i had my surgery on November 1. I was so happy and excited to get through recovery and begin to walk, eat healthy and get back to work. I just knew all would be fine.....until I had my drain removed from my belly on day 9. We live 3.5 hours from the doctor so it is a huge undertaking plus it is starting to snow in our part of the us (near Reno Nevada ). We went it and my stomach had some pain and I thought it was because of the drain. That was November 11. We stayed the night and did some Christmas shopping, a lot of walking and the next day I felt super tired and my tummy hurt more. I thought it was because I was in and out of the car, more walking than in the prior two weeks and I over did it. The site where the drain was happened to be leaking so we went and got a large band aid for it. That night it really became irritated so we went home and I left it open, but the next day I had a low grade fever. Thinking it was night and trying to catch up with everything we let it be until Tuesday my first day back at work. I sat up all day in a chair behind a computer and on the phone. My stomach got super hot to the touch and hard. It was not right. I called the surgeon's office and after 3 more calls their advise was to get to the EMERGENCY ROOM right away. So we immediately left and arrived Tuesday at 7:30 in the ER.

It took another 5 hours before they could do my CT scan because it was a trauma hospital and that night there had been 4 trauma flights come in. Each time I was pushed back which if it were me I would hope I got pushed to the front too, so no worries there I was in pain and just wanted to find out what was going on. I was in the ER until 5:30am when they finally had a bed for me and the doctor told me I had a deep infection at the port site. It went all the way down to my stomach and an abscess had formed. More than likely I would have to undergo another surgery .

At 7:45 yesterday morning the surgeon came in and pushed on my tummy and said he wanted one final upper GI and then I would have surgery. The doctor has written books on obesity and I really trusted his knowledge . He did not see a leak it looked like the infection stayed in the partineum (sp?) cavity. He left the opening in my stomach open it is not sutured closed but is packed with growth materials the heal and stimulate tissue growth. The healing must come from the inside therefore they can't close it.

I go back on the 28th until then no changing the dressing at all - EEKKK

Anyway I am now back to taking loratab and suspension antibiotics plus all the Vitamins, proposed, potassium seems my goal was to reduce medication, this is more than I ever took before. I know it will be short lived but....

The CT scan also picked up something in my breast and I just had a mammogram so now need to follow up with that as well. I really did think I was healthy, just ran into a bit of bad luck. It will get better I am sure.

Please fellow sleevers, listen to your body and don't make excuses if things are not right for you!

Sandy

Hi 5DogMa,

I am sorry you are in pain. My drain tube it's self never hurt me. Draining the line to the tube or emptying the tube never hurt. I never felt it really in my tummy, it was all immediately after it was removed. Does not sound right to me at all. Honestly your surgeons office should have on-call, if I were you I would call and at a minimum talk to your doctor ASAP. This honestly is nothing to just live with...please call.

I do not want to frighten you but, I was lucky the infection did not go deeper. It is worth the check. I can tell you my complication charges are over $40,000 much more than my surgery, it is worth getting on top of this for your health and to potentially stop it from becoming worse.

Take care of yourself,

Sandy

5DogMa, I have had drain tubes before and they have ALWAYS hurt! Like you said, milking the line was the worst! It hurt for just a moment when they removed them and that was it.

Oh my gosh, that's horrible! I am sorry this happened. Please take care.

This drain is coming out tomorrow if I have to pull it out myself. I'm calling the doctors office first thing and will be dressed and ready to go right then. The on call doctor had suggested me calling my doctor to see if he would take it out early since it was hurting me. Duh! I was hoping for a better answer. I have taken pain meds all day today and they help although hard to swallow. All of this mess will be taken care of tomorrow if not by my doctor by somebody because I'm not living like this another day.

Other than the drain tube and not being able to swallow very well the rest of me seems to be healing good. I can get in and out of bed, deep breaths only hurt where the drain is in my left back and side, the other incisions don't hurt and are starting to itch meaning they are healing. I don't know what he'll say about the difficulty swallowing. I tried another tablespoon of Protein drink, it tasted so good but my esophagus didn't like it. I was only taking drops at a time and they hurt. Water is about it and I'm not drinking 8 ounces of that.

I don't care what it takes even if I have to go back into the hospital tomorrow to get fluids I'm getting taken care of tomorrow!

Pegsinthewoods, Thanks! Glad to know I'm not the only one that the drain tube hurt. I told them 3 times in the hospital it hurt and they looked at me like I was crazy and told me NO ONE had ever said their drain tube hurt. So does that mean you don't believe me so you're gonna leave it in anyway?? Guess so! It doesn't hurt at the entry site at all. The pain is in the length inside all the way up into my left side. I am going to take pain meds just before I leave because I am expecting major pain when they pull it out.

Thanks everyone for your support.

I am glad you called. Honestly at this point I am shocked the on call doctor did not want you back in because of your fluid intake. Are you keeping a log of your food and fluids? Please do take care and let us know how it goes, really hope the drain pain ends quickly.

Sandy-I know how you feel, my doc is 2.5 hours away, I live in a small town and I usually have to go to the "city" area to find the experienced docs to deal with my med. hx. I am sorry to hear about your impending breast issue, good luck with that.

Additionally, my parents were very ill throughout my early teen years into my 30's and my mom had a wet to dry packed wound before to heal, it was cumbersome, but she did heal well from it, and that was with chemo and radiation on board, but I know it can be frustrating, I can only imagine having not been there myself specifically.

Good luck, and you're so RIGHT listen to your body-I'm in that situation now!!!

Murphy's sorry about your mom, I do feel fortunate however I am healing. It has impacted my weight loss but I am working through that as well. It will all work out. Glad to hear you are listening to your body if something is going on. I shared these heart palpitating events and sure enough the forum was right, it is because of my low potassium, I am now on double the dose to get my levels up.

Take care

I am sincerely sorry that you have experienced a complication, on a positive note, it may be a higher beings way of pointing out "early" of a bigger impending issue in your breast. My sister had the VSG and found out she has a rare form of stomach cancer called GIST. This is on the outside of your GI tract and not usually found at such an early stage. Her surgery saved her life in two ways. I hope you continued health and that the breast issue is watched closely and amounts to NOTHING.

I do have a question for all. My sister did NOT have a drain at all. Why is that? She had the tiniest little holes that are almost non existent now. Her surgery was Aug 30th. Mine is scheduled for Dec 28th and I'm very excited.

Glad someone asked about drains. My husband did not have any drains either.

Happy, I agree. I see this whole thing as a blessing, I am still trying to figure out the spot they found as one doctor would not talk without another so my primary was trying to find out. That said,

Some doctors use drains and some do not. According to my doctor, he prefers to use them to check for leaks he could not given me any statics other than some do and some do not. I never in a million years would have thought an abscess would develop. I was the first in this office to have it happen. I have not spoken with my surgeon since and will see him in January so I am curious to get his overall response to the abscess.

I'm so happy I didn't have a drain. It sounds so painful and worrisome. Sorry you have to experiene all this when it's not necessary. I hope you heal quickly..

Thanks Dorrie I am healing. I just want folks to know it can happen and to please follow up if they suspect anything is going on.

Hi Pegsinthewoods, Yes you are correct no leak, they did CT scan to confirm but it was a complication from the sleeve surgery. So other things can happen and I just want to help folks realize the importance of listening to their bodies. At my lowest point, alone in the ER and exhausted there was a moment I asked myself what have I done. But it did not last long, God has a plan for me and I am on the road to recovery. Please do not let this "scare" you. I was scared when my doctor said eventually I could die from my obesity and related conditions. Now I am excited and continue to look forward to good health. Good luck to you and keep us informed on your journey.

hi 5DogMa,Best to being on the road to recovery, you will continue to be on the mend. I agree that one of the scariest things for a dr. to say "I could die from my obesity and related conditions" I think that is why we are all here going through this surgery, doing whatever we can to get better for our health, loved one, friends, but primarily our extended good health and our lives turning for the better for ourselves.

Take care

kathy