DSRIGGS
Yes, that is chocolate covered bacon
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2014
- Messages
- 4,635
I just realized the other day that I had my 2 year revision anniversary a little over a week ago. When I went to Dr K to be fixed I was on 400,000 IU of CREON daily and 2.5 weeks before the surgery which had not been decided upon yet I had dropped almost 20 lbs that I didn't have to lose in about 8 days. We had previously discussed doing the revision to extend my AL, but Dr K wanted to try and wait until 24 months post original DS to see how much absorption I had come back. When I emailed Dr K that I had dropped that weight and within minutes he called me and said you need to do 1 of 2 things. Get out to me immediately so we can do the revision or have Dr Marshall put you on TPN. Naturally I chose the revision as I was tired of feeling sick, having burning gut and butt from the mass CREON intake and a fissure that hurt a great deal. Dianna and I were out to Glendale the following week and Dr K explained in great detail for Dianna and me, what he was going to do. The next day we had a hand assisted lap surgery which meant I was cut from just below the umbilicus down roughly 4 inches. This allowed him to get his hand in my abdomen in addition to the trocars for the lap part.
While in surgery when he had my small intestine outside of my abdomen to measure lengths so he could do a revision based on HESS DS methodology, he found that my previous internal hernia that had been fixed a year earlier, had the mesentery open back up. It was tissue around the stitches that were still in tact that herniated. This is a picture of my small intestine and the mesenteric defect. DR K used it in a blog on his site and discussed hernias and blockage symptoms.
FYI - Dr K's blog where that photo is displayed. https://www.dssurgery.com/internal-hernia-and-bowel-obstruction/
An anal fissure was also repaired during the revision procedure, so the surgery turned into hernia repair, revision to extend AL and then fissure repair (he was able to just cauterize and it worked well).
I was immediately able to stop the CREON and my labs held steady and my weight stabilized. It took a long time to finally get a good deal of my energy back and I am about 70% now which is a huge improvement compared to about 30%. This means I am feeling better and I have actually gain some weight recently getting back to the 187-190 range. I was at my low of 167 just back in January when I was in Mayo St Mary's for three days so it has been a struggle to get things back to somewhat normal and a lot of that was the three surgeries I had since the revision. Last May I had a large ventral hernia repaired a big hunk of mesh riveted to my gut muscles, a double iguinal hernia repair a month later, and then in October I went out thinking I was likely going to lose my sigmoid and left side colon but when he got in my cavity Dr k found numerous adhesion and scar tissue. My colon was completely wrapped and causing it to twist/flip down stream. Dr K cleaned up that scar tissue causing a blockage, other scar tissues that formed on the anterior abdominal wall where the mesh is and in some cases went completely to the posterior abdominal wall. He also found and cleaned up numerous adhesions connecting sections of my small intestine.
The surgery has done its job to get my DS functioning properly so I don't suffer bad malnutrition. My total protein is still just below min range and albumin is just above minimal range, but that is okay as I am getting the nutrition I need. I won't lie , these last two years have sucked and up until just about months ago I thought I would have to go on permanent disability. Fortunately about 2 months ago I started feeling much better. Unfortunately I believe that I have scar tissue an adhesion causing a lot of pain and trouble with urination. As I mentioned in the weigh in thread, Dr K asked me to have my Urologist who Dr K knew I was seeing last week, order a CT with IV, oral and rectal contrast. The rectal isn't able to be done by my Uro as they haven't trained nor are the capable of doing the rectal portion to check my redundant colon. Anyway, I have the CT on the 6th and I won't be surprised if Dr orders a barium enema depending on what the CT shows. To me it appears likely that I will need at least one more surgery to clean up scar tissue that is causing very painful and what I will call disjointed pooping and urination.
As usual I ended up writing a book but as most of you know I have had a lot of junk happening these last two years.
I am so very grateful for having met Ara Keshishian as he is a great bariatric and general surgeon and an even better human being. Not only is he my surgeon but I consider him my friend who looks out for me. Thank you Dr K (Ara) for fixing a mess that another surgeon caused. I wish I have met you 4.5 years ago, as I never would have had my DS with the surgeon I chose because he didn't do a Hess DS and frankly it farked up my life. My DS anniversary is coming up in less than a month but if I had to do over again I would have found Dr K earlier in my life and had him do what would have been only one DS surgery.
While in surgery when he had my small intestine outside of my abdomen to measure lengths so he could do a revision based on HESS DS methodology, he found that my previous internal hernia that had been fixed a year earlier, had the mesentery open back up. It was tissue around the stitches that were still in tact that herniated. This is a picture of my small intestine and the mesenteric defect. DR K used it in a blog on his site and discussed hernias and blockage symptoms.
FYI - Dr K's blog where that photo is displayed. https://www.dssurgery.com/internal-hernia-and-bowel-obstruction/
An anal fissure was also repaired during the revision procedure, so the surgery turned into hernia repair, revision to extend AL and then fissure repair (he was able to just cauterize and it worked well).
I was immediately able to stop the CREON and my labs held steady and my weight stabilized. It took a long time to finally get a good deal of my energy back and I am about 70% now which is a huge improvement compared to about 30%. This means I am feeling better and I have actually gain some weight recently getting back to the 187-190 range. I was at my low of 167 just back in January when I was in Mayo St Mary's for three days so it has been a struggle to get things back to somewhat normal and a lot of that was the three surgeries I had since the revision. Last May I had a large ventral hernia repaired a big hunk of mesh riveted to my gut muscles, a double iguinal hernia repair a month later, and then in October I went out thinking I was likely going to lose my sigmoid and left side colon but when he got in my cavity Dr k found numerous adhesion and scar tissue. My colon was completely wrapped and causing it to twist/flip down stream. Dr K cleaned up that scar tissue causing a blockage, other scar tissues that formed on the anterior abdominal wall where the mesh is and in some cases went completely to the posterior abdominal wall. He also found and cleaned up numerous adhesions connecting sections of my small intestine.
The surgery has done its job to get my DS functioning properly so I don't suffer bad malnutrition. My total protein is still just below min range and albumin is just above minimal range, but that is okay as I am getting the nutrition I need. I won't lie , these last two years have sucked and up until just about months ago I thought I would have to go on permanent disability. Fortunately about 2 months ago I started feeling much better. Unfortunately I believe that I have scar tissue an adhesion causing a lot of pain and trouble with urination. As I mentioned in the weigh in thread, Dr K asked me to have my Urologist who Dr K knew I was seeing last week, order a CT with IV, oral and rectal contrast. The rectal isn't able to be done by my Uro as they haven't trained nor are the capable of doing the rectal portion to check my redundant colon. Anyway, I have the CT on the 6th and I won't be surprised if Dr orders a barium enema depending on what the CT shows. To me it appears likely that I will need at least one more surgery to clean up scar tissue that is causing very painful and what I will call disjointed pooping and urination.
As usual I ended up writing a book but as most of you know I have had a lot of junk happening these last two years.
I am so very grateful for having met Ara Keshishian as he is a great bariatric and general surgeon and an even better human being. Not only is he my surgeon but I consider him my friend who looks out for me. Thank you Dr K (Ara) for fixing a mess that another surgeon caused. I wish I have met you 4.5 years ago, as I never would have had my DS with the surgeon I chose because he didn't do a Hess DS and frankly it farked up my life. My DS anniversary is coming up in less than a month but if I had to do over again I would have found Dr K earlier in my life and had him do what would have been only one DS surgery.
Hang in there -all the best to you and yours!
