wiccandove
Stricture
Jul 09, 2016
July 6th was my 4 week post-op appointment at TWH. It started at 1pm. At 10am I ate 1/3 cup of wendys chili, which went down fine. At noon, I took a few sips of my protein water and was in agony, like I had eaten to much. Horrible back pain, burping, ect. I finally threw up and felt fine after, but I did think it was odd.
Since we were in a rush out the door I forgot to bring my protein water with me and was super thirsty by the time I got to the clinic. I got a small cup of water from their water cooler, had 2 sips and it hurt! I figured this was because I threw up and my pouch must still be sensitive.
Went in to see Patti the nurse and as she was asking me how things were going I said "Good! well, except I've had a rough morning..." and then proceeded to tell her what happened. I was trying to play it down because I didn't want to come across as a baby. I had assumed this was all part of the healing process.
Luckily, Patti took this more seriously then I did and told me if I was still having pain after the meeting to come find her. The meeting was 2 hours long and yes, I was still uncomfortable at the end. I almost didn't go look for her but decided at the last minute I might as well since I was still waiting for my ride.
Patti sent me down right away for an xray. By the time I got back to baricatrics she had already contacted the resident surgeon. Even tho the xray came back normal, they wanted to admit me for observation, a ct scan and a possible endoscopy. I was little shocked to say the least. The surgeon explained with this type of surgery they always like to be cautious. Right away I asked if they thought this was a stricture (I've been terrified of getting one since before the surgery!) and the surgeon said you don't normally see strictures this early out and it was probably an ulcer. Reluctantly, I was admitted and in a weird coincidence ended up in the same room I stayed in after my surgery lol. I guess that was the only bright thing in all of this is that I ended up in a private room - silver lining!
A very nice nurse named Dennis came in and hooked me up to my IV and took my blood. I secretly got a kick out of Dennis - he was from russia and everytime he said "blood" it made me think of vampires.
My BF went home to get me some toiletries and most of all, my own pillow! I wish I had brought one the first time :P
A few hours later off I went to get the CT scan. I had to laugh when Dennis brought in the giant cup of contrast they wanted me to drink.
In the end I managed to force down seven 30ml cups of contrast in just over an hour. Every sip hurt like crazy. By this time I was also thinking I had an ulcer.
Well, the CT scan came back fine so next day it was down to endoscopy for me. I know people say they dope you up and you don't remember what happens, but the doctor seemed in a hurry and I felt and remembered everything. I even saw the inside of my pouch on the monitor! He quickly found I had a stricture at the bottom of my pouch and used a balloon to open it back up. None of it hurt but it felt weird for sure.
Back in the room I was given good old jello and apple juice and everything went down and didn't hurt at all, it was amazing. I went home the next day, after a total of three days in hospital.
So I'm going to talk about being a patient having undergone RNY for a minute. I think its very important to know your own limitations as the nurses are not all familiar with the special needs of a gastric bypass patient. I can't tell you how many nurses brought me straws! And it took me forever to have someone verify that the jello was no sugar added. I was put on the puree diet of the hospital and heres what came for my first meal:
Now, besides the fact that this is way to much food for me, whats with the bread??
Ok now meal 2:
I'm not sure, but it looks like an orge sneezed on my plate. Those were peas (I think). I still have no idea what kind of meat or soup they brought me I braved a little bit of the meat mixed with the potatoes but in the end just mostly ate potatoes. The pureed bananas looked interesting but I couldn't find any info on their sugar content so I didn't eat them. Since I can't drink for 30 minutes after eating I saved the tea and made it into ice tea later on.
Meal Three - possibly WW2 leftover rations
Ok this meal was pretty gross. It was pureed chick peas, pureed chicken and potatoes. The scary thing was this came in a presealed package that had obviously been microwaved. I have a feeling it sat in the freezer for a long time. I ate maybe 1/4 cup of everything mushed together - omg the aftertaste would not go away! Not even after brushing my teeth!
No picture of the acctual food here but here is a shot of the slip. Can you point out 2 things right away I can't have? If you said bread and coffee you win! I asked the nurse to change the coffee for tea, which she did. I toyed with adding the sweetner but when I read the package it had aspertame in it so I didn't. I ended up eating some of the cream of wheat plain which was just fine with me.
Anyway I guess my point here is to take a good look at the food brought to you if you find yourself in hospital for any reason after surgery. Don't rely on the nurses and doctors to know all of your dietary restrictions. Also, don't expect to get your vitamins! If I had know I wasn't going to be getting them from the hospital I would have had my BF bring them for me.
I have to go back for another endoscopy on July 28th to see if the stricture needs to be re-opened. Depending on what they find, I may need to go back a few times. As I mentioned before this was one of the things I was most afraid of, but now that its happened its not really a big deal to get taken care of (although it is a pretty serious side effect).
