Do not ignore horrific pains and stop self diagnosing!!!

Great post.  In December I was having severe pain off and on for weeks and chose to do nothing about it.  Finally, the pain was intolerable and I went to the ER.  After many tests, the doctors really could not get a clear idea of what was going on.  They admitted me to the hospital at noon.  I suffered through the whole day.  They told me that they would wait through the night to see what happens...and if i was still in pain in the morning they would schedule surgery.  At about 10:30 pm on a Saturday night, the surgeon came in and said, "I don't think we should wait until morning...something is not right".  I was rushed into surgery and the surgeon pulled 12 inches of black, dead bowel out of me...just before it ruptured in his hands.  If they had waited until morning...I would probably have been septic with not a very good prognosis. 

My bowel had twisted around an adhesion, cutting off the blood supply and killing that section.  If I had not waited for weeks to see a doctor, they may have been able to untwist my bowel without having to remove it.  I have learned to pay attention to my body and go in immediately! 

yowza - so glad you finally saw your surgeon and got it repaired.  scary stuff  :(

I'm glad you're OK! I had an internal hernia come up 13 months after surgery when I had lost about 115 - 120 lbs. They found it when they were removing my gallbladder. I'm glad you were seen before it became life-threatening!

Did you google this? 

yep, that's the problem.  I googled but apparently wasn't finding the correct key words to use to find what I was looking for.  I probably came across "hernia" from time to time, but figured they would have seen that on a cat scan or MRI or whatever the heck it was they did to me in my local hospital.   Finally, the pain went away and I was no longer worried.   Then it came back a month later which is why I assumed it was menopause problems.  (the old self diagnosis crap!!  bad girl)  :-)

Luanne,

I hope you know I was kidding when I wased it you googled this.  After the semi ass kicking you took in another thread, I couldn't resist asking. 

ha ha - I missed that semi ass kickin'   ;-)      

I had the same thing...pain so bad it brought me home from a SCUBA vacation in Mexico. I have had two children, one natural childbirth and one nearly so, and a tooth that broke below the gum line and let me tell you, I would gladly have all those AT ONCE than to go thru the pain I had that brought me home from Mexico....I was in such pain I went to a MEXICAN ER to make sure I wasn't dying before I got on the plane home to the US. I went directly from Dulles Airport to GW Hospital in DC, where my Bariatric Surgeon works. I had every test under the sun which turned up NOTHING. Pain would come and go....so I didn't agree to exploratory surgery until SIX WEEKS LATER!! They found a Petersen's hernia which they repaired.

Four years later my small bowel obstruction was easier to diagnose; at least THEY usually show up on CT scan!

Don't mess around with abdominal pain.

I totally agree about not messing around with abdominal pain.  Believe me, lesson learned.

hey i have a question, you said after losing over 100 lbs things get a bit out of whack etc.  and you also have had an RNY.  do these types of hernias and such happen a lot with people who have VSG surgery?  or is it more susceptible in people who have had RNY surgery because of rerouting?