Question:
Did anyone get an infection after RNY?

My boyfriend is 1 month post op and was having horrible lower left quadrant pain. We found out after a CT hes has a abdominal abcess. I was wondering if anyone else exsperienced this???    — Julie W. (posted on July 19, 2008)

July 19, 2008
I am two years post op and did have an abcess that developed a couple weeks after the surgery. Actually I think it developed earlier, but became worse after they pulled the drain. I did not have the pain, but was concerned after my energy level was EXTREMELY low and I ran a fever for a few days. I was lucky that the infection was not in to the abdominal cavity where all the organs all, but above the abdominal wall and below the skin. In my case they put me back in the hospital for a few days, drained the infection out of the abcess and put me on strong IV antibiotics while I was in the hospital. Then they re-opened about 1" of the incision. After that they left the incision open and packed it so that it would heal from the iniside - out. I was told that, had they simply closed up the incision after draining it, the infection was just re-develop in the abcess. By letting it heal from the inside, it closed up the abcess while constantly draining any infection that developed. I hope that your boyfriend is doing ok now.
   — cburky911

July 20, 2008
Hi! I am two month post op from LapBand surgery. Although I didn't have an absess with this surgery I did last year after a C-section with my twins. Not long after I was discharged from the hospital with the C-section, my wound started draining fluid pretty badly. They eventually had to re-open and allowed it to heal from the inside out just as Chris has explained. However, during this wound debridment and healing process and they noticed that I had high temps, they did several CT scans and discovered I had a small absess to the right side of my abdomin. Thru the guided help of the CT they were able to drain the absess (drain hurt like hell, especially when I walked). They also had me on massive high doses of antibiotics that were only available thru IV so they couldn't discharge me (oral antibiotics weren't strong enough to get rid of the infection). But all worked out well and finally just a little over a month since the twins birth, they were finally able to close the c-section. The absess was nowhere near the cut line, so I'm assuming it happened sometime during the surgery. Anyways, I hope this helped and I'm sorry that it had to happen to him. I know I just wanted to go home to my twins and my soon-to-be deployed husband. Good luck.
   — Carrie S.

July 20, 2008
I experienced modeate pain within a week after RNY and had to go back into hospital for testing, including a CT scan. It was determined that I had a puss pocket and a clot in the superior mesentary (sp?) artery. I went on antibiotic treatment for the puss pocket and Coumadin for the clot. After six months or so, a CT scan revealed that the clot was still there. After a year, I had another CT scan done and it was found that the clot had dissipated so I was able to stop taking Coumadin (a.k.a. Warfarin; a.k.a. RAT POISON). In the meanwhile, four months after RNY, I experienced a VERY painful (and life threatening!) bowel obstruction for which I had emergency surgery. Fortunately there was no need to remove any bowel although about two feet of the small intestine was involved. PAIN ANYWHERE IN YOUR TUMMY AFTER BARIATRIC SURGERY IS SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO THE *IMMEDIATE* ATTENTION OF YOUR MEDICAL PEOPLE. GAS PAIN LASTS ONLY A FEW MINUTES AT MOST. pAIN THAT LASTS LONGER THAN THAT SHOULD GET RAPID ATTENTION.
   — [Deactivated Member]