Senior needs help fast.

[monty 18]

Hi everyone,

Was on here in the past under gastric sleeve but in trouble now and asking for your help. I had the gastric sleeve 4 years ago at age 68 and lost 90 lbs and kept it off. In the last two months I have lost another 22 lbs and regurgitate after 6 bites of food and have major acid reflux. After extensive testing they found the stomach outlet is too small and the esophagus ballooned out like a blocked funnel. Now at age 72 I have to have a by-pass in 9 days. They would do it sooner but I am too malnourished and have to drink Protein Shakes to build up. No one told me about GERD or acid reflux. Even got hospitalized with aspirated pneumonia. Now I am so scared as I know nothing about by-pass and am researching as fast as I can. Can anyone give me some info/advice? Thanks for your concern and help.

[sbg224 318]

I had the sleeve, so cannot offer anything, but just want to say Good luck, hope you do well.

[magtart 603]

You should find info you need in the gastric bypass section of the forum: http://www.bariatricpal.com/forum/755-basics-for-gastric-bypass-surgery-beginners/

Good luck!

[wannaBthinsoon 1,634]

I am only 6 month post op with gastric sleeve, so I can't offer much, either, except I know plenty of folks who have done extremely well with gastric bypass. They do so many of these surgeries now days, they have become experts. Hang in there, you'll be better than fine!

[The Candidate 3,215]

I'm so sorry to hear about your medical issues. I'm 54 and had my bypass on 07/29/15. I've had no issues or complications, and I'm very happy with the outcome so far. I believe there's a section here for sleeve to bypass revisions, so you might consider posting there as well to get specific answers from people who have gone through exactly what you are facing.

I will say though, if it helps any, that we have a 76 year old bypass patient in my support group, and his progress has been remarkable.

Best of luck and wishes in your upcoming surgery. Let us know how it goes.

[ProudGrammy 8,322]

regurgitate after 6 bites of food - major acid reflux

@@monty

"stomach outlet is too small and the esophagus ballooned out like a blocked funnel"

i'm sorry for all your problems

glad you are still maintaining

you've done so well

sounds like you are going through helllll now

4 years ago i was a newbie

no one "seemed" to know of any issues with gerd/sleeve

(i luckily never had heartburn pre-op or post op)

don't know when/or how things were finally discovered

but sooner than later "they" found a correlation between the sleeve and gerd

i heard sleevers MIGHT experience GERD

if you already had gerd,there might be a better chance you make it worse

now i think people (docs) are more aware of the situation

now docs "usually" talk about the important/possible gerd issue

if you have gerd pre-op it MIGHT get worse

in other words if doc knows you already have gerd

he "MIGHT" suggest an alternative to the sleeve

bypass etc

you should get more info from surgeon

don't be shy, you should ask doc for info/help

about how the gastric bypass works

covering my assss

this is NOT the situation for many alll

just a select "lucky" amount of many people

9 days away from WLS

talk to doc/read more on the board

research/google

i wish you well

good thoughts

good luck

kathy

[monty 18]

Thanks so much to all of you who took the time to answer. I had a lot of help on here on this cite when I had the sleeve surgery and I see there are a lot of people on here that care about each other. I am trying to work thru all of this. I never even heard of GERD before now so it was never discussed and may only have been found out after my surgery. I have great confidence in my surgeon but I have been thru so much that I keep coaxing my body to go one more day, one more step-that was the only way I could get thru all of the testing. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.