staples shifting?

Hi all,

It has been almost 17 yrs since i had my rny-distal. So much updating and catching up to do here but right now i am wondering if anyone has had their staples shift. I am not sure if they are from my PS or my RNY all i know is they are not where they used to be in my abdomin. Yes, i could feel them before they moved lol. I can actually feel the corner of a few of them since.

It is very sharp pain. Sometimes when i eat, sometimes not. There really is not paticular time when it bothers me more. In January i finally went to the ER because sharp pain**** when i was walking and it was sharp and painful enough it brought me to my knees...literally.. oh wait not so i colapsed and hit my head on a cart here at home and it knocked me out cold. Yes, thats the truth lol.

Back to these staples shifting. I had a CT scan and it showed only a hiatal hernia (yea! ) but if they didnt know where the staples were supposed to be they wouldnt know if they moved. I had my RNY at Ft Campbell and i live in Oregon. Any insite would be great. I called the local bariatic CENTER and they told me they only saw pre op patients....OMG seriously?!

Have a wonderful day everyone

KK@goal

5-2-2002 RNY distal

wife to the late Steve Livesay

Have you seen a GI doctor?

I haven't yet no. I figured i would check on here while i was waiting for my appointment. sometimes talking to post op wls patients is something i like to do as to finding out if i am the only one this has happened to. more likely than not i am not the only one.

It seems like going to a GI doc would be the right call, so I hope that's the appointment you're waiting for. Good luck!

It's sounds like the pains I had with my ulcer. Could that be a possibility? I had my surgery with Oregon Weight Loss Surgery out of Good Samaritan Hospital. They and the Legacy Weight & Diabetes Institute are on the same floor. My Surgeon is Dr Avishai Meyer and he is great. I don't know if that helps but I hope you feel better soon!

Thank you for your reply. This is defenatly not my pouch. After i had lost all my weight and after my TT i have been able to feel my staples in a neat lil row lol. If i moved certain ways you could see the lil bumps too. If i ran my finger acrosss my incision lines they could be felt. i am not sure if these were from which surgery. If i had to take a guess it would be my TT. I had an extensive TT, my upper and lower abdomin were done.

Even now if i ran my finger lightly across my skin where it hurts i can feel a corner here and there. Thats how i know it is my staples. They are no longer in that neat lil line from my belly button down. They are now in different areas then they used to be. Not just an inch off. Like wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out of wack.

I called the bariatric clinic here since i know what the feeling is nd they do not accept post op patients. unbelievable. I have been on prilosec for years due to the ulcer problems. It is just beyond bothersome with this . I cannot have anything putting pressure on those painful spots.

thank you though

You might not be able to see staples on the CT scan. They're very small, and in the case of anastamoses sometimes they are hand-sewn and not necessarily stapled...especially 17 years ago. You definitely can't see mine on the CT scan, and sometimes it's hard to see bypassed anatomy without contrast.

I would definitely keep calling bariatric places; Oregon has several. If you're far from Portland it'd still be worth a drive there to get it checked out. A distal RNY is rare these days and may have other complications a typical RNY does not. I would not mess around with it. Seeing someone yearly is vital since we have more malabsorption, and you should still get labs from somewhere.

As for staples shifting, organs move, but if the staples healed correctly they should not drastically move like that to my knowledge. You also should always be able to feel them, necessarily. It may have been a seroma or scar and not staples, per se. It's impossible to tell online what it is, though.

That's odd about the bariatric center, as my surgeon still wants to see you yearly for life, and they will take on new patients who have moved and so forth.