2/18/11

Feb 17, 2011

Wow a little over a month out already!  So, I haven't been feeling the greatest in the past few weeks.  I started out with occasionally having abdominal cramps after eating or drinking.  It didn't seem to matter what it was that I ate or drank, it just would do it randomly.  Then this past week it got worse and I ended up waking in the middle of the night this past Saturday with unbearable abdominal cramps.  It lasted about an hour and then I was so exhausted that I fell back asleep.  On Sunday I had some pain and couldn't eat all day.  I finally called the hospital and they told me to come in to the ER.  The doctor there called one of the surgeons and he said to immediately go back to clear liquids only, sent me home with pain meds and to either come in the next day to see him or I could wait to see my surgeon on Tuesday.  (I had my one month follow up already scheduled on Tuesday)  I was able to wait until Tuesday. 
First I saw the dietician and got my official weigh-in.  Down 20 pounds since surgery and down 40 pounds total!  I am also down 3 pant sizes!
I saw my surgeon and he decided that I needed either a CT scan or an EGD or both.  He decided to do the CT scan first and told me if that came out negative that I would need the EGD.  I had to drink two large cups of barium as I had at my one week followup.  It was way harder this time to get it down.  My stomach/intestines hurt.  After 1 1/2 hours I finally got it all down.  I also had to get I.V. contrast and I am a difficult stick.   This time it took four people to find a vein.  I still was healing from my vein blowouts from last time so there was slim pickings.  Anyways, got the CT scan done but by the time I was done it was past 5 o'clock and everyone was pretty much gone.  I went home assuming that I would get a call the next day.  My surgeon ended up calling me that night at 7:30pm and told me that my CT scan didn't show any blockages and that type of stuff but that I had an enormous amount of air inside my remnant stomach.  He had never seen someone with as much as I have.  He told me you can get a little after surgery but not the amount that I had.  He couldn't explain how it got there and we know it wasn't there before because it didn't show up on my CT scan from a week after surgery.  This however wasn't necessarily the cause of my problems so I needed to still get the EGD done to rule out ulcers, strictures and things of that nature.  He didn't want to say "oh you've got air in your remnant stomach and it should take care of itself and then leave me hanging."  The following day the hospital called and scheduled me for my EGD for Thursday which was yesterday. 
By Thursday I was pretty shaky after not having food since Sunday.  Even protein drinks are causing some issues so I had a really difficult time getting protein or any calories for that matter in.  I got the EGD done and my surgeon told me that my insides looked good and that he'd like to prescribe me Reglan to see if that helps.  It supposed to be for a slow stomach and it helps it get moving.  He thinks it may help my remnant stomach.  If the air cannot escape on it's own after a while, he said he might have to go in there and put a tube in to relieve it. 
So for right now, I was told to go back to the pureed/soft food stage and slowly work my way into foods again.  I have a followup appointment in two weeks to see how it's going. 
I just want to note that between my one week followup and this whole scenario, that I absolutely do not regret my surgery.  I am a pretty positive person and haven't let this get me down.  I knew that there could be some bumps in the road and yes it did happen but I have absolute confidence that my surgeon is taking care of me and it will all work itself out.  :)

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