Trouble, trouble, boil & bubble….
I had open RNY on January 23, 2001. My bowel was perforated during surgery,
and I became terribly ill with peritonitis. Before I was able to come home I
underwent two additional surgeries, five weeks in the hospital, installation
of a colostomy, a total of 11 days on a ventilator and the experience of
hovering near death for almost a week. I was on IV fluids throughout that
time so I lost a lot of weight. Somehow it did not feel like an
accomplishment.
From the hospital I had to go to a nursing home for rehabilitation–to learn
to use my limbs after five weeks immobilized. Because of the multiple
surgeries my belly was not closed after the third operation. I was left with
a large open wound, 20cm by 12 cm, that had to be dressed three times a day
by nursing staff. They also tried to help me with the colostomy. But the
colostomy malfunctioned; I won’t describe the mess. By the time I was
discharged to home, barely able to walk, nursing the still open wound, and
sporting a leaking colostomy, I was deeply depressed. Zoloft does not perform
all miracles.
In April I went to a different surgeon at a different hospital. He, like the
home care nurses who had been tending to me, was appalled at the state of my
abdomen. He assembled a team and together they reversed the colostomy,
removed 2-hours worth of adhesions, took care of a hernia (only my first, as
it has turned out) and closed the open wound with the amazing skill of a
gifted plastic surgeon. This proved to be a turning point; my recovery sped
up light years after this fourth surgery.
But in all the months since my first surgery I have never experienced any
appetite restriction. To quote someone on this list, if I didn’t know better
I’d think the first surgeon opened me up and closed me without actually
performing bypass. In recent weeks I have found myself able to eat very much
the volume I ate before surgery. I was regaining weight rapidly.
I won’t keep you in suspense. An upper GI series with small bowel
follow-through performed last week shows that the staple line, such as it
was, has completely ruptured. All the barium flowed into my “native” stomach.
There is no medical reason why I should have felt any food intake
restrictiion. It is, in fact, as if the bypass had never been performed.
Now I am facing another surgery. I feel trapped into going through with it. I
am terrified, but how can I let all the pain and misery of the past year be
for nothing. Nothing. It’s unfathomable. I don’t mind getting support from
this group but that isn’t my primary reason for coming out of my comfortable
lurkhood. I am wondering if anyone out there had experience of staple line
disruption. I’m told that about 5% of WLS patients who undergo this procedure
have this problem. I welcome response from anyone who has experienced this
(or any other part of my story). I particularly want to know what was done to
repair the rupture. You can either respond to the group or to my email
address.
Long story, I know. And this is only a fraction of it. I couldn’t figure what
to cut out and still convey ….I don’t know what. I guess whatever you
receive is what I conveyed. Yikes.
Sherry.