I've been in the hospital for the last 4 weeks
So sorry to hear of your rough time Val. I am glad you have posted here though because the support will help you get through this time. I know you must feel very terrible right now but your body is going to heal and you ARE going to get through this! Are you home now? If so then I know you are doing better! Do everything the Dr's are telling you (I am a nurse) and so much of your recovery is on how your mind tells you that you will do! Tell yourself you are going to get well and you will! I know it sounds crazy but believe me I see it everyday and it is true, the mind is very powerful! We are here to help! Soon you will be in a new better place. Hugs!
Sandi
Sandi
5'7" Tall SW 238 CW 149 GW 138 to 148
HOLIDAY CHALLENGE GOAL: TO BE 144 BY NEW YEARS DAY
Hi Val,
I'm Stacie, and I'm a leak survivor. This is my story:
I had my surgery with Dr. Marchesini (A Brazilian DS surgeon) in December of 2006. WIthin a few days of the surgery, he found that I had a leak, and I was put back in the hospital. I got a drain and developed pneumonia. I was NPO for 3.5 weeks, and stayed in Brazil for about 3 weeks longer than I had anticipated. Finally, Dr. M went to glue my leak shut with Fibrin glue, but they could not find it. Barium swallow and x-rays showed that my leak had finally healed, so we made plans to come home. Hooray! The night before we were to leave, I noticed grape juice in my drain bag. I was leaking again. Dr. M said that fistulas like mine would open and close before they closed for good. He sent me on my way.
I came home, and went NPO for another two weeks at Dr. M's suggestion. I was feeding myself through my feeding tube. After two weeks, the drainage stopped, so I started eating. All was good, so my doctor here in Florida pulled my tubes.
I was fine for four months, when one afternoon in mid-June, my blood pressure dropped and I started running a fever. I passed out in my living room, and I couldn't even sit up. My DH called 911 and I was rushed to the ER in an ambulance. There we found out that my leak was back, it had formed an abcess, and the abcess had burst causing me to go into septic shock. The nurse told me that I was lucky that I went to the ER immediately because I probably wouldn't still be there if I hadn't. I spent 3 weeks in a local hospital while they tried to figure out what to do with me, and then I was transferred to Tampa General Hospital under the watch of Dr. Murr, an RNY doctor. He was very willing to take on my case. I had several drains placed while I was at both hospitals, but they weren't working to empty the abcess. Finally, they got one in the right place. I was allowed to go home after 6 weeks total. I was NPO for about 5.5 of those weeks. Dr. Murr knew I was still leaking, but with the drain, he said I could eat again.
That drain fell out about 3 months later, and by Thanksgiving, I was back in the hospital with shoulder pain and I knew I was leaking again. Tests confirmed I was. A new drain was placed. I went home after two weeks of NPO.
I went about my business for the rest of the school year and checking in with Dr. Murr. My drain bag was putting out regularly, and things like red kool aid were horribly easy to identify. In May 2008, I went to see him for a check up and insisted that we do something, especially since I was off from school, and I'd had a drain for the better part of a year. He agreed to do a surgery to fix my fistula, but he said he might have to convert me to an RNY. Not to bash the RNY folks, but I was totally freaked out by that thought. I posted on the board here for advice, and they said to contact Dr. Gagner in MIami.
I wrote him with Dr. Murr's plan, and I heard back from in about two hours to not go ahead with the plan, and come see him. He was willing to see me the next day if I could have gotten down to Miami that fast, but I saw him about two weeks later. He said he'd do a surgery designed by Dr. Balthasar, but first he wanted to try placing a stent. I agreed to go ahead with the stent. He said the stent had about an 80% success rate with "chronic, non-healing" fistulas like mine.
In July 2008, I had my horrible stent placed. It was truly a heinous experience, and I don't wish a stent on anyone. I went home and suffered with that little beast. I went back down to Miami, and they did some more tests, and they said the leak was healed, so Dr. Gagner pulled my drain, and after 8 months it was such a relief to have it gone. It, unfortunately, didn't last. I was back in the ER within a week with a new abcess and more leaking. Another drain was placed, number nine, and I still had about 6 weeks to go with my stent.
In early September 2008, I had the stent removed and Dr. Gagner gave me the bad news that it didn't appear to have worked. I kept my drain. We agreed to do the Dr. Balthasar surgery over Christmas break when I was off again from school. For three weeks, the output in the drain got to be less and less. I was worried it had shifted or been pulled. On September 28, 2008, my drain just fell out. I was in a panic, but Dr. Gagner just said to get back to Miami for a new drain. I asked him if I could wait a few days because we had some family things going on. He said as long as I was not running a fever or feeling that shoulder pain, I could wait it out for a few days.
Well, I waited it out, and nothing happened. I checked my temperature every day for a year, and I have not been above normal. I have not felt any shoulder pain. Dr. Gagner thinks the stent really did work, but it just took a little extra time. He thought maybe I had a stricture that was putting pressure on the fistula. He's not sure exactly what happened, but something happened.
So it's been just over two years since my drain fell out. For those two years, I have been hospital free, drain free, leak free, abcess free, fever free, pain free. I'm thinking now that I'm finally healed. :)
If you're still with me here, the reason for my mini novel here today is that there is life after a leak. You are so lucky that your doctor placed the stent sooner rather than later, so you can get on with healing. The leak will not last forever. It will suck. You will hate it. (You will want to slap the silly out of people who don't have a complication and complain about things like not being able to eat cookies when you can't eat at all!) BUT It can be fixed, and you can get on with your life. I'm living proof.
Hugs. Message me if you want to chat. :)
I'm Stacie, and I'm a leak survivor. This is my story:
I had my surgery with Dr. Marchesini (A Brazilian DS surgeon) in December of 2006. WIthin a few days of the surgery, he found that I had a leak, and I was put back in the hospital. I got a drain and developed pneumonia. I was NPO for 3.5 weeks, and stayed in Brazil for about 3 weeks longer than I had anticipated. Finally, Dr. M went to glue my leak shut with Fibrin glue, but they could not find it. Barium swallow and x-rays showed that my leak had finally healed, so we made plans to come home. Hooray! The night before we were to leave, I noticed grape juice in my drain bag. I was leaking again. Dr. M said that fistulas like mine would open and close before they closed for good. He sent me on my way.
I came home, and went NPO for another two weeks at Dr. M's suggestion. I was feeding myself through my feeding tube. After two weeks, the drainage stopped, so I started eating. All was good, so my doctor here in Florida pulled my tubes.
I was fine for four months, when one afternoon in mid-June, my blood pressure dropped and I started running a fever. I passed out in my living room, and I couldn't even sit up. My DH called 911 and I was rushed to the ER in an ambulance. There we found out that my leak was back, it had formed an abcess, and the abcess had burst causing me to go into septic shock. The nurse told me that I was lucky that I went to the ER immediately because I probably wouldn't still be there if I hadn't. I spent 3 weeks in a local hospital while they tried to figure out what to do with me, and then I was transferred to Tampa General Hospital under the watch of Dr. Murr, an RNY doctor. He was very willing to take on my case. I had several drains placed while I was at both hospitals, but they weren't working to empty the abcess. Finally, they got one in the right place. I was allowed to go home after 6 weeks total. I was NPO for about 5.5 of those weeks. Dr. Murr knew I was still leaking, but with the drain, he said I could eat again.
That drain fell out about 3 months later, and by Thanksgiving, I was back in the hospital with shoulder pain and I knew I was leaking again. Tests confirmed I was. A new drain was placed. I went home after two weeks of NPO.
I went about my business for the rest of the school year and checking in with Dr. Murr. My drain bag was putting out regularly, and things like red kool aid were horribly easy to identify. In May 2008, I went to see him for a check up and insisted that we do something, especially since I was off from school, and I'd had a drain for the better part of a year. He agreed to do a surgery to fix my fistula, but he said he might have to convert me to an RNY. Not to bash the RNY folks, but I was totally freaked out by that thought. I posted on the board here for advice, and they said to contact Dr. Gagner in MIami.
I wrote him with Dr. Murr's plan, and I heard back from in about two hours to not go ahead with the plan, and come see him. He was willing to see me the next day if I could have gotten down to Miami that fast, but I saw him about two weeks later. He said he'd do a surgery designed by Dr. Balthasar, but first he wanted to try placing a stent. I agreed to go ahead with the stent. He said the stent had about an 80% success rate with "chronic, non-healing" fistulas like mine.
In July 2008, I had my horrible stent placed. It was truly a heinous experience, and I don't wish a stent on anyone. I went home and suffered with that little beast. I went back down to Miami, and they did some more tests, and they said the leak was healed, so Dr. Gagner pulled my drain, and after 8 months it was such a relief to have it gone. It, unfortunately, didn't last. I was back in the ER within a week with a new abcess and more leaking. Another drain was placed, number nine, and I still had about 6 weeks to go with my stent.
In early September 2008, I had the stent removed and Dr. Gagner gave me the bad news that it didn't appear to have worked. I kept my drain. We agreed to do the Dr. Balthasar surgery over Christmas break when I was off again from school. For three weeks, the output in the drain got to be less and less. I was worried it had shifted or been pulled. On September 28, 2008, my drain just fell out. I was in a panic, but Dr. Gagner just said to get back to Miami for a new drain. I asked him if I could wait a few days because we had some family things going on. He said as long as I was not running a fever or feeling that shoulder pain, I could wait it out for a few days.
Well, I waited it out, and nothing happened. I checked my temperature every day for a year, and I have not been above normal. I have not felt any shoulder pain. Dr. Gagner thinks the stent really did work, but it just took a little extra time. He thought maybe I had a stricture that was putting pressure on the fistula. He's not sure exactly what happened, but something happened.
So it's been just over two years since my drain fell out. For those two years, I have been hospital free, drain free, leak free, abcess free, fever free, pain free. I'm thinking now that I'm finally healed. :)
If you're still with me here, the reason for my mini novel here today is that there is life after a leak. You are so lucky that your doctor placed the stent sooner rather than later, so you can get on with healing. The leak will not last forever. It will suck. You will hate it. (You will want to slap the silly out of people who don't have a complication and complain about things like not being able to eat cookies when you can't eat at all!) BUT It can be fixed, and you can get on with your life. I'm living proof.
Hugs. Message me if you want to chat. :)
Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."
Thanks for posting to Val. I hope she checks-in soon or has responded via PM. ((hugs))
--gina
--gina
5'1" -- HW 195/SW 187/GW 115 July 08/CW 121 Dec 2012
******GOAL*******
Starting BMI between 35 and 40ish?
Join us on the Lightweights Board!
DS on Aug 9, 2007 with Dr. Hazem Elariny
Hi hon,
I am a serial leaker. I won't give you the litany of complications I had following my surgery last year. I'll let you read it here if you are interested: http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/ds/4247879/Consult-with-Dr -Roslin/#34918344
What I will do though is talk to you about my leak. After one of my complications I had to have my incision opened up due to a build up of serosangenous fluid.
I ended up having to go back to the hospital shortly after for a blood clot.
Came home and was home for 4 days. I was on enteral feeding through my J tube. Hubby comes into the bedroom to hook up my enteral feeding pump and notices that my shirt was soaked. He pulls my shirt up and pulls off the dressing. There was white ick all over my stomach and when I lifted my head white ick came farting out of my open incision.
Welcome to my leak. This started around the third week post op.
For me, having an open incision allowed the gastric ick to come out and not collect in my body. The body is good at finding the path of least resistance. I ended up coming home from the hospital on a vacuum wound pump. In the beginning the pump was pulling out 100 cc's of ick, sometimes more. Then the ick amounts started to decrease. When it got down to about 1 cc the doctor pulled me off of the vac. pump. He said that leaks usually heal on their own. I now had a small hole in my incision. The leak had caused a fistula to form. I was NPO and on enteral feeding for 3 month. The thought was that bowel rest and proper nutrition would heal the leak. I was allowed to start on liquids and eventually allowed to eat. I had a difficult time getting in enough protein. At the time I hated the taste of protein drinks. I tried to get all my protein from food, but I was only getting on a good day about 35 grams. Far from the 100-150 grams I'm supposed to get a day. My leak continued. I have a tributary fistula tract that came from where one of the JP drains had been, which also leaks ick. A couple of times that tract would close, but would cause the ick to build up and I got an abscess that had to be lanced. This happened twice.
In April (2010) my leak had some sort of a blow out. Everything I drank would come immediately out of my fistula. I noticed food coming out too. I had eaten a fried egg earlier in the day and their were small pieces of the fried egg on my dressing. Off to the surgeons hospital I went again. I was once again made to go NPO and was put on TPN (IV liquid nutrition delivered through a central line). I was put on TPN because my nutrional levels were really bad. Dr. Greenbaum said that if my body had enough protein that the fistula and the leak would heal on it's own. Initially he said I would be NPO and on TPN for a couple of weeks. Those couple of weeks have turned into almost 7 months. In June I was referred to a gastro surgeon who sent me to an Interventional Radiology (IR) doctor. Initially it was to have fibrin glue put into the fistula, but the IR doctor said no, that fibrin glue would not work for my fistula because it was a mature tract (translation: I'd had it too long). He suggested a fistula plug, but because it was a new product and that the hospital had never used a plug in this manner (generally they are used for anal or vaginal fistulas) I had to go through a bunch of flaming hoops and hurdles. Finally on September 15Th I had the plug procedure. A month later I'm no longer leaking from the main fistula. I am leaking just a small amount in the tributary tract though. The thought is that as the body builds new cells that the leak will completely close and then the tributary tract will close on it's own. Right now I'm being weaned off of TPN and I'm allowed full liquids and some soft foods. Mostly I get all of my my protein from protein drinks. I am finally ready to move on to the end of this journey.
So, in the 14 months I've had this leak I have had nothing, but hope that it would heal. In the beginning when I was first having complication after complication I did have some buyers remorse. At one point I was so depressed that I sought help from my doctor and asked for drugs. On the way home from the doctor my father in law said that I needed to change my way of thinking and to just take things one day at a time. He was right. I decided that each day was one day closer to healing and even though I had no idea that I would have a chronic leak and have issues from it for 14 almost 15 months I just deal with it. I cannot do anything about it anyway. I found that having a good attitude and keeping the flame of hope alive each and everyday helped not only me, but it helped everyone around me to not pity me.
That for me was important. Did it suck? Sure and some days it still does, but for now you can't do anything about your leak except to be compliant and to let the doctors help you. Is buyers remorse normal? Absolutely! I think even if I hadn't had all the complications I had I still would have had some buyers remorse. And yes, I have had buyers remorse and occasionally I still do, but I remind myself that I CHOSE THIS and that I have to find a way to live with it. Trust me, as you start losing weight your buyers remorse will decrease.
In the meantime, keep hope alive and get well soon. If you need anyone to talk to, feel free to give me a call. Just PM me and I'll send it to you.
Warmly,
Maddie
I am a serial leaker. I won't give you the litany of complications I had following my surgery last year. I'll let you read it here if you are interested: http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/ds/4247879/Consult-with-Dr -Roslin/#34918344
What I will do though is talk to you about my leak. After one of my complications I had to have my incision opened up due to a build up of serosangenous fluid.
I ended up having to go back to the hospital shortly after for a blood clot.
Came home and was home for 4 days. I was on enteral feeding through my J tube. Hubby comes into the bedroom to hook up my enteral feeding pump and notices that my shirt was soaked. He pulls my shirt up and pulls off the dressing. There was white ick all over my stomach and when I lifted my head white ick came farting out of my open incision.
Welcome to my leak. This started around the third week post op.
For me, having an open incision allowed the gastric ick to come out and not collect in my body. The body is good at finding the path of least resistance. I ended up coming home from the hospital on a vacuum wound pump. In the beginning the pump was pulling out 100 cc's of ick, sometimes more. Then the ick amounts started to decrease. When it got down to about 1 cc the doctor pulled me off of the vac. pump. He said that leaks usually heal on their own. I now had a small hole in my incision. The leak had caused a fistula to form. I was NPO and on enteral feeding for 3 month. The thought was that bowel rest and proper nutrition would heal the leak. I was allowed to start on liquids and eventually allowed to eat. I had a difficult time getting in enough protein. At the time I hated the taste of protein drinks. I tried to get all my protein from food, but I was only getting on a good day about 35 grams. Far from the 100-150 grams I'm supposed to get a day. My leak continued. I have a tributary fistula tract that came from where one of the JP drains had been, which also leaks ick. A couple of times that tract would close, but would cause the ick to build up and I got an abscess that had to be lanced. This happened twice.
In April (2010) my leak had some sort of a blow out. Everything I drank would come immediately out of my fistula. I noticed food coming out too. I had eaten a fried egg earlier in the day and their were small pieces of the fried egg on my dressing. Off to the surgeons hospital I went again. I was once again made to go NPO and was put on TPN (IV liquid nutrition delivered through a central line). I was put on TPN because my nutrional levels were really bad. Dr. Greenbaum said that if my body had enough protein that the fistula and the leak would heal on it's own. Initially he said I would be NPO and on TPN for a couple of weeks. Those couple of weeks have turned into almost 7 months. In June I was referred to a gastro surgeon who sent me to an Interventional Radiology (IR) doctor. Initially it was to have fibrin glue put into the fistula, but the IR doctor said no, that fibrin glue would not work for my fistula because it was a mature tract (translation: I'd had it too long). He suggested a fistula plug, but because it was a new product and that the hospital had never used a plug in this manner (generally they are used for anal or vaginal fistulas) I had to go through a bunch of flaming hoops and hurdles. Finally on September 15Th I had the plug procedure. A month later I'm no longer leaking from the main fistula. I am leaking just a small amount in the tributary tract though. The thought is that as the body builds new cells that the leak will completely close and then the tributary tract will close on it's own. Right now I'm being weaned off of TPN and I'm allowed full liquids and some soft foods. Mostly I get all of my my protein from protein drinks. I am finally ready to move on to the end of this journey.
So, in the 14 months I've had this leak I have had nothing, but hope that it would heal. In the beginning when I was first having complication after complication I did have some buyers remorse. At one point I was so depressed that I sought help from my doctor and asked for drugs. On the way home from the doctor my father in law said that I needed to change my way of thinking and to just take things one day at a time. He was right. I decided that each day was one day closer to healing and even though I had no idea that I would have a chronic leak and have issues from it for 14 almost 15 months I just deal with it. I cannot do anything about it anyway. I found that having a good attitude and keeping the flame of hope alive each and everyday helped not only me, but it helped everyone around me to not pity me.
That for me was important. Did it suck? Sure and some days it still does, but for now you can't do anything about your leak except to be compliant and to let the doctors help you. Is buyers remorse normal? Absolutely! I think even if I hadn't had all the complications I had I still would have had some buyers remorse. And yes, I have had buyers remorse and occasionally I still do, but I remind myself that I CHOSE THIS and that I have to find a way to live with it. Trust me, as you start losing weight your buyers remorse will decrease.
In the meantime, keep hope alive and get well soon. If you need anyone to talk to, feel free to give me a call. Just PM me and I'll send it to you.
Warmly,
Maddie
HW (pre RNY) 430 / HW (pre DS) 302 / SW 288 /
Lowest weight 157 / CW 161 / GW 150
"I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight"
Thanks for showing your support and posting to Val. ((hugs))
--gina
--gina
5'1" -- HW 195/SW 187/GW 115 July 08/CW 121 Dec 2012
******GOAL*******
Starting BMI between 35 and 40ish?
Join us on the Lightweights Board!
DS on Aug 9, 2007 with Dr. Hazem Elariny
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