Blind Loop Syndrome

I am 7 years post op from a roux en y.  I have had none stop complications.  I have had a total of 7 abdominal surgeries due to and including my original roux en y.

I had an Enteroclysis done at IU on Monday.  My GI is Dr David Thomas with Meridian Medical Group.  I see him at Clarian West.  I have a follow up appt scheduled early Feb.  

They now say I have blind loop syndrome.  I've done some research and don't remember this being listed as a possible complication.  It makes sense though.

Does anyone else have this diagnosis?

Thanks,
Stephanie Everman

Stephanie,

I have heard of the blind loop syndrome. What are your symptoms?  I personally din't have it but it was one of the things that had to be ruled out for me.  I'm sorry that you have had so many complications. Mind if I ask what they were? Personally, I was 5 yr post-op from my RNY and my surgeries since & including that one is 12...I think. Plus 22 endoscopies, 4 colonoscopies, 2 perforations and a host of testing performed through St. Vincents, ISU, and Mayo Clinic.

Hang in there...they will figure out what is going on.

Sherri

My step-son's mom is Jodi McInerney Nuchols, so you might have already heard some of my journey.  I've had close to 30 endoscopies, 4 colonoscopies, 2 bowel leaks, and 2 obstructions. I also spent the whole 2005 summer with a picc line for hydration therapy.  I get partial obstructions or an illeus all the time.  There was a period from October 2004 to June 2005 where I was in the hopsital at least once a month for a week at a time.  They hospitalized me mainly I think to keep me NPO(nothing by mouth****il the partial cleared.  Sometimes the partials were due to my potassium levels dropping and other times it was due to adhesions.  I was living in Terre Haute at the time trying to back to school at ISU since my son had started Kindergarten.  When I moved back to Indy, Dr Huse taught me the symptoms to look out for and how to tell when I needed to evaluated.

Here is my surgery list
12/27/02 Lap Roux en y by Dr Huse
12/28/02 Open Roux  by doctor on call Dr Evanson(he had to fix the bowel leak)
6/03 Laparoscopy by my obgyn Dr Boothe to look for endometriosis(Dr Huse said my constant pain wasn't related to the bariatric surgery and said ahesions don't cause pain.  I was so full of adhesions that my doctor couldn't even get in to get a good look. He told me that if Dr Huse would go in and cut out adhesions, then he would look for any endometriosis at the same time.  I didn't like the care I was getting from Dr Huse so I switched to Dr RoseMarie Jones.)
12/19/03 Hernia repair and lysis of adhesion by Dr Jones
12/20/03 Repair of bowel leak, more lysis of adhesions, appendectomy by on call Dr Caccuci
5/04 Bowel obstruction repaired by Dr Jones
7/04 Bowel obstruction repaired by Dr Jones
1/05 I had a permanent IV inserted in my right chest for IV access.  I have small veins that are deep and roll.  It usually took 7 to 8 sticks to get an IV started.  I'd already had 3 picc lines and several central lines.
3/08 They removed my IV since it stopped drawing blood and it couldn't be used for cat scans.

I have a good support system and have faith!  Thanks!

I just read up on this... Wow that is really interesting and I had no idea this was a risk of the surgery.  Dont remember it ever being mentioned.  But I could have missed it.    Check this out from the article I read:

A blind loop can be an inadvertent consequence of gastric surgery, such as Billroth II or Roux-en-Y procedures for ulcers and gastric bypass surgery for obesity.

http://www.bing.com/health/article/mayo-118017/Blind-loop-sy ndrome?q=blind+loop+syndrome&FORM=K1RE

There's the whole article from Mayo Clinic if you wanna read more.

My sister has been at Duke Medical Center in North Carolina for over a month with complications that started out in April 09.  She was hospitalized in Ft. Wayne for 3 months and got to the point she was paralyzed from the waist down.  She is walking again now with a walker.  She had RNY 3 yrs ago and is 58.  They still dont know whats causing all her problems.  She cant stop losing weight and struggles to stay in the 130's.  I wonder if she might be having issues with this syndrome as well. 

Thanks for sharing this information with us.  I hope you get well soon.  It is correctible according to this information.

I hate that some of our OH family has complications and serious issues.  It makes me appreciate the success I have enjoyed even more.

Count your blessings if you are one of the healthy ones and try to always look for the positive side of the surgery.  It's easy to get down and feel sorry or frustrated.  Just keep in mind, there are some of the OH family who have had serious life changing complications!

Huge hugz to you! 

Tracy