My Stomach Died.

[natashabands 0]

Well that's the gist of it at least. Apparently a huge portion of my stomach had slipped through the band months and months ago.

Started vomiting blood. Had an upper endoscopy done. Was told that I had the beginnings of an ulcer. Fast forward to 8 months later, and I'm in the hospital in severe pain and living off IV fluids when the doctors tell me that the portion of my stomach that slipped through had become necrotic tissue and was basically killing me (my white blood cell count was through the roof).

Long story short, they removed 75% of my damaged stomach and I'm trying to cope with this new way of eating as well as intense hunger pains if I forget to eat. Anybody wanna hit me up and explain what the hell is going on with my body? Like why I don't feel the urge to eat (and many times forget to) and then I'm suddenly hit with the most intense hunger pains I've ever felt in my life accompanied with feelings of nausea? Like why I experience dumping when I eat ice cream, but not candy? Whether or not it's safe for me to have alcohol?

Just majorly confused.

[Humming Bird 275]

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear you had such huge complications. My heart goes out to you. I wish you a fast recovery and hope things get better for you fast.

With such big complications, I would hope many of these questions are being addressed by your surgeon. I hope they offer the support you need. I would encourage you to talk to him/her about all this.

[Cocoabean 430]

That's got to be frightening! I don't have any answers, but wish you all the best.

[mybella 35]

so sorry about all of your complications. as far as your eating, sounds like you need to be on a shedule to avoid the pain even if you don't want to eat. discuss with your dr and nutritionist.

good luck and at least you caught it sooner than later

[O.T.R. sleever 3,386]

Well that's the gist of it at least. Apparently a huge portion of my stomach had slipped through the band months and months ago.

Started vomiting blood. Had an upper endoscopy done. Was told that I had the beginnings of an ulcer. Fast forward to 8 months later' date=' and I'm in the hospital in severe pain and living off IV fluids when the doctors tell me that the portion of my stomach that slipped through had become necrotic tissue and was basically killing me (my white blood cell count was through the roof).

Long story short, they removed 75% of my damaged stomach and I'm trying to cope with this new way of eating as well as intense hunger pains if I forget to eat. Anybody wanna hit me up and explain what the hell is going on with my body? Like why I don't feel the urge to eat (and many times forget to) and then I'm suddenly hit with the most intense hunger pains I've ever felt in my life accompanied with feelings of nausea? Like why I experience dumping when I eat ice cream, but not candy? Whether or not it's safe for me to have alcohol?

Just majorly confused.[/quote']

To answer some of your questions I would need to know which part of your stomach they removed, and how long ago.

But here's my thought. As a sleever, I've had approamately 80% of my stomach removed. The part that they remove during the sleeve is where most of the hormone ghrelin is produced. I'm assuming the same has happened to you. I quite often forget to eat because I'm never hungry. Some people's minds play an awful trick on them, with the sudden absence of ghrelin some people experience sever head hunger your mind subconciencely knows that you've not eaten and since its not getting the ghrelin hunger signal it's panicing and trying to do some damage control. It goes crazy trying to get you to eat. Everybody I know that has experienced this swears it is real hunger, it seems so real.

The "dumping" I am also going to associate to the sleeve. Many people once sleeved experience certain foods that just don't agree with their new stomach. The most common is dairy products, temporary lactose intolerance happens to 10-15% of sleevers. It is the most common food intolerance in our community.

Now the good news, none of this is permanent. As your tummy heals(a sleeve is about 70-80% at 6months & reaches 100% @ 8mo -1yr) it will start to produce ghrelin again, only in much smaller amounts. The head hunger will subside, and the food intolerances will go away.

As far as the alcohol question, since I'm not sure that what you have truly is as close to a sleeve as I'm assuming. I have to leave that advice category to your doctor. Alcohol stimulates stomach acids and can cause acid reflux & gherd (sp?). All I can say is when in doubt, don't.

I am really sorry to see anybody go through what you are experiencing. I wish you the best in your recovery.

[SoccerMomma73 1,867]

Holy cow!!! I hope you feel better and please take care of yourself. Any idea why they let your slip go so long???? Mine was found on a Thursday and by Friday I was on the schedule for urgent removal the following week, I guess I should go thank my doc

[Jean McMillan 2,973]

I'd be majorly confused too.

I don't think anyone here is qualified to explain your symptoms or tell you if it's OK to drink alcohol (though with everything else going on, I'd say you should pass on the alchohol for now). Yours is an awful and unique situation and I hope your doctor can guide you through this as you heal and adjust.

[elcee 3,341]

Wow that is a terrible story. Was the vomiting blood the first symptom that you had? If it was then that is incredibly scary.

Hope that everything now goes well.

[jrae 38]

What is "dumping"?

[lalaj 108]

So sorry to hear this. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

[O.T.R. sleever 3,386]

What is "dumping"?

This will explain it better than I can.

http://www.rnytalk.com/topic/2665-dumping-the-confusion-about-dumping/

[natashabands 0]

Holy cow!!! I hope you feel better and please take care of yourself. Any idea why they let your slip go so long???? Mine was found on a Thursday and by Friday I was on the schedule for urgent removal the following week, I guess I should go thank my doc

Well to be fair, I don't think they knew my band had slipped until they'd actually gone in there. Also, I thought everything was fine and so did all of my doctors. Everything seemed to be working out until about four or so days before I was hospitalized.

Anyway, thank you all for your encouragement and well wishes. I hope that anybody else who may be suffering from what I had did not hesitate to remove the band immediately. Looking back, I should have just insisted that it be removed the first time I started throwing up blood.

[Maddysgram 6,159]

Really sorry you are going through this. Thoughts & prayers for a speedy recovery.

I have a 12 yo granddaughter whose stomach has never worked since birth. She has a G&J tube for feeding and does very well. So I know how frustrating this must be for you. Hang in there!