abigail

Send Message

Block

Add Friend

8 Years Post-Op.

I'm back, and it's been a very long time since I've posted! It's been a long time since I've pulled this website up!

Why NOW?

I was having severe pains in my abdomen. Nothing new, I had been having them since my surgery. My PCP knew I had mitro-valve-prolapse and had prescribed nitro-glycerin for me for pain. This "new" pain, according to my PCP, was due to having my gallbladder removed, he said that the incision point where it was cut off; was contracting and causing the pain. He sent me to see a Gastroenterologist who, over $2,000 later, told me he didn't see any problems in my upper GI tract. 

Oddly enough, the prescription of nitro glycerin that my PCP had given me for my MVP eased and often stopped these "new" pains, so that's what I took them for.

It wasn't until I started having indigestion, while on the strongest prescription strength medication on the market, that my PCP decided to send me back to the Gastroenterologist. So, almost $2,500 later, the same Gastroenterologist told me that everything "in there" looked okay. He said that the "Gastric By-Pass" surgery looked as good as when it was first done. I was thrilled to hear this! But that didn't answer the question of why I was experiencing these severe pains!

THEN he told me something that I had forgotten since waking up in the recovery room after surgery.

He told me that the pains I was having were "Stress" pains. Not that I was in stress so much, but my stomach and intestines were in stress.

After waking up after surgery, I was having these same severe pains and the nurse approached me and told me that I was having stress pains. She told me to try to relax, take deep breaths and slowly exhale. Surprisingly, after a few minutes the stress pains I was experiencing had all but ceased.

My Gastroenterologist said that the muscles in my stomach and the muscles in my intestines that were re-attached by the gastric by-pass surgeons, have separate muscles that were not genetically designed to work in sequence with each other. He continued to say that there may be times that they work against each other. It's during times like these that I would experience intense abdominal pains.

So...Relax!!! Oh, yeah. Plus, it works. The "Stress Pains" are gone within a few minutes.