Hi everyone. I've been missing for a couple of days, but wanted to share some things about postop life that might be of use to some of you. I was 3 years out last August, lost about 290 pounds, reached goal weight in a year. I never had any sort of complication, issue, hiccupp of any kind. I really had an ideal WLS experience.

I'd been having some gastro issues for a couple of weeks. Trouble swallowing food or fluids. I started omeprazole, which seemed to help a little. But I had my annual checkup scheduled for Dec 1, and my yearly with my surgeon a couple of weeks after. I figured I'd never get in to see either one any sooner than that.

 Then monday morning I had horrible sweats, shaking, dizziness. Soaked a t-shirt like I just ran 5 miles. I had awful diarrhea. I didn't bother looking, but should have. Turns out it was likely all blood. Anyway, I passed out a couple of times and was constantly dizzy, so I got a nice ambulance ride. 

My local hospital decided it was orthostatic hypotension, low blood pressure from dehydration, even though I told them I had over 200 ounces of fluid the day before, and 60 during the Pats' game alone. They gave me a couple of IVs and sent me home.

Late that night I crapped out a **** ton of blood. I deduced this was not good, so I had a friend drive me in to the hospital where I had my surgery, and where my PCP and surgeon are. 

They took a look under the hood and found I had an "oozing cratered ulcer with visible vessels was found distal to the gastrojejunal anastomosis, 4 cm at it's widest." They cauterized the leakers, and will keep an eye on me to make sure they got it all. They estimated I had lost 6 or 7 units of blood altogether.

They can't say if it had anything to do with my RNY or not. Everything my surgeon did is still intact. Pouch and stoma look great. The ulcer was about half way between the two anastomoses, so I very well could have gotten this regardless. Lots of people who never had WLS get ulcers. I've never had ulcer trouble before, and haven't taken NSAIDs at all, not so much as a single baby aspirin. I've never smoked, and haven't had alcohol for 15 years maybe. Sometimes, **** just happens. But bloody **** shouldn't.

If it isn't TMI, since the first bloody crap I've had this horrible odor. No gas. It just seems to come right out of my pores. I told the gastro docs, and they said it confirmed the higher up leak, rather than being at the bottom end. The smell was me digesting my own blood. Does that make me a cannibal? A vampire? I'm assuming blood has calories. How do I log this? I tried putting whole blood into the MFP database, but they were no help.

I was lucky a couple of ways. I had just had labwork done the day before Thanksgiving, so they had a good baseline for my labs. And my labs WERE really good, so I had great reserves. But they said I had lost 6 or 7 units of blood in less than 24 hours. My blood pressure at the second ER bottomed out at 58/38. Over the course of just a day, my hematocrit went from 53.2 to 21.6, and my hemoglobin from 17.3 to 7.2. My ferritin last week was 364, but they haven't tested it since. I guess my point is, if my numbers before this were on the low end of the range instead of the high end, I'd have been seriously ******

I'd like to reiterate to everyone who has had WLS, be responsible for your own health. It's your responsibility, and no one else's. Take all your supplements and get your labs done. FOR LIFE. Keep track of every result. I use a spreadsheet that keeps track of all my labs. Trends are critical. if things slowly go up or down over time, you should make sure they get addressed. DO NOT accept a phone call that says "Everything looks good," or "Everything is in range." Mine were at the top end of the range. If they had started out at the lower end, I'd have been in serious trouble.

Don't be one of the many people who post here saying they've been away from OH for a long while, and they didn't keep up with vitamins and labs, and now they have all sorts of problems. You will be able to slide by for a while without consequences. But eventually it can bite you on the ass. And if you ever have a serious problem, you might have no ass left to bite.

Holy **** Grim!   Glad you came through that okay.  It's a good thing you were so healthy going into this health situation, or you might have been in a different kettle of fish.  

Don't worry about the calories in the blood your digesting... it's off the charts with protein.. Bright side?

Are you still in the hospital? Hope your feeling better.

OMG, Grimm how scary that must have been!  I appreciate you sharing and I take your warning very seriously.  Take care of yourself!

Good Lord!!! This is an amazing and frightening story! I am so glad you caught this. Can't help but think we almost lost you, Grim.  We may well have lost you if you hadn't been so vigilant and healthy before this happened.   

Thanks for sharing so we can once again learn from your experiences.  

Please rest up and recover quickly. A world without Grim would be... Grim indeed.  

Oh, Grim!  I am so sorry to hear you had to go through this.  Scary!  Thanks for reminding everyone that we all need to be diligent.  Something similar happened to me a couple weeks after surgery.  H & H got down to what yours were.  I was so cold all of the time until I grew more blood.  Stay warm.  OH wouldn't be the same without you!

That amazing! I awoke on monday morning with the exact same symptoms as you. I later realized it was just my reaction to the horrible officiating in the Pats game.

I'm glad that you share also Grim. The best advice I've received is to "treat it as a race at first, you won't get that time back". That gave me an avenue to a whole new perspective, and I've always wanted to tell you that. And now since time is of the essence....

No, just kidding. 

Thanks Grim

Im so glad you noticed it was blood that night. Thank you for reminding all of us to stay on track with our health. I love that you still have your sense of humor even through a traumatic like this. 

Grim- Get better soon!  This is great advice; I am sorry that it had to originate from such an awful experience...

Gadzooks, Grim!  Glad to made it back to the land of the living.  Thanks for the stern warning - I am good with my follow-up - but I know there are some who are only playing.

Whoa bro! That;s scary! Glad you made it through and thanks for thinking of us and sharing it with us. Gonna g get my labs dome now.