myspeakgeek

I had the VSG on June 29th. So far my experience has been pretty rotten. I passed out on 6/30 while sitting on the side of the bed. The nurse caught me and called for a rapid response. My BP dropped to the 70/40 range. I became tachycardic with a HR of 180. The response team put a pad on my chest to shock it into rhythm but thankfully it was just rapid not out of sync Later that day they did an upper GI with barium swallow that showed I was leak free. The next morning on 7/1 my blood tests showed I had internal bleeding as my hemoglobin was 7.9 The surgeon did the wait and see game and started me on IV fluids at a bolus rate. The next day on 7/2 my hemoglobin was at 8.1. On 7/3 my hemoglobin was at 8.2. The surgeon said that the bleeding had stopped and that I was able to go home. While preparing to go home I was moving around a lot more and noticed that my right calf hurt. I asked the nurse about it and she offered me a heating pad. I also asked if there was anything the doc could give me for the cramps in my right thigh. She didn't seem to be concerned about any of the questions I was asking so I dismissed my symptoms as sore muscles. I was at home from the evening of 7/3 till the morning of 7/7. On 7/7 I woke up at 5 am with pain in my right chest area and a fever of 101. I knew something was wrong and had someone take me to the ER. They ran through a series of tests starting with an x-ray, a CAT scan, and an ultrasound of my legs. I was eventually diagnosed with a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in my right leg, multiple Pulmonary Embolisms in my right lung, and a Pleural Effusion in my right chest cavity. They started me on blood thinners and pain medicine. I will only briefly tell you about the pain of the PEs. I have never experienced so much pain before in my life. I was screaming for help as loud as I could and clutching my chest with both hands. I called for a priest and was prayed over because I thought I was on my way out. I spent the next day 7/8 getting drugged up with Dilaudid every 3 hours to keep the pain in check. On 7/9 I had a Thoracentesis to drain 600ml of red colored fluid from my chest cavity. It is now 7/10 and I've been up all night dealing with pain and insomnia. I am supposed to go home today on blood thinners and pain management. My plan is to apply for 2 weeks of FMLA and short term disability to go with the 2 weeks of vacation I've already taken. I plan to take the additional time to recuperate because my body is a wreck.. I walked into this a pretty healthy 41 year old male 5' 11" at 295 lbs who exercised every day for 45 minutes but just had a monster appetite. I will be leaving the hospital today feeling like a weakened old man traumatized from the whole experience. I am not ready to make a judgement call on whether it was worth it or not. It is way to soon. I realize I'm in the early stages of the process and have many positive milestones to look forward too. I have hope that in a year, the memories of pain and trauma will fade and I will look back and judge that it has been with it.

---Update 7/30/2020--- Thank you for checking in on me. I was released from the hospital on 7/17, six days after they placed the chest tube. I spent four of those days with the tube in my chest. They went through a process of putting two different liquid drugs, one at a time, through the tube back into my chest. They let them sit for an hour each and then drained them back out. They did this round the clock on three hour intervals. From what I understand they drained the free flowing liquid from my chest at first, then they found this thicker gunk remained behind. They went through this process of backfilling the medicines into my chest to liquify the the thick stuff so it could drain out. I never got an answer as to what the stuff was or how it got there. The best WebMD answer I could ever find was that a pleural effusion can be caused by a pulmonary embolism, like the ones that I had. I was released on 7/17 and have been at home recovering ever since. I will be on blood thinners for a couple of months due to the blood clots that I had. I have slowly gotten better each day. The only lingering pain that I have at this point is on the skin in my stomach area . I don't know if this is common or not. My incisions look great but for whatever reason the skin within a few inches of two of them remains extremely sensitive. Sometimes I feel a pinch and burn sensation beneath the skin if I move a certain way. The skin itself is very sensitive, even having my shirt rub against the area causes an unpleasant feeling. The only thing that I can think of is maybe some nerve damage? Regarding the internal bleeding that I originally experienced. The surgeon believes that he may have cut a paraumbilical vein with the incision near my belly button. Since they didn't investigate the cause of the bleeding while it was happening, they will never know for sure. Looking on the bright side, I have lost 50 lbs since the middle of June. My BMI has gone from 41 to 34 in about 6 weeks. I still have 50 more to lose to reach my goal. However I hope to do it a little slower now. I feel like I lost a lot of muscle with the first 50 lbs. Sent from my moto g stylus using BariatricPal mobile app

--- Update 7/11/2020 --- They placed the chest tube this afternoon. I have to say that I am not a fan. This thing hurts a lot. It's like someone constantly applying pressure to me in the back with a dull point. Hoping this is the last painful thing they are going to do to me before I go home. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can go home on Monday

--- Morning Update 7/10/2020 --- I was on my way to getting discharged. However my wife trusted her instincts and requested them to do another x ray. Thankfully she did because it looks like the fluid is back. Tomorrow they are going to be putting in a chest tube to continually drain the area and I will be here a few more days. Trying my best to stay positive, I'll admit a few tears have leaked out though.

The surgery was performed by a local hospital in the US. It has a very good reputation and a well established surgical and non surgical weight management program. They perform this type of surgery on a regular basis. By all accounts they seem to be a good program with lots of success stories.

I'm sorry you also experienced a bleed. I was so tachycardic that I couldn't get out of bed. My resting hr was 110 and just sitting was 140. It was impossible for me to get out of bed, without pasing out, for 2 days. This is likely what caused the clots, even though I had IPC devices on my legs. In hindsight I should have directed all questions about my symptoms to the doctor.

Thank you. Seeing replies like yours is very therapeutic. Just knowing others who have traveled this path are listening is why I wanted to share.