atroglet

My story starts in July of 2010. I received my Lap-Band on the 23rd. My surgery was performed by Gerald Kirshenbaum in Denver, Colorado. He said it went well after the surgery but mentioned that my liver was lacerated during retraction and he had to repair a hiatal hernia. He felt that the laceration was no big deal because it stopped bleeding before he ended.

Fast forward 8 weeks and 20 pounds less. I started having stomach cramps, vomiting and body aches. Dr. K's office felt I was having after effects of having food stuck. It lasted five days before I couldn't take the cramps and went to the ER. After blood work and CT scan I was sent home with no diagnosis except for a slightly elevated white blood count. My Lap-Band looked to be in place.

The next week I continued to feel horrible. Went back to Dr.K and he prescribed antibiotics for elevated white blood count. After four days I went to my general practitioner because I figured I must have that damn swine flu. He gave me a shot for the pain and said I should feel better in about four hours. After five hours I felt so much worse that I ended up in the ER again. They did new blood work and my d-Dimer was elevated so they did an ultrasound looking for a bloodclot. None was found. They sent me home around midnight with no answers.

The next day my symptoms worsened. I had a fever of 104.3 and was retching violently. I lost consciousness for a period of time and when I awoke my lips were blue. This resulted in another trip to a different emergency room. When I got there my BP was 80/50 and in severe pain. They quickly diagnosed me with Septicemia (also known as Sepsis). After taking a new CT scan they decided I had air or fluid around my liver. The ER doctor started an Internal Jugular central venous line and started aggressively treating me with multiple antibiotics. My life was on the line.

I live in Colorado Springs. I was transported by Flight for Life to a hospital in Denver where my lapband surgeon was located. When I arrived they wanted to go in laparoscopically to explore my liver situation and check my lapband but my blood pressure was so low that I was unstable. They put me in ICU for a blood transfusion and platelet expansion to hopefully stabilize me. My kidneys were starting to fail.

The next morning they wheeled me down to the OR but my blood pressure was too low to use laparoscope so they had to cut me open from chest to naval. I was so full of infection that it was pressing on my organs and that was what was causing my pain. He found the infection under my liver cleaned it up and placed a drain. While in there he also removed my lapband.

I was put into a medically induced coma for two days with my family receiving a 50/50 chance of survival. When my organs started rebounding they brought me out while still having a respirator placed to help me breathe. After my body proving to them it could breathe on its own, they removed the respirator. I spent the next 10 days in ICU and CCU recovering my health.

I was sent home with a picc line for six weeks of IV antibiotics to be given up to four times a day. After a few weeks I was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs resulting in having one tapped for the extraction of fluid.

What a mess this all was! I can't explain what I went though physically, emotionally and financially.