Wow! Not a good experience!

Feb 06, 2010

Holy moley!  When they say medicine is not an exact science, they mean it!  I had a terrible thing happen to me, but thankfully I'm alright and I expect that I'll recover fairly normally.  As is the normal practice for Duke Weight Loss Surgery patients, I was given a blood thinner prior to surgery.  My blood was thin enough I guess, because I 'sprung a leak' at a staple site on my pouch the day after surgery.  I have never felt that amount of pain in my life.  My whole left side felt like it was being knifed.  I couldn't take a breath!  My heart rate stayed at or over 140 while resting, and shot to 180 when I was distressed.  When they finally figured out it was a leak, they gave me 4 units of blood to make up for what leaked out into my abdomen.  I have a really funky bruise going on from where the blood pooled in my stomach. 

Anyway, not to concentrate on the bad, I have been feeling much better as each day goes by.  I don't 'blame' the docs at Duke, this stuff happens.  I wish they could have diagnosed the problem much sooner so I didn't have to go through what I went through for as long. 

So today is Saturday.  I am 5 days post op.  I certainly hope I continue to improve each day, and as always I consult this site often and thank goodness it's here.

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