Wenda C.
Ok, so I just noticed that not all of my info is here....Sorry to anybody I've sent here to read about my complications and didn't find it!
I'll just hit the highlights. I developed pneumonia the night of surgery which kept me in the hospital for 18 days. A couple of weeks after I was home I was admitted to the hospital by my PCP after repeated visits to the ER and them telling me I had pneumonia. Well, duh, I knew that. Anyway, the top gastric staple eroded and I developed a leak. By the time they saw me in interventional radiology it was the size of a Coke can. I had a Jackson-Pratt drain placed which I had until December of that year. A very long story short, I had a PICC line placed and developed a blood clot behind it, therefore was put on coumadin for six months. I had a NG tube for weeks, was NPO, on TPN, had a feeding tube surgically inserted because IR couldn't get it in, grew dependant on dilaudid--not once, but twice, fibron glue injections.....Finally sent home after nine weeks with tube feedings. I was in and out of the hospital all that summer and fall, finally admitted in November. I was scheduled for leak repair but tested postive for strep so put off until December. Once I was green lighted he got me on the table and split me stem to stern, did a Nissen and I was good to go. It's not been an easy experience, but it's mine and I own it. I've never been through anything harder and doubt I ever will.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I'm sure I've forgotten to put some things down here and more will come back to me later, but that's the basics of my story.
