Abdominal adhesions and bowl obstruction after gastric bypass (SOMETHING TO THINK...
er #2 of the day: went to the hospital where i had my bypass and begged them to take a look because i knew something was up. they listened!!! i had blood work done, a contrast ct and they called my surgeon to figure out what was going on.
are ya ready??? ADHEASIONS!!!!! lol i have a followup tomorrow morning to figure out where to go from here.
Unfortunately, many surgeons will not do anything for adhesions because the only thing they CAN do is surgery to remove them, but that additional surgery creates NEW adhesions, so unless they can identify exactly what problem the adhesions are causing, they are very reluctant to do anything because you can end up with a greater problem from the new adhesions (and the adhesions they try to remove just return).
I went through 18 months of severe abdominal pain that was intermittent, but got more severe and more frequent as the months passed, but CT scans and ultrasounds kept showing nothing and no one would do an exploratory lap surgery to go in and SEE what was going on. It was VERY frustrating. I saw THREE surgeons (including my RNY surgeon), had an appt with a fourth, and had a week's worth of appointments with the Cleveland Clinic in case the 4th surgeon said the same thing. Before I could see the 4th surgeon, my RNY surgeon saw me for my yearly follow-up and after she found out that my PCP had put me on short term disability because I was out of sick time, she agreed to do an exploratory procedure. The "catch" was that, since she did not know what it was she was looking for, it had to be open not lap. As soon as she got in there, she saw what the problem was and fixed it, but the whole process of getting someone to DO something was frustrating. Unfortunately, adhesions rarely show up on CTs.
I hope you can resolve the situation.
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
That's what I said, too. Unfortunately, when a surgeon says that they will not do surgery, it is difficult to convince them to do otherwise. The best I got from three of them, before my RNY surgeon finally relented, was the referral to the Cleveland Clinic. Apparently it is also sometimes difficult to get insurance companies to agree to probe an exploratory surgery without any medical indication of what is going on.
As I said, I do hope you get a better response than I did, but just be prepared if you do not and the surgeon stands firm on a "no surgery for adhesions" policy.
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
Unfortunately, no. With a laparoscopic surgery, though, you have very small incisions so the chances of having adhesions that will cause problems is much smaller than with an open surgery.
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
