I'm 4 weeks out and feeling great. I've been wondering lately about what's actually going on inside my stomach.

I asked two doctors at my hospital and got two different answers; one said it was fully healed after 7 weeks and the other said it would take ONE YEAR.

I suppose both could be right depending on one's definition of "healed", but I was wondering if anyone has come across any research or other professional reports on this topic.

Thanks!

I think the difference is in the defintion of "healed".

Different tissues in the body regenerate at different rates. And everyone's body has a slightly different capability to heal than someone else's. Generally, the younger you are, the faster you heal, with some limitations.

The inmost layer of your stomach is the same tissue from our mouth to the other end. It turns over very rapidly, so it heals first, that is, it makes new cells to replace the old ones. The rest of the stomach takes a little longer. But it has a good blood supply, so it can heal over and you can have new tissue all along the outside of your staple line (the side that's facing your other organs) in four to seven weeks. Then scar tissue forms along the cut edge. That takes the longest.

In general terms, parts of your body with a good blood supply heal fastest, areas without one, the slowest. This is why tendon and ligament injuries take so long to heal, tendons and ligaments have no blood supply.

Edited November 1, 201510 yr by 2goldengirl

Google is your friend.

Not so far, have been looking for weeks and come up with nothing.

Part of the problem is the way Google works (I know it well, I was an early investor). It bubbles up answers based on who's paying.

There's tons in money in weight loss and tons in WLS, so when you google anything that has anything to do with these topics you get pages of paid results.

Well, if two doctors have given you two different answers, and Google isn't up to your standards, I dunno what else to suggest.

Good luck.

No problem, there are other people who follow this forum!

My dr. Said 6 weeks is when your stomach is healed enough that your risk for getting a leak is greatly diminished.