Ulcers and RNY

Just kind of curious if any of the gastric by-pass patients on this board have had ulcers either before or after their surgery.

I had pain beginning Oct 2012, at first it was every other month I would double over...then this past June it became worse where the pain would often be in the evening and last for a good hour, then it progressed to several days in a row, I had (2) ultrasounds which showed (gallstones) which I have had since prior to surgery and the pain was getting worse.

 I had an endoscopy last week and it showed that I have a large ulcer. 

I am now on (2) prescriptions and I hope that will alleviate the pain and do what it needs to do, in the meantime I have had to give up coffee, citrus, tomatoes and spicy foods.

Just wondering if anyone else has dealt with ulcers (please specify if it was before or after your surgery).

I do fully realize that there is no definite cause that they can attribute to having an ulcer and having been in a car accident in late August and other personal stresses..I can somewhat explain that these things may have contributed to having an ulcer,

i only found out that i had tons of ulcers in my throat after my gastroscopy before my RNY.

they told me that i would not be a good candidate for the sleeve because it essentially squeezes the acids back up into your throat. so hence the RNY, even though i really wanted the sleeve so i could continue taking the NSAIDS for my arthritis.

no pain as of yet, but i have been on prevacid every since i found out. sorry i can't be of any more help.

i do try to avoid any citrus fruits/juices tho, just in case.

It has only just recently been suspected that I have an ulcer. I had RNY Oct 22 and currently have burning in my chest. It comes randomly and doesn't seem to get better when I eat, so not sure. I take prevacid? twice a day now but it doesn't seem to be changing much =/  I have an appointment on the 20th with my surgeon so I plan to discuss it then

Mary,

You can't ever eat those things again or just right now until the ulcer is gone?  You can't even drink decaf coffee?  I go on Thursday the 23rd of January for a scope at HRRH because my surgeon thinks I may have an ulcer also.  I am basically 14 months post op but at 6 months and 12 months when I tried to go off of prevacid I had unbelievable pain to the point I cannot eat or drink anything.  As long as I am on prevacid the pain is controlled.  Anyhoo, we will see what the scope says.  I like that I can just go on meds to fix the ulcer instead of surgery.  Good Luck!

Dana

it is an EXTREMELY  common side effect to have heartburn for up to 2-3 months after going off prevacid.. I had to start taking Ranitidine (Zantac) post prevacid.... on the onset of heartburn. You need to be weaned off prevacid.. I think it goes 6 days prevacid 1 day zantac.. 5 days prevacid, 2 days zantac, 4 days prevacid, 3 days zantac.. etc etc... Lynn V can also correct me if I am wrong! Now I rarely get heartburn and only occasionally have to take zantac... I didnt do the weaning thing I just popped a zantac a couple times a day for 2 months until I no longer got regular heartburn.. but Lynn weaned herself from it..

Hi,

Why don't they tell us this when they only give us a 6 month prescription for prevacid and they say we should be able to come off it with no difficulties.  If I had known that I would have weaned myself off it like that because I tried twice to come off of the prevacid and the pain was unbearable.  It was unlike any heartburn I have ever had in the past.  If it turns out that I do not have an ulcer (crossing my fingers) then I will wean myself as you said above.  How do you wean off of the Zantac once you are on that and no longer on Prevacid?

Thanks so much,

Dana

You can discuss with your pharmacist to see what they recommend.  Mine called it rebound reflux and he gave me a regimen to follow. I did 2 days prevacid, 1 day zantac for a week then I went 2 days prevacid, 2 days zantac for another week, then 2 days prevacid, 3 days zantac for a week then 1 day prevacid, 3 days zantac and by then I just did zantac for a week or so then stopped.  You don't have to wean yourself off Zantac as it doesn't cause rebound reflux.  I bought the Zantac 150mg and I was allowed to take 2 per day if needed so I'd take one as soon as I woke up then saved the other.  The first week, I had a bit of reflux on the zantac day but by the 2nd week it was gone on Zantac day.  I've been off it for months now and have never had heartburn since.

I don't know why they don't tell people or if they even realize it does this...  as mentioned, unlike Lynn, I went off prevacid cold turkey and just popped zantac as needed (sometimes two or three times a day!) for about 2 months until it finally went away for goof (for the most part) Now I just get regular heartburn on occasion

From what I have heard from people with ulcers.GERD and various ulcers/gastro difficulties, those types of foods etc, tend to cause ulcers to flare up.  I have a follow-up with my RNY doctor next week so I will find out more.  but caffeine is a big no n

o...I mean how the heck do I eat spaghetti and meatballs ever again if the meatballs are not cooked in sauce...when we used to cook them without sauce they were so dry I couldn't swallow them!

Years ago I had several rounds of ulcers, which ended when I was given antibiotics for h. pylori. I also learned some coping strategies to deal with severe stress.

Since RNY, I have NOT had any ulcers, nausea, dumping or any other stomach or digestive issues beyond occasional constipation when I haven't had enough water to drink.