Stricture after 15 days :shrug:

My surgery was 7/6. Yesterday, I wasn't able to keep anything down. I started getting dehyrated. I called Dr. Waldrep and he had me come into the hospital. They gave me I.V. fluids overnight, and I had an endoscopy this morning. The G.I. went ahead and stretched out my opening with a balloon. I was asleep the whole time. After that, I kept fluids down just fine and was discharged. Just a word of caution, strictures don't usually happen until 4-6 weeks out, but my happened sooner. Make sure you are cognizant of keeping down your fluids and if you have any trouble at all, call your doctor right away. I'm back on liquids for two days. I never thought I would miss cottage cheese! Be well, Lynette

Lynette, Im so sorry you had to go thru that. I sure hope thats not in my future. Did they tell you if there was anything u or your surgeon could have done to help prevent it. I really dont know of anything just wondering if a dr is more experienced if they have less patients get them??? I was just 2 days ago complaining about cottage cheese....I wont do it again after reading your post!!! Thanks for keeping us informed. I had my surgery on the 12th and Ive not had any problems since my drain was removed Monday on my follow up visit. That drain did cause me alot of pain the last 2 days it was in. Smooth sailing right now but I'll be sure and keep an eye out for strictures. Hope your doing much better, Mariah

Thanks, Mariah. Strictures usually show up 4-6 weeks post-op. A stricture is just the scar tissue that narrows the opening from the pouch to the intestine. I think they can occur in 20% of the surgeries? I'm not sure. No wrong doing on my part or my surgeon's. It's just the way my body chose to heal. I think I tend to produce lots of scar tissue. I know I did after my two c-sections. Dr. Waldrep has done over 1,500 gastric bypass surgeries, and I am so confident that his skill level had nothing to do with it. He said it could happen again, as I continue to heal, and I MIGHT have to have the opening stretched open 1-2 more times. I was asleep during the procedure and I think it only took 30 min. or less. There was no pain at all, just the five bags of potassium that was put in via i.v. Now that hurt! Off to sip some tomato soup for dinner! Thanks for your kind words and hang in there. ~*~ Lynette ~*~