Lynn Bee

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I am 3 years post DS and I had a revision last Tuesday with Dr. Pomp.
I'm hoping to resolve chronic diarrhea, foul gas, non healing anal fissures, severe anemia, and vitamin deficiencies.  I had tried flagyl, vanco, other antibiotics, probiotics, devrom, pancreatic enzymes, and I restrict my diet to a modified Specific Carbohydrate Diet (I have only been eating meat, nuts, nut flour, small amounts of honey, sweet and low, splenda, unsweetened soy or almond milk, and egg protein powder) for over 1 year.  There was nothing left to try.

In my case the standard advice of eat less carbs, cut dairy, and tinker with your vitamins after each blood test did not resolve my issues; on the contrary, as time went on they continued to get worse.  Perfect compliance does not guarantee a safe outcome with any weight loss surgery including the DS.

The Revision surgery itself:
I remain resistant or allergic to all narcotics so pain management was difficult.  It was supposed to be a 3 day stay, but it ended up being 6 days because it has taken a very long time for the newly reattached portion of old bowel to wake up and start passing food.  I also needed an iron infusion again because my hemoglobin dropped very low again while I was in the hospital.

Right now I can eat very little and my intestines hurt and cramp a lot when I eat.  I have been through an open DS and a LBL and breast lift and this is by far the most painful thing I have dealt with.  It equals the pain from my fissure when my fissure is hurting at its worst.  Thankfully this is likely to be temporary while my intestines remember how to process food.    I am tired.

Dr. Pomp was amazingly accomodating, fitting me into a consult within one month from Gio's referral to him, and then squeezing me into surgery 2 weeks later so I can start work in two weeks.  I cannot say enough good things about him.

I do not usually go on OH much anymore, but I will check in to update my profile sometimes, so I can respond to questions about DS reversal, and my experience going forward.

I am posting this because I want those researching the DS to know that a result like mine is possible.  In retrospect I certainly should not have had the DS and a VSG would have been a much more appropriate option for me.  I know that my results are not typical and I am not condemning the DS, I just think pre-ops should hear all possible outcomes before making an informed decision.  I do not claim my issues are "common," however, in talking about them at support groups and with the many surgeons I have consulted with in my effort to overcome them, it seems that they are less unusual than one would imagine reading this messageboard.  It may be that because message boards are for support and encouragement, those who experience less than the fantastic "come to the dark side, we have cookies" result, feel less of a desire to post.  Honestly, I don't know why it isn't discussed more often. 

In any case, I think that pre-ops should know, and anyone else suffering from chronic bacterial overgrowth, chronic diarrhea, awful smelling gas, unresolving vitamin deficiencies, or fissures, should know that there are other people experiencing this and I for one am happy to speak to you.  Do not lose hope.  It is very hard to avoid depression in this situation, but please do not stop advocating for yourself until you get an answer.

I graduated law school!!!!


My hemoglobin is back up to a 10.5 after months of iron infusions.  SO yeah me!

I am looking for a revision surgeon.  If anyone has one to recommend please let me know.  After i get revised I hope to get surgery to fix my fissures.

Swing chickens for me.

I took medical leave from school for January.  I got a botox chemical sphincterotomy which has helped my anal fissure pain about 40%.  I have an awesome colo-rectal surgeon who is committed to helping me feel better.
I felt better after my blood transfusion but my hemoglobin went down to an 8 again (still way better than a 6) so I have been getting weekly iron infusions and twice daily oral iron prescriptions.

I consulted with Dr. Davis' group Valley Obesity Surgery in NJ about a DS revision.  He has a great nurse practitioner who put me back on flagyl and ran a full blood workup and a workup for the return of my PCOS hormone imbalance.  I already feel better on this med again.

update on me: I have a consult scheduled for next week to meet with a hematologist to schedule iron transfusions and another blood transfusion and an appt with a colo-rectal surgeon for a botox procedure to fix the anal fissure next week. Hehe I am thinking I will have a very perky behind after that procedure!

PS my aunt maryc543 has been in the hospital for two weeks with a leak.  Please pray for her.

still feeling really sick.
My hair is falling out a lot now.
I get another endoscopy and colonoscopy next week.

Hi all,
I am 2.5 years out. I had plastics in Aug 08. I developed an anal fissure. The fissure only bleeds a tiny bit and only occasionally. It has been incredibly painful. I have been treating it with nitro cream and fiber. I still take 4 vancomycin a day and follow SCD diet for my chronic diarrhea/gas from recurring SIBO infections. The fissure is not healing.
I was scheduled for botox injection to treat it on Friday. They did a routine blood test and my hemoglobin was a 6. That is critical. It had been slightly low (9.7) in August when I had my plastics. They canceled surgery. They admitted me for emergency blood transfusion of 2 units of blood all day Saturday. They did further tests and I have severely low iron and ferritin. I knew my vitamin D and iron were a little low in August, but all other vitamin / blood levels are normal. I was never anemic pre-op DS.
My occult (stool) and urine were free of blood.
They say my levels are indicative of chronic blood loss; they think I am bleeding internally somewhere, but I have had lots of Upper GI and endo and colonoscopies as recently as last Jan because of my chronic diarrhea/ SIBO and they all came back normal.
In any case they will retest me this week and every week to see if I am losing hemoglobin after the transfusion and I will meet with my PCP next Monday to develop a testing plan.

Has anyone else dropped to critically low iron/hemoglobin but been good on all other blood levels? I am a little confused as to how I could be malabsorbing only that nutrient? The SCD diet I follow is meat and some veggies, fruit, and nut products so I eat meat constantly. My blood protein level is good.

Thanks to Kimberly123 and MaryC (my real life aunt) who have been supporting me through this.

I have a fissure.
We tried dialetezapan (sp?) and nitro paste and colace.  They are not working.
I am very unhappy.
I am looking for colo-rectal surgeons for second opinions about botox treatment/sphincterectomy and DS surgeons about maybe getting the intestinal part revised.
Very tired of being sick and exhausted.

I had LBL and BL on August 11. The first week of recovery has been really rough, but I am working on it. I used doctor Capella in Ramsey NJ and like him. I will update more in the future.

Info on SCD:

There are several SCD cookbooks available and my mom  has helped me so much by making me lots of food from them.
Nut Yogurt
Ready-baked SCD foods from digestive wellness (the pb cookies and almond chews are great)
Ready baked foods from SCD Bakery (the flatbread is awesome)

SCD
Recipe websites: The pb brownies, almond candy, ginger cookies, and pancakes are awesome.
SCD
PecanBread
It is a great diet for anyone at goal who is having DHR or Gas problems to follow.  I have to restrict veggies, fruits, and the SCD legal cheeses others can eat, but many people can also eat those SCD legal foods with no problem.

Just in the interest of giving pre-ops a balanced perspective on the possible outcomes after WLS: I am almost 2 years post op. I AM ALWAYS fighting with myself about what I can and cannot eat, but I do my best because of how sick I get when I eat something off plan.

I take antibiotics every day. I take lomitil every day. I take expensive probiotics and home-made nut yogurt every day. I have had numerous colonoscopies and many other tests. I have cycled through many types of meds. After nearly 1.5 years of being very sick every day I have finally found a method that keeps me from being really ill: I can only eat certain SCD Diet foods (the specific carbohydrate diet designed for crohn's patients). My whole diet is almond and other nut flours, honey, meat of many kinds, nuts, coconut oil, and yogurt I make myself from nuts. Every day. At 2 years out. If I go overboard on my "I can have a single bite per day" (wine, rum, farmer's cheese, certain fruits and veggies) I can be sick all day. If I eat anything else I can be sick for days. I am still trying to heal my bottom issues which developed during this 1.5 years of awfulness.

Once again this is not the norm at all. I have found a way to be OK by being very careful and taking meds. My severe insulin resistance is gone. I am a size 8. My joints feel better. My cholesterol is lower. I have had many wonderful benefits from the DS for which I am supremely grateful. But I think that it is worthwhile for me to occasionally post my experience so pre-ops can see that not every post-op DSer can eat with abandon and only have a little gas as a consequence.

I am slowly improving as long as I am very careful. Things are good!