still vomiting after week 5 HELP

[Marilyn D 1]

I NEED SOME HELP .......... I am on week five after my surgery and I keep vomiting. I'm constantly hungry and thirsty as hell. :-( I am still on the liquid/puree stage cuz if its thicker then a yogurt my body just won't keep it down. What can I do? My doctor said that if next week I'm still vomiting I have to go for the full gastric bypass :-( I am terrified!!!!!

PLEASE HELP ME!!!!

[Jensharley 9]

Have you monitored the quantity you are ingesting at one time? Have you tried smaller portions more frequently? Do you vomit with everything i.e. Water, shakes, other drinks? Did they give you any anti-nausea or acid reducer? Hang in there. There has to be an answer on why this is happening and just converting you to bypass doesn't seem like it solves whatever the issue is.

[SeattleSue 25]

Yes to everything Jen said..

How will a gastric bypass help? Seems pretty radical.

Maybe go back to liquids for a couple days. Are you drinking Protein shakes? Has your surgeon done any post-op tests??

[Tiffykins 672]

I would want to know why he'd jump to bypass rather than diagnosing what is going on with your sleeve.

Are you on an acid reducer?? And, I can tell you I was on mushy, super mushy, super soft foods for about 3 months because solids just would NOT work for my body.

Have they given you a reason why you're vomiting??? There are other solutions, do not let them do a bypass on you without finding out the cause of the nausea. So many people struggle with food especially the first 3-8 weeks.

Get a second opinion? Get a contrast study or an endoscopy done on your sleeve?

[Marilyn D 1]

I sometimes only eat a very small quantity and it doesn't help. Water basically stays down and most liquids. I am trying to move into the mushy stage and something as thick as yogurt is not staying down. I do agree with you guys in regards to jumping into the bypass. I have 2 kids and also I'm a single mom. I can't afford to stay at the hospital and go through this whole process again. So I'm definitely going to get a second and third opinion before they try to slice and dice again :-) I just really would like something other then liquids :-( I believe that is why I lost almost 50 pounds in the first month. Between being dizzy, weak and hungry all the time I wish I had never done this. I hope it does get better soon.

Thanks for all the encouragement!!!!

[ahoy 3]

Marilyn, your doctor is simply NOT taking good care of you. I know you're tired and sick and the hardest thing is to go and advocate for yourself, but that's what you have to do! Tell him that his neglect of your issue is unacceptable, and that you refuse to accept another SURGERY instead of investigating what is WRONG with your sleeve.

I know it's hard but you can do it, and we're here to help!

[zoelifechick 7]

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~

[kellyw74 258]

I would first of all want to know are you taking a PPI? Also, are you eating too much at one time?? If you are eating too much then it is going to come back up.

I know it is hard to wrap your head around, but some people can not do the required amount in the begining. They can only do a bite or two and it really takes some time to learn our full signals!! Sometimes we learn too late and then we vomit!!

Eat SLOWLY!! Take a small bite of whatever and wait 2-3 minutes and then another wait and another...etc. You will know i between those 2-3 minutes if you have had enough.

Don't eat and drink at the same time, even on liquids!!! That will make you too full and you will vomit!!

Early out, I could not eat a lot of foods. They felt so tight in my chest and throat. It was from the swelling and some have lots of it, some have very little. Maybe you are just really swollen and sensitive.

Are you drinking milk or milk products?? If so, lay off them for a couple days, maybe you have beome intolerant. Lots do and milk will make you vomit if you are!

Your dr. is NUTS to just say BYPASS w/o trying to find out what is making you sick!! If he insists on doing that, I would find another dr.!! ASAP

Keep us posted on how you are doing!

Kelly

[MegInNOLA 531]

I had vomiting for the first 7 weeks after surgery, almost every single day--why? Because I was not on a PPI!!! My surgeon does not routinely prescribe it post surgery. Once I started taking Prilosec, it was like a miracle--suddenly, food stayed down! Now, I still can't eat much at one time, only a couple of tablespoons per "meal," but it stays down and I'm feeling so much better.

If you're not already on a PPI, get some generic omeprazole and try it out. Can't hurt and might help. Use it for a couple of days and then try something really bland and really soft, like mashed potatoes, and only eat a tablespoon... see if that stays down. At this point, don't worry about carbs or whatever, just see if you can get something gentle to stay down. Tiny bites, please, and wait a few minutes between bites.

I really hope you find some answers--NOBODY should have to go through vomiting every day, and I should know!!

[504chic 53]

We'll worried girlfriend,

i am 3 months out and I have been vomiting since the surgery. Sometimes I can get through the day without vomiting, but for the most part it is daily. I am also experiencing bloody stool so I am scheduled to do to both upper and lower exam on the 29th. My problem is how am I going to keep all those fluids down. Hope I don't have to go through what your bf had to go through.