Complication

[MeMeMEEE 206]

They can check for a leak with an upper GI - they have you drink a contrast liquid then watch where it goes - hopefully it doesn't leak from the sleeve. If you have this done, make sure they do it while you are standing up and laying down - my leak did not show except when I was laying down and rolled to the side. Do you have any symptoms? Fever? Left shoulder pain? Nausea? Make sure you are getting plenty of Protein to help your body heal.

[Wheetsin 714]

Talked with my surgeon yesterday. He actually does not do a post-op leak test and after talking with him about it inside & out, I'm ok with that. For one, I really really would not want to leak barium. No guarantee I would, but the barium test seems to be the gold standard and I was specifically wanting to avoid it. Why on earth they would have you drink barium to detect a potential leak is beyond me. There are other ways to check what's going on.

My surgeon inflates the sleeve and submerges it and watches for any bubbling. He then fully scopes it from the inside and looks for any leaks or gaps in the staple line. He used to do post-op leak tests when he first started, but after doing thousands of swallow tests and never catching anything that the submersion and scope didn't catch, he stopped doing them.

MeMeMEEE - if you're still checking this thread, I just read through your signature stats. When your leak was discovered, did they determine if it was an existing leak that had been going on for 2 months, or a new leak from some kind of tear or staple line integrity issue? Wow, you've had quite the ordeal!