[texasmom3]

hello everyone,
I am new here and so glad i found this board. I wish i would of gotten here two years ago! wow you ladies and gentlmen are awsome! Congratulations to everyone on thier weight loss and upcoming surgery and to those who are just starting thier journey may you have a safe ride. I am going to share my story with all of you only in hopes that is will bring awareness to you and hopefully none of you will have to endure any of what i did. OK, here we go..
I started my journey three years ago with my approval to get the gastric bypass done. Then came all the testing and so forth. The fact that there are NO doctors in my area that cover this surgery i had to travel 2 hours to get to the doctor was doing the surgery. after completing the testing i was placed on a waiting list. i spent the next year hoping and waiting for the day. finally on april 11, 2006 i had my surgery. It started out bumpy but i was soon on my way! after 4 days in the hospital i was home! spent the next few weeks recovering doing great . things seemed to go well for the first three months. Then i started with solid foods. And like all people there are things you can and things you cant eat. well, the eating thing never improved. i would tell my doctors at every visit all my compaints and they would insist oh ok, give it a few more months and it will get better. (It never did ) i wound up in the hospital before christmas with severe pains in my left side. To no avail they said it was gas! sent me on my way, called my surgeon and went to go see him. He told me well the pain is gone so everything is ok. I continue to loose the weight quickly. I have dropped 100 lbs in 8 mos. My year anniversary came and went . still couldnt eat most foods and doctors still say it will get better. all the time NO tests are done other than regualr blood work. Lets forward to june 13. i went to work like any other normal day feeling fine. went to lunch and came back feeling a bit sick. within i say a half hour i was in excrusiating pain. I wound up in the hospital with what they say was a twisted intestine and it had cut off the blood supply to the intestine wich had now ruptured. I wound up in emergency surgery to save my life. (thank god for a knolwedgeable surgeon) . I no longer have my gastric bypass. In order to save my life he had to reverse the gastric bypass cut out most of my intestine and redo alot of the surgery that had been done . The only reason i am here today to tell this story is scary as it is , I am the third person who he has had to perfrom this surgery on this year alone! There was another lady who had the same surgery the day after me in the same hospital with him also. so that made4 in one year so far! We are all Gastric bypass patients at different stages in our journeys that all had the same complications. I was never aware that this surgery could kill me years later ! Now i am not here telling this story to try to discourage anyone or scare anyone . I just want to make people AWARE . PLEASE listen to your bodies. dont let your doctors tell you OH it will be ok. NO NO NO if you are uncomfortable MAKE them listen , make them run tests. This is your life! i almost lost mine.

[Kenyar]

Wow. I am so sorry tohear what you have gone thru. Glad to hear things have turned out for the better. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

[MsVickie]

Goodness. Bless your heart for eveything you had to go through. Yes there are complications that will develop after surgery. My own surgeon told me that 95 pecernt of ALL the complications that could happen will happen months after the surgery. I think eveyone is scared about what will happen during the surgery instead of what COULD happen months after.

If anyone that has a compentent Dr they will tell them what could happen afterwards. Mine looked straight at me and said VICKIE YOU COULD DIE.

How much more to the point could you want? LOL

Thank you for sharing your story. I think its needed here along with the best storys we have. To raise yes AWARENESS.

Again I will state my reason why..... I want to live.

[DocSanae]

Welcome to the board, thank you for joining us.
Thank you also, for sharing your story and your journey with us.
How is your weight loss and your health now?

Yes, it's true intestinal obstruction happens, actually with ANY surgery that involves the abdomen, not just gastric bypass, as adhesion of the membranes surrounding the intestines takes place with any abdominal surgery. The fact that a lot of the post ops are wary of getting hernias is because herniation is also a cause of such intestinal obstruction. With gastric bypass, the loss of fat in your abdominal cavity leaves air pockets, so to speak, where fatty tissue once filled, and is empty now, and parts of the membranes are stuck together, and it's into that pocket that the intestine can twist itself into.

We've actually had a newly out post op have emergency surgery because of the same trouble. Fortunately, hers was caught early enough so that no revision was needed.

If you have persistent pain, pain that keeps coming and going, you must insist on a through examination. If you feel SOMETHING is wrong, keep on insisting, and if your dr won't listen, then get a second opinion from someone else. It's your life and your body, so you are the one who knows best.

(((((HUGS))))) May your journey go well.

[grandiose16]

TexasMom3, Where in Texas are you? I too am from Texas. South Central close to Victoria TX. Where did you have your surgery? I just had mine Monday and was curious. So far I have done great. I am so sorry you had to go through all of that. You are very lucky. I actually had a freind who died from that because they told in her in ER twice it was just the pain of the surgery and sent her home. She did not make it. Even knowing this I was willing to take the chance because my chances of having a caronary or stroke was more scary. By the way my brother 9 years younger than me at 49, had a heart attack the day after my surgery but lived to have a quadruple bypass done. He made it but almost did not. Now my sons understand more why I had this done. They were supportive but did not understand the reasons I chose this route. Time was not on my side. BUT in saying all of this I will never be put off by anyone giving me some lame excuse. I will demand an answer. I also just managed to save my Mother in October who had what you had but not from a Bypass surgery but from a bladder surgery. They told her she had a bug. Vomiting and diharea and pain. They tried to send her home too but I would not leave until they checked to see exactly what kind of "bug" she had. So I will be extra careful. Thanks for sharing. Good luck to you in the future. Mattie

[Chilly]

Oh my, I'm so sorry all that you have went thru. Thanks for sharing your story AND keeping it fresh in our minds that if something isn't right....check it out!!! I'm so glad that everything was taken care of.