Dr. Ariel Ortiz at the OCC

[Andrea Barnes Douglas 25]

Well I was doing awesome!! As far as surgery goes I think I still am.. HOWEVER these loose bowels are getting the better of me. Yes I got Imodium and gastralite ( spelling) everything is fine till I move around then OMG I hardly every get to the washroom in time ???? I'm day 8 post op. It didn't start till day 4. It's literally made me house bound, not to mention hemroids TMI I know.. I called the surgeon he said it will pass.. I started yogurt in the mornings an I will be starting cream Soups tomorrow. I'm getting at least 1 Protein Shake in a day along with broth and Popsicles. And water.. It's just everything I consume is coming out as fast as it goes in!!! Please help!! Has anyone experienced this? I wrote on a few other forums but not getting any replies... #housebound

[Andrea Barnes Douglas 25]

@@VegasOne congrats!!! Your doing awesome!! Can't wait to be there alongside of you ????

[Kindle 8,667]

Well I was doing awesome!! As far as surgery goes I think I still am.. HOWEVER these loose bowels are getting the better of me. Yes I got Imodium and gastralite ( spelling) everything is fine till I move around then OMG I hardly every get to the washroom in time ???? I'm day 8 post op. It didn't start till day 4. It's literally made me house bound, not to mention hemroids TMI I know.. I called the surgeon he said it will pass.. I started yogurt in the mornings an I will be starting cream Soups tomorrow. I'm getting at least 1 Protein Shake in a day along with broth and Popsicles. And water.. It's just everything I consume is coming out as fast as it goes in!!! Please help!! Has anyone experienced this? I wrote on a few other forums but not getting any replies... #housebound

You may ask your PCP to do a fecal culture, check for parasites, and test for C. diff. I developed urgent, frequent diarrhea 6 weeks postop. Turned out to be a C. Diff infection. I didn't get it from VSG surgery, I got it from the antibiotics my dentist put me on 3 weeks after VSG, but not being able to drink very much at a time led to dehydration and I had to get IV fluids 3 times. Took 12 weeks of unsuccessful medical treatments and finally a fecal transplant to cure the C. diff. Yours may just be "travelers" diarrhea or new sleeve intolerance, but better to be safe than sorry.

 

I talked to both Dr. So and Dr. Martinez about my diarrhea, and they advised immodium and Probiotics (the good, refrigerated, 50 billion+ CFU, multistrain kind you can get at a lot of health food stores, not just the worthless OTC kind in the grocery store). Yogurt really isn't that high in probiotic cultures, either. But they are clear down in Mexico and can only give you their "standard answer" without actually seeing you and doing diagnostics. And if it is C. Diff, Imodium is contraindicated. I only let mine go on for 2 days before seeing my PCP. with my history of hospitalization, GI surgery, and antibiotics, (all C. diff risks) he immediately ordered the fecal tests. The first C. Diff actually came back negative, but a week later we retested using a different test method and it was positive.

[Am1e 48]

Well I was doing awesome!! As far as surgery goes I think I still am.. HOWEVER these loose bowels are getting the better of me. Yes I got Imodium and gastralite ( spelling) everything is fine till I move around then OMG I hardly every get to the washroom in time ???? I'm day 8 post op. It didn't start till day 4. It's literally made me house bound, not to mention hemroids TMI I know.. I called the surgeon he said it will pass.. I started yogurt in the mornings an I will be starting cream Soups tomorrow. I'm getting at least 1 Protein Shake in a day along with broth and Popsicles. And water.. It's just everything I consume is coming out as fast as it goes in!!! Please help!! Has anyone experienced this? I wrote on a few other forums but not getting any replies... #housebound

It could be absolutely nothing to worry about. Not that you shouldn't have a dr check you out. But about a 2 weeks post op I took my 16 year old son to game stop. He went in and came back out said I needed to go in because you have to be 18 to buy the game. I was getting out of the car, thought I was passing a tiny fart. Nope. Crapped myself right there in the parking lot. Told my son we have to go home now. He whined. I had to explain why I could not go in. Needless to say, he got in the car and didn't say a word on the drive home. This type thing happened a few times, and extremely urgent bowel movements. I believed at the time that it must have to do with only consuming liquids. It has been said many times on the forums "never trust a fart". Very true. But it passed after the first month or two. I'm 15 months post op (been maintaining goal for several months) and I always tell people considering the surgery, the first month or two is hell. The rest of my experience has been nothing like that short time post op. Luckily, someone had told me the first month would be hell so I was prepared. And I had been told the 2 most important things are do not get dehydrated and never trust a fart. Gatorade and Gatorade Popsicles were my go to. Also, the whole not trust a fart thing, it was over after a month or two. My husband had the sleeve 6 months after me and I had explained these important things to him. He did go through it himself, his also went away and he is good now. Good luck!

[Andrea Barnes Douglas 25]

Thank you everyone!! Sorry for the late response internet was down ????.. Anyway I did go to my family dr he scheduled me to go get a stool sample. No fever feel great other then these major blow outs!! Trying to stay hydrated on cream Soups now just seems everything is running thru me.. Still hasn't improved.. Cramping is gone just constantly going to washroom and rarely making it ???? . 12 days PO but only 9 days with this.. Then HEMORRHOIDS from hell!!! ????

[JamieLogical 8,708]

Thank you everyone!! Sorry for the late response internet was down .. Anyway I did go to my family dr he scheduled me to go get a stool sample. No fever feel great other then these major blow outs!! Trying to stay hydrated on cream Soups now just seems everything is running thru me.. Still hasn't improved.. Cramping is gone just constantly going to washroom and rarely making it . 12 days PO but only 9 days with this.. Then HEMORRHOIDS from hell!!!

When are you getting the results from your stool sample? I'm so sorry you are still going through this. Most people have the exact opposite problem in the early weeks post op!

[Andrea Barnes Douglas 25]

I hand in my sample tomorrow morning so she said I should have back by Friday or Monday at the latest. She says everything seems fine no fever BP normal may just be a irritated bowel. Can't see that but I'm not the dr lol so side my diet hasn't changed in 4 weeks except now I'm on creamed Soups. Maybe the meds they sent us home with is causing it? Who knows ... Just one heck of a sore butt!! Hubby says he's just going to tie me to the pole outside lmao

Edited February 18, 2015 by Andrea Barnes Douglas

[naan 14]

I hand in my sample tomorrow morning so she said I should have back by Friday or Monday at the latest. She says everything seems fine no fever BP normal may just be a irritated bowel. Can't see that but I'm not the dr lol so side my diet hasn't changed in 4 weeks except now I'm on creamed Soups. Maybe the mess they sent us home with is causing it? Who knows ... Just one heck of a sore butt!! Hubby says he's just going to tie me to the pole outside lmao

Good luck I am sure everything will be fine I am one of the people went through the opposite I was crying to go for BM. Trust me it gets better on your second month

Look at the bright side you will be loosing the weight and looking awesome

[Andrea Barnes Douglas 25]

Oh my I couldn't be more thrilled with the weight loss!!! Woot wouldn't change anything!! Love my Drs to pieces!! They are definitely the BEST of the BEST! Not their fault my bowel is being uncooperative lol guess it's just the SHI*** side of it all lol

[freddie8_8 37]

This is the description of the Ortiz surgery method that for a layman such as myself looks to be very thorough. The OOC marketing email claims Ortiz has had a 0% complication rate which is a bit hard to believe and impossible to verify; however, I'm sure it complication rate is very low. The one concern I have about Ortiz and OCC is that you only get one night in the hospital and four nights in the Marriot. That is why I am currently signed up to go with Corvala at Hospital Angels. I like being able to have the four nights in the hospital if I think I need to stay there that long to recover. I just think the nursing care would help as I'm recovering and and having emergency care at the hospital makes me more comfortable that staying at the Marriot. The thing I'm not sure of yet is Corvala's surgery technique as compared to Ortiz. I would like to better understand Corvala's suturing technique and the percentage of sleeve's he has done without leaks however I'm not sure that information on percentage of post op leaks is readily available. From what I can tell it looks like Ortiz and Corvala are both well qualified surgeons and i understand they used to practise together.

Standardizing the sleeve gastrectomy through staple imbrication - note from Dr. Ortiz about his suturing technique

With less than a decade from its start, the Sleeve Gastrectomy (“Sleeve”) has had great results and a low complication rate, but these results vary amongst bariatric practices in the United States and the rest of the world. Variations in the technique and surgical materials used for the procedure could be partially responsible for these differences that can result in less weight loss or a higher complication rate. The world renown bariatric surgery team at OCC with vast experience in Sleeve surgery has been able to perform this procedure with a 0% complication rate and greater that average weight loss. In order to achieve these results, we perform all of our surgeries with a standardized approach that involves complete gastric mobilization, and removal of the fat that is around the area where the esophagus meets the stomach. This is done to allow complete visualization of this area (important when stapling and suturing the stomach). After the stapling and removal of the divided stomach, the imbrication or suturing over the staple line is used primarily to avoid bleeding and leakage, it is not routinely performed by all bariatric surgery centers. In most cases an absorbable suture will be used. At OCC we use a non-absorbable suture for the imbrication process, starting in the proximal tip of the staple line, making sure that this area is completely over sutured (imbricated) since this is where most leakages in the medical literature have been reported. The initial removal of the fat in this area allows perfect visualization of the stomach wall and its staple line. The suturing is continued distally along the staple line with the oral gastric calibration tube in place so that we can calibrate the sleeve in order to have an even and perfectly formed tubular or sleeve like stomach. This also allows the suturing to be continued more distally than that of the staple line to extend the sleeve, if necessary. Since the suture is non-absorbable the patient is less likely to lose the restriction of the sleeve gastrectomy.

[Kindle 8,667]

@@freddie8_8 Thanks for posting. This does seem to be the "everything you need to know about OCC" thread, so it's great to include that info.

As for the one night stay, for the most part that's all any of us needed. I was more than happy to be discharged and hit the streets of TJ. I would have been bored to death to sit around the clinic for longer than I did. I had no pain, no nausea and was well hydrated. Why sit in a hospital bed for 2 more days? Instead I was out shopping and walking and watching movies with my sister. And I actually only spent 2 nights at the Marriott and flew home on the 3rd day.

Not to say they would kick you out after one night if you had problems. There was one gal that had surgery a couple days before me who had problems postop. She couldn't hold anything down, so they did an endoscopy and discovered she had a lot of scar tissue built up in her esophagus from previous undiagnosed GERD. (Her only symptom was a chronic cough that her U.S. Doc never put together with reflux). So Dr. Ortiz went back in for a second surgery to clean out the scar tissue. Obviously she stayed at OCC longer than one night. And there was another gal who had surgery same day as me who had had respiratory problems while under anesthesia in the past. Knowing this, they kept here at OCC at extra day for observation. But she was out on the town with the rest of us the second day. And since she spoke perfect Spanish, was able to find us the best Popsicle stand in the Avenude Revolucion district!

Anyways, Good luck with your surgery and recovery...from everything I've read Dr. Corvala is an outstanding surgeon and you will no doubt be well taken care of at Angeles Hospital.

[JamieLogical 8,708]

Not to say they would kick you out after one night if you had problems.

This is definitely true. One of the women who had her surgery the same day as me stayed an extra night at OCC because she was experiencing vomiting and nausea post-op. Don't be daunted by the prospect of staying at the Marriott post-op. You will be well taken care of there and if you need extra time in the clinic, they will keep you there.

[freddie8_8 37]

Kindle I'm glad the surgery went well for you with ortiz at OCC and it appears that is the case with the vast majority of patients that have gone to occ. I have just read enough posts on this site were people aren't feeling well three or four days post op that I feel more comfortable staying in a real hospital. I am feel okay right after post op and then when they would discharge me and I would get back to the Marriot I could start developing complications. In the rare case that I come down with complications or just don't feel well I like the thought of being in a hospital where nurses and doctors could take care of me. Right now hospital angeles will let me stay one night pre op as long as i check in at or after 6:00 and four nights post op. I think they want me to stay in the hospital at least three nights post op and it will be my option to stay in the hospital on the fourth night or check into the hotel(camino real). I will most likely stay there all four nights in case I develop some type of post op complication. If for some reason I'm really not feeling well I'm sure they would let me stay longer but I'm guessing I may may have to pay for additional nights at some point. Similar to Rocky, I just feel more comfortable staying in the hospital given that I will be there all alone with no one to take care of me in a foreign country. Staying in the hospital doesn;t guarentee there won't be complications or something serious might happen. On these posts I have seen on extremely rare occassions in 2008 and 2011 where two patients unfortunately passed away having weight loss surgery at Hospital Angeles; however, I believe that staying at the hospital helps to reduce the risk of something seriously happening and if it does hospital angeles is much better equiped to handle the issue versus the TJ Marriot. TIme is of the essence in those type of situations. I would be very comfortable with having ortiz do my procedure. I'm just not comfortable with the occ standard setup of one night in the hospital and then four nights in the hotel.

[JamieLogical 8,708]

@@freddie8_8 We all have to make our own decision for ourselves based on our own comfort level. If staying 4 nights in the hospital puts your mind at ease, then that is what you should do! There's no "right" or "wrong" answer here, there is only what is "right" or "wrong" for YOU.

[raven123 97]

Kindle I'm glad the surgery went well for you with ortiz at OCC and it appears that is the case with the vast majority of patients that have gone to occ. I have just read enough posts on this site were people aren't feeling well three or four days post op that I feel more comfortable staying in a real hospital. I am feel okay right after post op and then when they would discharge me and I would get back to the Marriot I could start developing complications. In the rare case that I come down with complications or just don't feel well I like the thought of being in a hospital where nurses and doctors could take care of me. Right now hospital angeles will let me stay one night pre op as long as i check in at or after 6:00 and four nights post op. I think they want me to stay in the hospital at least three nights post op and it will be my option to stay in the hospital on the fourth night or check into the hotel(camino real). I will most likely stay there all four nights in case I develop some type of post op complication. If for some reason I'm really not feeling well I'm sure they would let me stay longer but I'm guessing I may may have to pay for additional nights at some point. Similar to Rocky, I just feel more comfortable staying in the hospital given that I will be there all alone with no one to take care of me in a foreign country. Staying in the hospital doesn;t guarentee there won't be complications or something serious might happen. On these posts I have seen on extremely rare occassions in 2008 and 2011 where two patients unfortunately passed away having weight loss surgery at Hospital Angeles; however, I believe that staying at the hospital helps to reduce the risk of something seriously happening and if it does hospital angeles is much better equiped to handle the issue versus the TJ Marriot. TIme is of the essence in those type of situations. I would be very comfortable with having ortiz do my procedure. I'm just not comfortable with the occ standard setup of one night in the hospital and then four nights in the hotel.

Of course you make your decisions on what is important to you. what was very important to me and to my sister and brother in law who are both doctors and both had sleeves with Dr Ortiz, was going to his clinic where there are never sick patients. that means a very low chance of infection. Going to a hospital seems much more dangerous to me.