After Apollo Overstitch to correct Gastric Fistula & Reduce Stoma

Thanks J.O. I have a wonderful primary care doc who has been as frustrated as I.

still not feeling as healthy as prior to the surgery.

Hi Hun

I hope this message finds you happy and enjoying your day!

How are you feeling these days?

What was your starting weight when you had the Apollo ?

Than you

Hi Cher, 

Thank you for asking about me! I can say I'm much improved since my last post. I'm down 50lbs and moving better and more. I have less pain and am not taking pain meds any longer. For the most part I feel good and happy. Some days are harder to stay positive and it's easy for me to get down on myself but I just keep moving forward and am not giving up. 

Day of Surgery: 294 lbs

As of 11/6/15: 244 lbs

Current Weight Loss: 50 lbs

Thank you again, I appreciate your comment greatly!

J.O.

Our stories are almost identical. I too can hear and feel food moving into my stomach...you can too if you are in the same room with me. Can be a bit embarrassing in meetings at work.

Please continue to post updates. Im looking into getting the Apollo overstitch.

Good luck on your journey and thank you for posting

Hi Tricie,

Thank you for posting your comment. I can remember the sounds of my stomach before surgery. I described it as sounding like a construction zone so I know what you mean. 

I just posted an update here on how I've been doing lately. I can say I feel I made the right decision to have the Apollo Overstitch. That gastric fistula was making me so sick and preventing me from moving forward. 

I hope you can find a resolution that works for you. I know it's hard but try to stay positive and don't give up.

Thank you again for reaching out to me,

J.O.

Hello.  Thank you for sharing your experience.  Thanks to your sharing, I am now no longer worried as to whether or not I'm making the right decision to have the overstitch surgery done.  I am scheduled for May 26th.  I had rny in 2007.  Went from 340 to 143 and kept it off for 8 years.  Just starting to gain back and its coming on fast...189 now (yikes)... Can't let that happen again. My surgeon says I am the ideal candidate for the surgery.  I'm waiting until May 26th due to flex spending and long weekend to recuperate.  My Dr says I could go back to work the next day, but just to be sure I'm planning long weekend.  I will continue to follow you.  Prayers your way for continued success.

Sandra Johnson Smiddy

Hi Ya'll,

First of all can I thank you guys for asking questions and commenting? Thank you! I know I was searching the internet for any information on the Apollo Overstitch before my surgery and I didn't find much that was helpful. I'm posting my story hoping it will add a little more info from someone who's had the surgery. But it also helps me to share, to get it off my chest, and to see that I'm not alone, not the only one.

It's been 100 days since I had the Apollo Overstitch surgery to repair my gastric fistula and reduce my stoma.

Day of Surgery: 294 lbs

As of 11/6/15: 244 lbs

Current Weight Loss: 50 lbs

Height: 5' 10'

It seems to be holding, I can't see inside to check for sure but the symptoms I had before surgery are gone. No more hearing the contents of my gut drain from my small pouch through the fistula into the old stomach. No more pain on my sides where the stitches were placed to repair the fistula and the stoma. 

*Warning Poop Talk: Best of all no more chronic daily diarrhea, just normal poop. The first week I still had diarrhea, couldn't sneeze without a surprise, being only on broth and protein drinks. But then everything froze up and stopped working. I had to use Milk of Magnesia for a couple of weeks to get things moving right again. Everything is good now in that department, perfectly normal. 

I do feel fuller faster than before the surgery so I can tell reducing the stoma is working for me. Also, not hungry all the time anymore. I had a very short limb and together with the fistula I had a lot of bile reflux on top of acid reflux. This caused me to develop 4 ulcers. I have not had any symptoms of acid reflux/heartburn since the surgery.

The only way I know how much I'm eating is to record it so I've been recording everything I eat on an app on my phone. It helps me stay focused on my carbs, protein, calories, and fat intake throughout the day. I'm still keeping calories at or under 1100, carbs under 120 (I shoot for under 100), protein at 80 or more a day.

I've been working out in my home to either Jillian Michaels or Xbox 360 Fitness Evolution. I've even been doing sit-ups and easy pushups. And guess what....no charlie horse spasms in my abdomen!!! I couldn't believe it.

I think I've improved compared to four weeks ago when I couldn't even push my half loaded grocery cart or unload it to check out because of the pain from the stitches and yesterday I went to the mall shopping for five hours! And I bought clothes....for fun.

I do still have right quadrant pain but I can see an improvement. The severity of the pain comes and goes on my right side, at times it's really, really bad but usually it's barely there at all. I have no gall bladder and the possibility of gall stones left in the ducts have been ruled out. At this point it has yet to be correctly diagnosed so I don't know what is causing that pain but my liver labs were all higher then normal. This pain was present before the Apollo Overstitch  and is not caused from it but even it is improving.

My first R-N-Y was in 2001. I was 315 lbs and lost down to 145 lbs. I had no education on how to care for myself nutritionally afterwards which is another story.  

Then in 2004 I was diagnosed with cancer after the birth of my last child and went through a radical hysterectomy, chemo and radiation at age 36, It debilitated me. My strength was gone. I was malnourished and didn't know how to really care for myself, the doctors didn't take into consideration my new anatomy after the R-N-Y and how that was affecting my health and neither did I. I was clueless how to care for my malabsorption disorder. I was and am still treated as a normal patient with a normal stomach by any non-specialty doctor I visit. 

A few years later, my body had had enough and it couldn't handle the malabsorption disorder any longer. I developed tachycardia, and a host of other symptoms from being depleted of my nutrients. Now, after iron transfusions, vitamin b12 shots, and lots of chewable multi-vitamins, calcium and D those symptoms have improved and I now take my required vitamins, plus a b12 shot once a week.

Thank you again everyone.

J.O.

Hi, thank you for posting this.  Yesterday I was declined for a revision surgery because the risks outweighed the benefits...according to the surgeon anyway.  I have 2 gastro-gastric fistula's and have gained back all the weight I lost so I am now looking for information on how to get those repaired.  The surgeon said he wouldn't even do that because of all the scar tissue.  I didn't realize that a different type of surgeon aside from a bariatric surgeon could do the repair so this is good news to me.  Plan B, talk to my GP and see what he can find out.  Thanks again.

Hi Geminidawn,

I wish I would have seen your post before today. I know doctor appointments are stressful enough without getting news you don't want or agree with so I can sympathize with your experience. I do hope you have made progress in your investigation for appropriate health care. Thankfully, with the type of insurance I have I didn't need prior approval to see a specialist, so I referred myself to both the weight loss surgeon and later the gastroenterologist because any and all of the Primary Care doctors I had seen did not or would not connect the dots.

After a year with the weight loss surgeons, waiting for them to learn the Apollo Overstitch procedure, and seeing all their side docs like the therapist and the nutritionist I was finally told they may be able to preform it in another 12/18 months. Ugh, I thought. I was so sick and I was just wasting time with them.

I knew I needed the Apolo Overstitch and it wouldn't do me any good to refer myself to a gastroenterologist that was not preforming it so again luck was on my side and the ONLY gastroenterologist in WA State that could perform the Apollo Overstitch took my insurance was only 45 minutes away from me.  So with proof in my hand showing I had a gastric fistula I self referred.

Again I feel I was lucky for finding the gastro doc because he went and preformed another endoscope, and did it better, he found more information out about me than the weight loss surgeon had found. And he continued with other tests, that helped to proper diagnose and understand my anatomy and how to help me.

Keep fighting the fight for good health. It took me too long to figure I had to be an active participant in the choices of my health care, in fact a heck of a lot more active and I'm not done yet either.

Thank you for sharing with me and good luck. :))

~J.O.~

My daughter was rejected by Mass General for the same reason. Fortunately they referred her to the Endoscopy dept at another Boston Hospital.  Keep trying.