left side pain is back, and feeling really down today :(

So today is a bad day for me. I'm feeling the pain yet again below my breast, below and behind my rib cage. I had a couple weeks I was feeling hopefull that things were going better since I'm finally doing better with the BM's. Yet now for 3 days I've been having this pain. The doctor took yet another x-ray to turn around and say I'm constipated and it's gas causing my problem. No bloodwork was drawn at all. For 3 years the only answer I get from a military hospital is gas and constipation. 
 
I was awake last night with leg cramps in my lower left leg, ankle, and foot to where my foot was being pulled the wrong way.  I'm drinking my water, eating healthy, taking all my vitamins but I cant seem to catch a break. My PCM doctor SUCKS and yet I am still waiting to get my referral through tricare to go to a bariatric doctor. My PCM does not think this is surgery related because she believes if any complications were to come up that it would have happened within the first year after surgery. I'm sitting here in tears because I simply don't know what more I can do. Everytime my bloodwork has been done they only check for half of what should be checked. My surgeon is retired and lives several states away!  If I wanted to be sick all my life I would have chosen to stay obese! 

I have a 3 year old daughter whome wanted more than anything for me to take her to the playground today, but here I am in pain and unable to do so.

I'm sorry I needed a vent, and  I just don't know what to do anymore. My husband thankfully has been so supportive through all of this.

Wish I could say something tha would make you feel better, but I do care and will be sending warm thoughts and hugs your way and pray they soon let you see a Dr who can figure this out. hang in there!

 Many prayers honey! I'm thinking of you!

As far as your doc thinking complications only happen within the first year is CRAZY , BOTH of my bypassed daughter had severe complication 5 years out.
Maybe if you go online and print off the labs that NEED to be done for bypassers and what type of meds are not absorbed well by bypassers. One of my daughters had to do this for her pain management doc and he was appreciative.
You could always say , I am sorry if this offends you but I need to make sure I am taken care of properly ( cause you don't seem to give a rats ass)
Constipation in a bypasser can lead to twisted bowel , which is life threatening, just ask my daughter.
Make sure you are taking stool softeners and mirilax.
Best wishes

Thank you all, I was just having one of those days where nothing goes right. And to make things worse I misplaced my military dependant id in all my frustration and pain and the id is required in order for me to even be seen at the hospital for my next appointment, so I guess tomorrow I'll be working on getting a new one. Who knows maybe I'll get lucky and find it in the morning after I've had some sleep.  I feel okay as of this moment so hopefully I can get some much needed sleep tonight.
 
I was just so irritated by the lack of medical care, "care" being the key word. I can't understand why I am having to go through hurdles just to get a referral from my PCM. Maybe because I had my surgery prior to marrying my husband, thats the only thing I can think of.  It also seems the more irritated and frustrated  I get the worse I feel.  

I am so sorry you are going through this.  IS there any way you can get to a gastrenterologist since you dont have  a bariatric surgeon?  they are doctors that specialize in the stomach, intestines and liver.  Just the fact that she keeps telling you that you are constipated based on x-rays shows that something is wrong.  the fact that you are being told you cant have complications after 1 year is absolutely absurb.  I was always totally regular after my RNY and then one day  I stopped going - I hadnt realized for several day and then I started having pain - I remembered what my surgeon said to do if no BM for several days so I followed his directions - Milk of magnesia for 2 doses - if nothing, then dulcolax suppositories, if nothing an enema and then if nothing - CALL.  Well, I tried everything and nothing worked - it was a weekend and didnt think anything of it - so I just stuck it out until Monday - big mistake on my part.  On Monday morning I went into my Gastro doctor first thing - he squeezed me in - always will if I need him - told him what was going on and he sent me for an immediate CT scan and within a few hours I was on my way to NYC (an hour away) for emergency surgery - I had a bowel obstruction, internal hernia and something called a volvulus, fluid in the abdomen.  Things were bad.

You need to get a CT scan.  I am not say that is what is wrong with you but you need to rule it out with severe constipation.  You said you are passing gas and that is a good sign - usually constipation with no gas, is a sign of a bowel obstruction but either way, you should have a CT scan it can show alot more detail than a plain xray - they can see all the different connections from our surgery and see if anything is being blocked, constricted - you can actually have a stricture at a stoma in your intestines causing constipation.

You shouldn't be in pain and should be able to find out why.  Unfortunatley you are dealing with military and sometimes you have restrictions. I do hope you can get a new Bariatric surgeon but in the meantime, see if you can get to a gastroenterologist - it is very important that you get a CT - maybe if you go to the ER., they can do one if the pain is bad

I wish you luck, and hope things work out

Thank you so much for your post. I actually think our military hospital might have a gastroenterologist in the hospital, so maybe I can get her to send me there. I actually called tricare this morning and requested to change doctors, I've been dealing with her since last summer without any answers so I really have no patience with her anymore. She's prescribed me enemas and tells me take stool softeners.

The first enema I did last summer when she said I was constipated the first time didn't even produce the urge for me to go which to me is really weird. My mom told me to try smooth move tea and that does seem to work well enough for me to get some relief. I don't drink it every day though because it's more of a laxative so I limit to once or twice a week if really needed.  I get light headed spells and such. The pharmacist told me to try a fiber product and it helped get some nasty looking stuff out of me, but still didn't work as I hoped.

Sometimes when I go to the bathroom it's more of a workout than when I'm actually physically working out. If I push too hard It feels like something inside me tightens up and just stays tight for a few minutes, it's very painful I get it in the left side and lower right side, almost as if something is twisting up inside me. 

I've had light headed, dizzy spells at times, and alot of days I feel totally exausted. Blurred vision sometimes. Truthfully when the exaustion first started I thought it was linked to being a new mom, but it has gotten worse. My mom was telling me if I am really backing up  that means the longer the stool is inside me it's probably poisoning my body, who knows though. I can go to bed and get a full 8 hours of sleep, yet some mornings wake up and feel like I haven't slept at all. I get headaches as well which initially I thought was brought on by stress during our moves but I'm not stressed over anything like that anymore. I even had my eyes checked in case maybe that was the cause but my eyes are fine.

I don't know if all my ailments are linked, but I am suspecting they could be because prior to having surgery I never experienced anything of the sorts.

I've just had very poor luck with the on post care, I think mainly because they just dont understand the surgery I've had. What's even harder is this post doesn't allow children to go to the appointments with me and I really only have one person I trust to watch my daughter for me, and she's moving next week. Once my daughter starts pre-school it wont be an issue because I will just scedule appointments during her school hours. The last post my doctor allowed her to come with me since he was also her pcm which was convenient, I feel he actually was trying to help me but we were only there for a very short period of time.

oh and I must add, I actually had a doctor on post tell me just by looking at me without doing any x-rays or ultrasounds that he was positive it was my gall bladder causing all this left side pain. When I told him that was not possible because I had my gall bladder removed when I was 14 he had to ask me "are you sure?"  Well yeah I'm sure! 

I have to say that constipation post op is scary stuff and in some cases, can mean scary stuff.  Please make sure you taking something daily to make sure things are moving. I know my surgeon told me if need to, it is okay to take colace and senna daily - senna is a mild, sensitive laxitive and colace is a stool softener.  She said to take up to 2 of the colace and 3 of the senna.  I haven't needed them because I have gone the other way with chronic diarhea but if I didnt, I would take them everyday - I dont want to go back there. 

If you feel something pulling and possibly twisting -that sounds scary to me - I really hope you dont have any adhesions causing your intestines to be twsted or kinked which would cause the bowel problems - It definitely would cause the BM problem. 

I am glad that you are going to try to see the gastro doctor - this is very important for you now especially since you tell me about the pain and possible twisting.   YOu want to look into this before it becomes a bowel obstruction and it is possible that you have a partial obstruction and they dont find it until it is  a total one which many times are very serious - the sooner you find something like this the better.  you dont want to fool with your bowels.

you can take many of the laxitives daily - they are very mild - miralax, sennikot, pericolace.  I took a combination of colace and senikot and I know many use miralax - that is what my gastro doctor recommends - you put it in  a bottle of water and drink - can also put in juice or protein shakes.