Natalie K.
REVISED VERSION OF MY PROFILE. FOR COMPLETE DETAILS SEE MY OLD PROFILE.
3/9/06: After 9 months of prayer, 6 months of jumping through insurance-related hoops and following a doctor's diet, I'm finally having open roux-en-y surgery today.
3/1/07: No complications at over 12-months out. I'm down from 288 lbs. to 190 lbs and feeling WONDERFUL.
3/30/07: Well, I did not have any complications until last week. I started getting very bloated and had SEVERE abdominal pain. I thought I caught a nasty stomach virus that was going around. Over the period of 2 hours my pain quickly turned into something unbearable. I couldn't relieve the pain no matter what I tried. I went the the ER screaming in pain (something I would've never done before this incident) and they ran some tests and an X-ray. They told me that I was severely constipated (even though I poop daily). They sent me home with a laxative script and told me I had to bite the bullet until the laxative kicked in to relieve pressure. I was not convinced.
An hour later I started vomitting - horrifically. Every 5-15 min. First with dry heaves, then it was a ton of liquid. I endured the pain, etc. for 9 hours thinking it was all due to being "constipated". I went back to the ER at 5am and suggested further testing be done for an intestinal blockage. Low and behold, that's what the problem was. After 5 days in the hosptial (4 of them with an NG tube down my throat) I was finally released and just got home yesterday. They said the blockage was from adhesions (scar tissue) from the surgery; however, any type of abdominal surgery runs the risk of having adhesions impedeing on your intestines.
So now I have to make sure I slowly increase my fiber intake and drink tons of water. I'm still not feeling well, but should increasingly get better over the next few days. My heart goes out to anyone who has ever experienced anything like this. I never hurt so bad in my life and I had several surgeries to compare the pain to.
ADVICE: call your doc immediately if you have any concerns about your health, watch your fiber intake, and drink that water. I was slacking on my food choices (eating lots of bread and hardly any veggies & fruit) and not nearly enough water, which doesn't help matters at all. Most importantly, educate yourself on what can happen after surgery so if you have a doc that isn't familiar with WLS you can help steer them in the right direction. We can't expect docs to know it all, right? :-)
POSITIVE POINT: I lost 8 more lbs. ;-) I went from being "extremely morbidly obese" to "moderately overweight." But I'd take back the 8 lbs in a second if I didn't have to endure the pain I went through with that obstruction. YIKES!!
