Ulcers in remnant stomach and assoc with cancer

I'm 61 - 5 yrs post RNY - from 300 to 135 in one year - major Iron deficiency anemia since - with periodic iron infusions required - ferritin always low - all b levels are down - despite monthly B1, B6 and B12 injections.

in 2005 had a GI bleed requiring transfusion - ulcer found in pouch anastomosis site.

This year started with another GI bleed - endoscopy, colonoscopy, camera ingestion for 24 hrs - finally an exploratory lap into old stomach where an ulcer was found at stapling site.

I had a GI tube kept in place so that they could examine the old (remnant) stomach in 8 weeks for healing of ulcer - but after 3 weeks one tube fell out - another was placed using CT Scan - with lots of pain during and after the procedure - that tube stayed for 2 weeks and my dogs claws got cught in tube over weekend and tube was pulled out.  I decided to forego any more tubes - an option the surgeon offered me - and wait it out to see if another bleed occurs.

I'm a nurse researcher and went on a search for problems with remant stomachs after bariatric surgery - discovered there is very little known.  Most information is for patients who had stomach surgery for cancer and then had remnant stomach cancer years later.

The only real info I found had to do with a correlation between the bile produced in the old stomach being associated with cancerous changes in lab animals.  I was surprised by how much bile I produced every day while the tube was in.

Has anyone else had to deal with remnant stomach problems?

I've seen a few people posting about issues with the remnant stomach here and at quix.com.  You might want to check there.  Here there is a girl named Amy Berry (I believe) who has been quite open about her experience. Wishing you luck. sharon

Thanks for the connection to quix.com -

So sorry to hear you are having those problems too - only those who go through it can appreciate how painful that tube is - are you flushing it? or emptying it?  If yes - do you have a lot of fluid?
Can you do a ph test on it - to see if it's acid or alkaline?  Both can cause an ulcer in the pouch and remnant - but are treated differently.  I was being treated for acid production - and continued to have hidden bleeding after the January ordeal - saw a hematologist with a huge work up and was told it was post bariatric severe anemia - hemoglobin down to 8-9 once - then this August I came close to bleeding out at home - I was alone - got 911 and ended up with 10 units of blood - the bleeding kept going and my hemoglobin was at 5 - so I agreed to have the remnant stomach removed.  I was nervous about this - since I always thought I would be able to reverse the surgery if I had to. 

After this surgery - I had similar nutrition problems like after original surgery - no appetite - nausea with certain foods - keep losing weight - now at 120 - looking gaunt - before removing the stomach I had been grazing all day and was going up the scale - 155 just before this final surgery.  I'm a month after this surgery - doing better - nice to not have serious craving again - happy with the weight loss - ready to stabilize - hope your problem gets resolved without any major surgery -  Keep in touch - there are only a small number of people who had/have problems with remnant stomach.
Erica

I am going thru this very thing right now!  Just got home from a week in the hospital.  Had severe upper left quadrant pain straight thru to my back; unrelenting but all tests negative.  Finally had exp lap and she found issues with the remnant.  I have the GT now (VERY PAINFUL) and she will scope in 4 weeks to check out the remnant.  I think I might have an ulcer in there.  How did you make out long term?  I can't imagine living with this damn tube for very long.  Not able to work at this point either.