LOOKS like surgery is in my near future AGAIN

[leatha_g 4]

Originally posted by DeLarla

I already put myself on restriction starting today. The remainder of July is dedicated to getting my exercise back on track. As far as my drinking, even Chris said I've had more alcohol since my band than in the entire decade. Alex, yes, I've been drinking too much... it's weird. It's been over 5 years since I've had so much as a glass of wine on a weekday. The whole port protrusion thing started it when someone offered me a glass of Zinfandel to help me relax. Of all things, I tolerated it better than broth, and it made me not care that tubes were sticking out of me. I swear, I turned into a drinker in one month at 41 years old. Yes, I drank a lot in my youth... 20 years ago. But it's so weird that suddenly I can understand the alcoholic mentality.

You've had a tough time, Lisa. I don't know how you've managed the port infection and holding down your jobs too. I applaud your tenacity. But, I also love Alex's gentle way of approaching what could not only be a big issue for you mentally/emotionally but could also affect your band. Alcohol is an irritant which you probably don't need right now and it does cancel out any good antibiotics might be doing.

On the other hand. I know all too well what you mean about 20 yrs ago. Keep your chin up!

((((Lisa))))

Leatha

[Alexandra 55]

Lisa, I don't think it's weird at all that drinking has been an outlet for you recently. You've been dealing with a LOT of stress and don't have the outlet you used to have--that of food! But replacing one excess with another is counterproductive, and even more so when that new habit is really getting in the way of healing. Healing should be Job 1 right now.

We have to give ourselves permission to be very selfish during times of healing. It's very very hard to do, particularly for people with demanding jobs, spouses, or kids. But it's vital to take care of ourselves so that we can be available to take care of these others. You can't do that if you're forever running to doctors' offices and worrying about another infection.

Be good to yourself!! :)

[Penni60 45]

Lisa: I hear you. I understand you about the drinking. I went through something like that when I was divorcing my ex along long time ago. I drank to drown the pain and frustration. I became a borderline out of control. Then I woke up a month later and said "Wait a minute. I have 4 kids to support. I can't be doing this to them or myself." So I just stopped the excess drinking.

I do still have an occasional drink but usually a glass of wine is my max. My daughter's wedding I had several glasses of champagne. ON trips to Jamaica with my girlfriend I let my hair down. THen when I get home back to the glass of wine maybe every two months, if that.

SO go get the appointment with the doc. Get the endo. Give yourself peace of mind.

[Penni60 45]

OK this post will be long and involved. SO if you don't wanna read it then skip over it.

I sent Dr. HUNKY (BILLY) an email stating that I did not want to do the surgery on Friday before having an Endoscopy (ENDO) done. His reply to my email is listed below. It is long so bear with me.

__________________________________________________

We can do the endoscopy at the same time if you want. The surgery we have already discussed, namely the correct positioning of your port has to happen anyway. I think it is very unlikely that you have an erosion. Your symptoms are not as dramatic as the patients I have treated with erosion. Because I don't think an erosion is very likely I was hoping to avoid the endoscopy entirely. My thinking was that if the laparoscopy which we would perform at the same time as your port repositioning was totally normal then there would be very little chance that you have an erosion. Erosions always cause lots of adhesions between the liver and the stomach and the port tubing is always wraped up in lots of fat. It is not a subtle finding and easy to diagnose. If on laparoscopy your have none of these findings then I don't think you need an endoscopy. Your symptoms are not at all very suggestive of an erosion. Erosion is just one of the things on the list of things to consider.

If you want us to perform an endoscopy while you are under anesthesia we can do so, it just might not be necessary. I think there is a very low liklihood you have an erosion so I was thinking how to minimize the need to perform an endoscopy. If you want to have an endoscopy we would perform the endoscopy first. If there is an erosion I would either wake you up to discuss the erosion and show you pictures and make a reccomendation to you and then you would be able to participate in the decision as to what to do. If there was no erosion we would proceed with our planned revision of your port site to secure the port and reposition the band tubing.

Let me know what your thoughts are. If you want to do the endoscopy fist and then schedule the second procedure at a later date that is fine with me. Another strategy would be to perform the laparoscopy to examine what the surgical site looks like (rule out all the adhesions) If it looks fine then proceed with the port repositioning and tubing repositioning. If it looks like an erosion then proceed with the endoscopy. If there was an erosion I could then stop and discuss the findings with you.

I'm sure it is possible to get the endoscopy scheduled for friday. It would be easy if we combined it with the laparoscopy and the information at laparoscopy would be useful anyway. If you just want to have a routine endoscopy in the GI suite then let me know and we will work on getting that approved for friday. If you want us to do the endoscopy simultaneously with the laparoscopy then we can do that on friday because bothe procedures would be done in the main operating room which we already have scheduled.

As I said, your symptoms are unusual and don't really fall into the pattern of symptoms I have seen in the erosions I have treated. They really appear more like an allergic reaction at this point. I have one other patient who had a red port site after placement of a lap-band in Mexico. I did the endoscopy first and could not find an erosion. I then replaced her port and found lots of adhesions and lots of Fluid around her port site. Now I have scheduled her for another endoscopy just to be sure I didn't miss a very timy erosion. She has no complaints and has not had any problems but she still ended up with multiple procedues.

I think that your situation would be similar. I don't think that I will find an erosion on your endoscopy, If we do the endoscopy first but then when I replace the port I find Fluid around the port and adhesions with the laparoscopy I will be concerned that you had an infection at some point around the port. We always worry about erosions and since we are not perfect we always wonder if we missed the erosion at the time of the first endoscopy and often would reccomend a second one to be absolutely sure. I hope this helps. Let me know which way you want to proceed or if you need any more information to help make this decision. In the meantime I will see about getting time to do the endoscopy on friday if that is all you want to do. Again I think the liklihood of you having an erosion is very, very low.

Dr. Billy

____________________________________________________

Don't you just love him???? So, I am gonna have the ENDO at the same time as my surgery on Friday. That will put to rest any idea if I have erosion or not. OH!! And Donali see in the email where he states that erosions cause lots of adhesions? You came into my thoughts while I was reading that cause didn't you say Lopez said you had lots of them. He thought you were rejecting the band when in fact it was the erosion causing the adhesions. Anyway, I am feeling so much better now.

THanks to all of you great people for listening and letting me vent to you. You are all angels to me.

VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[leatha_g 4]

It's so much more comforting when you have a Dr. that isn't above actually communicating with you. So many times they act as if they are on a different plane than the rest of us humans.

My new Dr. called me personally, twice on Thursday before my surgery. On Friday, he came in the pre-op room and sat down with me and my daughter as if he were a family friend and just talked with us. That sure helps!

I'm really glad you found this guy!

Leatha

[Penni60 45]

ME TOO leatha. ME TOO

[La_madam 20]

Wow you have a great doctor there Penni..

So glad you are relieved after that email..I'm relieved for you too. I think you are doing the right thing by having the Endo at the same time..it will just put your mind that much more at ease .

Good luck and We will keep you in our thoughts all day Friday!

[nightingale2u 42]

Penni,

Soooo sorry you are facing another surgery but it sounds like you have a great M.D.! I'm very glad you found a doctor you can trust and that you have such excellent communication with! I'm crossing my fingers that there will be ZIP erosion and that you will be able to continue your weight-loss journey without further problems. Have you posted pics of the adorable Dr. Billy yet???

Lisa- Girl... If I had to go through what has happened to you in your banding journey, I'd be swigging a couple of bottles of wine on a daily basis! I'm glad to hear that you still would do it all over again even with all of these trials and I totally understand why you would opt for the GBP if you were to lose the band. I often wonder what option I would take if the same thing happened to me... think I would opt to fly solo but can't say for sure.

((((( hugs)))))

Darcy

[Penni60 45]

Have you posted pics of the adorable Dr. Billy yet???

I am getting some pics this Friday before surgery and will post them when I get home.

LOL!!! I call him Dr. HUNKY now.

[DeLarla 22]

Penni, that was a lot of info! Can you PM me and explain the difference between the endo and the lapro? I know the endo entails a camera since I've had one before. But when you talk about laproscopy, is that where they scope your guts with a little camera through the surgical incision? Dr. Kuri did not do an endoscopy on me, but he was inside me when he removed the port. Before they closed me, they did a thorough cleaning (very odd sensation like they were plunging my insides.)

As far as my drinking, I never drank while on antibiotics except for the day before having my port removed since that one day was 4 days long. I could use a drink now though after reading this post joking).

[Penni60 45]

Can you PM me and explain the difference between the endo and the lapro?

Sure no problem

[DeLarla 22]

Okay everyone, I made a fancy doctor appointment. I see my Gastroenterologist on FRIDAY THE 13TH.... oohhh, creepy. And I started another round of antibiotics today since my boo-boo is a little infected still (again, still, who knows?)

Penni, thanks for the info!

[Penni60 45]

Penni, thanks for the info!

Por Nada

[DeLarla 22]

I'm getting e-mails saying that some people tried to send me private messages but my box was full. It was not full! It's empty right now and I'm still getting the full message. WHO BANDED MY BOX?

dork

[Penni60 45]

WHO BANDED MY BOX?

Too funny!!!!!!!!