Question:
How do you know if your staples have ruptured?

I am able to eat ALOT of food or what i consider alot of food compared to what I have been used to eating recently. HOw do I know if my staples have ruptured? HELP!    — [Anonymous] (posted on January 10, 2002)

January 10, 2002
Any heartburn? Nausea? Feeling any differently? That's the "hints", but the way to be sure is endoscopy. It's fast and pretty definitive, much more so than a "swallow".
   — vitalady

January 11, 2002
Been there and done that and bought the t shirt! lol! I am now transected and don't have to worry about that. Read my two profiles if you are interested...don't wanna bore anybody else. I had two surgeries in the last year. My symptoms of disruption were: #1. I was not transected....biggest CLUE of all. #2. Could eat about twice what I could at the beginning when I was not disrupted. #3 Could not lose any weight. Didn't gain but was exercising all the time! #4. I didn't have indigestion but I had a little acid reflux and with an intact pouch, as far as I know, you shouldn't have any acid/heartburn. I don't ever have it now and I didn't before I disrupted. With the disruption, I could just taste some things twice. You know, that old "burping up again the taste of spicy foods". That's the only way I know to explain it. If you suspect disruption, ask for an Upper Gi to see if it has occurred. It can be fixed! Good luck!
   — Marilyn C.

January 11, 2002
Sorry Michelle. I didn't read your response before I posted. Didn't mean to imply that Upper GI was the way to go. Of course, endoscopy is another way to find it. I had Upper GI cause I didn't realize scoping was better. I think scoping would be better though because with upper GI I had to drink all that STUFF and worst of all, they gave me this fizzy stuff that you mix with water to drink and then said "don't burp". Impossible. Sometimes I wonder if the fizzy stuff made my pouch go "BOOM" and pop out the line more? Any body know? I asked them when they made me drink it and the radiologist said "no, it won't make it pop". Hummmmmmmmmmmm.
   — Marilyn C.