Hello to All! I am new to this forum. I had surgery on Oct 24, 2018 and had a very serious complication. It was done at an accredited weight loss clinic in Toronto. The surgery itself went well but approximately 4 to 5 hrs after recovery, the nurse noticed my blood pressure was a bit low. She notified the surgeon who came back to the clinic and made the decision to transfer me to ER. To be honest, at this point I felt fine and had initially been told that the surgery went well. A couple of hours after I arrived at ER, my abdomen started to feel a bit sore. Then, I started taking shallow painful breathes. I was coherent and cooperative the whole time until the end when the pain worsened and breathing on my back became agonizingly painful (side was much better but they kept making me lay on my back to examine my stomach). My situation started to worsen and I recall them saying my blood pressure was 84/44. My husband said they called a code blue in the hospital and there was a swarm of about 5 surgeons who were working on me (I was very much coherent but had difficulty opening my eyes yet I could hear and process most of the information). Btw I am a midwife and know alot about hemorrhage all too well. In a morbid sense the whole situation was quite interesting lol! They pushed through 3 bags of blood then immediately rushed me into surgery. After more than 2 hrs they repaired a small bleeding artery along the sleeve suture line and drained 5 L of blood and blood clots from my abdomen cavity. I received an additional 2 more bags of blood while in surgery. By all account, the surgeons saved my life. The surgeon told my husband that I had 80% of my blood volume in my abdomen. I should have died based on what I have read and know about hemorrhage.
About 5 hrs after surgery, they tested my blood again and said that my hemoglobin had dropped 25 points in the last 5 hrs so I was still bleeding! Once again, I felt fine and had been visiting with family. I received another 2 bags of blood and was informed that I would have to undergo a second exploratory surgery if my hemo dropped again. Thankfully it didn't dropped!!
This whole experience 11 days ago has left me feeling lucky to be alive. I don't take things for granted. I am 45 years old and a mother of 5 children (6 - 21 years old). My only regret if I had passed would have been leaving my beloved babies so soon. However, I know they would have been well cared for by my husband and parents.
The odd thing is...I can't figure out why I had this complication? I am fairly young (45), healthy with no medical conditions at all and a BMI of 31.6 approximately (5'4" and 182 lbs). I didn't have to do the optishake because of my relatively low BMI. I chose to have this surgery because I am a binge eater. I eat reasonably during the day then binge around 1 am consuming around 2500 calories in 1 hour. I do this most nights. I have tried therapy and even Vyvanse prior to the surgery. Nothing worked. I am not bulimic and by most people's opinions have an extremely fast metabolism consuming a daily average of 4000 cal/day for much of my life. I am very active in a busy hyperactive way (I have ADHD) but not a gym way lol!
Has anyone almost bled together during surgery or had a serious complication? Thanks for listening. Just trying to process what happened.
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