Leak Survivors - A Little Help!

[Lissa_S 787]

Aw thanks Lessofmeismore And I see you've only got 2 pounds to go to goal! That's amazing! Grats!

[lessofmeismore 1,405]

Thank you

[Kapoorvilla 117]

OR........... you can think of the years that obesity is adding cancer possibilities to your death sheet or a heart attack or stroke.

IDK what is the right "choice." I am a food addict. And having open heart surgery scares me more to this day than anything I've been through yet. That and cancer. I have a high prevalence of both in my genetic history. Obesity is related to both.

Everyone should read the "worst" threads. Feel free to inbox me if you have questions regarding my story. I totally left out about the chest tubes that I had.... slipped my mind' date=' there was so much in such a short time. But this experience or say, a heart attack? I would chose this experience. But we all have our choices to make and I cannot undo mine. If I could undo it, perhaps I would choose differently... IDK.[/quote']

I can't help but think of two dear love ones I lost. My mom to cancer she was in her younger years obese but is one of those few who over come with no medical help. From her mid thirties on she was a normal weight the healthier one of my parents so I thought but she is gone now. She died short of her 65th Birthday and my overweight very unhealthy lifestyle Dad is going strong at 71 praise the Lord! Next my brother he was the healthy sibling he ran several miles a day, high school athlete and kept up the physical routine until a car accident took his life on his 39th year.

I have a dear friend who was diagnosised with melanoma stage IV in October he will not be with us much longer. It is a heart breaking situation he is the father of seven ages 4-16. He is not a fat man.

My point is life is so uncertain and be skinny is no guarantee you will not have health problems. My brother in law is a heart surgeon and he has made the statement " I operate on as many skinny patients as I do fat ones."

I am not saying we should not take the precaution to live as healthy as we can but I am saying cancer and heart attacks are not as simple as fat or not fat. That idea is false. I do not even believe the statistics would support more fat people die of cancer than skinny. That is certainly not what I saw while visiting the cancer wards.

The sleeve will not guarantee you cancer free, heart attack free, or stroke free life. I was present in all those meetings I heard the staff tell me this will lower my risk for so many things and add years to my life. I also heard them say the complications happen to the very very obese who have many more health problems than I did. My complication was a reality check! They are there to sale the operation. Now that I brought it yes I have buyer's remorse but realize full well I can't go back.

Once again I am not saying no one should have it, I just think the fluff gets in the way of realizing the real danger!

[atushee 1]

Lila S

I have few questions to gain insight from your experience

1. Did yout get stent? if yes, did it change the leak characteristics?

(In my mom's case, it made big difference. But even 10-15 days later, the discharge still is there, though reduced from max of 100ml per day to 50ml per day. The mucousness also reduces.)

2.Did the drain discharge continually go down or it had up and downs?

(in my mom's case, it is bit bumpy)

3. Did it stop altogether, or at some point, lets say 1ml or 10ml per day, the doctor decided to pull the drain out?

4. How long have you had drain in you? were there mulitple or just one?

(my mom had 2 drains, but one was at the bottom of the peritoneal cavity and had clear Fluid after 3-4 days and was pulled out after 10 days. The main one still is there).

5. In another thread I think you said, you had leak test by using a dye. Do you know the name of the dye? Do they just mix in the food or you did that in the CT?

6. If you got stent, did you do the dye test afterr stent?

7. Which antibiotic were you taking? How much, through IV or orally?

8. What tests did you do on the drain material itself? Did you ever do culture and sensitivity test?

9. Were you having food by mouth or through nose pipe before or after you got the stent?

(My mom got food through nose pipe for a week but once she got the stent the noise pipes were removed.)

10. Did you have some fever in the night while you were recovering?

(My mother gets 99-100C fever by night but not taking any fever medicine. She is on continuous antibiotic (Merepenem or Ertapenem).Most of the time she is around 98.6F.

Sorry for so many questions

Atul

[atushee 1]

To Any Gastric Physician / Surgeon

If you are reading this blog then please respond.

As my mother still is not out. I want to consult

doctors who have seen the leaks. my doc claims

this is his 1st patient. So he is in learning mode.

I will directly pay for the consultation.

Atul

[Goodnurseg 31]

I am sorry to hear about your mum. My drains were coloured' date=' mostly yellow and green, some had blood in it at one point. It was never dark brown that I remember. But after reading some of the responses here, wow, mine perhaps wasn't too bad. I spent 56 days in hospital but haven't been back. I have been eating normal food for a while now and things seem to be getting back to normal. I have even started exercising. I've lost over 100 pounds since my operation in September 2012. A leak sucks and it's a really hard road to recovery and way longer than I ever expected. If I could turn back time there is no way I would do this again however now I am here, healthy and loosing the weight, I am really glad it's done. Every day I see new benefits from it - I will post a before and now photo (I still have about 100 pounds to loose) - and there is no way I could have lost this amount of weight in 3 months without this op. People used to tell me it would get better - I thought they were lying lol. But it does and it really has been worth it for me (now I am well I can say that lol).[/quote']

You look great btw.

[RawrrAshleex3 137]

1. Did yout get stent? if yes, did it change the leak characteristics?

Eventually. It hurt, not going to lie. I felt ok with the tpn before the stent when I wasn't eating. The stent made it feel worse, and I had problems with it shifting and I had emergency gal bladder removal at that time and they thought my picc line got infected so they had to switch arms but I understand that was also my body healing.

2.Did the drain discharge continually go down or it had up and downs?

I never had a drain

3. Did it stop altogether, or at some point, lets say 1ml or 10ml per day, the doctor decided to pull the drain out?

4. How long have you had drain in you? were there mulitple or just one?

5. In another thread I think you said, you had leak test by using a dye. Do you know the name of the dye? Do they just mix in the food or you did that in the CT? The first one they gave me was clear and tasted like weird Water (they mixed it in water). They used that for all my ct scans. For my leak tests they gave me I believe it was barium. For my final leak test they gave me some gross chalky stuff and made me drink while they rotated me standing to laying down

6. If you got stent, did you do the dye test afterr stent? Before during AND after

7. Which antibiotic were you taking? How much, through IV or orally? I don't remember but they had me on 2-3

8. What tests did you do on the drain material itself? Did you ever do culture and sensitivity test?

9. Were you having food by mouth or through nose pipe before or after you got the stent?

I still had tpn. They allowed me liquids but they made me sick so we relied on tpn

10. Did you have some fever in the night while you were recovering?

There were a couple nights I did

[iggychic 1,405]

Kapo your comments are spot on. I have two dear friends, one with luekemia and another with lung cancer. Both have always been thin and healthy. The lung cancer victim does not and has never smoked. I lost a coworker to cancer a few years ago. He was thin and healthy other than a little cancer. I actually can't think of an overweight person who I know who has cancer....I'll have to think, but really, none come to mind.

In addition, almost everyone I know who has heart issues could be described as a 50 year old white man in moderate to good health.

Being overweight significantly can tax your heart, but my grandfather and great grandfather, who both lived to 100 were overweight and eventually died of phenominia (which I can't spell). There is no "thin is healthy and fat is not" when it comes to either of those situations.

As to the stint questions, I just wanted to answer with a brief answer since my experience is so much different than most. For my repair they used a tool called "The Claw" which is new technology. I did not have a stint nor drains nor antibiotics. We discussed a stint but my surgeons didn't like them because they cause so much discomfort to a patient for an extended period of time. I knew going into surgery it was a possibility, but was happy to learn I didn't get one when I came out!

[iggychic 1,405]

Oh about the dye test. For the poster asking. There are two tests done, one is the most common, being a barium swallow test. Barium is a chemical that can be seen on xray, which is being taken live while you are drinking the Fluid. Barium is either a white chalky Fluid (which is more commonly given to babies) or it is added to another chemical for contrast and it tastes like the bitterest orange rind you have ever bitten into.

For still tests they do also use a CAT scan, mostly to find pockets of leaks or fluid in your body. For that a contrast dye is either drank, added to food (for an infant) or injected via IV (which I had). It is an odd dye in that you can feel it flowing through your body. It makes you feel as if you've wet yourself (you don't) but that's the most clear description I can give you. Life you got dipped in a pool of hot Water.

[atushee 1]

Thanks Ashlee.

I am looking for any visual cor dye testing which can be done so that I can see it coming out in the drain. My mom got three times ct scan already.

I am surprised they did not put drain on you.

Atul

[lessofmeismore 1,405]

Atul, what hospital is caring for your mom? Where are you located?

Have any other doctors consulted with her surgeon?

[Lissa_S 787]

Responses to Atul's questions

Lila S

I have few questions to gain insight from your experience

1. Did yout get stent? if yes, did it change the leak characteristics? No I didn't have a stent. All my operations were to treat massive infection etc

(In my mom's case, it made big difference. But even 10-15 days later, the discharge still is there, though reduced from max of 100ml per day to 50ml per day. The mucousness also reduces.)

2.Did the drain discharge continually go down or it had up and downs?

(in my mom's case, it is bit bumpy). Initially it did. It then slowed right down to almost nothing. One drain literally fell out on it's own - I woke up during the night to go to the bathroom and went to pick it up and it was just hanging out. This was at about week 7. They left the other drain in until the day I was discharged.

3. Did it stop altogether, or at some point, lets say 1ml or 10ml per day, the doctor decided to pull the drain out?

See above

4. How long have you had drain in you? were there mulitple or just one?

(my mom had 2 drains, but one was at the bottom of the peritoneal cavity and had clear Fluid after 3-4 days and was pulled out after 10 days. The main one still is there). Two drain in the stomach, two in the back. The back one's were due to Fluid on my lung (it collapsed).

5. In another thread I think you said, you had leak test by using a dye. Do you know the name of the dye? Do they just mix in the food or you did that in the CT? I had two types of these tests. One was a blue dye I drank and they waited to see if it came out of the stomach drains. The other was the barruim swallow which they did both in CT and via xray.

6. If you got stent, did you do the dye test afterr stent? no stent

7. Which antibiotic were you taking? How much, through IV or orally? I was on a LOT of antibiotics and I honestly can't remember them all. At one point I was on 3 different one's...they made me very ill. I spent the week puking my guts up

8. What tests did you do on the drain material itself? Did you ever do culture and sensitivity test? They stopped testing it after about week 3.

9. Were you having food by mouth or through nose pipe before or after you got the stent? I was being fed via drip (TPN) the entire two months.

(My mom got food through nose pipe for a week but once she got the stent the noise pipes were removed.)

10. Did you have some fever in the night while you were recovering?

(My mother gets 99-100C fever by night but not taking any fever medicine. She is on continuous antibiotic (Merepenem or Ertapenem).Most of the time she is around 98.6F.

My temp would spike at different times for no apparent reason. They didn't seem too worried until it got over 39 degree's (not sure what they is F). Then they would give me heaps more antibiotics.

Sorry for so many questions - no worries! It must be very difficult being the person who has to watch their loved one go through a leak. I feel so sorry for my family who had to watch me go through everything. Cheers, Lila

[Lissa_S 787]

You look great btw.

Aw thanks

[Misty_eyes 79]

Oh my goodness, thank God you are all fine now. Sorry to hear what y'all went through. I am glad to hear that you're well and have recovered, or on your way to recovery. Its scary... I hope none of us have to go through this experience thank you guys for sharing because these are not on any books I read, and are truly educational.

[LaserSkinGirl 147]

Hey guys...

So glad everyone is getting heathier and moving forward... I pray the best for all!! Your stories are such a shame when I am sure this was something you were looking so forward to having done!!

Questions... Where did your surgeries take place?? States side or foreign? Any of you guys have the same dr??

Just wondering if its totally random or ....

Thanks