I have a perferated ulcer..

Oh boy, have I been through the ringer and back.  I have been in the hospital a total of 3 times in 2 weeks, and nothing is really getting better.  (Pain wise that is)  I found out I have a perferated ulcer...which I didn't even know what it was until 2 weeks ago.  After going in to ER I was there 6 hrs, then they life flighted me to the origanal hospital (2 hrs away by car) saying I only had about 2 hrs to live.  My Dr. was there waiting for me and did emmediate surgery on me.  Put a drain tube in, yada yada yada...I was in ICU for 3 days and reg. room 2 days then went home.  When they took the drain tube out, (the day I went home) I guess there was still drainage going on...so it has now formed into a mass the size of an orange down near my rectum(sorry to be so gragric) but anyway, it is a very hard mass.  It can't be drained or even penetrated with a needle.  The are now playing a waiting game for it to dissolve on its own????  Or wait to do surgery in about 6 weeks, as Dr. said it is to soon to do surgery now(he would rather waite so risk of infection isn't so high he said  I think.} ( Pain killers have a way of making ones memory not to good.)  This is the medicine I am on... Endocet (Percocet)  7.5/325 1-2 every 6 hrs as needed for pain Metronidazole 2 pills once day with food Levaquin I tablet daily. Carafate 1 tablet 4x a day. Prilosec 2 tablets 2 a day.   My quesions to you all is is there anything else I can do or take to make this go away or not maybe that, but is there anything I can do to more myself to get better.  One other facter is I was a pack a day smoker.  I no of so many folks who have had RNY that smoke I just had no idea how serious it was to stop smoking after this surgery.  This is the only complication I have had since surgery.  I have been very healthy and managed weight pretty well since surgery.  I started out at 250 and now /was at 115.  I am going to start taking ensure to gain weight so I have a little bit of leway (SP) so I dont widdle away to nothing and have some extra weight so if something else happens I don't get sicker ect....  I have had a total of 5 cigs since all this has happened.  I will stop completely very soon, I just haven't yet, as I am so miserable it seems to soothe my nerves.  I know it is a big part of the problem though.  Other than the smoking issue and now this perferated ulcer I have been healthy as a horse.  I will also add I don't take my vitamins, but then again, I have my labs done reguraly and they come back great!  So again I never relized anything was abnormal going on inside me.  Has anyone else gone though this, and is there any advise you all can give me?   Thank you for taking the time to read my story and possibly give any advice(that I would first check with Dr. about) would be much appreciated. Oh yes, they also said it could take up to 3 months to heal.  Is this true as well? Thanks again,  Michelle

I am wondering what the symptom are for an ulcer.  Did you have abdominal pain?  I am having some abdominal pain that radiates up to my mid chest area with some burning.  I ocurrs a few days every month.  I am not sure if this is due to GERD, I am on medication for this problem or if something else is going on.  I am two years out from RNY. Good luck you to!!! 

I can only advise you to quit smoking immediately.  My surgeon won't do surgery on smokers for this very reason.  Continue doing everything else you've  been doing, just quit smoking.  I know that's easier said than done, but you really are jeopardizing your life if you continue to smoke.  What happened to you, could have killed you.  I've seen it happen more than once.  I hope you recover quickly and are feeling better soon.   

Wow!   I just had the same thing happen, although got into surgery much faster, and only spent 2 days in the hospital.   I hope you are doing better, since I saw that your post was dated in August. What are you eating now?  This seems to be my biggest challenge........

I can tell u that i am four years out and have been in the hosp. for a total of 22 months, 70 blood transfusions alng with numerous other conditions due to perforated ulcers.  They have been cut out four times and as of November oanother one has grown back and is bleeding agian.  I have coded three times this year alone.  I am thankful to say that I am now at 109 pounds as opposed to the 80 pounds I got down to.  I cannot promise it goes away completely, but with the proper medication and diet, it does get better.  My story is soooo long that I cant write it all down right now.  If you want to email  me feel free.  It is [email protected].  I will clue you in on everything.  Good luck to u

i just had a pererated ulcer and they did a revision on me for this im asuming they gave me a new pouch but im not sure? im still not feeling well are u a smoker? they blamed my ulcer on smoking then my surgeon became a jerk to me so im switching drs i been in and outta the hosp several times for dehydrating and low potassium levels and still dont feel good at all im wishing id had it reversed but it may be to late for this i just dont no?

I am now a little over 5 years post op from RNY.  At 2 yerars out, I had my gall bladder remoeved. At 3 years out, I woke in the morning with about the same pain as I had when the gall bladder attack came on. Except I had shoulder pain as well??? Went to the hospital and was told it was a ruptured bowel. Went by ambulance to another hospital, where the Bariatric surgeon was waiting to do emergency surgery on me. It turned out to be a perforated ulcer. He did a Grahm patch to fix it. Since then, I have been on 160mg of Prilosec a day, Carafate twice a day and numerous other stomach meds to try to ease the abdominal pain. On April 1, 2008 I had surgery because they suspected it was an internal hernia, in the intestine. The surgeon only removed a band of adhesions from my intestine and determined that the original surgeon had bypassed way too much intestine, only leaving 35cm length. This is what has caused the ulcer I had, and continues to cause everything I eat or drink to reflux back up into my pouch, keeping my pouch irritated and causing alot of abdominal pain.  The new surgeon has suggested a revision to lengthen the intestine coming from tjhe pouch. Right now it is only 35cm long and he said the shortest lenght he leaves in 70. So, that is twice as short as normal.  I will have the next surgery in a month or so, after I heal from the surgery I just had on Tuesday. Since my original surgery, I have gained about 30 pounds. So I am hoping this will help in getting that back off as well. I, too am a smoker. My Dr. says the only people they have seen with perforated ulcers are the patients that continue to smoke.

I'm wondering all if when you talk about smoking, if its cigarette smoking?  I wonder about the smoking of other substances?

I realize this is a very old post but, I wanted to thank you for this post. I had my RNY on Dec. 21, 2010 and quit smoking long enough to get the surgery and then started smoking again as soon as I got out of the hospital. I developed an Extremely Large ulcer in my pouch. I was put on carafate liquid and protonix for the ulcer and up until today... still smoke (with meds, the ulcer doesnt hurt anymore) but.. then after reading your post I realized that this can get a lot worse if I continue to smoke. Thanks for an old yet fairly new post!


Kathy