I had been an active participant on VST up until a few days ago - just wanted to fill you in as to why.

I was sleeved on April 16th with Dr Aceves in Mexicali, MX. Surgery went well for me and I had no major complaints, just the standard issues (drank part of my methylblue leak test on first day post-op too fast, got horrendous gas pain, etc). Was discharged on April 19th, where I drove the 4+ hours home myself. Felt fairly decent the first week out, though had some odd sensations : my abdomen would become puffy and painful if I consumed watered juices or Protein of any kind. I could feel stomach-like sensations in my upper left abdomen, I had some extensive soreness, However, I have a very high pain tolerance and just soldiered on.

Thursday the 26th was the first day post-op I actually felt "good". Went for a walk, helped cook for family, was up and around. Laid down for a nap in the afternoon and was woken up by nagging left flank pain.

As the night progressed, my left flank pain spread to both flanks, I developed dull low abdomen pain, my core body joints ached, I just felt terrible. Couldn't sleep, paced the floor most of the night, pain worsening. I kept rationalizing that I was probably just oversensitive. Finally, at 2 in the afternoon, I told my husband I just didn't feel right and that I was going to the ER.

By this point, I was convinced I had either a kidney stone or a kidney infection - the left flank pain was stabbing and painful, my urine was tea colored and concentrated, I was so nauseated that I could hardly sip anything. But here's where things get fun:

Because of my recent surgery, the ER doc decided to order a full abdominal and pelvic CT scan with oral and IV contrast (choking down that contrast was terrible). After many hours of waiting, the ER doc comes flying into my triage bay with that bad-serious look they get, and tells me,

"You have a very rare (but not entirely unknown) complication of gastric surgery - you have a large blood clot partially blocking your portal vein at the hepatic junction. The radiologist on duty called the Head of Radiology at home to read your CT, and what he said to me was, "Is this patient now dead?"

WTF - what we learned in nursing school is that PVT (portal vein thrombosis) is a condition that is generally not compatible with life. I admit I cried, rather ingraciously. I was admitted to the hospital friday night and am expected to be here a few more days,

Since my admission, new things keep cropping up. My pancreatic enzymes are all out of whack. My nausea is barely controlled with IV push Zofran. They moved me up to dilauded for pain management....this is huge, I normally don't even take Tylenol!

Over the last 24 hours, I started spiking cyclical fevers, my white blood cell count keeps going all over the place. I now have rebound pain in the upper right quadrant of my abdomen, so the hematologist suspects acute gall bladder attack - I'll be getting an abdominal ultrasound shortly.

Two morals of the story here - complications can happen to anyone. I happened to have surgery out of the country, so I am certain someone will bring this up, but portal vein thrombi are rare birds no matter what. I have been in contact with Dr Aceves' office and they have been supportive through the entire process.

Second - always follow your Spider Sense. If you don't feel right, get checked out. I could have died at home. Heck, I'm not out of the woods yet - hematology tells me I will need agressive management with blood thinners for the next 6 to 12 months, and there are no guaranteed outcomes.

Just wanted to pass along were I've been. I will let you know more as I know more. Only good part of this? Abdominal CT showed my sleeve as perfect, no leaks or issues...just very tight

I'm glad you are showing progress. Blood clots are scary. I actually was found to have DVT (deep vein thrombosis) about a month and a half ago. I had surgery last June, so no way the two can be related. Very odd also because I am so active. I'm also on Warfarin. It's my understanding it can be one of the most difficult drugs to determine the correct long term dosage amount. Right after my blood clot, I stabilized out at I think 4 or 5 mg, then left for a trip to Europe (wasn't sure I could still go but fortunately I could and it worked out), but when I came back my INR was 1.3... no idea why. My INR came up quickly when I was first found w/the clot. In a months time and increasing my dosage 1mg 1x per week, I was 1.9 as of last Tuesday.

My Dr. plans to take me off Warfarin mid to late June, then recheck me in a month. The hope is this won't be a life long thing. I'm like you in having a high tolerance for pain. It took me 4 days from the initial pain to decide it was time to get it checked. In my case, I thought I had just pulled a muscle until the night before when my leg was swelling up like a balloon and the pain so much I couldn't even put pressure on it to go to the bathroom during the night. No red streaking or any of the other traiditional symptoms of a clot.

Take care of yourself!

Still in the hospital - now am hoping to be out by Friday. Hematologist ordered a whole slew of lab work for the am, including genetic clot determinants, a variety of auto-immune disease markers (Lupus, Sjogrens, others), and some other random tests. I did not get to see the list, it was read for verification once just inside my hearing....I'll give more info when I have it.

Abdominal ultrasound reveals my current PVT to be stable, which is good news, that being said, I am having rather persistant pain due to the back-pressure of blood and fluids into my spleen via the partially occluded portal vein. The surgeon that is following me had an earnest conversation this morning regarding the status of my over-pressurized spleen. Even though my spleen checks out fine now, I am still at risk for spleen infart, damage and/or death, as long as that clot exists.

I have started my Coumadin, but my INR is raising at a crawl. Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts

@CrazyCatLady - Hang in there. Sometimes when it rains it pours. As I said before it sounds like you're in good hands. Just don't rush anything. I know it's frustrating to be unemployed and without insurance but many hospitals offer charity care for emergencies like yours. We're all praying for you.

As for Warfarin, I had a lot of problems regulating my INR. A lot of it has to do with maintaining a regular diet and avoiding foods with Vitamin K. For some reason my INR levels would go from 1.8 to 13.3 in a week. It wasn't fun. Eventually my hematologist put me on Lovenox instead. Taking two shots a day isn't fun either but it's better than ingesting "rat poison" which warfarin is a derivative of. Also all of the medicines I take now I wouldn't have been able to take because of the contraindications with warfarin.

Aww, Hon. I am so sorry that you are having to go through all of this. Glad to here you are somewhat better. We will say a prayer for your health and your financial situation. Hang in there.

Sent from my iPhone using VST

Wowza! I'm just a newbie here and still in the lurking stage and have been drawn to this post as if it were an episode of HOUSE. I'm sending lots of good karma your way. Just remember what my darlin Papa used to tell me "Remember that rock bottom is still solid ground, and every roadblock is just a place to turn around", so keep your chin up. You have lots of friends on here sending prayers your way and this will soon just be a speed bump on the way to a healthier you

I'm sorry you have to deal with this! I'll remember you in my prayers.

Thanks for sharing, prayers and positiveness coming your way - please let us know how you are doing.

Catlady--I am so sorry to hear about your complications! I am a little late reading this. My heart goes out to you and I am sorry you have to go through this. I am very happy that you are okay and alive but sad that you are faced with such a challenging complication. Please, if you need anything or just want to talk, I'm here. I want you to be okay mentally as well as physically and I just want you to know you have a friend in me, and in most people here on VST. We are all in this together, and when one of our own is having a complication, you can bet we will be there for you.

Wow...thanks for sharing your story. Makes my complications seem so trivial. Just try to stay positive...I know, it's easier said than done. You are in my prayers...

I too had some complications. Had my surgery on Nov 19th. Stayed at hosp. for 3 days, came home. Felt like crap all weekend. It was freezing outside so barely left the house. On Monday, I decide to go to the local walk-in doctors office and get checked out. My surgeon is 30 miles away. They do blood work and a chest xray. I was having really intense shoulder pain. So, dr. comes in and says I have Fluid in my chest and need to go get CT scan. Run over there, go home and get a call 30 min later that my D-dimer came back positive and that I have fluid. No mention of CT scan. They tell me to go check into ER. I do that and they run an EKG too. That was abnormal. They tell me I had a mild heart attack. I was like WTF? I had no chest pain or anything. I end up having to get another CT scan because they ordered the wrong one( supposed to have angio, dr's office ordered contrast). Have to wait 24hrs for that because of the strain on my kidney from the dye.

I end up having an ultra sound of my lungs and they decide there isn't enough fluid to remove. Meanwhile, my surgeon tells me that the fluid built up because I wasn't exercising enough. I was so close to being released on Wednesday morning when my dr. ordered a cardio consult. It was decided I needed an angiogram. Had that, couldn't get a stent because Surgeon said that I couldn't be on blood thinners so soon. OMG. What the hell was happeneing. Felt like I was in a bad dream. Got out of hospital at 9am. My discharge instructions are no heavy exercise, and must take a daily asprin.

Oh and I was supposed to be on full liquids, but hospital had no Protein shakes so I ended up eating some oatmeal and cream of wheat. I got constant bags of fluid. Have no idea what I've lost. Now I worry about my heart.

Found out my EKG wasn't normal before surgery, surgeon probably shouldn't have done surgery, but maybe wouldn't have found out about this had I not had surgery.