Reputation from zoelifechick

zoelifechick got a reaction from Frustr8 in still vomiting after week 5 HELP September 28, 2018

THE POST BELOW, IS WHAT HAPPENED TO SOMEONE ELSE HAVING VOMITING PROBLEMS (LEAK ISSUE), YOU MAY WANT THEM TO CHECK YOU OUT MORE EXTENSIVE. DON'T LET THIS SCARE YOU, BUT JUST INFORMATION TO HELP -- (SEE BELOW):
Hi everyone. I've been a lurker for a couple of months now, learning about this procedure. You guys are tough and have been through so much, and I truly admire you.
My boyfriend (of only 2 month at the time of his surgery!) had a band to sleeve revision the 21st of June. I'm a nurse, so I was skeptical (having cared for some patients with some pretty gnarly complications) , but I read and read --and read and researched some more about the procedures and felt pretty okay with it. I was and told him I would be supportive, regardless of the outcome.
His surgeon chose to do the revision and removal all in one day. He did great for two weeks and was moving forward perfectly on his full liquid diet, just about ready to graduate to softs. Right around day 15 or 16, he began getting nauseated with some vomiting. Then fever, so I told him not to ignore it anymore. He went in. Was dehydrated. They did an upper GI series and abdominal CT. Was seen by a gastroenterologist. They sent him in for IV fluids to rehydrate him. And they also did an endoscopy. All of this within 3 days. They found nothing but did widen/ dilate his esophageal sphincter a bit due to the appearance of some narrowing.
By the end of that week, he was in the hospital. They did a CT there. Gave him IV fluids, IV antibiotics and came home 3 days later on oral antibiotics. He got through a 10 day round and started vomiting again, violently 2 days later. He went BACK in to the surgeon and he ordered another round of antibiotics, but he could not tolerate taking them in and by the time Friday rolled around this weekend, he was hardly tolerating very small sips of Water and was vomiting several times an hour. The did another Barium swallow and found what they thought might be a small abscess, but the doc on call didn't want to treat it with his surgeon out of town, and then ordered the antibiotics again and told him to follow up in 1 week. One week and he would have been dead!
I talked him into going to the ER Saturday morning. He called me to tell me he didn't want to do that because he didn't want to be admitted. I did a little nurse magic, and told him they couldn't make him do anything. All he had to do was tell them he wanted to be hydrated only and go home. Luckily, when we arrived, they popped him a bag of fluids, zofran and a dose of pain meds and did a CT of his abdomen. They found the "abscess" but later determined the original CT on 7/15 (at the hospital) had been misread and he had a leak with some minor pooling outside of his stomach.
So now he has been in the hospital 5 days. He has a PICC line in for TPN, tons of IV fluids and antibiotics, is NPO. The gastro doc did the stent this morning, but I wasn't able to be there. She said she would be putting an NG (nasogastric) tube in as an alternate feeding source (in case the docs don't want to keep him on the TPN). He called a bit ago and has been vomiting pretty violently and the Zofran hasn't helped much.
Is the vomiting after the stent normal? He was doing it too much earlier to do the scan to check the stent's placement, so they are holding off until the AM. Someone tell me that this will get better? They found the leak without any major infection in his abdomen. No pain. No fevers. And it wasn't an abscess after all. Just vomiting. So, I certainly think that is a good sign overall, but I'm scared for him.
Thanks for listening-- to this book!!!
~worried girlfriend~