Splenic Infarction, anyone?

[nilla13 4]

My experience: I had my VSG on May 7th. My recovery has been wonderfully uneventful until day 13 post op when I started having pain in my left flank. It was mostly a dull pain that was there constantly, but would become much worse and very sharp if I cough, sneeze, breath deeply, move a certain way, etc. On day 16 post op, I called my doc's office when I realized it wasn't getting better. They told me to get to the ER right away. All blood and urine work came back normal, so they thought perhaps it might be a leak and sent me for CT scan. Good news is no leak, but they did find a splenic infarction. A small part of my spleen isn't getting blood supply from where they cut blood vessels that were attached to my stomach during surgery. I was told that it should fix itself by either regaining the blood suppy or that part of my spleen will shrivel up and die off. I was sent home with instructions to make sure I get plenty of fluids, take it easy, and pain meds as needed until it heals. They said my case was somewhat rare because an infarction typically presents itself within hours after surgery, not 13 days later. I also have none of the other accompanying symptoms (fever, chills, vomiting, or shoulder pain).

My questions for those who have experienced splenic infarction:

How long did it take for your pain to subside?

Did you require any type of follow-up for it?

Did you have other symptoms along with pain?

Did you have any further complications or even require a splenectomy or did yours just heal itself?

If you would, please share your story so I can just get an idea of other's experiences with it.

Thanks so much!

[Maggy'sMom 42]

I'm so sorry you have this problem. I would suggest typing "splenic infarction" in the search box to see if any thing pops up. If nothing there, try google. Good Luck. I hope it resolves soon.

[nilla13 4]

Hi Maggy's Mom. Thanks for the response and the well wishes. I tried searching the forums already, but only saw a few posts from a few years ago. I thought perhaps there might be a few newer incidents of it since then.

[kaydo 63]

I'm 2 weeks post-op, had a splenic infarction during my surgery as well, and it seems like this isn't something that comes up (or happens?) much. Has anyone else had this recently? Mine was discovered right away (I woke up from surgery with excrutiating pain in my upper left abdomen) and my recovery has been awful (I was in the hospital for 4 days, then hopped up on Oxycodone at home for another 1.5 weeks). One of my lungs also collapsed in surgery and hasn't fully recovered (I had a CT scan 2 days ago and it's still partially collapsed with Fluid in it) so I am completely exhausted and get winded very easily.

Although I've lost a fair amount of weight (a total of 34 lbs since I first met my surgeon back in the fall), the complications from the surgery (and this godawful puree diet) have me a little depressed. Curious if anyone has weathered these storms and how long it takes to feel normal again. I just feel broken.