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Hi All Thanks to all of you for your support and prayers. Finally my mother is better. Her drain tubes were out after 4 weeks and stent after 7 weeks. I like to pass this message to every one who is either going through same issue or worried about this. 1. If you are above 60 and/or diabetic, think twice. This is major operation. Even if you are young and healthy, still the risk and severity is a lot. With 1% to 7% chance of mishap, please plan for the worst, arrange for someone who will take care of you for months. 2. May be the doctor should always put a drain tube after gastrectomy. This way if there is leak, they will know right away. In case of my mother, it took three days when they finally admitted that there is a leak possibility and put the drain tube. 3. If you do get the drain, insist your doctor to analyze the Fluid comping out. They were very reluctanct. However, with my own initiative we got pathology report that it had fungus infection. A cheap medicine, flucanazole probably helped in the healing. They were giving Meropenem which is pretty strong antibiotic but does not do anything against fungus, if anything it helps fungus. People who get peretonial dialysis get this infection often. Doctors only worry about baterial infection and do not think about fungus infection. My mothers's drain fluid was some times milky and sometimes like chocolate milky either due to blood in it or chocolate particles leaking. 4. There are 24 centimeters of stent available. The stent really helped. 5. For people who are considering sleeve G, I think you should really find a person who had gone through leak and speak to them. Ask them how many days they spent in hospital or home being sick. How many injections they got. My mother got so much sick of the injections. Vomiting, constipation, stomach ache etc are very annoying. Please make up your mind of the worst case scenrio. Choose for less invasive surgary, eg. gastric balloon, careful that fluid does not go to lungs. 6. Please also note that as per our experience, the appetite does not reduce after sleeve G. My mother still has good apettite and private nurse keeps a leash. If that's what we needed then may be I should have got a private nurse. The only things this operation does is to create nausea or cause vomit if eaten more. It is very expensive and painful way of reminding self to eat less. Wish you all the best. If someone is really desperate and want to reach me they can write me an email at atul.krishna.gupta (at the rate of ) hotmail account. Atul

Thanks Ashlee. I am looking for any visual cor dye testing which can be done so that I can see it coming out in the drain. My mom got three times ct scan already. I am surprised they did not put drain on you. Atul

To Any Gastric Physician / Surgeon If you are reading this blog then please respond. As my mother still is not out. I want to consult doctors who have seen the leaks. my doc claims this is his 1st patient. So he is in learning mode. I will directly pay for the consultation. Atul

Lila S I have few questions to gain insight from your experience 1. Did yout get stent? if yes, did it change the leak characteristics? (In my mom's case, it made big difference. But even 10-15 days later, the discharge still is there, though reduced from max of 100ml per day to 50ml per day. The mucousness also reduces.) 2.Did the drain discharge continually go down or it had up and downs? (in my mom's case, it is bit bumpy) 3. Did it stop altogether, or at some point, lets say 1ml or 10ml per day, the doctor decided to pull the drain out? 4. How long have you had drain in you? were there mulitple or just one? (my mom had 2 drains, but one was at the bottom of the peritoneal cavity and had clear Fluid after 3-4 days and was pulled out after 10 days. The main one still is there). 5. In another thread I think you said, you had leak test by using a dye. Do you know the name of the dye? Do they just mix in the food or you did that in the CT? 6. If you got stent, did you do the dye test afterr stent? 7. Which antibiotic were you taking? How much, through IV or orally? 8. What tests did you do on the drain material itself? Did you ever do culture and sensitivity test? 9. Were you having food by mouth or through nose pipe before or after you got the stent? (My mom got food through nose pipe for a week but once she got the stent the noise pipes were removed.) 10. Did you have some fever in the night while you were recovering? (My mother gets 99-100C fever by night but not taking any fever medicine. She is on continuous antibiotic (Merepenem or Ertapenem).Most of the time she is around 98.6F. Sorry for so many questions Atul

crazyunique Just pretend that you got sleeve and then leak. then follow the diet given to people with leak (protien shake) for a month then you will close to your target without spending money or going through suffering. I lost 10 pounds just in sympathy (could not see my mother in pain and suffering, lost the appetite) when i did not have much extra weight at the first place. There are other less invasive procedures, eg. gastric balloon (though I heard someone got Water in lungs due to blockage in the digestive path due to balloon) lap band etc. If you can still not loose appetite and don't loose weight, just go to hospital and see all the mess, I am sure you can find someone with this case. Atul

#40Hi lessofmeismore Hi LessOfMeIsMore My mother is slowly getting better. For her age + Diabetese, it is not easy to get better fast and above all she was not prepared for it. I encouraged her and did not do my homework. Wanted to get gastric balloon but got this instead per doc's recommendation. Anyhow, I like to speak to someone and assure my mother that she will get better soon. I am specially curious to understand what is coming from drain? is it the food or internal wound's pus? The color of drain is like dark chocolate. It will be nice if I can communicate over phone but do not know if I can give my phone no on line. I am desperate enought to do anything. Lila: Since you have gone through same, can you comment on the color of drain? Atul

Dear All I am in DESPERATE need of guidance. I got my mother at age 64 Sleeve Gastrectomy. What a night mare. She got a leak and is very slow to heal. Can someone with similar experience help me. Thanks Atul