I am going home tomorrow

Hi All, First, thanks so much for all the emails and prayers and good thoughts from everyone!! I am still in the hospital, and will be home tomorrow. They went into my bile duct and had to dilitate it and cut and lysis the sphincter muscle, and when they did, lots and lots of bile ran out and they found some stones and sludge. It was a good thing they did this, as they said it was huge, like a balloon, almost like an aneurysm, and extremely narrow and totally closed off at the other end, proximal? I feel much better in that area, but I have 5 incisions like I did with the gastric bypass, but I hurt tons more than I did with the bypass. Dr. Nguyen said there were only a few adhesions which were actually helping keep any intestinal hernias from happening, so that was a good thing. He also said my pouch was still small and looked really good. They only opened up the old stomach and had a really hard time threading the scope to the bile duct, but Dr. John Lee was able to do it, he is some really big shot ERCP doc and does over 1,000 of these per year, and is the man everyone comes to when other docs cannot do them on difficult cases. Hopefully I will never have trouble with that again. This was not related to my gastric bypass, but I had my gallbladder out back in 94 and this was related to that, coupled with losing weight very fast. I am so glad I went ahead and had the CT Scan with oral contrast and made them do it. My LFT's (liver function tests) were off the charts into the 400's and 500's and today they were back down in the 100's, and hopefully will be down in the normal range soon. I really, really wish I had been in SC for this surgery at MUSC, because let me tell you, they know nothing about the special needs of gastric bypass patients and had given me D5 in my IV, and yes, I did dump! I had diarrhea all night long and it was not fun at all with a foley in. I finally begged the chief resident to take it out and to put the LR in, and I had been drinking tons of propel myself. The doctor said because I had not eaten, they wanted me to have some calories and dextrose and could put up with the diarrhea instead of bad electrolytes and too much sodium would cause death....but I told him I had been drinking jugs of propel which has electrolytes since I got back from surgery. They do not have a separate bypass wing, and this hospital is like a county hospital, however, the 2 docs that treated me were tops....but unfortunately the hospital is not! Blessings to everyone for all the prayers and support!! I am going to go to now and get some zzzz's so I can make sure I get home tomorrow. Deb

PS He said this was from losing all the weight, so it should not happen again. I guess if I still had my gallbladder, it would have had to come out. That is why my bile duct was huge, like a balloon. The doctors and residents were amazed how much pain I had tolerated for so long. Love, Deb

Glad to hear you are doing good. I was just worried about you. I didn't think you would tell us you were ok yourself. I figured someone may have called you or something. I am glad all that is behind you. Get some rest and get home so you can heal. Thanks for letting me know. LOL. Love, Theresa

Hi Deb, It's a real relief to know you came through the surgery with no problems, and now you can look forward to feeling GOOD for a long, long time. Sorry you had to endure a less-than-ideal hospital and nursing experience, but at least the docs in charge were top-notch. Take good care of yourself, and get lots of rest to recover. Dawn

So glad that you are going home tomorrow and are feeling better. I've been so worried about you. Wish you had been at MUSC also. Get better soon!! Mary

Wow, Deb! I'm so glad they were able to take care of everything, and glad you're going home tomorrow! I hate to hear about the dumping -- that is just awful! Please take care of yourself, and hang in there! You remain in my prayers. Lisa

Hey Girl! I am so glad to hear that you are OK. I wish you were back in SC too, not onyl for MUSC but with LCBB. We love you!!! Hugs, Britt

Hi! I'm so relieved for you that you've put this all behind you and that it was finally determined what has been causing you so many problems for so long. Now, you can just rest and heal. I've been keeping up with you through the message board, even if I've been out of touch. I've been having some ups and downs with energy, adjusting to my pacemaker, but I'm doing very well in general, and making a lot of progress with my house. Mostly, I overdo with painting and redos and then spend a couple of days recovering. I wish I was there to help you and to give you a big hug! Love you, B

Deb...I am so sorry about the imcompetence of the staff at the hospital...we are a very special group (large I add) that hospital staff need to be addressing more appropriately. I suppose we just need to be verbal to our surgeons so they can get things done for our care. I am glad you came through OK and thank the Lord for watching over you. Hope you come home as scheduled and heal quickly. In Christ, Joan M

So glad to hear you came through so well, Ms Deb, even though it seems you really had some major problems they had to repair! I hear this over & over ... That most Doctors, no matter how great they are in their own specialty, don't understand the special needs & limitations of gastric bypass patients. So sorry you went through the dumping. That is miserable. Can't wait to hear that you are home & on the mend. God bless you ... Dawn & Nick