Roux-en-Y surgery complications

Posted by bborth @bborth, Aug 5, 2019

Well, after dealing with bile reflux on and off for 5 years my GI has recommended this surgery for me. I will be having this done at the U of M after have been treated by Dr. Martin Freeman there for the past few years, and many ERCP procedures. The surgeon claims I am a good candidate for this being in good health otherwise and relatively young (56). A bit scared of course given the nature of this type of surgery, but staying as-is can't be a long term plan for me. The surgeon agreed, and was concerned that the bile is now getting up in the esophagus/throat which can pose more serious issues down the road if not abated. I guess if anyone has advice on recovery, or hints on moving forward in life post roux en y surgery I would appreciate it.

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@bborth

Well, I am 2 weeks past this surgery that was recommended to me for my bile reflux/regurgitation issue that I have had for some time now. The pain associated with this is unreal. Trying to sit up for the first time after having an 8 inch incision through the stomach muscles was excruciating. I was in the hospital for 4 nights and came home, improving each day. After 9 days of making progress each day I started having bad cramping on the right side where the liver sits. These starting coming in waves, and each one was very painful for about a minute. After enduring this for an hour, they went away but I started getting a fever. After a call to the nurse at the hospital where I had the surgery performed, they summoned me back in. I then stayed 3 more nights there as they figured out the infection (high white blood count as well). The cramps continued on and off as well. I am back home now but am still having cramps every so often that are really painful. Just curious if anyone out there can tell me what this is a result of, or what can cause it. I know this was major surgery, and this one takes time to heal (surgeon mentioned cramping as part of what I would be dealing with post op). But at the same time the pain level is sometimes so overpowering. Causing me some anxiety as well as I get nervous about having to back in again. Thoughts??

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High fiber is hard to digest and so are meats. Stay away from fibrous veggies... like cabbage, greens, celery and seed and peel any veggies like summer squash. They usually start you out on liquid diet .. mine was thick liquid.. but I also had feeding tube. The surgeon suggested Carnation Instant breakfast.. high protein one.

In the 2014 surgery when I had the rny my esophagus shortened and pulled up a loop of intestines into my chest along with the pouch. I ran a fever... there was a leakage and they could not find it. It resolved as they pumped several antibiotics into me. I had two chest tubes, j tube, g tube, nasogastric tube, pic line. Seems like another tube, but cannot remember what. I don't remember a week or more of my 3 week stay. I needed more surgery to repair everything. The plan was to wait six month. That surgery was the last week of Sept in 2014. The first week of March 2015. I did not feel good. I was in a lot of pain. I went to our local ER.. 10 hours there and did not see a dr until about hour 8. The NP or PA not sure what he was did order a ct scan and blood work. Two more loops of intestines came into my chest.. pushed my left lung against my ribs. They stabilized me and the dr I saw was a surgeon. he said to go back to the Mayo as soon as possible. Don't let anyone here do surgery on you. I had no plans of that anyway. I called the Mayo, but my surgeon was out of country. It was only about a week wait to see him. At my appointment he said the surgery was going to have to be open and a thoracic surgeon had to be involved. Then it was a matter of them discussing how surgery was going to be and when. Surgery was 18 May 2015. It was very high risk. But if I did not have the surgery I would not live long. I still have pain from the surgery. I have a labrum tear in my shoulder because they had to get my arm out of the way to do what they needed to do. No one here will fix it. I may ask to be seen by someone at the Mayo. When I move a lot my chest hurts. .. diaphragm repair seems to be cause of that. My husband said something about they had to turn it (it had been shredded when the intestines pulled up) to attach the hernia to it. I don't really know. I only got a couple of page report on the surgery. My local GI doctor says the report is like a book.. they did a lot. Local GI dr won't do anything with my esophagus.. he just is not comfortable doing so because they changed me so much.

So that is more of my story. I pray you are blessed with no complications and heal well.
ZeeGee

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Well, I am 2 weeks past this surgery that was recommended to me for my bile reflux/regurgitation issue that I have had for some time now. The pain associated with this is unreal. Trying to sit up for the first time after having an 8 inch incision through the stomach muscles was excruciating. I was in the hospital for 4 nights and came home, improving each day. After 9 days of making progress each day I started having bad cramping on the right side where the liver sits. These starting coming in waves, and each one was very painful for about a minute. After enduring this for an hour, they went away but I started getting a fever. After a call to the nurse at the hospital where I had the surgery performed, they summoned me back in. I then stayed 3 more nights there as they figured out the infection (high white blood count as well). The cramps continued on and off as well. I am back home now but am still having cramps every so often that are really painful. Just curious if anyone out there can tell me what this is a result of, or what can cause it. I know this was major surgery, and this one takes time to heal (surgeon mentioned cramping as part of what I would be dealing with post op). But at the same time the pain level is sometimes so overpowering. Causing me some anxiety as well as I get nervous about having to back in again. Thoughts??

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@mdk

I have to revise to gastric bypass after having the sleeve 2 years ago. The problem is I have already lost all my weight. I am being revised because my sleeve is twisted. I have gastroparesis and am nauseous constantly. I feel sick every time I eat and always have stomach pain lately too. Will this revision stop all this nausea and pain? I want relief, but I am worried about malabsorption issues and looking sickly from losing more weight. Please help

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I've had multiple surgeries from complications of RNY bypass. I went from 180 to 155 in short period from liquids only diet
Once you get better or recover the weight should equalize. I'm back to 180 a year later.

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I have to revise to gastric bypass after having the sleeve 2 years ago. The problem is I have already lost all my weight. I am being revised because my sleeve is twisted. I have gastroparesis and am nauseous constantly. I feel sick every time I eat and always have stomach pain lately too. Will this revision stop all this nausea and pain? I want relief, but I am worried about malabsorption issues and looking sickly from losing more weight. Please help

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@mdk

I have to revise to gastric bypass after having the sleeve 2 years ago. The problem is I have already lost all my weight. I am being revised because my sleeve is twisted. I have gastroparesis and am nauseous constantly. I feel sick every time I eat and always have stomach pain lately too. Will this revision stop all this nausea and pain? I want relief, but I am worried about malabsorption issues and looking sickly from losing more weight. Please help

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I had a bypass in 2008 all I can tell you Have to take your vitamins every day for the rest of your life.....

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I had roux en y surgery performed back in early september of 2019. I had basically a years worth of issues that were affecting how I felt on a daily basis and impacting my qualify of life greatly. I have no gallbladder as well. This surgery was suggested after seeing high levels of bile in my stomach ( causing the stinging pain/bloat/nausea as well as it moving up my esophagus. This surgery was not for weight loss mind you, but to redirect the bile duct coming from the liver to the stomach being attached to the small intestine. This was a painful surgery since they cut through stomach muscles to get inside me. So....for 4.5 months after the surgery things seemed to be going as planned. I was gaining weight back since I had an appetite, and was eating foods that I had not enjoyed for over a year (GF pizza for instance). I didn't realize what a delight it was to be able to eat regular foods and not worry about the affect later. But.....7 weeks ago things started flaring up again, basically the same symptoms as prior to the surgery. Only difference is that they found high levels of bad bacteria in my stool, and breath tests (SIBO). I see that this can result from this surgery as the digestive track is altered enough to slow motility down. Obviously this is really stressing my out as I thought I was on the road to better health there. My surgeon will have me do a motility test of some sort this coming Friday, along with an upper GI small bowel follow through test. Something called Roux Statis can happen post surgery of this kind, 30% rate in fact. Basically food particles can back up in the small intestine and cause the bacteria overgrowth, etc. Only bummer is that may require another surgery to correct. I've tried Xifanxan for an antiobiotic, and a suger/lactose free diet to see what this can do, but really no improvment.

Just looking for any insights here from anyone who may have had a similar experience. I had my surgery performed at the University of MN where I live, but looked into Mayo here in Rochester, MN and was lucky to get an appointment with their GI department.

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@bborth

I had Roux En Y surgery early Sept '19 for bile reflux. Not for weight loss, but to get the excess bile out of my stomach which was starting to go up the esophagus. Then I had an adverse reaction to the heavy antibiotics they put me on which again was a new issue I hadn't planned on. Anyway, I thought the surgery had done its job.....I started to gain weight back, enjoyed foods that before caused me issues, and generally felt good about what it appeared to have accomplished. About 5 days ago I noticed some symptoms coming back again......heavy bloating, nausea, no desire to eat, and just a general sick feeling. My GP had me do a stool test pronto, which now shows a bacterial imbalance. I will do a breath test for SIBO tomorrow, but as one can imagine, I am really scared about these symptoms coming back as I dealt with them for many months prior to my surgery. My GP says that a surgery like this can really alter how the gut works now that bile acid is no longer getting into the stomach. I wish my surgeon had told me this, but alas I was sent on my way. And of course antibiotics are first line methods to treat this which scares me given the reaction I had to cipro and flagyl post surgery. Curious if anyone has dealt with post roux en y and had issues come up. The mental part is setting in for me.....I can't imagine going through all the medical stuff again given what I did last year leading to the surgery.

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I've had roux n y in sept 2016. Approx a month later came the strictures. 7 balloon endoscopes and a temporary stent solved that problem
Then adhesions caused multiple obstructions and multiple surgeries to remove adhesions and multiple intestinal resections
The symptoms to watch for are bloating Nausa uncontrolled salivating followed by dry heaving If that happens, get to dr asap
As the next thing is total obstruction. Hope this helps you and good luck

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@bborth

I had Roux En Y surgery early Sept '19 for bile reflux. Not for weight loss, but to get the excess bile out of my stomach which was starting to go up the esophagus. Then I had an adverse reaction to the heavy antibiotics they put me on which again was a new issue I hadn't planned on. Anyway, I thought the surgery had done its job.....I started to gain weight back, enjoyed foods that before caused me issues, and generally felt good about what it appeared to have accomplished. About 5 days ago I noticed some symptoms coming back again......heavy bloating, nausea, no desire to eat, and just a general sick feeling. My GP had me do a stool test pronto, which now shows a bacterial imbalance. I will do a breath test for SIBO tomorrow, but as one can imagine, I am really scared about these symptoms coming back as I dealt with them for many months prior to my surgery. My GP says that a surgery like this can really alter how the gut works now that bile acid is no longer getting into the stomach. I wish my surgeon had told me this, but alas I was sent on my way. And of course antibiotics are first line methods to treat this which scares me given the reaction I had to cipro and flagyl post surgery. Curious if anyone has dealt with post roux en y and had issues come up. The mental part is setting in for me.....I can't imagine going through all the medical stuff again given what I did last year leading to the surgery.

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Wow, I guess I better contact my surgeons nurse. Bloating, aching pain, and not feeling well (no food sounds good at all now) are the new symptoms. I assume they will want to do an endoscopy to look internally???

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I had Roux En Y surgery early Sept '19 for bile reflux. Not for weight loss, but to get the excess bile out of my stomach which was starting to go up the esophagus. Then I had an adverse reaction to the heavy antibiotics they put me on which again was a new issue I hadn't planned on. Anyway, I thought the surgery had done its job.....I started to gain weight back, enjoyed foods that before caused me issues, and generally felt good about what it appeared to have accomplished. About 5 days ago I noticed some symptoms coming back again......heavy bloating, nausea, no desire to eat, and just a general sick feeling. My GP had me do a stool test pronto, which now shows a bacterial imbalance. I will do a breath test for SIBO tomorrow, but as one can imagine, I am really scared about these symptoms coming back as I dealt with them for many months prior to my surgery. My GP says that a surgery like this can really alter how the gut works now that bile acid is no longer getting into the stomach. I wish my surgeon had told me this, but alas I was sent on my way. And of course antibiotics are first line methods to treat this which scares me given the reaction I had to cipro and flagyl post surgery. Curious if anyone has dealt with post roux en y and had issues come up. The mental part is setting in for me.....I can't imagine going through all the medical stuff again given what I did last year leading to the surgery.

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@bborth

I had Roux En Y surgery early Sept '19 for bile reflux. Not for weight loss, but to get the excess bile out of my stomach which was starting to go up the esophagus. Then I had an adverse reaction to the heavy antibiotics they put me on which again was a new issue I hadn't planned on. Anyway, I thought the surgery had done its job.....I started to gain weight back, enjoyed foods that before caused me issues, and generally felt good about what it appeared to have accomplished. About 5 days ago I noticed some symptoms coming back again......heavy bloating, nausea, no desire to eat, and just a general sick feeling. My GP had me do a stool test pronto, which now shows a bacterial imbalance. I will do a breath test for SIBO tomorrow, but as one can imagine, I am really scared about these symptoms coming back as I dealt with them for many months prior to my surgery. My GP says that a surgery like this can really alter how the gut works now that bile acid is no longer getting into the stomach. I wish my surgeon had told me this, but alas I was sent on my way. And of course antibiotics are first line methods to treat this which scares me given the reaction I had to cipro and flagyl post surgery. Curious if anyone has dealt with post roux en y and had issues come up. The mental part is setting in for me.....I can't imagine going through all the medical stuff again given what I did last year leading to the surgery.

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Similar symptoms for three years here. Hoping you’ve found answers and feeling better.
Wondering if I have motility issues/gut yeast overgrowth with frequent constipation, dry yellow tongue, dry breaking hair and nails, post prandial nausea and sweating and need to lie flat, early satiety, joint (?mineral?) deposits….
Seeing variety of Mayo specialists in Rochester.

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