In the hospital with bowel obstruction.....

"Having the contents of your bowels suctioned out through your nostrils must be awful!!"

-I have to agree with that statement.  Yikes, I'm glad you're okay.  I guess it's one of the best play throughs for a bad situation. 

My surgeon said anyone can get obstructed bowl but your chances increase with every abdominal surgery.  He said since I had had 2 c-sections and my gallbladder out my chances were already higher but that it usually isn't mentioned as a risk like it is with WLS.  

Yikes - I had that same thing happen - I was at the gym, started getting lower right quadrant pain (nothing like I ever had before) - left the gym and decided I'd go to Walmart to "walk it off".  Of course, it got much worse - so I left the store and headed to an acute care center close by.  I told them that this was the most pain I ever had without having a baby to show for it!  They transported me to the hospital and I had a CT as well. 

I had to have "open" surgery (my surgeon profuse apologized for not being able to do it laproscopically) for a small bowel obstruction.  The surgeon said that, on a scale of 1-100 for needing emergency surgery, I was a 99!  Pay attention to unusual symptoms and pain - better to be safe than sorry.

I too had a bowel obstruction that resolved without surgery. I think that's probably the worst pain I've ever had---and being accident prone I've experienced a LOT of pain. To add to my lovely experience, they had a really hard time getting the NG tube through my nose. It wound up required a very experienced nurse and an infant tube, and even so they broke something in my nose.

I'm convinced I have a narrow place in my gut, probably at the anastomosis. I've had occasional, random, short-term discomfort at that spot since I was a few weeks post-op, but I didn't have the bowel obstruction until I was about 8 years post-op.

About 3 1/2 years go (it's like a distant memory now) - but I did nothing wrong to make it happen - luck of the draw.  But in the big picture, it was a glitch.  My goodness, the amazing benefits of having lost so much weight have far out-weighed (pun intended) the negatives. 

Please don't drive yourself crazy and don't let what "might happen" get inside your head! Do what you know you need to do, enjoy life, and make us proud.

Sandie

I went on OH this morning because I'm obsessed with preventing an obstruction.   I have had horrible constipation since surgery.  I have had multiple abdominal surgeries (3 c-sections, gall bladder, hysterectomy, 2 laparoscopy surgeries) when the surgeon did my RNY he had to remove a lot of adhesions and did understand why I wasn't complaining about pain in my bowel then.  I am using MOM every few days and feel I was just steps away from an obstruction a couple of days ago.   After reading on here that some people use a daily stool softener, I started one. I was also wondering about probiotics.   Has anyone used them and does it help?  I go to a support group for post - ops but I'm too embarrassed to start the discussion there.  Hope you recover quickly and thanks for sharing your experience with us newbies.  

Its.. milk of magnesia Its was suggested by my dr.  Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't!