Question:
Have any of you injured your pouch?

Have any of you ever injured your pouch badly enough to undo your surgery? I have been having intermittent, burning -pain for two weeks. I got into my surgeon and was given a "worse case scenario" and another possible scenario. Either I have an ulcer & he started me on prevacid yesterday....OR....he also suspects that because of where my pain is & how much food that I can hold that possibly I have lost some staples and permanently damaged my pouch. He said it can happen and that is a possibility on me. I had a very severe bout of vomiting a few weeks ago, but I am four months out now. I'm terribly worried and I am also a self pay. He also said that maybe my 95 pounds off will be enough to keep me on track and I will keep on going with modified behavior. Anybody? Comments? Thanks.    — Barbara B. (posted on October 27, 2001)

October 27, 2001
Barbara, I had a staple line disruption and have had it repaired 10 days ago. I had my open rny last November and I lost 68 lbs between then and just quit losing at about 6 mos post op. I tried all summer to lose. I exercised like mad and watched my calorie intake (800 daily). Still, no losing. I still could only hold about 1 cup of solid food so I thought....well, I don't know what is happening. No pain, no acid, no heartburn, no symptoms at all. Still my very wise surgeon said "let's do an upper GI" and find out what has happened. We did and sure enough, my staples had come loose at the top of the pouch. Whenever my pouch was full, it would overflow into the old stomach. The only reason we could determine it happened is very important: At the time I had my surgery, my surgeon was NOT transecting the stomach and pouch apart. Even though he had put in 8 rows of staples, it just did not bond. I have since found out that unless the two are physically separated by transection, the staple line could disrupt at any time....even 4 or 5 yrs later. It is a mechanical problem and nothing I or any else did cause it. He compared the two edges of the untransected stomach and pouch as the inside of your cheeks in your mouth. So smooth and mucous-like they dont form scar tissue. Now, with the cutting apart, the pouch seals and forms scar tissue is permanent. Very rarely does it ever disrupt and if does, you know it because you get very sick with a temperature, etc. So now I am transected and doing very well. The surgery 10 days ago was a lot easier as it did not have to have any of the intestinal bypass stuff redone. Just transection. I am feeling great and losing like crazy! I do see a difference though now in how much my pouch can hold. I am full on 1 oz again! I know my pouch is brand new and it will stretch some. By the way, after 11 months with the old surgery, my pouch had not stretched at all. I didn't overeat, vomit it lose, or anything. It was just mechanical failure and very fixable! I am so happy that I am fixed and transected! If you want to read the whole story of my frustration and efforts to lose before I knew, read my profile. It is pretty long now! God bless you and don't worry. You will be fine. If you suspect a problem because you are not transected, ask your doc for an upper GI. It was very hard to accept that I had a real problem, but I did and now I am glad to go on. By the way, after my Upper GI when I found out the truth, I came out of the xray dept to see everybody standing around TV and crying....yes it was Sept 11. I was devastated in more than one way....the terrorist attacks and to find out I had to have another surgery.
   — Marilyn C.