Post-MALS surgery

There’s an amazing support group with lots of information on mals on Facebook-it’s calls Mals Awareness. I had surgery 2 years ago,mine was nerve related not blood flow. It took 15 years to finally diagnose mals and for that I have lots of nerve damage.

Go to Facebook and there’s a very helpful community that has amazing help pre and post mals surgery. Hope to see you there.

Hi I was wondering if anyone could help us out- Our daughter (22y) had Mals surgery 3/3/22 (on her birthday) and is currently not really able to keep food down still. Some days she can eat a very small amount (a rice cake, Italian ice, a cracker?) and she is slightly better with drinks, however no more than 4/5 oz a day if she’s lucky- She did have 2 days a while back not consecutive that she ate half a waffle & part of a salad. She’s extremely nauseous and on 2 nausea meds every 4 hours & 6 hours and it’s still not keeping it at bay- She gets sick 3/4 times a week still. It’s heartbreaking to see but we don’t know what’s “normal” and what’s not.
I don’t want to panic or worry her by constantly hovering but 2.5 weeks after her surgery her PICC line got infected and when it was pulled she had a stroke (like WTH) this has been a nightmare and we just want to make sure she’s on the right track- Any advice or help would be appreciated- Thanks 🙂

I am about to undergo MALS surgery plus a celiac plexus nerve block. I am 57 years old, have a long history of stomach/intestinal problems including celiac sprue, bowel resection, gastroparesis and after undergoing a double mastectomy following a breast cancer diagnosis, my stomach and intestines just stopped functioning. With a failure to thrive diagnosis, medications and a J/G tube allows me to manage on a day to day basis. I have constant stomach pain, chronic constipation and suffer with malnutrition.
I have had the pyloric muscle widened to see if this would help, it didn’t and caused massive indigestion.
My surgeon has told me that the MALS surgery should help my pain but may not help to correct all of my GI issues. Has anyone else gone through something similar who may be able to help me decide if it is worth even having this surgery?
Thank you so much!

Hi! I had Mals syndrome surgery in August. It was a unique surgery it was a severe celiac artery stenosis & underwent complex diaphragmatic crus resection intra-operative celiac stenting. It was last Aug and I'm still not driving. My family isn't understanding my daughter said I can't solve problems because " she can't figure out how to drive" obviously she doesn't get it. Have anyone else had a problem with family being critical of recovery time? I doing well considering I walk up to 10,000 steps usually 5 plus days a week. The not able to drive is "the" hardest thing for me now! How long is the recovery as far as driving is concerned? I am having pain under my left breast. My surgeon said it could be my colon causing the pain
I have bloating everyday I look like I'm pregnant. I look kind of normal looking in the morning. When I eat anything it starts up again. I can eat but get nauseas? Can you or anyone else help me out? I'm guessing it will be up to a year before I'm healed? I'm looking forward to
reading more experience's & learning!

I would get tested for SIBO.

@loveyourself
I have also had the MALS surgery and a celiac artery stent. I also recently had another stent placed.
You should feel much better by now. It is possible that the celiac artery is still not letting enough blood through- it could still be compressed- even with a stent. This happened to me.
My advice is to contact the vascular surgeon. They can check the artery with Doppler ultrasound.

Has anyone had Nutcracker syndrome after MALS surgery?

It’s very common to have more than one vascular compression. Facebook has a group called Mals Awareness that has info about the connection.

Thank you for responding.