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Lee H.
Central Oregon, OR, USA
Post Op - BMI: 25.3
Surgery Type: RNY
Member ID: H1031221725
Surgeon: Stephen B. Archer, M.D.

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Hello...My name is Lee, I am 50 years old and had Laparoscopic RNY January 3rd 2003. My wife Caren and I have been married for 25 years, we have two daughters and four grandchildren. I started seriously looking into weightless surgery in September of 2002 and the whole process went rather fast. My co-morbidities were: Sleep Apnea, high blood sugar, swelling of the legs, low potassium, high blood pressure and a heart condition which they knew would not be cured. On January 3rd 2003 I went in for my RNY and everything seemed to be fine. On the 4th my doctors discovered a leak so they went back in. I had a very rough time coming out of major surgery a second time in two days. The leak was not in the same place as the leak line and they are still not sure how it got there to this day. I was I taken into the CCU and did well enough to be moved to a regular room on the 5th. The following Friday they did another leak test and found that there was still a leak. At that time my doctors thought it would be wise to try to let the leak heal itself rather than going under the knife again so soon. For the next 3 weeks I was fed by tubes and there was noting by mouth except to rinse and spit. This was a very hard time on my family and a very hard time for me. On the 23rd of January I was released home but didn’t make it there. We live 45 minutes away from the hospital and on the way there I had a lot of pain so we decided to stop at my brother’s home to rest and take some pain medication. When we got home I took a nap and when I woke up my wife and I noticed that my drains had my medication in them. Once again we were very worried. My wife called my doctor and he wanted to know the drainage output, temperature, and pulse. With the information we gave him he was not too concerned and told us to come in the next morning. When we got to my appointment the doctors ran some tests and everything came out fine. On the Monday the 10th we went to see the Doctor and found out that I still had the leak. I was given 2 bags of fluid by IV and told that I would need another leak test the next day. We then found out that the drains were picking up the fluid and hot pooling in my stomach. I had not ran a fever and my pulse was good the entire time. For the next few weeks we were pretty much told we just needed to wait and see if the leak healed itself. We all agreed that another surgery would be too difficult on my body since I was already so weak. In March we had another rude awakening. One of my drains pierced my new stomach (pouch), so we basically has to start the healing process all over. A few weeks later they slowly started to start pulling out my drains (starting with the one that went into my pouch). It took 3 weeks to get the first one out and then a 2 visits for the next. Talk about a lot of pain, but at least they got it out. The first year after my surgery was very rough and there were a lot of bumps in my road to recovery. There were many times when I kept asking myself if I had done the right thing. But, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I went from 447 pounds to 197-202.










Photos

195
Post-op
447
Pre-op


Hospital Reviews
  • (Bend, OR) - St. Charles Medical Center

    • Surgeon Info:
    Surgeon: Stephen B. Archer, M.D.
    Insurer Info:
    Medicare