My Surgery My Seroma My 9 week open Wound

[christi.jones08 0]

Ok, so here it is. I honestly haven't posted this because I have been procrasinating for so long due to the potential length. I figured though that daily my situation could happen to someone else and if my words of experience might help some one it would be worth it!

I arrived for my surgery at Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) at 7am with my husband in tow. We did all of the pre-op check in and went into the waiting room. I had found out that my friend through all of the pre-op stuff was actually going to be my surgery buddy that day. She was the surgery before mine. Our surgeon is Dr. Stan Zagorski at TAMC. He is a great surgeon, I was his 5th Lapband surgery at TAMC, however, he did a 1 year fellowship of lapband surgeries as well as he has been doing gastric bypass for many years at TAMC.

After quite a few hours due to surgical delays, I was told to change into my gown and ugly socks to go back to the pre-op room. From there it was busy, busy, busy! I got my IV, got to visit with all the proper people, chit chat with my husband and put on my fancy (ha, ha) hair cover. Then it was my time, they gave me this little shot size cup of what they called "liquid zantac" and boy does the smell not match the taste on that. She told me I could wait until they gave me my happy medicine to take it in hopes I wouldn't rememeber it...ummm WRONG! I remember swallowing that and nothing else.

Surgery Over

I remember waking up and saying "gonna throw up" and "i am in pain" and that is about it. The next time I woke up I was in my room and my friend was right across from me. I slept off and on for the next couple of hours. My family came up to visit and my friend and I chit chatted through the afternoon. I was able to immediatly start drinking fluids, however, that is where the "newness of the surgery at TAMC started to kick in". They started trying to switch me off of the morphine and onto other pain meds to get me off of the IV. Well smart people were insisting that I take Roxycet pills!!! They were nice and cut them up for me...I did this and asked for more morphine until the morning.

The next morning they wheeled my friend and I down for our Barium tests, she went first. When she came out she was the color of death! She didn't have the chance to talk to me prior to me being wheeled back but I knew something was wrong. Once in the room the gentleman explained how I would be drinking these two things and swallowing this "pop-rock" type stuff that expanded my stomach! My immediate answer was NO! I don't think so! So they gave me my test, all the while telling me to swallow faster, etc. I did what I could do and that was it!

I get back to my room and my friend is all packed up and ready to go. She told me the look was from the fact they made her take the "pop-rock" stuff and it was extremely painful. She was going home. I gave her a hug and sent her on her way.

I still had a couple of hours before I could leave. I rested and got dressed. I was ready to get out. Dr. Z came up to visit to tell me he was sending me home with liquid pain meds..the nurse pointed out that is not what the orders said. He said well she can't take pills. I told him about the night before and he was extremely mad. I immediately called Becky and told her about the pills vs. liquids so she could get hers switched.

I left and went home to recoperate. It was a little harder than I thought, I was sore and spent too much time in bed. The 3rd night was the worse. I started to dry heave and didn't know why. It was scary but I made it through it.

The story only gets better...or worse depends on how you look at it!

Soup and noticed that I had strange orangish spots all over my shirt. I initally thought that I had spilt something on me and I sat up to find out what it was...

It turns out after a few moments of stress that the incision over my port was leaking a clear liquid with a slight pink tinge. I immediately called the "oncall surgeon" who insisted that I go to the ER immediately.

Six hours and many tears later I finally am in a room begging the residents to call my surgeon or the bariatric coordinator before the cut me open. They want to slice open the incision to test the Fluid. I am terrified and they didn't want to call. I ended up giving in to their "idea" in fear of thier worst case scenarios. Now I have a 6 cm lenth wise by 2 cm width and 6 cm depth incision above my port. They pack it and tell me to come back the next day for another packing.

This is EXTREMELY painful!!

I go in the next day and then to the wound clinic on Monday where I am packed and measured and told my port is now exposed but it is NOT infected. I had what was a seroma of liquid. (a seroma is a pocket of clear liquid that forms when there is a open tissue your body tries to fill it up). They are going to continue to monitor it and watch for infection, at this point they need to let it heal from the inside out. There is no telling how long that will take.

Oh my god! I am terrified...it is 11 days post op!

9 weeks after my ER visit

So posting here has been depressing! I have spent the past 9 weeks getting poked, proded, measured. The first few weeks I went to Tripler Army Medical Center every day for dressing changes. After that I started changing my dressing my self. It did not feel good but it kept them from poking more often.

Fast forward, I am now 9 weeks out. I am struggling with the last little bit of a hole to close. There is still drainage. The hole was much smaller but there was fatty tissue that was bubbling out and the hole wouldn't close. I have been extremely patient through all of this and I hit a wall. I finally requested to see Dr. Z and see what he thought because I felt that I was going in circles.

He came up with a plan that started this past Tuesday. I went into see him, his resident silver nitrated it three times and sent me home to come back to the Wound clinic on Friday for them to repeat and back to see him on Tuesday. Hopefully on Tuesday we can discuss getting my first fill.

I can only hope!

Other than the surgery part statistics...

So I lost 30lbs in the first 3 weeks. I gained 4 lbs back and then at about 6 wks post op went back down to the 30lbs. Since then I have gained 6 lbs back. I have NO restriction at all and I am hungry all the time. I am really trying to monitor it on my own but I hope that I can get my first fill on Tuesday or shortly after. I still have the hole in my stomach and some draining but hopefully it is on the healing side of things.

[plain 12]

Wow, that sounds like they REALLY don't know what they're doing!!

[abby1 0]

This can be a common side effect of surgery. I had the same thing happen in a long incision after colon cancer surgery in 2001. It happens sometimes and there is no rhyme or reason.

[BookWormJoy 7]

Ok, so here it is. I honestly haven't posted this because I have been procrasinating for so long due to the potential length. I figured though that daily my situation could happen to someone else and if my words of experience might help some one it would be worth it!

I arrived for my surgery at Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) at 7am with my husband in tow. We did all of the pre-op check in and went into the waiting room. I had found out that my friend through all of the pre-op stuff was actually going to be my surgery buddy that day. She was the surgery before mine. Our surgeon is Dr. Stan Zagorski at TAMC. He is a great surgeon, I was his 5th Lapband surgery at TAMC, however, he did a 1 year fellowship of lapband surgeries as well as he has been doing gastric bypass for many years at TAMC.

After quite a few hours due to surgical delays, I was told to change into my gown and ugly socks to go back to the pre-op room. From there it was busy, busy, busy! I got my IV, got to visit with all the proper people, chit chat with my husband and put on my fancy (ha, ha) hair cover. Then it was my time, they gave me this little shot size cup of what they called "liquid zantac" and boy does the smell not match the taste on that. She told me I could wait until they gave me my happy medicine to take it in hopes I wouldn't rememeber it...ummm WRONG! I remember swallowing that and nothing else.

Surgery Over

I remember waking up and saying "gonna throw up" and "i am in pain" and that is about it. The next time I woke up I was in my room and my friend was right across from me. I slept off and on for the next couple of hours. My family came up to visit and my friend and I chit chatted through the afternoon. I was able to immediatly start drinking fluids, however, that is where the "newness of the surgery at TAMC started to kick in". They started trying to switch me off of the morphine and onto other pain meds to get me off of the IV. Well smart people were insisting that I take Roxycet pills!!! They were nice and cut them up for me...I did this and asked for more morphine until the morning.

The next morning they wheeled my friend and I down for our Barium tests, she went first. When she came out she was the color of death! She didn't have the chance to talk to me prior to me being wheeled back but I knew something was wrong. Once in the room the gentleman explained how I would be drinking these two things and swallowing this "pop-rock" type stuff that expanded my stomach! My immediate answer was NO! I don't think so! So they gave me my test, all the while telling me to swallow faster, etc. I did what I could do and that was it!

I get back to my room and my friend is all packed up and ready to go. She told me the look was from the fact they made her take the "pop-rock" stuff and it was extremely painful. She was going home. I gave her a hug and sent her on her way.

I still had a couple of hours before I could leave. I rested and got dressed. I was ready to get out. Dr. Z came up to visit to tell me he was sending me home with liquid pain meds..the nurse pointed out that is not what the orders said. He said well she can't take pills. I told him about the night before and he was extremely mad. I immediately called Becky and told her about the pills vs. liquids so she could get hers switched.

I left and went home to recoperate. It was a little harder than I thought, I was sore and spent too much time in bed. The 3rd night was the worse. I started to dry heave and didn't know why. It was scary but I made it through it.

The story only gets better...or worse depends on how you look at it!

8 days after surgery and WHAT???

Ok so fast forward to 8 days post op. I finally felt like I could do something so I went to my kids soccer games. I got home and I was physically and mentally exhausted. I laid down in the bed and my daughter brought me my nightly cup of Soup and noticed that I had strange orangish spots all over my shirt. I initally thought that I had spilt something on me and I sat up to find out what it was...

It turns out after a few moments of stress that the incision over my port was leaking a clear liquid with a slight pink tinge. I immediately called the "oncall surgeon" who insisted that I go to the ER immediately.

Six hours and many tears later I finally am in a room begging the residents to call my surgeon or the bariatric coordinator before the cut me open. They want to slice open the incision to test the Fluid. I am terrified and they didn't want to call. I ended up giving in to their "idea" in fear of thier worst case scenarios. Now I have a 6 cm lenth wise by 2 cm width and 6 cm depth incision above my port. They pack it and tell me to come back the next day for another packing.

This is EXTREMELY painful!!

I go in the next day and then to the wound clinic on Monday where I am packed and measured and told my port is now exposed but it is NOT infected. I had what was a seroma of liquid. (a seroma is a pocket of clear liquid that forms when there is a open tissue your body tries to fill it up). They are going to continue to monitor it and watch for infection, at this point they need to let it heal from the inside out. There is no telling how long that will take.

Oh my god! I am terrified...it is 11 days post op!

9 weeks after my ER visit

So posting here has been depressing! I have spent the past 9 weeks getting poked, proded, measured. The first few weeks I went to Tripler Army Medical Center every day for dressing changes. After that I started changing my dressing my self. It did not feel good but it kept them from poking more often.

Fast forward, I am now 9 weeks out. I am struggling with the last little bit of a hole to close. There is still drainage. The hole was much smaller but there was fatty tissue that was bubbling out and the hole wouldn't close. I have been extremely patient through all of this and I hit a wall. I finally requested to see Dr. Z and see what he thought because I felt that I was going in circles.

He came up with a plan that started this past Tuesday. I went into see him, his resident silver nitrated it three times and sent me home to come back to the Wound clinic on Friday for them to repeat and back to see him on Tuesday. Hopefully on Tuesday we can discuss getting my first fill.

I can only hope!

Other than the surgery part statistics...

So I lost 30lbs in the first 3 weeks. I gained 4 lbs back and then at about 6 wks post op went back down to the 30lbs. Since then I have gained 6 lbs back. I have NO restriction at all and I am hungry all the time. I am really trying to monitor it on my own but I hope that I can get my first fill on Tuesday or shortly after. I still have the hole in my stomach and some draining but hopefully it is on the healing side of things.

I hope you are doing better...I am going through that right now and I am wondering what happenned after...

[advana 0]

So what did her require you to do Pre-Op? I think its possible he will be my surgeon so any advice would be helpful!! So sorry you have had a bad time with your band! I wish you all the best!

[thamilton 0]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience, that sounds awful! Completely off the subject....I was born in that hospital! Way back in 74, do they still call it the "pink elephant"?

[AndreaKoontz 0]

Hello Christy,

I am going threw the exect same thing right now. I am so so grateful to stumble across your post. I dont feel so alone now. I have been ready to beark down. I have been really doubting weather or not I should have done this surgery. I have the open wound over and port and its totally gross. I am going to get it repacked today. Yuck and OUCH !! It hurts so bad. Thank you again for your post.

[jamigirl67 0]

Christy & Andrea, did your wound ever close? How long did it take?

I'm so upset. Try to make this short. Had Lap Band in Aug/10. Port site never closed. After 4 weeks, doc took me back to OR for port revision. Ended up removing entire band. Said that my body was "rejecting" it. Anyhow, of course I was so upset. I'm a self pay. They wouldn't give me all of my money back. Said they were working with another surgeon that is more experienced and if I was willing, I can go back to OR for new Lap Band. So it's a month after band removed and I'm going back for another one.

I'm now 17 days post-op, all healed, so happy and going for my first fill in a few days, and the incision above the port OPENED! It's about a 4 inch incision, and about 3 inches are open. Draining blood tinged, doesn't look infected, not hurting, and I feel fine. I'm an RN, so I cleaned it, packed it, and covered it. I'll call my doc in the am. I figured it's Sunday and I don't want to spend the day in the ER for this.

My question is: Is this thing going to heal over the port? If anyone has had the port exposed, did the wound heal? I'm completely traumatized by this.

Please help

Jami

[BetsyB 9]

Seromas are no fun, but fortunately, they're usually no biggie, either. I had a fairly extensive one after my last c-section (at least as long as the largest banding incision), and while it was scary (before I got to the doctor and was reassured), and kind of gross, it was no big deal. The body is pretty amazing, and heals things very nicely when left to its own devices.

I know it's not how you envisioned things going--but it sounds like you're well on the way to recovery :thumbup:

Congrats on your great loss so far!

[xavier 153]

Part of why these seromas form or why wound healing is slow is the layer of fat we have. The more fat that blood vessels have to get through to get to the wound, the harder it is for them to heal. My point is, after this all heals and you have lost a lot of weight I hope you will realize what a huge thing you have done for yourself! You will likely need some kind of surgery as you get older (prob we all will) but you will be much better to heal and survive the stress of even a big surgery because you are at a normal weight.

Hang in there...you have done something amazing for your own health!!