Intestinal blockage

I had a pretty normal day last Sunday.  I took my weekly 7-mile hike, did some gardening, visited with my mother-in-law in her skilled nursing home, then had leftovers for dinner.  And then, things got rough.  The cramping was mild only for the first hour or so, and then it turned nasty.  After watching me writhe in bed for seven hours, my dear wife wisely overruled my objections and called 911.  The "contractions" came in about two-minute cycles and were unrelenting.

The ambulance took me to the emergency room.  One the way I vomited (with enough warning so as not to mess the truck) and got a shot of morphine.  The e-room doc sent me for a CT scan, which showed bowel blockage significant enough to warrant surgery.

The same doc who did my RNY 3 1/2 years ago performed the procedure, using a laproscope, which took a couple of hours.  I have two new scars on my abdomen (he used my belly button for the third entry spot) to go with the five older ones from the RNY.  But I don't care too much about that.

I'm home again less than 48 hours after the onset of the incident, but unlike most of life's lessons, I can't say I learned a thing from this.  I ate no unusual food or portion, did no unusual activity, and have no idea why this happened.  At first, it occurred to me that the blockage was at the site of my RNY, but the doc told me after the procedure that he found only minimal scar tissue at the juncture he created when he did my bypass, but a significant amount of scar tissue at the site of my former appendix.  (I had an emergency appendectomy more than 20 years ago.)

So, there's no advice I can pass along to other candidates for stricture issues other than: don't put yourself through seven hours of agony before you involve the folks with the sirens.

If there's a bright spot here, other than emerging alive, it's that the recovery time and associated pain from the procedure seem much less.  I was discharged from the hospital less than 24 hours after being admitted, and although I am admittedly sore from the experience, it's not nearly as bad as the aftermath of the bypass.

I'm glad you were able to get treatment in time. Blockages are dangerous.

I went through a similar situation a few months ago except I didn't need surgery thankfully.  I've had abdominal surgery 10 times so I am sure my insides are a mess.  I have learned to recognize the signs and get things moving immediately before I get clogged up again.  I am glad you are home and hope you are feeling better.

Been there done that... twice.  The first one was twisted around an adhesion from my hysterectomy years before.  I had waited too long ( two weeks of on and off cramping) and the bowel had died and turned black.  It burst just as the surgeon got it out.  The second time, I knew what was happening and got to the hospital quickly.  I was in and out of the hospital in 2 days.  

Severe abdominal pain is NOT normal and should be taken seriously.

What are the symptoms we should be looking for with this??  I just want to be prepared.  This seems somewhat common after RNY.

Don't know how common it is, considering the number of RNYs that are performed. 

My symptoms were, at the onset, a dull aching pain in my abdomen.  That was not unlike a hundred issues like it before that turned into nothing but a little gas and/or diarrhea.  But as this progressed, the dull pain turned into sharp cramps, that repeated with a frequency of about every two minutes.  There would be a minute or two of relief, then the cramping would return.  Most likely the timing of the cramping was the normal digestive action of my intestines as they tried to squeeze the food on down the track.

But the food mass apparently didn't want to budge.  The frequency of the cramps increased, the time delay of the intervals between them decreased, until after a couple of hours there was no relent.  It was constant pain, that got worse as time went by.

I tried unsuccessfully to vomit at about one hour intervals at the outset.  Nothing.  After about three hours, my attempts produced about a tablespoonful of product, which still had recognizable vestiges of my earlier dinner.  An hour later, I got about the same quantity of about the same stuff.  Obviously, my pouch was empty.

After the ambulance arrived, they gave me shot of morphine and I walked (with assistance) down the stairs until I got in their gurney.  Enroute to the hospital, I vomited big time, and involuntarily.  Luckily, I had enough advance warning that the EMTs had time to give me a receptacle.  This one produced about half a liter of foul bile-like liquid, which must have come up from down in my bowels on its way to freedom.

I don't know if you can be prepared for this sort of thing.  It's a fine line between being so concerned that every little gas pain sends you to the ER, and ignoring the serious stuff.  I guess in retrospect I ignored this one a little too long.  I hope I don't get much more practice recognizing these events.

Good luck.

Back in Sept 2013 on a Saturday afternoon I started getting bad stomach pains that would run from the front and

go around to my back. By 10pm my pain was unbearable. My wife took me to the emerency room. They gave me morhineand delauded which didn't even touch the pain. They did

a CT scan and then called in a surgeon immediately. The surgeon found that my bowel had wrapped around the rny and was strangulated it. He stiched the bowel away from

the RNY. He told my wife that if we had waited another 2 hours I would not have made. After a week in the hospital recovering I was sent home and have had no problems since. The surgeon said he does not know why the bariatric surgeon did not do this at the time of the RNY, he said I was the 3rd case in had done.

Jim

I had a bowel obstruction about a year ago.  I had horrific abdominal pain and severe bloating above & below my belly button.  No vomiting but I felt like I could.  I went to ER after several hours waiting at home.  I was hospitalized for a few days.  I knew the surgeon personally and asked him to delay surgery while other non-invasive measures were tried.  The obstruction did dissapate without surgery.  I am still fearful of it happening again because I have alot of scar tissue from 3 open belly surgeries previous to my RNY.

I try to keep my bowels moving daily (through stool softeners, eating raw veggies & fruit daily, drinking 100 ounces of liquid daily, exercising, etc.)  If I begin to have pain - I take a prescription (Bentyl) to relax intestines, I get up and walk and if necessary I take something for pain.  If I don't have a BM daily - I take Miralax. So far this has worked - but if it doesn't I will get myself to the ER.

Sorry you had this experience.  Penny

Keeping your bowels moving and soft is key.  I think WLS patients have a higher incidence of bowel obstructions because when we lose a lot of weight quickly, so we have more room for the intestines to twist and turn.

My symptoms started out feeling kind of like menstrual cramping but higher in my belly.  It came in waves and then it quickly turned into labor pain type cramping.  It is REALLY painful.  

Is there anything you can do to prevent this from happening? I am so terrified of this happening to me once I get my surgery. What would be some signs I could look for that will definitely let me know its something serious? I'm the type of person that will call the doctor over everything lol and I don't want to be calling over every little ache and pain once I have this surgery. & do you know what the chances of it happening more than once? Is it easy to fix?