38 days in the hospital. exploratory lap looking for leak left me with massive pneumonia, pleural effusions, 5 antibiotics,abcesses over spleen and liver from the small leak, chest tube drains, picc line, fevers, i was told i had a sub clinical leak. discharged with jpeg which requires non-stop care. home health nurses 4 days per week, genrally just bad luck. thank goodness for my family. i do not remember the first 2 weeks or so, which is a blessing.the tpn and tube feedings slowed my weight loss......down 25#. surgery was 7-24. i wish evryone the best with the journey!!!!!!!!

I am so sorry that you have had to go through all of this.

sending you all a huge thank you for your kind words. as a nurse, i became the patient. humbling. i was fine for about 7 days...then fever, pain which were the abcesses. i do not want to deter anyone from surgery. and i was only about 65 pounds overweight to begin with. i do not recommend dr reyes/staff in mexico. iv hubs were not wiped, absolutely no patient education such as deep breathing, etc. i begged to know what meds i was given and no one told me. my medication allergies were all but ignored.we wore no id bands, nothing to identify us.but i chose this and im home ----good days bad days nausea, vomitting. now with the ok to try food, at first i was soooo excited but now im scared cuz if i feel ok, i dont want to ruin my day with nausea, etc. A HUGE LEARNING EXPERIENCE to say the least. im told by the end of the year i should be close to my normal energy level. phew. thanks again to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so sorry to hear this. I can relate , I spent a month in the hospital from a leak and am now at home recovering. Like you, I am so grateful for family. I honestly think if all of my care was left up to healthcare staff I wouldn't be alive right now. Thank God for family !! You are in my prayers!

If I had read about 38 days in the hospital and all that this gal went thru I might have cancelled. I am glad I did not read this prior. Yes' date=' things can go wrong but it is not the norm. I hope you go forward, as I sit here in pants I have not been able to wear in 3 years, I feel so much more content in my own skin. I walk most nights and this is a change too.

I am so sorry for the lady who had those complications and glad she is better[/quote']

Thanks for the encouraging words!

I am so sorry to hear this. I can relate ' date=' I spent a month in the hospital from a leak and am now at home recovering. Like you, I am so grateful for family. I honestly think if all of my care was left up to healthcare staff I wouldn't be alive right now. Thank God for family !! You are in my prayers![/quote']

May I ask who your doctor was?

My thoughts & prayers are with you. I hope you start to continue to feel better each day....

She mentioned her surgeon in a previous post.

The lesson for everyone is that while leaks can be just bad luck - they happen - but different surgeons have different stats and complications. Find out what your surgeon is claiming to be his experience and results! That in no way is a comment against this surgeon as I don't know his stats. It could happen anywhere, I am just saying why not choose a doc that has best results with low complications - I am thinking it improves the odds.

I am so glad you are on the mend. It is a nightmare scenario, but the blessing is that you will recover and go on to losing weight and regaining your health. Thank you for sharing your story!

GOD WILL NEVER TAKE YOU WHERE THE GRACE OF GOD WON'T PROTECT YOU.

I will keep you in my prayers.

Praying you have a speedy recovery with no more complications.

CoolBreeze

May I ask who your doctor was?

Dr. Nain in Woodbridge, VA. I don't think he's necessarily a bad surgeon or anything, he said he has done over 150 sleeves with no problem... He even said that he thought i would have been an easy case since I was young , healthy and relatively thinner than a lot of his patients. I guess the 1% statistic landed on me unfortunately. I will say this , I was disappointed that he went on vacation for a week after my leak was discovered and while I was in the hospital. He said he would still be in the area and would be stopping by but never did. My care was then left to a variety of other doctors in the hospital that didn't seem to communicate well with each other. He also didn't show up on my discharge date from having my stents removed. I think he is still a decent surgeon and I understand things just go wrong sometimes but the stuff he did that I mentioned above just isn't cool to me.

he said he has done over 150 sleeves with no problem.

I am really going to try not to sound mean here..I am very concerned because 150 sleeves is not very many when we are talking about human lives here. My surgeon has performed 1,000s with a low complication rate. I think it is important that people who are looking into surgery should ask this question. I realize doctors have to start somewhere. In fact, a doctor who is entering the field performed my surgery, but my dr. that has the 1,000s under his belt was in the OR with the resident and monitored the whole procedure. I fortunately did not have complications. I realize even dr.s with more experience have problems occasionally as well, but we all know with experience comes wisdom ...in theory the more you do something, the more you should be experienced in the procedure. I hope you are healing and feeling better. Your experience can guide the newbies to make good decisions for their own health down the road! Ask the questions that we sometimes forget to ask. Thank you for sharing!

I am really going to try not to sound mean here..I am very concerned because 150 sleeves is not very many when we are talking about human lives here. My surgeon has performed 1' date='000s with a low complication rate. I think it is important that people who are looking into surgery should ask this question. I realize doctors have to start somewhere. In fact, a doctor who is entering the field performed my surgery, but my dr. that has the 1,000s under his belt was in the OR with the resident and monitored the whole procedure. I fortunately did not have complications. I realize even dr.s with more experience have problems occasionally as well, but we all know with experience comes wisdom ...in theory the more you do something, the more you should be experienced in the procedure. I hope you are healing and feeling better. Your experience can guide the newbies to make good decisions for their own health down the road! Ask the questions that we sometimes forget to ask. Thank you for sharing!

[/quote']

You are so right... No offense taken. I totally agree with you. At the time I thought 150 was a good amount, but I guess it wasn't enough. Hindsight is 20/20 unfortunately. I am healing and finally feeling better . I will be on full liquids for the next month. I hope my story helps someone.

Why is it that American doctors seem to have more leaks? I just hear about it way more than Mexican doctors. Do the Mexican doctors have more experience?

Yes where a Mexican doctor is doing seven a day an American doctor is doing 2. Because of the red tape that is involved here in America and the cost the volume isn't possible or desired. Plus maybe people that go to Mexico are way more careful post op because they know there warranty work is across the boarder. There's really no rhyme or reason to leaks though.

Oh my God! This is my biggest fear! Makes me want to cancel my surgery.

my biggest fear, too I hope you continue to a full recovery soon

Wow, I am SO SORRY to read about your troubles. But thank you for sharing.

It is important for all of us to know the good, bad and possible ugly of VSG surgery...shoot, ANY surgery!

I wish you a speedy and safe recover with no further issues. This too shall pass. And you'll be on your road to weight loss and 100% good health.