Home from surgery.. no more gallbladder, no more hernia, and barely missed having to be...

Here is hoping they have it figured out. In short, started having stomach isssues a while back and by August couldn't keep solid food down. Intiially they thought ulcer, and omnaprazole was started. That helped. Still had issues. Ultrasound confirmed gallstones. I was overly tender so the gastro doc sent me for a CT that found a large hiatel hernia. My surgeon thought it was possible that the CT was misread due to this not happening typically to folks, so next was the Upper GI. Confirmed that nearly all of my stomach had squished out into the chest area. This past Monday morning was surgery day, and the surgeon read the GI results in front of me for the first time. He essentially said it was "fascinating" due to how incredibly mucked up my stomach was. He pondered out loud for a while on the best way to handle it. Thus, going into surgery I was warned it would entail getting rid of the gallbladder, fixing the hernia, and very likely tightening the sleeve due to it bulging out so badly due to the hernia. Ugh. High risk for sure. Love my guy though and totally trust him.

Ends up during surgery once he squished the stomach back into the proper position it was still reasonably normal as far as sleeves go- it was just the hernia part jacking it up. Whew! I was a little worried about the sleeve being tightened because I already couldn't eat much and at goal. So now, just a few weeks of a liquid diet + some soft food to allow healing. Had to do another Upper GI post op to check for leaks and thank goodness passed that. I have so much barium in me by now due to 2 Upper Gis and the CT being within 1 week of each other I am pretty sure I could glow in the dark. 

Anyway, I feel much better now that I am at home. The pain is super easy to manage, and I have absolutely no appetitie so no worries at the moment of sitting around and gaining. (I always have to fight that post-op, too easy to put calories down when one just sits around all day.) He put a mesh on the hernia so hopefully that darn stomach will stay put! Fingers crossed this takes care of everything. He did say if the acid continues to be an issue there could be a revision to RNY. Dear Lord I hope not!

glad to hear everything worked out and you're feeling better :)

Happy Teacher it sounds like you have been through a lot and I am sorry to hear that! But it sounds like you have a good surgical team/doctor and they fixed you up well. Good luck in your healing, I'm glad your pain is well managed, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday depending on what you celebrate.

Glad to hear you've come through everything okay. Here's hoping no RNY will be needed.

psychoticparrot

"Fascinating" - my PCP as often held that you don't want to be an "interesting" patient, and this sounds like the same thing. I'm glad that it all came out well. Hopefully this resolves your acid issues and you don't have to resort to a bypass. If it comes down to that and you still want to avoid going that route, check out some of the old line DS surgeons, as they often have a few more tricks up their sleeve (so to speak,) than those who are newer to the sleeve game, though if a bypass is what you need, they aren't afraid to tell you so.

Good luck in your continuing recovery,

Yikes, I hope all is resolved for you and that you heal quickly. Your great attitude towards this should help.

Glad you are home and not too out of sorts. Keeping my fingers crossed that the reflux goes away as you heal. Kind of nice to have no appetite as Christmas approaches - though I guess you're still on liquids. Be sure you get enough in so you don't lose too much in the next few weeks. 

Merry, merry!

Congratulations on a successful surgery happy teacher. You've been through so much the last few months and weeks, and I hope the bad part is behind you, and the best is yet to come.

You've had a long road getting this diagnosed and treated happyteacher. I'm hoping all you have remaining is the recovery from this surgery, and you'll be good as new. I'll swing a chicken for you.

Thank you for sharing your story. I have been worring about Gallbladder problems and your experience let me know what types of problems to look out for.  Take good care of yourself and have a Merry Christmas and Happy Healthy New Year!