I've got an ulcer (they don't think it is CAUSED by my WLS, though)

[Guest guest]

I've kind of been out of touch from the computer for a few days.

And here's why:

Sunday morning, I fainted. I was sitting on the edge of my bed and

fell forward and hit my face on the TV tray (I keep next to the bed)

and cut my lip and bruised my forehead and knocked my glasses out of

adjustment (not breaking them, though). My husband was right there

when I fell, and he tells me I was only out for less than a minute;

he didn't even have time to call 9-1-1. (But this really scared the

sh**t out of him!)

After recovering, I went downstairs and ate a little food (protein

drink), thinking it might be low blood sugar, but I still stayed so

weak that I ended up going to the emergency room. They found I had

a low blood count and I had been passing blood in my stool. (I

didn't take it seriously when I saw I had a BM with black stool on

Saturday, I thought it was just a reaction to some very spicy food I

had eaten earlier in the week.)

They admitted me to the hospital, and because of the low blood count

they gave me 2 units of blood Sunday night. Monday afternoon they

did an upper endoscope and found I have an " acute duodenal ulcer

bleed " . I was given two types of medicine (Prilosec & Carafate) to

help heal and avoid future ulcer problems. I stayed in the hospital

one more night (on that darn hard hospital bed with an IV needle

sticking in my arm, it was hard to get comfortable enough to sleep

through the night).

The gastroenterologist told me that the ulcer is located just past

my pouch in my small intestine. (He assured me that he's done lots

of these endoscopes to gastric bypass patients.) He suspects that

there might be some bacteria there that caused the ulcer, he took a

biopsy sample, but I won't have the result of that for a week. He

didn't think it was caused by stress or spicy foods, though.

I got to go home this morning (Tuesday), the doctor actually said I

could go back to work tomorrow, but I think I need to be sure, so

the doctor gave me a release from work for tomorrow too, and if I

feel good enough, I expect to return to work on Thursday.

Now that I'm home with the discharge instructions (you know what I

need to do for myself now that I'm out of the hospital) I got to

figure out a schedule for the medicines (that I need to take on an

empty stomach) and my meals & vitamins. It's much more restrictive

than before, and because I don't want to mess up on these meds (I

really do NOT want this ulcer), well, it really keeps me on my

eating plan. NO eating between meals on this plan! That's a good

thing, I guess (LOL). Also, because they only fed me clear liquids,

I might have lost a few pounds this week. Another good thing!

Tomorrow I want to try to get back on my exercise schedule. I hope

my husband feels comfortable enough for me to go back to the gym

tomorrow, he's a little protective of me. As I said before, seeing

me faint really scared him! After all, he thought this WLS surgery

I had almost 14 months ago was really going to improve my health,

and it did, overall, but neither of us expected me to develop an

ulcer, and a bleeding one, at that!

I need to go back to my PCP (primary care physician) next Tuesday

for further follow-up, and to find out the results of the biopsy.

I know this " note " is a little long, but hey, I do tend to tell lots

of detail (make that ramble).

Oh, yeah, tomorrow I really need to get my glasses re-adjusted. I

did kind of smash them a little, and they're really out of

adjustment. I've been using my old glasses, but they're not quite

as good a prescription as the ones I smashed.

--Sandi H. (Citrus Heights)

Surgery by Dr. Leo (San Diego)

weighed 315 at orientation (May '03) -- BMI 60

252 at surgery (06/03/04) --BMI 46.1

last weighed at 177.5 (07/16/05) --BMI 33.1

(I've lost a total of 137.5 pounds!!!! 74.5 pounds since surgery.)

I'm 5'1 " tall.