favorite test, but it should show us if there is a herniation or a stricture somewhere. I'll go have that done Friday. I'm really glad they got me in so quickly at the Bariatric office and at the hospital imaging department!

 

[Larra]

Could be Vitamin K, but there are also meds, including over the counter, that can interfere with platelet function. So, platelet count can be great, but if they don't function properly, bleeding can occur. Usual culprit is NSAID's (Aleve, Motrin, Naprosyn, etc etc there are too many to name here). If your doc is concerned about this, the test to order is "bleeding time".

 

[ShrinkingMyTiara]

Could be Vitamin K, but there are also meds, including over the counter, that can interfere with platelet function. So, platelet count can be great, but if they don't function properly, bleeding can occur. Usual culprit is NSAID's (Aleve, Motrin, Naprosyn, etc etc there are too many to name here). If your doc is concerned about this, the test to order is "bleeding time".

Thanks! Yes, meds can do that. Fortunately nothing I take affects platelets and I'm not allowed to take any NSAIDs, I'm too high of a GI bleed risk since my ulcerations 7 years ago. She didn't seem to think I needed a test to check my thrombin time but I'll mention it to the surgeon when I see him next month if the bruising continues after I increase my Vitamin K.

 

[ShrinkingMyTiara]

My Vitamin K finally came back today and is on the low end of normal, but who knows if they processed it right? I'm just going to consider it low and increase my supplementation. We'll see what she says about it when she sees it, but I'm guessing that's what she'll suggest.

I had the barium swallow and such, and while most things looked normal, when they gave me the barium pill to swallow it stopped at the spot where I have a small hiatal hernia and refused to move. They had me drink thick barium, thin barium, and then water, but it stayed there for over 5 minutes. It was very uncomfortable and is right where I feel everything catch and create that uncomfortable pressure. On the day of the test I wasn't feeling the extreme restriction I've been feeling. But it came back two days later. So I'm wondering if the hernia can change size a bit from day to day? Maybe it is a bit larger on the days I feel that restriction and pressure? I'm going to ask her when she calls about the results.

 

[navygrrl]

My Vitamin K finally came back today and is on the low end of normal, but who knows if they processed it right? I'm just going to consider it low and increase my supplementation. We'll see what she says about it when she sees it, but I'm guessing that's what she'll suggest.

I had the barium swallow and such, and while most things looked normal, when they gave me the barium pill to swallow it stopped at the spot where I have a small hiatal hernia and refused to move. They had me drink thick barium, thin barium, and then water, but it stayed there for over 5 minutes. It was very uncomfortable and is right where I feel everything catch and create that uncomfortable pressure. On the day of the test I wasn't feeling the extreme restriction I've been feeling. But it came back two days later. So I'm wondering if the hernia can change size a bit from day to day? Maybe it is a bit larger on the days I feel that restriction and pressure? I'm going to ask her when she calls about the results.

My husband had a hiatal hernia and it would move around so I would presume that it's possible that yours could move and, depending on how much of the tissue is protruding, could probably change size. Then again, I have days where I can eat a lot and also days I can barely eat anything, so it might just be that.

 

[galaxygrrl]

Wow, look skinny new profile photos. @navygrrl @ShrinkingMyTiara

 

[ShrinkingMyTiara]

Well, I ended up in the ER on Sunday because I couldn't swallow food and water was going down at barely a trickle. I felt a lot of chest pain and pressure, and it was hard to breathe in a full breath. Unfortunately, by the time they did any imaging (like 5 hours later) things had settled. The PA in the ER told me it isn't possible for a small hiatal hernia to move (not true) and then another PA told me basically the surgeon AND radiologist were wrong and my problem is I have esophagitis and they need to go in and stretch my esophagus. She felt the hiatal hernia was in no way contributing to the issue and the bariatric clinic was ignoring the problem...and she had no explanation for why the symptoms vary dramatically every few days. But at least I wasn't having a heart attack! It was a very miserable way to spend my Sunday. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to the ER over the years, I do NOT use them like a GPs office, so I really resented being made to feel like a hypochondriac with a neglectful doctor.

I emailed the bariatric clinic Sunday night and they had me talking with a nurse the next morning. She had the surgeon look over the imaging AGAIN and he reaffirmed he feels it is a hernia, that it could very well be a sliding hernia, especially with my symptoms, but that he'd be happy to go in and do a scope first if I wanted to be doubly sure...but he'd actually just recommend going in and fixing the hernia, then doing a scope afterwards to make sure there is no esophageal narrowing. I agreed with him, I'd rather be knocked out once than twice and I really do feel like the hernia has a lot to do with what is wrong. I think anything with the esophagus is secondary and probably triggered by the swelling from the hernia irritating the esophagus because pills are getting stuck there and dissolving.

Soooo tomorrow I'm going in for surgery! They got me in really quick, I'm very appreciative... He said it'll get worse before it gets better, as sometimes a hernia repair can cause a lot of swelling in the area, so they'll keep me for at least a night to make sure I'm able to hydrate well and my pain and nausea are under control. I'm really hoping the combo of the repair and the scope will take care of things... It is miserable to not be able to swallow food or fluids down normally.

 

[Larra]

So sorry you are going through all this! Wishing you a safe and successful surgery and a full, speedy recovery.

 

[southernlady]

Well, I ended up in the ER on Sunday because I couldn't swallow food and water was going down at barely a trickle. I felt a lot of chest pain and pressure, and it was hard to breathe in a full breath. Unfortunately, by the time they did any imaging (like 5 hours later) things had settled. The PA in the ER told me it isn't possible for a small hiatal hernia to move (not true) and then another PA told me basically the surgeon AND radiologist were wrong and my problem is I have esophagitis and they need to go in and stretch my esophagus. She felt the hiatal hernia was in no way contributing to the issue and the bariatric clinic was ignoring the problem...and she had no explanation for why the symptoms vary dramatically every few days. But at least I wasn't having a heart attack! It was a very miserable way to spend my Sunday. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to the ER over the years, I do NOT use them like a GPs office, so I really resented being made to feel like a hypochondriac with a neglectful doctor.

I emailed the bariatric clinic Sunday night and they had me talking with a nurse the next morning. She had the surgeon look over the imaging AGAIN and he reaffirmed he feels it is a hernia, that it could very well be a sliding hernia, especially with my symptoms, but that he'd be happy to go in and do a scope first if I wanted to be doubly sure...but he'd actually just recommend going in and fixing the hernia, then doing a scope afterwards to make sure there is no esophageal narrowing. I agreed with him, I'd rather be knocked out once than twice and I really do feel like the hernia has a lot to do with what is wrong. I think anything with the esophagus is secondary and probably triggered by the swelling from the hernia irritating the esophagus because pills are getting stuck there and dissolving.

Soooo tomorrow I'm going in for surgery! They got me in really quick, I'm very appreciative... He said it'll get worse before it gets better, as sometimes a hernia repair can cause a lot of swelling in the area, so they'll keep me for at least a night to make sure I'm able to hydrate well and my pain and nausea are under control. I'm really hoping the combo of the repair and the scope will take care of things... It is miserable to not be able to swallow food or fluids down normally.

Recovery from a hernia repair is painful. I was dealing with mine a year ago Feb. I was on liquids for two weeks. There were times it was painful to swallow but if you sip very small sips, it goes ok. The day I was released to soft foods, we planned on soft fish, my surgeon even okayed my choice. One bite, my esophagus rebelled and I honestly thought I was gonna die for about 5 minutes. Then it eased up but I quickly went back to fluid. I stayed on fluid two more days. I messaged my surgeon telling him what happened and he said I did exactly what he would have told me to do.

Bottom line, just because you are moved forward in food progression doesn’t mean your esophagus got the message. Don’t be afraid to drop back and wait a few more days to move forward but let your surgeon know.

This past fall, I was still having swallowing issues, so he had me do a swallow study before going for an endoscopy or anything else. The swallow study was normal. I just needed more time to heal. It’s taken me almost a year to get back to normal eating but it’s finally there.

 

[navygrrl]

Oh wow! I'm glad you are getting this taken care of so quickly! My husband also had surgery on his esophagus and his food progression was very slow, so make sure you follow your doctor's plan.