Staple failure

[DebOzz]

Anyone 15+ years out ever been told their staple line is breaking down after abdominal CT with contrast?

 

[eladams2015]

What?!? I have not heard of this... do you or have you had an ulcer that has weaken the area?

 

[DebOzz]

After a CT all they said here was a breakdown? My surgeon retired 7 years after my surgery. I will probably have a scope to see what’s what. Back then insurance covered Bariatric surgery it does not now, well here it dosent. I’ve been taking Melocicam for 2 years for severe arthritis and that may have caused issues. Will know more after the scope I guess? From what I researched a Breakdown of surgery means staples. So I’m hoping for an ulcer at the least!

 

[DebOzz]

Deb, welcome to the group. I had a problem at about the 8-year point. I wrote about it here:

12 years after...

I'm diane & I live in Seattle. After reaching my highest weight of 269 lbs. in 1995, I began to look into weight loss surgery. It took me a dozen years to qualify based on weight reached and insurance coverage. The hospital kicked in the extra 20% Medicare did not cover, as part of their...

www.americanbariatrics.org

Because of this group and the feedback I had, I did go for and upper GI, then a bariatric endoscopy. Never go to a clinic that does a plain endoscopy. The bariatric endoscopy is the only kind you should have.

I don't know why they'd say "breakdown." I hop they're not scaring you much. Don't jump off into the deep end and imagine all kind of terrible things. But make sure everything you do is specialized for you needs. I don't even know what breakdown means, nor do i know which surgery you had.

If your pouch has stopped functioning and is leaking into your abdomen, that's super dangerous, so you should get this figured out as quickly as possible.

Here's what happened to me:

OMG, CALL YOUR DOCTOR, right away, seriously!!!!!

Everyone who knows me here knows that I am a big old "call-your-doctor" girl. Yet I have been suffering for 4 years with symptoms of nausea, feeling too full too soon, belly pain, and food coming back up my throat to the point where I could stick my finger down there and feel my egg foo yung, if...

www.americanbariatrics.org

It may not be as bad as you think, but if they aren't making a big deal out of it & getting you in immediately, it's probably not serious.

These days if you have a defective pouch, they can restitch it by going down your esophagus. Much less invasive and very little recovery time.

Keep us posted, please.

 

[DebOzz]

Thank you so much! My pcp said there was no leakage on the CT and she just wasn’t familiar enough to even say what she might guess. I’ll see a gastro here and he will send me on if necessary. I’m pretty proactive when I fell any thing out of the ordinary and now being super careful what I eat until I know what’s going on. I’m so glad to hear this as my symptoms are very similar to yours. My appt is the 16th and I’ll know more and also good to know about endoscope and the difference. I’ll be looking out for that for sure.

 

[DebOzz]

I have taken screen shots of this and bariatric endo, will make sure it’s the correct one for sure thank you for that info!