Question:
I am 2 1/2 yrs post op, open bypass, severe abdominal PAIN

Anyone with this problem this far post-op? If so what is the treatment and prognosis? please tell me your experiences with small bowel obstructions. just got discharged from er and this is the ending result with a kidney stone at the same time. I am scared to death.    — BRANDY K. (posted on June 3, 2004)

June 3, 2004
Hi Brandy, Were you diagnosed with a small bowel obstruction? I have suffered abdominal pain and lower back pain. I am 2 years post op. I have gone to the doctor several times, once I was told that it was my gallbladder acting up, another time it was gas, and now they have told me that it is constipation. It is all the same pain. I am taking metamucil and stool softners, but I still have the same pain. I will have to go back to the doctor. Can we have small obstructions this far out? I don't know what kind of doctor I should see, my WLS doctor moved to another state.
   — Allison M.

June 3, 2004
I too have this happen some. In my case the pain goes around to my back and up my chest. I take Nexium, it stops. I'm assuming mine is an ulcer. But I've also had pain simuliar to this and to the right side and back... and an xray showed I was "full of sh##". So if you have "Stool" up inside you that will cause pain. Do keep seeing doctors or whatever you need to do. Don't give up.
   — Danmark

June 3, 2004
I'm just about 2 years post op and had pain so bad it landed me in the ER. They did a catscan and found nothing (had to even give me morphine). I tried to tell them it was serious because I was actually crying. I've had two natural/unmedicated childbirths so I can tolerate pain!! (that's what I told them). I was sent home with percocet. I believe I have an ulcer and am now taking Prilosec OTC which seems to work. If I don't have prilosec, I have to take Mylanta as soon as I feel it coming on to stop it.
   — emilyfink

June 3, 2004
Hi brandy, I have had the sam eproblem and I am now 17 mths post op, fist time they said it was an ulcer, so now I taske nexium to help that out , then the second time the pain was so bad they ran all kinds of test and said it was a kidney stoen and sent me home with pain meds and said it should pass on its own which it did, but I know that kidney stones which this is the first time I have ever had one, they can hurt terribly worse thatn childbirth, I never felt pain like that, I was in tears until they pumped morphine in me, so it probably is that, And one time I was sent to the Er because I had so much pain, coem to find out it was due to another ulcer, and form so much constipation, they though I had a small bowel obstruction but it truned out to be okay and it was just backed up stool so they had to give me stool softners to help that out, and some mallox, so do try that! take care, I hope you feel better soon, if you do have a bowel obstruction, then please do continue going to your surgeon for answers, that is something you don't want to mess around with, they can run more tests on you to make sure!
   — Melodee S.

June 4, 2004
Hi, Brandy, I had a small bowel obstruction at 19 months out from my Open RNY. The pain came on fairly quickly, on a Sunday night and by Monday night I was in the ER. My first mistake was not going to the ER where my surgeon is as I was admitted and seen by a surgeon that basically said, "due to the gastrci bypass it is kind of hard to see what might be going on, your anatomy isn't quite what it should be and it is hard to tell if you might have an obstrcution." He was a definite naysayer about Gastric Bypass surgery and I feel he pretty much did not do everything he could to diagnose my problem. Anyway, they ran some tests and discharged me on Friday, still with a foley cath. in and lots of pain meds. They recommended I follow-up with my RNY surgeon. I made an appt. with her but before I could get in I was back in the ER because the pain was excruciating and I had started vomiting, and my belly had swollen like a basketball. This time though I went to the hospital where my RNY surgeon is. Within an hour of arriving she had seen me, admitted me and told me it was a small bowel obstruction and if the things they were trying first didn't work I would have surgery. The next morning she saw me first thing and within about an hour and a half I was in surgery. She found a flap of scar tissue had wrapped itself around my small intestine and was strangling it. Given that she is an amazing surgeon she was able to repair everything and didn't have to resect the bowel. She said if I had waited much longer I could have died from sepsis or a host of other issues an obstruction can cause. So, to end my mini-novel, my advice if this continues or happens again; run, don't walk, to your surgeon or the ER where he/she if on staff and get help! Signs of an obstruction that I had were; pain unlike anything I'd every expereince (even post-op RNY), vomiting, swelling of the abdominal area, and unable to have a bowel movement. The ER Dr. told me I should have come in by ambulance given how sick I was but I couldn't as they would have insisted on taking me to the local hospital, and we know how that worked out. Sorry for such a long post, feel free to write if you need more info. The best to you and I hope you are doing much better by now. Anita
   — ALF

January 6, 2005
please do not fool around with any kind of pain. In August of 2004 I celebrated my 2 years since gastric bypass,and one week prior I ended up having major surgery to repair what they call a "Petersons defect" all of my small intestines tore through the messintary linging and was litterally choking off and dying. This is a serious life threatening rare thing to have happen, but it does happen probably more then we know. This could of killed me had the surgeon not known what to do. These kind of things do not show up on x rays, ct scans or ultra sounds, was detected through exploritory surgery, and then having to open me up to make the repair. Again, I post this because I want to be able to save someones life possibly...do not fool around with pain at all...it could kill you.
   — LAURA T.