twseid58

About a month ago I started having abdominal pain. I thought it was another bout of diverticulitis. Years ago I was hospitalized for it and have had several recurrences. My GP put me in Cipro. The pain seemed to go away but came back before two weeks was up. I returned and he prescribed Cipro & Flagyl and ordered CT scans. He told me the scans came back suggesting I had a rare condition in adults called intussusception, which means the intestine telescopes on itself. At the time I had no idea it was related to my RNY gastic bypass surgery. I went to a local surgeon for a consultation. He didn't think the CT scans looked like intussusception, so he wanted me to have a small bowel pass through. I was still having abdominal pain, though he said people with this condition would be writhing in pain. That was a Friday; I had to wait until Wed. of the next week to have the procedure done. I met with him on Thursday. The results were normal and he suggested I return to my bariatric surgeon. That Friday the pain was almost gone. I met with the bariatric surgeon on Monday in Indianapolis and she had me do a CT scan with contrast that afternoon. At this point I hardly felt any problem in my abdomen. She talked with me briefly by phone at the hospital to say she thought it was not an internal hernia but intussusception. If the pain returned, I should contact them right away. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them? I understand it is a complication with RNY surgery. My daughter said she saw a statistic that it happens in 1 of 1000 RNY patients. I'm also not quite sure how much pain I should be in before contacting the surgeon. It's three days later and I can still feel something. Although the intestine can straighten itself out, it can still fold in on itself again. I'm not entirely confident that I've received the correct diagnosis; it seems like it's just based on a process of elimination: it's not an ulcer and not an internal hernia.

Let me give a follow-up to my situation. No evidence could be found in any tests that I was experiencing intussusception. Eventually, the only diagnosis that could be suggested was that there was some ulcers. The only basis for that was that I mentioned that I had gotten into the habit of drinking wine in the evenings. Altogether I had a highly acidic diet and had stopped taking Omeprazole. I stopped drinking alcohol, stopped eating a pot of chili a week, and started back on Omeprazole. A year later and I have not had any other symptoms. Over the past year I have become an avid cyclist and am in the best shape of my life. As I think about it, I don't believe the pain I was experiencing was ulceration. But I needed to remove the likelihood of that diagnosis in order for them to be able to figure out what my problem might be. On the other hand, I don't think my pain was as severe as it should have been if I did have an intussusception. I don't know, so I intend to stick with my current way of life, which is greatly improved over where I was a year and a half ago. Still really, really glad I had the gastric bypass surgery. I'm working on losing some more with a goal of another 15 lbs. so I'll reach the 200 lbs. lost goal.

I'm now three years out from my roux en y gastric bypass surgery. For the first two years I used a treadmill for exercise; I started just walking and finally got to the point of running -- never thought I would do that again. This past year I started cycling and am loving it. I have a turbo trainer for my bike during the winter and am using Trainer Road software and also Zwift. Cycling has given me the extra motivation to want to lose more weight and to get healthier.

I wonder if anyone else has had the problem I'm having and what you've done about it. My surgeon, dietitians, and GP haven't given me much help on this. When I try to eat a cooked chicken breast, hamburger patty, pork tenderloin or chop, or turkey, my stomach instantly gets queasy. But if I have chicken breast meat in a recipe like (my favorite) Panang Curry or homemade chicken Soup, I have no problem with the meat. Same goes for hamburger. When I saute it and put it in my chili, I have no problem. I've tried to be sure to chew the solid food well, but nothing seems to make a difference. Consequently, I can't eat very much meat unless I have something like the curry or chili, two meals I make every week and eat leftovers for a few days. Otherwise, I've been doing well, lost about 180 lbs., gone off blood pressure medicine, and enjoy being able to run again. I'm starting the Whole30 program today (Paleo diet), which involves eating more Protein (which I need anyway). -- Tim