one year check up....

Welll everyone I had my one year check-up yesterday and I am bringing back some good news and some not so good news. The good news is I am down an amazing total of 202 lbs. I was stunned and amazed, I think doc Brolin was too. The not so good news is I have to go in for a little more surgery. I have been having some pain in my abdomen mostly on the left side, but sometimes on the right and sometimes it's my lower abdomen. The pain ranges from a dull ache to a around a 6/7 on a scale from 1-10. So the story is that when they reattach your intestines at 367 lbs everything fits nicely but when you lose alot of weight there becomes a hole that the intestines can go into. This can be life threatening as the intestines can get stuck in there and die off due to lack of blood flow. It would be a laproscopic operation and he said maybe one night in the hospital, unless of course I give him a hard time to get me out of there in which case, if everything goes well, he'll let me go at sundown. I have not yet scheduled it but he wants me in there in the next couple of weeks, I just needed sometime to think about it. I'll be calling him Monday morning. This is not something I am thrilled about but it's better then ending up in the ER someday. Thanks so much for listening. Hope all is well with all of you! Jean

Hi Jean, Congratulations on your SUPER successful year. Wow! That is amazing! More than 200 lbs. - I'm sure that you feel wonderful. I'm really sorry to hear about your internal hernia problem, and I'm sending my best wishes for an uneventful surgery and a speedy recovery. Unfortunately this is more a complication of specifically having laparoscopic RNY, not from losing the weight. I'm sure Dr. Brolin can tell you, this complication is seen much less frequently with open gastric bypass. Irene

Really...I didn't know that. He actually did not give me the impression that it happens that frequently with either surgery. Did this happen to you?

No, it didn't happen to me. At my consultation, I was informed that it was a known complication that was seen much more frequently with Laparascopic gastric bypass. I knew that internal hernias were a life threatening complication so I opted for open gastric bypass. I also wanted the procedure that my surgeon does - Vertical Banded Gastroplasty/RNY Gastric Bypass (VBG-RGB) because I was concerned about stoma failure and wanted to avoid that. Irene

I forgot to say thank you for the congratulations and yes I do feel wonderful. I just wonder if we are talking about the same thing, as my doctor did not use the words "internal hernia" at all when explaining it to me. But I will be researching it thoroughly in the next few days. I was going to call and schedule the surgery today but the last two days have been pain free so I am going to do some more thinking and researching first. Thanks again. Jean

Jean, congrats on your tremendous weight loss. You should be proud of yourself. Your pain and description sounds exactly like mine last summer. The pain was sudden but would also stop just as quickly. It would happen out of the blue, for no reason (although I continually tried to figure out if it was something I ate or did). Sometimes it was just a dull ache, mostly on the left side, sometimes center but sometimes it just doubled me over. I finally went to see Dr. Mehta. Scheduled surgery and lo and behold - I had a hernia, obstruction, stricture and adhesions. I went home the same day (at sundown) but I think I should have stayed overnight. My pain level was high the first night and hard to control. I was given oxycontin for the pain in the hospital but it didn't work. My surgeon was still there when the nurses contacted him and he prescribed 2 percosets on top of the oxycontin. In 20 minutes I was good. Went home about 5:30 pm (in rush hour traffic -not good - very uncomfortable in the car). Took a few percosets later that night. The next day - felt great. I was bad - I only stayed home for less than a week. Supposed to be home for 2 weeks. Of course, I have adhesions again and probably a hernia (doc says it feels like one) but I need to have some female surgery first so I think I'll just deal with it for a while. Good luck to you. Please let me know how you do. I will be thinking about you. Kathy

Thanks Kathy for the congrats and for telling me your story. It helps to know that I am not the only one with these strange symtoms. My pain is mostly on my right side but can also be in my lower abdomen as well as on my left side on occasion. The strangest thing is how bad the pain can get and how it disappears. Today I am completely pain free and feeling great but needless to say I scheduled my surgery just an hour ago for the 23rd. I go for pre-admission testing tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes and I am so happy that it all worked out great for you. Good Luck with your upcoming surgery also, keep us posted. Take care and thanks again! Jean