Possible Gastroparesis - My Story and Current Struggles - Help Appreciated!

[mylighthouse 782]

Hello friends,

First, I would like to apologize for what will be a long post. I feel it might be helpful to myself and others to relate a little background on my health and past problems with the last few years. Thank you in advance for bearing with me.

I had open colon resection in Feb 2015. I weighed over 300 pounds at that time. I was not doing well and still in the hospital 10 days later, then my resection area on the inside came open and an emergency surgery was performed at that time. My first surgeon who did the resection was not honest with me and also had me constantly straining while in the hospital which led to the inside coming apart. The surgeon who did my emergency surgery was wonderful. He followed up with me everyday while I was at the hospital for the next month. Then I was sent over to another hospital for another month, recovery was slow and very painful, it involved a lot of wound cleaning, packing the wound etc. Towards the end of the 2nd month, I learned to use my legs again and walk again. Went home and had a nurse treat me daily to pack my wound, it was a large hole in my stomach and had to be packed daily. I also had a wound vac in use. Surgery was Feb 2015, and finally, in Sept 2015, my wound closed.

Then, around Nov 2015, I developed 2 incisional abdominal hernias along the incision of my surgery. One was small and didn't hurt, the other was large, and did hurt me a lot. My surgeon (absolutely love this guy) told me that I needed to lose some weight in order to have hernia surgery. I held off and dealt with the pain. Tramadol and Tylenol. The hernias got so painful, as well as my quality of life (since just before the 2015 surgery), that I finally listened to my surgeon and had sleeve surgery in November of 2016. I still couldn't do much, I was dealing with scar tissue/nerve pain from my open surgeries. No exercise, I did try, but it aggravated the nerve pain. I was in bed all day with the heating pad, as usual, since 2015.

I was able to lost 80 pounds after sleeve surgery, bringing me down from 334 lbs to 254. My surgeon said he could now perform my open hernia surgery. Had that in June 2017. In bed some more due to severe pain, yes, I had lost weight, but the quality of life sucked. I started to try to get out for 10-20 minutes and walk around, but my abdominal nerve pain was unbearable. I kept trying to push through the pain, but I couldn't. My surgeon told me that I may need to stay on Tramadol and then he wondered if Gabapentin for nerve pain would help me. I started taking that in August. It took until November to FINALLY get relief from the pain. It worked, my nerve pain is no longer an issue. I started exercising for the first time in over 2 years and I was and no longer in bed. Amazing!!

During that time, I was having new pain and problems. Short story, it was my gallbladder. I had it taken out right before Christmas 2017. Recovery was pretty norm, I believe.

Now you are all caught up to my NEW problem (again, sorry for the length of the post). So, I have been dealing with ongoing nausea, which I have dealt with since my sleeve back in Nov 2016. The nausea is getting much worse. Now it is affecting my eating in a huge way. For 2 weeks now, can no longer eat anything but broth, sometimes cream Soup, and unflavored Protein in coffee and broth. But the last 2 days my protein and cream soup are not working out for me. I have to force myself to drink broth or soup, I have absolutely NO appetite at all. My calories are way low and my protein is low too. I am getting regular liquids down fine at the moment,. This has been accompanied by middle to upper abdominal pain, sometimes on the left side, sometimes middle-right side. I have had a struggle with severe Constipation since my 2015 colon resection, then sleeve surgery made it even worse. I have tried everything for it. I have literally thought I was dying because of pain, gone to ER, and found out I was severely backed up (quite embarrassing). Been at least 6 times over the past year. So, I met with my surgeon last week, he ordered x-rays and sure enough, I was severely backed up. After magnesium citrate and enema per his orders, I got cleaned out. That was Wednesday. He said to give it a few days and see how I progressed and then he would see about a possible endoscopy with the gastro doc if needed.

Gastroparesis was brought to my attention. I am kind of driving myself crazy over here. I am bipolar and have been upping my klonopin because of anxiety, agitation and stress. I am already worried about more surgery and I don't want my quality of life to suffer once again.

Can anyone help me? Do my symptoms sound like gastroparesis?

I am losing weight rapidly now and I feel weak, dizzy and sick. I do not believe I am getting dehydrated. Should I wait until Monday to call my surgeon and give him an update? I don't know what to do.

Thank you for listening and for advice/help, etc. I always appreciate the feedback here.

[LittleLizzieLilliput 919]

Do you still have your gallbladder? opps, just read the part where you had it taken out.

Gastroparesis may be possible but I'd ask for an upper GI endoscopy, maybe a CT scan to check out your other organs, have your Pancreatic enzymes checked as well. Are you experiencing back pain too? Fever? High white blood cell count? Have them check your pancreatic enzymes and your triglycerides. Cause I'm leaning more towards that than Gastroparesis, not that I know anything really.

Edited January 28, 2018 by LittleLizzieLilliput

[mylighthouse 782]

3 minutes ago, LittleLizzieLilliput said:

Do you still have your gallbladder?

Nope. Had it taken out right before Christmas last month.

[mylighthouse 782]

11 minutes ago, LittleLizzieLilliput said:

Do you still have your gallbladder? opps, just read the part where you had it taken out.

Gastroparesis may be possible but I'd ask for an upper GI endoscopy, maybe a CT scan to check out your other organs, have your Pancreatic enzymes checked as well. Are you experiencing back pain too? Fever? High white blood cell count? Have them check your pancreatic enzymes and your triglycerides. Cause I'm leaning more towards that than Gastroparesis, not that I know anything really.

Just lower back pain, it comes and goes...think it's related to chores though.

Sounds good, I will talk to my surgeon about all of this.

I'm on the fence as to whether or not I should wait until Monday, or head to the ER possibly tonight and get the CT scan and bloodwork. No promise that I will be able to get in for the endoscopy even next week.

Your thoughts, Lizzie?

[LittleLizzieLilliput 919]

I'd base it on your pain level and how ill you feel. It sounds like you have a lot medical history here and I don't want to lead you down the wrong path. I think doing what you feels is right is the way to go. I'm just kind of spit balling ideas here so don't take this as anything more than that. I think you should definately contact your surgeons office and if you feel like you need to go to the ER than you should.

Good Luck!!

[mylighthouse 782]

16 minutes ago, LittleLizzieLilliput said:

I'd base it on your pain level and how ill you feel. It sounds like you have a lot medical history here and I don't want to lead you down the wrong path. I think doing what you feels is right is the way to go. I'm just kind of spit balling ideas here so don't take this as anything more than that. I think you should definately contact your surgeons office and if you feel like you need to go to the ER than you should.

Good Luck!!

Thank you!