It wasn't the gallbladder......

I'm finally home after being in the hospital for 4 days.  I had to have emergency surgery on Thurs.  It's hard for me to explain exactly what happened to me because I really can't understand it myself, especially since I'm so drugged right now.  At first they suspected gallbladder, but when that checked out to be OK, they did a cat scan and felt sure that it was a hernia, and that's what they started out doing the surgery for.  In any event, it ended up being this layer of fat that serves as a protective covering over internal organs, it started to twist and turn on itself, cutting off it's blood supply, thus it was slowly dying.  It grew to be the size of a softball and was very hard, so needless to say, the laproscope surgery ended at that point and it became "open" with about a 6 in*****ision.  The surgeon actually took a picture of it with the laproscope instrument next to it to show my husband just how big the mass was and to justify the open operation.  My surgeon was out of town at a Bariatric event, so Dr. Dan had to do the surgery.  He's a great man and I owe my life to him right now.  I can't imagine where this would have went had it not been for his persistance.  I have so much to be thankful for.  My surgeon said that he has heard of this condition before, but out of all the surgeries he has done, he has never had a patient come down with this, until me of course.  It's quite scary, and even though I have complete trust in both surgeons , I still worry about what the end result will be and how this could even happen to me in the first place.  Please keep me in your prayers for a healthy and speedy recovery; I'm down for the count for quite a while again, it's almost like I'm starting all over again. 

Marlee, I am so sorry that this had to happen to you. But thank heaven that they found it in time and everything is going to be fine. Just do what you have to do right now and know that you are on your way to a complete recovery. I will keep you in my prayers that God wraps His loving and healing arms around you and gives you peace, understanding and as little pain as possible in your recovery.

Please keep us posted on how you are doing...when you feel up to posting that is.

Thank you Brenda

Marlee,

That sounds scary. Don't fret, just take care of yourself and heal!! (words of advice from a #1 worrier)

Kisses
Annette

Thank you Annette

 OH MY GAWD    

What a strange thing to happen.  I'm glad to hear you are doing well and I will certainly keep you in prayer.  Take care of yourself.

Millie

Thanks Millie

Oh Marlee, What a rough sidestep on this journey of ours. Hopefully, it's "just" a bump in the road and you'll heal well and completely.

I find myself wondering about excess skin leaving too much room for "stuff" to move around inside. I'm sure this isn't the case with you so early out from surgery, but I wonder about those of us who have lost large amounts of weight and who have lots of loose skin in the abdominal area. Does this leave a cavity that can cause problems with twistings and turnings of internal organs? And if we are able to have the excess skin removed does that lessen the chance of something like twisted bowels happening?

I don't know, just curious. Thanks goodness for a persistent surgeon. Take care of yourself and be gentle with yourself. And please let us know how  you are doing and come  to us for support. Sending healing thoughts your way.

Karen,
You bring up a very interesting point to ponder and one that might be worth asking your surgeon about.  It certainly is a "scary" dilemma to have to be faced with.  But the way that it was explained to me is this:  There is a layer of fat surrounding both sides of the abdominal muscle - front and back (underside), for protection.  When you have the fat removed via TT or whatever means, that is on the outer side.  Now what happens to the underside fat that remains is what scares me.  In my case, I'm sure that some of that fat had been incised to get to the organs they needed to in order to do the by-pass, so as a result of that, was there a weakness that caused something like a hernia, to where the fat tissue turned on itself and cut off the blood supply?  You hear of the intestines turning on itself which causes a blockage, so is it the same with this fat tissue as well? 
I don't know - I guess there is so much uncharted territory that we really don't know about, as well as all of the complications that could arise from WLS.  Just because a complication is rare and rarely heard of doesn't make it any less real when it actually happens to someone.  Thanks for your well wishes - they are appreciated.

omg what an ordeal for you to go through!!!! wow!!! glad that this dr found what was really wrong and made you all better!!!

where in OH are you located?

feel better soon!!!

hugs