Hi ViaLia,
your English is beautiful and May I say in my believed self ignorance - blissfully envious of what my understanding of your native language would be. I wish I could learn a second language.
my BMI was 37 I think on 10th February this year. I’m nearly 13 weeks post op from MGB. I don’t personally ‘believe nor respect’ the BMI system BUT this is merely my opinion due to a study of medicine. It’s nothing mire than a mathematicians equation so I go off some weight loss, more so on how I feel and look. I do measure myself every week, keep a journal and eating diary but don’t really step on the scales unless prompted.
im not the ideal person to comment though at the moment as I have struggles currently but I wanted to wish you Good luck and all the health in the world on your life change and happiness. 🥰🥰
Hi all,
I am writing this for the >1% of gastric bypass patients who have the unusual complications that I had and, like me, couldn't find any information about it online to ease your mind.
I had my gastric bypass surgery on September 7, 2022. I chose gastric bypass over the gastric sleeve specifically after months of research because of the higher rate of successful weight loss, particularly in women. My first week post-op went great, but after day 8 or 9 when I tried progressing my food intake from full-liquids to pureed foods I began vomiting and feeling really nauseous at every meal. I let my surgeon and dietitian know immediately and stepped my food intake back down to full-liquids. Pretty soon, I couldn't even take in full-liquids and was limited to hydrating fluids and chicken broth. I could keep down hydrating fluids and broth about 80% of the time, full-liquids 50% of the time, and everything else came back up.
My surgeon was very responsive and had me get an endoscopy. Under general anesthesia, the endoscopy explored my new stomach pouch and roux limb connections that make up my new tummy system. Typically, gastric bypasses can result in constriction of the connection between the stomach pouch and roux limb, and my gastroenterologist was prepared to use a balloon to inflate the area to ease that restriction. In my case, however, that area looked fine, but further down the roux limb there was a stricture that was almost impassable for the narrow scope. This is what was causing my problem.
I had an external compression on my roux limb that was making it impossible for anything more viscous than Water to pass through. My layman's understanding of what had happened is that my surgeon brought my small intestine / roux limb up to meet my new stomach pouch through the transverse mesocolon. This involved cutting a hole through the transverse mesocolon to put the roux limb through and then stitching it up a little on either side to make sure nothing else will slip through the hole and cause a hernia. Apparently, this is typically sufficient and there is space enough in the hole in the mesocolon for scar tissue to form but still allow the roux limb to operate appropriately. Not in my case! xD
My body and over-active immune system saw a hole and decided that hole must. be. fixed! The scar tissue that formed to close the hole closed tight enough on the roux limb and it was tight enough that barely anything could get through. I had a second laparoscopic surgery on October 12, 2022 to remove the scar tissue and loosen the compression on the roux limb. My surgeon decided to remove the small stitches on either side of the hole in the transverse mesocolon to reduce the chance that any new scar tissue will close the hole up as completely again. Immediately after this second laparoscopic surgery, I felt tons better! I stayed overnight in the hospital and was put straight on full-liquids, which I was barely tolerating before!
The reason I am writing all of this out is because, in the month-long interim between surgeries, I couldn't find anything in my online research to figure out what was wrong, or what I could try, or what the next steps looked like, or how long, or why this was happening. I went for more than a month on little to no substantial nutrition, and I found so little information on what to expect or how long I would have to live like this. I even looked in these forums to see if anyone had asked about symptoms that are similar to mine and I didn't find very much information. So, I'm writing about my experience and using as many of the keywords I can think of that I've been searching for over the past two months!
So! If you had gastric bypass and you start experiencing nausea and vomiting after what seems like typical food progression, please speak to your surgeon. It could be an internal stricture of the roux limb or the connecting bits, or in my case an external compression of some sort. From the very few resources I could find online, my type of external compression of transverse mesocolon on the roux limb seemed to occur in 0.9% of gastric bypass patients and it seems to happen within the first month. My surgeon pretty much immediately knew what was wrong, and her PA said she had seen it before, but not often, and it was new for my insurance caseworker. The inability to eat made it very difficult to complete normal daily tasks like my job, housework, walking the dog, etc. I wasn't in pain, I just couldn't get enough energy to do anything! My doctors moved quickly to get me back in for surgery, but it still took 4-5 weeks from starting to vomit at each meal to waking up from my second surgery feeling much better. I am so thankful that my surgeon was able to fix what was wrong with the scar tissue compressing around the roux limb; it made a world of difference!
I'm not out of the woods quite yet, however. Six days after the surgery to repair the hole in the transverse mesocolon, I had a bad food day and nothing stayed down. I immediately reached out to my surgeon's office and today went in for an upper GI in which I intake contrast dye while a doctor observes how it flows through my new gastrointestinal system with an X-ray. That doctor said it looks like the connection between my stomach pouch and roux limb looks stenosed now. I am grateful that they found something and that there is an explanation for why everything I put in my mouth makes me nauseous and that there's a reason why I don't want to eat anything.
I will be having another endoscopy in the following couple of weeks and, as ever, I am hopeful that this will be the last surgery that I need for my gastric bypass.
Hi ViaLia! My starting BMI was higher than yours at about 42, and I can only comment as someone 10 months post-surgery, but it's been a fantastic surgery for me. I'm not far off my goal and feeling very good. The restriction is strong, but I've had no issues getting my Protein, Water and Vitamins. No dumping - however I'm still very wary with the foods that can cause it. My weight loss has slowed down a lot now that I'm getting closer to goal, my appetite is easy to manage. It may be possible for some to lose too much weight, but I don't expect that would strictly be the fault of the surgery. I eat about 1000 to 1200 calories a day now. That will go up a little more once I reach my goal and begin maintenance.
I would never have gotten to where I am now without the MGB. It stopped the self-sabotage and I couldn't be happier with how it's gone.
ViaLia got a reaction from rolawre in Any 50yo or older?
