Question:
has anyone had a pouch leak fixed 2 months post op

my doctor had punctured my esophigus during surgery 2 months ago but he patched it during surgery and then i developed a pretty bad leak and my doc never would do a scope fearing he would make the hole in my esophigus bigger but the 5 upper gi`s or the ct scan never showed where the leak was so im 2 months out the leak hasnt got any better so my doctor decided to finally do a scope and maybe put some glue on the hole but when he went down my esophigus it hasnt even been leaking at all i have a staple line disruption in my pouch so its been leaking from here the whole time the doc said it looked like the staple gun misfired 2 times and also he has to enlarge my stoma in the bottom of my pouch because its about closed off needless to say im pretty upset about the whole thing ive had nothing to eat or drink and ive been dealing with a very stinky jp drain and being fed by vein has anyone had a similar experiance or if you have had a pouch leak please write in    — bryan (posted on April 2, 2004)

April 3, 2004
Hi, Sorry you are having so many problems. Sounds like they finally found out what was wrong and have fixed it at least. It will get better. I did not have the same problem, but I did have a second surgery less than a month after my open RNY. I developed redness and pain on the skin around my belly button. This was under the WLS scar, not on it at all. Not at a drain site either. I started on PO antibiotics and I went in to see the surgeon the next day. He ordered an emergency CT scan of my abdomen for that day at 6:30pm. (When he examined me he bent over my belly button and listened - you could hear the bowel sounds without a stethoscope) I had to drink some very yucky stuff for it. I managed not to puke, but it wasn't easy, I gagged on it a lot. That's because I was vomiting a lot before this day as it was. Turns out I had a hernia and cellulitis. The surgeon was there when the CT scan was done because he was afraid of a strangled hernia or a leak. We were going to wait a year to fix the hernia. But after 3 more days with no relief for the cellulitis he admitted me to the hospital for IV antibiotics. This was a Thursday. That Saturday I was drying after my shower in the hospital and I heard gas coming from my belly button. I knew this was a very bad thing and pushed the nurse light. A couple minutes later brown liquid starting coming out of my belly button. It was colon contents. I yelled for the nurse to come right away. She grabbed a doctor out of the hallway who confirmed what it was. We tried to cover it with a dressing, but it was leaking a lot. My surgeon was there within an hour and had surgery scheduled for 2 hours later already before he even saw me. He thought it was a leak from the WLS but it turns out it was a hernia from when I had my gallbladder out in the 1990's. It developed the fistula thru my body to outside my body so he did the hernia repair and had to remove 2 more inches of colon. No mesh was used because it could be contaminated with the mess there. Luckily I was already on a strong antibiotic because I had an open wound about 1 1/2 inches long in my belly button, but it never got infected. it healed after a month of wet to dry dressing changes. I was in the hospital for 12 days on TPN for IV nutrition and IV antibiotics. The TPN was over 3000 calories per day for healing, so I never lost weight in the hospital. I actually gained from the fluids, but I got the doctor to give me lasix so that the water weight was gone by discharge. It was a very scary thing to happen. Being a nurse I was having all kinds of scary ideas. The RNY stuff was just fine thru all of this and after the second surgery my nausea and vomiting has decreased greatly and I felt so much better. I had to start all over again with the clear liquid diet and I was so frustrated about that. By the time i went home I was on full liquids, but not the soft pureed diet yet. The infection and hernia must have been there a while because I felt so much better after it was repaired. I have lost 70lbs since my 12/22/03 WLS even with all of this. The surgeon used the same incision for both surgeries so I have only the one scar, he even put the staples in the same place, it's kind of amazing. He said the hernia will probably come back because he could not use mesh for the repair. I hope it waits until I get to goal so I can have the tummy tuck or panniculectomy when it is repaired again. :-) Hope this helps you feel less alone. I went back to work 6 weeks after the hernia/fistula repair and really felt better after I went back to work. I still feel pretty good but I am paranoid about the hernia coming back. Good luck. Cathy
   — catleth