Thursday, April 11, 2013

Another one bites the dust...

Six years and POOF! Gone, just like that. Yes, my dear blog friends, yours truly had emergency surgery Wednesday night to remove my band.

As you might have guessed from my sparse posting, this past year has been pretty crappy for me health-wise. Vitamin deficiencies, anemia, gastroparesis, etc. One thing after another, and it seemed like it would never end. Finally, in February, I found out my esophagus and pouch were dilated. Off I went for another unfill. This made sense as I had been vomiting a lot after only a few bites of food. Shortly after that, I had a gastric emptying study which showed that I do NOT, in fact, have gastroparesis.

I felt a little better after the unfill until this past Saturday when I suddenly got very bloated and achy. It hadn't gotten any better by Wednesday and the vomiting had started again, so I called my band doc. I was sent to the ER. X-rays showed a minor slip, so an Upper GI was next. That''s when we saw the writing on the wall. Even with my band deflated, the barium was just trickling through. Turns out I had developed so much scar tissue under the band, that my stoma could not relax and open up anymore. Me and my band were done.

When I talked to my surgeon this morning, he said things were actually much worse than they had appeared. The slip was much larger, and there was a chunk of food stuck in the secondary pouch. I'm so glad I trusted my instincts and got checked out.

I'm feeling ok right now. I know I will mourn my band a little, but I'm honestly just relieved. I just want to feel good again. There will not be another band for me. Truly, I'm not sure what my options are going forward. Right now though, I'm just going to concentrate on feeling better.

And that's all she wrote!

11 comments:

Jen said...

So very sorry that you are going through this, it is shocking and difficult to accept losing your band, but I am relieved to hear you are looking forward to feeling better. I'll be keeping you in my thoughts as you recover.

MB said...

I'm so sorry, but I'm also glad that you are feeling better.

Lap Band Gal said...

Hugs :-)

Sandy said...

So sorry, but hope you feel better soon.

Darlin1 said...

OMG....I'm so glad you found the answers to your problems. SCARY!

Wishing you the best!!

XO

Jen said...

How are you feeling? Better I hope! I have been thinking of you.

Sam said...

I hope you are doing okay and so sorry to hear you had to go through this!

KajunDee said...

I am so sorry about your band, I am still fighting insurance company to have mine converted to Sleeve....right now its empty...sucks so bad :(

speck said...

I wish you a speedy and full recovery!

Sandra

Steph said...

I am just catching up on blogs and I just read this...I am so sorry to hear the news Maria, but hopefully you will be feeling better soon! Much love and many hugs!

Sarah G said...

((hugs))