Re: Andre`& Louie

[Guest guest]

>

> Hi Sandy,

No, in my case it has nothing to do with scar tissue but rather, it

has to do with the openings of the stomach emptying into the

intestine. I was told by my GI doc that we all have 2 openings that

allows the stomach to empty into the intestine. However, in my case,

I was only allowed 1 as the other opening is completely closed.

While this does not cause a blockage nor requires a surgical remedy,

it does contribute to my slow rate of emptying. This causes me to

sometimes have a backup, especially when I am having pancreatic

difficulty and, because of this I too have periods when I can't hold

down anything-including water. I seem to go through this vomiting

episode almost every month and it usually lasts anywhere from a

couple of days to as long as 2 weeks (I guess depending on the amount

of food ingested and the rate it is allowed to empty). I did have

surgery about 2 weeks after my Whipple back in January of '97,

however

they were only able to enlarge the 1st opening. I was told by my

surgeon at Mass General, Dr Warshaw that he was unable to complete

the correction (I was never told by him what the problem was

nor was I aware of this 2 vs 1 opening from the stomach to the

intestines). The reason for his inability to complete the job

was " due to the fact that he almost

lost me and had to get out as quickly as possible " ). At the time, I

was more concerned about his " losing me " and never did ask for

clarification as to what the 2nd surgery was all about. As a matter

of fact, I just found out about this particular situation earlier

this month

after I took an upper GI to find out why I was losing so much weight

and why I was throwing up so much and unable to keep anything down.

While he did say that it did not warrant my undergoing another

surgery since it was not a total blockage, it still represents one

more irritating inconvenience I now have to live with. However, this

doesn't mean that you

or Louie have the same problem as it seems that we

Whipple " survivors "

all have issues with being able to eat without pain and the ability

to keep what we ingest down as we tend to vomit pretty regularly. I

wish I were told that this would be a side effect of this last

surgery as I may have opted to forego it since vomiting is something

I really hate-almost as much as my pancreatic attacks that I seem to

get whenever I try to eat anything. I hope this helps you out a

bit. I suggest you check with your surgeon to see if you too have

this same situation.

Andre'