On November 18th, 2009, I had gastric bypass surgery.
On October 12th, 2010, I had my gallbladder removed.
On November 23rd, 2011, after a year dealing with random, hours-long bouts of excruciating abdominal pain, for which I went to the ER not once, not twice but four times, and underwent several tests and scans (ultrasound, xray, ct scans (2), upper gis (2), endoscopies (2), even a colonoscopy), I had exploratory laparoscopic abdominal surgery in order to find and fix the cause of my ongoing abdominal pain.
Despite a longer-than-anticipated recovery from my most recent surgery, and annoying and painful intestinal swelling/abdominal bloating that made my boobs look even more pathetic than they are and me look about four months pregnant, this most recent surgery did not fix the problem. Or at least, it did not fix the problem in its entirety. Last Thursday, while at the mall with Dan and the kids, my abdomen started aching. I brushed it off as post-op pain, until we got closer to home and the pain intensified, and I recognized it for what it was: pain that was identical to what I had been dealing with for the past year, and most definitely not pre-op pain.
For the next hour I sat in the living room in a nice medication-induced stupor, while I cried and ranted to Dan and Jason not just about the pain, but about the fact that the pain signified that the issue was still there, and that I’d have to undergo another abdominal surgery and deal with that stress and anxiety and fear (despite four abdominal surgeries I am still terrified of them) and pain all over again, when I was just finally getting over the pain of the most recent one.
Yesterday I had my follow-up/post-op visit with my bariatric surgeon, who confirmed what I already knew: another surgery. Despite being very doubtful that the issue is a simple infection in the length of small intestine that was manually brought up, looped over and surgically attached to my stomach pouch (my “new” stomach; my “old” stomach is attached to my abdominal wall and is no longer in use, obviously), my bariatric surgeon and her co-surgeon are putting me on a month’s worth of antibiotics, just to rule out that slight possibility. Infections in this particular length of altered small intestine occur when the small intestine flips or loops around, causing “stagnation” with ingested food and/or liquids. But since I am not having any signs of an infection (reflux, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever), and since these painful attacks have no correlation or relation to what I ate or when I last ate, the most probable cause, along with the intestinal “void” issue (which was fixed during the surgery on November 23rd), is that this particular piece of small intestine is doing a “candy cane” maneuver – where it’s lengthened/stretched for whatever reason, and its length causes pulling/twisting/flipping – hence the pain.
“Candy cane roux” syndrome is the official diagnosis. My surgeon noted the excess length/stretch of this piece of intestine on 11/23, but she didn’t want to mess with it because she hoped my issue was the empty areas around the lower portion of my small intestines, which allowed those portions to jump and twist and flip around. The piece of intestine that’s higher up and near my stomach pouch tends to bleed and swell a lot when messed with, hence it’s riskier to deal with and more likely to result in (still rare) complications.
Today I am calling the bariatric center at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD for a second opinion (hopefully I can get an over-the-phone appointment instead of having to make the two hour drive down and back, but I’ll go if necessary), but from everything I’ve read, the diagnosis is plausible and very likely, especially since my surgeon did note the change in that piece of small intestine.
So the plan for this next month is to take the 30 days worth of antibiotics, just to make sure that an infection isn’t an issue (which it most likely isn’t, due to lack of symptoms and just the presence of intense pain). The antibiotics are supposed to work quickly, so if in a week from now I have another pain attack, I’ll basically be waiting around three weeks before calling my surgeon to schedule surgery for late January or early February.
Sigh.
But sighing aside, even with this complication and the very strong possibility of another surgery next months, I still do not regret having gastric bypass surgery. (And even if I did, regret is a moot point and a wasted emotion. I can’t go back in time – I can only go forward.)
I hope things work you for you! I’ll keep you in my prayers and good thoughts. *sends positive healing energy your way.*
Karyn’s last blog entry: Alliant Group
And guess who would go with you on that two hour drive to Baltimore? THIS GIRL. I could probably even schedule some sort of appointment I need to get done while we’re there. WINNING.
Amanda’s last blog entry: ALMOST THERE.
Just turn off the ghetto option on your GPS this time. ;)
P.S. I *will* be on AIM tomorrow! Later tonight too, hopefully.
Jen,
My husband, Patrick, has been keeping me updated with how you are doing. And man, does all of this sound so familiar. And here I am 20 abdominal surgeries later and in worse shape than ever. All I can say is get a second, third, and maybe even fourth opinion. My surgeon did 10 surgeries on me before I ever questioned him or got another opinion. We trust so much in them that we think of course they know what they are doing. Good luck and I hope you get relief soon.