Stomas, Pouches, Rny, Oh My!

[Izuri 428]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, or maybe there is just a part of the surgery that I did not understand correctly, but I have noticed that some posts seem to be talking about stomas and pouches. I could just be being uptight about this, but I hope people are really understanding the anatomy of the procedure they're having done.

I'm not sure if this has just been introduced into the whole lingo of weight loss surgery or if some of these people haven't really read up on the differences between RNY and sleeve, but I did notice that even the nurses in the hospital were doing this post-surgery.

They would say "etc, etc, your stoma, etc, etc" and I was like "...I don't have a stoma" and they were like "oh, well, the same rules apply"

Don't get me wrong, the nurses were wonderfully supportive, but it seemed like everyone just lumped all the surgeries into RNY and I've been noticing a lot of that here too.

So correct me if I've read up on my surgery wrong, but we have a sleeve, not a pouch, and an intact pyloric sphincter, not a stoma, right?? They are very different things that come with very different future implications (i.e. stoma = possible dumping syndrome, stricture of the stoma, etc) I realize that they are similar, but the health care needs behind them can be different.

Am I the only one who has noticed this or am I just being a total b for pointing it out (In which case, I'm sorry =p)?

*Edited to decrease the wide generalizations I made a bit and to add clarification =)

[msvickee 212]

Interesting! I've noticed done who make comments I know that are directly related to the gastric bypass. Even my bf who had the bypass said "don't blow your pouch". I paused and was like ok she thinks our surgeries were the same. Lol

I guess I shouldn't let people go on sounding ignorant and should clue them in huh? Lol

[PEvette 297]

Well the surgeries are the same, but at the same time they are different....both of the surgeries changes the stomach...we do have a pouch, its just not cut the same as a RNY person... our body goes through metabotic changes the same as a RNY patient, but RNY patients go through more because of the re-routing of their intestines....

We are not suppose to dump which is different from RNY people (but I've heard that some of them don't dump either)

VSG changes the body, just like RNY....its just that RNY goes one step further.....

You can desire to want people to aknowledge that VSG is different than RNY, but to be honest....they are similar, but not the same....

[msvickee 212]

My surgeon never referred to any part as a ouch unless I missed something....always the sleeve and even had a replica of a stomach and a sleeved stomach.

I can agree that the surgeries are similar and more importantly the surgeries warrant the same results - weight loss.

[Foxbins 625]

I have noticed, this, too. I once had a physician ask me if I was having any intestinal difficulty after my bariatric surgery, I looked at her funny and said no, She said, "Well, I asked because it's very common with surgery." I said, I have a sleeve gastrectomy, not a bypass. She had never heard of it.

And VSG patients have stomachs, not pouches! Bothers the heck out of me, too when folks get it wrong.

[PEvette 297]

I'm not going to get into a debate about whether or not we have pouches...so I'm going to remove myself from this board...

We have pouches, not a stomach....

[Fallenangel2904 494]

I think it comes down to semantics. You call it a pouch, I call it a sleeve. As long as we all understand the shape and size are different from the RNY stomach it's just a matter of what we're referring to it as.

[LT1002 138]

I was just reviewing the post-op diet I was given upon discharge in the hospital (I'm two weeks out today, so I'm anticipating changes this week). The paperwork clearly says "Gastric Sleeve Diet" but yet makes reference to a stoma (as in, "don't eat ____ it will block your stoma").

What gives? I thought our openings remained in tact and nothing was rerouted, just our stomachs were made smaller.

Disconcerting when even the hospital paperwork is wrong!

[soccermomx2 111]

My paperwork has the same post op instructions for all 3 surgeries in regards to diet progressions. However, only the band and RNY are referenced as having pouches. The sleeve is still an anatomically intact digestive system but the stomach has been reduced in size by 85%. We don't have a "pouch" but more like a "banana".

The nurses at my hospital can only treat bariatric patients after attending a 6 week program by the surgeon & surgical nurses. I didn't experience any of the confusion of surgery types.

I suppose terminology depends on your specific dr office.

[lyndynojo 140]

We do NOT have pouches. We have fully functioning stomachs. Our stomachs function exactly like before they are just much, much smaller. If you google both procedures you can find diagrams of the stomach post op and see the difference.

[Heyher 581]

I'm not going to get into a debate about whether or not we have pouches...so I'm going to remove myself from this board...

We have pouches' date=' not a stomach....[/quote']

No... The RNY has a pouch. They create the pouch from the top portion of the stomache to attach to the small intestine where the did the rerouting. Their stomach is intact but not "connected" anymore. We have a sleeve. Stomach functions pretty normal. Just much smaller.

Perhaps you should read a little more about the procedure you had done to better understand your current anatomy...

NO MORE POUCHES!! LoL!