losinghope15

I had a gastric sleeve in September 2014, four days later was taken to the ER and life flighted to Seattle 5 hours away. I had a leak in my stomach where when he removed part of my stomach and put it back together an area didn't staple all the way creating a leak in my stomach or a hole. I was very sick for over a year. It would not heal. After a year a surgeon said it's not healing on it's own so we can do open surgery where i remove most of your stomach to cut out the leak. It ended up being a by-pass surgery. Then after 6 months I fell sick again with fever, pain, etc and went to the ED. They found another leak in a different part of my intestines where I was sewn back together at some junction. It was a 10 percent chance of happening with a revision surgery. So, since then I have had many endoscopy's where they have attempted to go down stitch, cauterize, glue the hole to no avail. I have a chronic hole that leaks into the sterile part of my abdomen, I have been wearing a drain tube to collect the fluid the hole puts out of my abdomen for almost 3 years. Without being able to drain out the fluid I would become sick and possible septic again. It's been over three years of misery. I have been being treated at a large hospital in Seattle all this time. They cannot fix me. There has to be other people that have had these issues and has somehow been able to get it fixed. I am looking for specialists, ideas, anything. Thank you so much!!

I've had a leak almost 9 months now. They have tried everything, sometimes more than once, I go to a large hospital in Seattle. I had a consult last week with a bariatric surgeon and after talking with him, I am really considering getting the "fix it surgery" or Bypass, because I am not healing and I have very little quality of life. But my gastro doc says "just be patient, i'm confident it will heal." As of now I have a PICC line (3rd one) for food. I haven't eaten in a month in a half and the month before that only a few bites of Beans a few times. I am so hungry!!! Of course, my family has to eat so I have to smell food every night and I want to cry. I have a drain tube (the 3rd one) coming out my back. Have lost 2 jobs and was recently given one back, but is now rocky because I can get sick at any given time and they know that. I have went to work a few days then been hospitalized several times and back out for approx. 2 months at a time. I am in pain almost always, have been on pain meds almost every single day. I have been hospitalized probably 10 times ( 5 hours away from my family so no one is ever able to be there with me). The longest stay almost a month. I have to go back (5 hours one way) every couple of weeks and sometimes we have to borrow money for gas just to get there. I has ruined us financially. I do have insurance but I have racked up at least 350,000 dollars in hospital bills. There were months we could not afford dinner for our kids. I can't sleep but a few hours at a time. I try to work 3 days a week just to keep the lights on and food in the fridge, but its obviously very uncomfortable as I am a nurse and on my feet all day. I have very little family support, just my husband who has taken about 6 weeks of time off work to take me back and forth to Seattle (he worries about his job) . In fact, it has ruined several relationships in my family. My parents only live 10 miles away, young and healthy (at least my mom, my dad does have med prob), and they have not showed up one time to ask if I need help while my husband is gone 50 hours a week working. That hurts the worst. I could probably go on and on as you can imagine, but I want people to see how bad it has been for me going through this as I am sure many of you can relate. I was told the bypass was an option from the beginning. But I did not want that, so I think I have been strong and held out for a long time before considering the fix it surgery, or Bypass. I just feel I cant do this much longer. And now my gastro doc wants me to go back to Seattle to have open surgery for a feeding tube in place of the picc line in a few weeks. So this is obviously far from over. This will be my second feeding tube. The bariatric surgeon and his partner act like this is a good idea at this point. Yes, of course they say my chances of complication increase because its a fix it or revision surgery, at about 5%. They seem confident I can have a successful surgery and heal and be back on my feet in about a month. I just need advice, comments, if you have done it and are you happy you did? I am afraid, and I have seen this story on this site where someone went through similar things and still had to have the bypass and of course, says don't go through this for too long because you may end up having to have it anyway. How is the bypass different in the way of eating and quality of life versus the sleeve. My gastro doc said it took one patient a year and a half to heal, but she did. Of course she was much older than me, but still I CANNOT IMAGINE LIVING LIKE THIS FOR 9 MORE MONTHS!!!! Thank you so much, I really need the support and information on this big decision.

@@tammyrn how are you doing?

Wanting to know how you are doing. I am 8 months post op sleeve with a leak and struggling. Any info would be appreciated. Hope you all are doing better.

How are you doing? I hope things have gotten better for you!

I am curios as to why you would have to do something as drastic as having another surgery and do a bypass? I was just given to option to switch from sleeve to bypass but its because I have had a leak for 8 months that is not healing and I am very sick. Was even in the ICU on a breathing tube, etc Good luck to you!

I'm sorry to hear this. I have had complications from the start of my sleeve so I don't know if my experiences would help you. When I had nausea and throwing up (mostly saliva) it was when I had a stent in to help heal my leak. My only advise is if you have any sign of a fever let your doc know asap. I had several Upper Gi's and were told they looked great and my leak had healed only to get sick and hospitalized a few days later. I'm not at all saying you have a leak, just that a leak can be hard to see even with an Upper GI. When I started getting sick a few days after my surgery I had a fever and pain. I went to the ER and my blood work showed my white blood cells very elevated. So please be very diligent in that if you start having those symptoms get help right away. The ER docs know very little about these surgeries and complications from it. I usually teach them about it because unfortunately, I have been in the ER probably at least 10 times with complications from my leak. Are you calling the surgeon who did your surgery? Good luck and hopefully this will soon pass. Keep us posted.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE WORDS OF SUPPORT! I really do appreciate all of you. I welcome and look forward to any and all information regarding a gastric sleeve leak, good or bad. I want to learn all I can. So any of you that are or have gone through it (or know someone who has) please share with me the information. UPDATE: I was in Seattle yesterday for my 2 week check up. I had a consult with a surgeon because my gastroenterologist wants me to have a feeding tube put into my stomach as opposed to this PICC line that is giving me my nutrition. It is better to feed the gut than put calories, Vitamins, etc through my veins. Also, a picc line (it's like an IV that goes into my arm advanced towards the heart) has a higher rate of infection. So, I will have that put in at the end of the month. He is also the surgeon that would do the revision surgery (or fix my leak surgery). One of the ways to potentially fix this gastric sleeve leak is to turn it into a Gasrtic BiPass so we discussed that too. They tell me its a big surgery and a long recovery, about 6 weeks. Also, the risk of complications is higher for me because we are fixing something as opposed to a stomach that has not been touched yet. However, it is so TEMPTING to just do now because I would at least know I was on the road to recovery and I could see light at the end of the tunnel. It's been 8 months and i'm still just as bad as I was in the beginning. I have a PICC line, a drain tube out my back that is draining what my stomach is leaking out of my body, I have not eaten in a month, in fact in over 2 months I have only eaten a few bites of Beans a few times. I'm sooooo hungry! We have to drive to Seattle every few weeks and we are barely getting by financially. My husband is running out of paid time off at work because he has taken off 6 weeks already taking me back and forth and sometimes staying with me in the hospital when he can. So I want this to end more than I have wanted anything in my life. But again the complications of another surgery scare me, look what happened the first time. I think i will hold out a few more months, my gastro doc really wants me too. He says Virginia Mason has the best outcome of gastric leak fixes on the planet!? After I saw the surgeon, I then had a CT and then a tube check. It it showing lots of air in the cavity that was created from when my stomach leaked into the outside area of my stomach. It caused a collection of Fluid around my left lung and spleen. That is what we are using that drain for, to get the infection and fluid out so the cavity will get smaller and eventually heal over. It has been especially painful the last 2 days and is draining out pure blood now. So they changed the type of drain to help with getting the air out. My gastro doc came to see me and said keep taking antibiotics, keep the drain, and change the picc to a stomach feeding tube and come back in a few weeks again. So, I am still very depressed and unsure of my future. I guess I can only take it day by day. I can't even imagine anymore what it was like to be well without tubes coming out of me. My boss has given me another chance to work, but its so hard to work with tubes and pain, but I have to make some money to keep us a float. Again, Thanks to all of you. It's nice to have people to talk to that are familiar with what I am going through. I hope one day I will be able to report good news. I just want to live and work again and have hopes and dreams like I used to. I did this for my health in the first place and am now sicker than I could have ever imagined. Also, if I can answer any questions to anyone else I would be more than happy. I have gone through this for 8 months now. Talk to you later!

I am so depressed. I had a gastric sleeve in Seattle, Washington on September 4th, 2014. Within 4 days was in the ER in my home town and life flighted back to Seattle. I spent almost a month in the hospital and was sent home with a metal stent that was the most painful thing I ever had to endure. I live 5 hours away from Seattle and was having to drive back for follow up CT's, Tube checks, etc every 2 to 4 weeks. I stayed home for another 2 months trying to recover on a feeding tube, drain tube, and antibiotics. I lost my job after the first 2 months because I was gone so long and had no clue as to when I would return. We live paycheck to paycheck so within weeks we were behind on all our bills and could barely afford dinner for the kids, there were actually many nights we just had nothing. In December even though I was still sick and in pain, I begged to return to work. I have kids to feed and keep a roof over their heads. I already felt terrible for not being able to do anything but lay on the couch for 3 months. My job had given me an oncall status when I lost my position, so thankfully I was able to come back and earn some money. After about 6 weeks at one of my tube checks, endoscopy's my gastro doc said the leak was healed. He took out the 3 pigtail stents that had replaced the horrible metal one that I could not tolerate after 4 weeks of misery. He said I was done and never had to come back again, go on with my life. Within a week I started to get a large abscess at the location of my original drain tube. Long story short I I again was sick for a couple months, 4 or 5 hospitalizations, one of which I was taken by ambulance back to Seattle. I had tried again that terrible stent and it was worse the 2nd time around. I only lasted 12 or 13 days with it at which time I could not even shower myself, I was only able to get up and go to the bathroom. I was on 10 mg of oxycodone every 3 hours to keep from wanting to kill myself ( i never really would) Lost my job again. Shut off notices every week, all creditors calling, 2 months behind on our house payment, and only being able to provide dinner a few times a week. I had nothing to eat for 2 months and nothing to drink for a month. Again I had a PICC line for nutrtion. I was again told in March it looked great and unless I had complications I did not even need to come back for three months. I was so happy. I went back to work again with the hope that I can help get us out of this hole. Within a week or so I started to have low grade fevers. I told the doc office and they said unless its over 100 just keep an eye out. I felt so weak and achy but thought it was just from the last month of being in the hospital and home on the couch very ill. I went to Urgent Care with complaints of fevers, body aches, and feeling not well. CT was done that they said looked fine. It only got worse and I took myself to the local ER at the end of March and another CT confirmed I still had a leak and now I had Fluid around my left lung and spleen. Back to Seattle I went. Spent another week, picc line, new drain tube, etc. Back home to recover for another month on Home Health. Having to borrow money just to get to Seattle for my appointments. Worse off financially than ever before and strained relationships with parents because of the financial help they have given me. I am again trying to work even though i should not be, but the stress of not being able to provide for my family has been worse than even my own illness. I am grateful I have the best husband in the world that has taken great care of me, but I am hurt by the fact that not one single family member has come to see me in the hospital or at home. My parents live only 10 miles away and have not showed up one time asking If I need some help. I lay here all day long by myself while my husband is out trying his hardest to provide for us. I have not been able to eat in a month and in 3 months have only had a few bites a few times of some Beans and Protein shakes This of course is only bits and pieces of the horror i' ve been living through the last 8 months. I don't know how much longer I can handle this. It has been harder dealing with the fact that no family has really been there for me and only a couple friends here and there. The guilt I feel as a mother making my kids live this this. Please, I am looking for information as far as other people who are or have lived through this. Good and bad, I want all the information I can get. This has been the worse thing I have ever lived through in my entire life and I just can't see it ever ending. Thank you so much for letting me unload, but I don't really have many to talk to. I am lonely, sad, depressed, and feeling i'm running out of the ability to have any hope.