Finally doing better after surgery on Aug. 22 and some complications.

I had my open RNY gastric bypass on 8/22/03. My surgeon was Dr. McNatt at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown. I did very well in the hospital, and was discharged after 3 days. A few days later when I saw the MD for followup, I felt awful, I had gained 25 lbs of fluid and my incision was draining so much I had to use bath towels to catch the drainage. The doctor put me on a fluid pill, and gave me pain medicine. After 3 days of misery, I had to go to the ER. I had a CT scan and there was several large pockets of fluid and infection under the incision, but no leaks in the stomach. They opened the bottom part of my incision, drained a lot more fluid and kept me in the hospital for a week. I recieved IV antibiotics and since my incision was opened they had to pack it with gauze twice a day. I'm home now and starting to feel better. I still have to pack my wound twice a day ( I'm a nurse so I know how to do this) and its still painful but I think I'm on my way to recovery after this temporary setback. I lost the 25 lbs of fluid that I had gained plus I lost 28lbs more, so I am happy with that.

Dianne, Glad to hear that your doing better.....and WTG on the weight loss..... I will be having my surgery on Sept29, and Dr.McNatt will be doing mine also.. I'm sacred, nervous and excited...I can't wait to be on the loosing side.... ~shirley~