It's a long time since I've been on the forums but I'm looking for some advice. Some of you might remember me, I had my bypass back in 2009 at Walsall Manor and suffered all sorts of post op complications. More recently things have turned really bad and I'm not sure what to think so thought I'd ask around the forums.
Following the original operation I had internal bleeds, a severe wound infection, a large hernia which was repaired at Walsall and other stuff happened. After twelve months I still had an open wound stretching from just under my bust line to below my belly button. The team at Walsall tried all sorts to get it to heal but it took about two years in the end. I did lose a lot of weight, too much to be honest and slipped into the problem of not being able to eat much at all and having spells in hospital with very low blood sugar. But that all settled down about three years in and for the first time in years I felt human.
I divorced and met a lovely new man and we started to travel the world together, having a wonderful time, but then I started to suffer with my Arthritis and a lot of chest pain around the same time. Also the weight started to creep back on. I didn't realise how badly and how fast to start with, but as I got bigger the pain in my chest got worse and worse. I started with severe breathing problems and intense pain along my right hand side.
Turns out my Gall Bladder needed removing but because I had already had so much surgery and so many problems before I couldn't get a surgeon to agree to do it. Eventually I ended up in Stoke hospital as an emergency case with these Gall Stones and the surgeons had no choice but to operate.
Because I had been through so much previous bariatric surgery my stomach was full of adhesion, my Surgeon Miss Rotundo tried to remove the Gall Bladder via Laparoscopy but had to revert to open because she pierced my bowel. The following day I collapsed and ended up being rushed to theatre because the main artery to my Liver had also been severed. That was the beginning of Sept 2014 and I got out of critical care in Nov 2014.
Miss Rotundo decided she was going to get to the bottom of why my bypass seems to have failed and why I'm in extreme pain like this so has been running tests. Yesterday she put a camera down my stomach and excitedly announced she has found her first Fistula. She said in the 13 years she has been doing bypasses she has never seen this before.
I'm sitting there in shock and started to cry. After everything I've been through and all this time it seems my pouch has re-attached itself to my stomach and as the pouch itself had stretched I now have a bigger stomach than the one I started off with in the first place and all this weight gain.
She told me that she can fix it but it would mean more open surgery (not that that matters, my stomach is covered in scar's anyway) but and here's the crux.....
Because the hospital is on black alert no elective operations are being performed so she can't do it until about March and as she is mindful that I have a wedding in Malta in May I can't travel so she will have to wait until after then.
On top of that I have another large incisional Hernia and both my stomach and bowel are lying within this Hernia. She want's to fix it but can't until I've lost the weight I've regained or it will just come back.
As I was leaving yesterday she did hug me and say on the upside as I've been through so much and will have such a badly scarred stomach she promises she will do a tummy tuck for me herself.
That should have been a huge conciliation especially as I know so many have been turned down for plastics but I'm just in so much shock at the moment that a bypass can re-attach itself like that I just don't know what to think or think I can go through another 12 months of surgery.
Has anybody else experienced anything like this?
One very depressed Bonita
Following the original operation I had internal bleeds, a severe wound infection, a large hernia which was repaired at Walsall and other stuff happened. After twelve months I still had an open wound stretching from just under my bust line to below my belly button. The team at Walsall tried all sorts to get it to heal but it took about two years in the end. I did lose a lot of weight, too much to be honest and slipped into the problem of not being able to eat much at all and having spells in hospital with very low blood sugar. But that all settled down about three years in and for the first time in years I felt human.
I divorced and met a lovely new man and we started to travel the world together, having a wonderful time, but then I started to suffer with my Arthritis and a lot of chest pain around the same time. Also the weight started to creep back on. I didn't realise how badly and how fast to start with, but as I got bigger the pain in my chest got worse and worse. I started with severe breathing problems and intense pain along my right hand side.
Turns out my Gall Bladder needed removing but because I had already had so much surgery and so many problems before I couldn't get a surgeon to agree to do it. Eventually I ended up in Stoke hospital as an emergency case with these Gall Stones and the surgeons had no choice but to operate.
Because I had been through so much previous bariatric surgery my stomach was full of adhesion, my Surgeon Miss Rotundo tried to remove the Gall Bladder via Laparoscopy but had to revert to open because she pierced my bowel. The following day I collapsed and ended up being rushed to theatre because the main artery to my Liver had also been severed. That was the beginning of Sept 2014 and I got out of critical care in Nov 2014.
Miss Rotundo decided she was going to get to the bottom of why my bypass seems to have failed and why I'm in extreme pain like this so has been running tests. Yesterday she put a camera down my stomach and excitedly announced she has found her first Fistula. She said in the 13 years she has been doing bypasses she has never seen this before.
I'm sitting there in shock and started to cry. After everything I've been through and all this time it seems my pouch has re-attached itself to my stomach and as the pouch itself had stretched I now have a bigger stomach than the one I started off with in the first place and all this weight gain.
She told me that she can fix it but it would mean more open surgery (not that that matters, my stomach is covered in scar's anyway) but and here's the crux.....
Because the hospital is on black alert no elective operations are being performed so she can't do it until about March and as she is mindful that I have a wedding in Malta in May I can't travel so she will have to wait until after then.
On top of that I have another large incisional Hernia and both my stomach and bowel are lying within this Hernia. She want's to fix it but can't until I've lost the weight I've regained or it will just come back.
As I was leaving yesterday she did hug me and say on the upside as I've been through so much and will have such a badly scarred stomach she promises she will do a tummy tuck for me herself.
That should have been a huge conciliation especially as I know so many have been turned down for plastics but I'm just in so much shock at the moment that a bypass can re-attach itself like that I just don't know what to think or think I can go through another 12 months of surgery.
Has anybody else experienced anything like this?
One very depressed Bonita
