Bit late joining this thread but I had my gastric bypass done on the 28th January this year so I suppose I just qualify! I have had the most awful experience and only feel well enough to talk about it now. I was offered the bypass after a failed gastric band was removed last April. Like some of you on here, mine had been strangled by scar tissue, constant acid reflux, vomiting, dilated oesophagus etc Jumped at the chance of a 2nd bariatric surgery on the NHS. A day after bypass I spiked a temp and my blood tests were coming back abnormal. Was told I was going to be sent for a CT scan. On the 2nd day was told that the CT scanning machine was fully booked and there was no time to loose. My surgeon wanted to take me back to surgery for an exploratory and open up laparoscopy sites. Alarm bells were ringing and I went down for 2nd surgery in great distress and panic. Woke up in recovery 5 hours later to find I have been opened up from my breastbone to belly button and was hooked up to every machine going with tubes everywhere and was in excruciating pain. Turned out my surgeon had opened me up laparotomically as he found my bowel had twisted and had to be laid out on operating table and carefully put back. If it had continued it would have gone gangrenous and killed me. In addition, I was now fighting chest and urine infections. I then developed paralytic ileus whereby your bowel goes to sleep and shuts down. This was by far the worst bit and I was seriously ill for 5-6 days where I felt like I wasn't going to make it. Constant vomiting of green bile and feeling nauseous all the time occurred as well as severe pain from constipation. As I was able to keep nothing down I was very dehydrated and my electrolytes were all over the place. They tried 4 phosphorous enemas to no avail, and then laxatives. On day 19 of no bowel movement I finally went. However the sickness and temperature didn't. My veins all collapsed and my arms swelled up and were veep painful. I was given large injections into the muscles of my thighs for the sickness. After 2 weeks of constant sickness they decided to give me a CT scan which revealed my "old" tummy was swollen and distended, full of nasty gases and bile which could not escape due to the ileus. I was offered a drain into this redundant tummy but I refused as I could not face another surgical procedure and once my bowels started moving, the sickness started to become less frequent. Finally I was allowed home with anti-sickness pills and pain killers. I had severe oedema in my legs and developed a hole in my tummy caused by all the pressure from constant vomiting on my sutures, which oozed constantly. The hole turned out to be 6cm deep and I am under the care of the district nurses who come every day to pack it with seaweed dressings and Manuka honey. It is the size of a 2p piece and I am severely restricted in what I can do as I don't want the hole to enlarge. Nurses have put me back on laxatives as I am averaging 1 bowel movement every 5 days and they say straining is not good for my wound. I also developed insomnia as I was frightened to go to sleep and kept having nightmares? GP prescribed sleeping pills and have finally weaned myself off them. Said it was a form of PTSD. So that is my story so far! My surgeon told me his complication rate was 0.2%. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be one of those 2 people in every 1000! If I had known then what I was going to go through, I would never have gone ahead with the operation, but hindsight is a great thing. I suffered terribly with the band and scar tissue and now the bypass has been a living nightmare. I put my family through hell as they thought they were going to loose me at one point. The only positive is I seem to be 2stone 12lbs down in 5 weeks. I know I have to make a good thing out of a bad situation. Can't wait for hole to heal so I can get out and about again and drive as I live in the middle of no where and have to rely on friends. Weight loss stalled for 11 days but back on track this morning. I have to make this work. Have been through so much to let it fail again, so I really need your support and words of wisdom! Sent from my iPad using WLSurgery
