One Week Post Tube Removal

I have my one week follow up with Dr. Rasmussen to make sure the tube incision is healing properly and the granulomas are no longer an issue. I was hoping this appointment would be nice and short but it turned into a nice and long appointment. 2 hours long...but I can't really complain since I love that Dr. R is so willing to spend so much listening to me and addresses all my worries. 

My weight is 128.6 so I have not lost any weight in a week! Yippee!!

The tube incision is healing up and the granulomas are no longer an issue. My abdomen has a nice bulge/fold in it and I also have the appearance of a second belly button from the tube. Dr. R says to try and massage the area to loosen it up or in 3-6 months they can go back in and surgically release everything on the inside to make my abdomen look better. It’s looking a little Franken-stein-ish right now. My abdomen appearance definitely tells a story at this point!

The pain in my left side is not gone and the pain in my right side is back. The left sided pain we were all hoping was related to the tube is not related to the tube. Dr. R is really baffled by this at this point. But that seems to be the common story these days. He also feels that it still may be related to the muscles and the abdominal wall since physical activity makes the pain worse. He thinks that doing some physical therapy may be helpful at this point. He orders electrode stimulation, ultrasound, and TENs therapy.

We also talked about the idea of abdominal migraines. He said if physical therapy doesn't work we may want to try treating the pain as if I were having a migraine by taking the medication Imitrex. He says they can’t really explain why this happens but it is possible. However, he says my symptoms don’t match up very well so we aren't moving in this direction yet.

We also talk about labs and decide to finally put me on a yearly schedule. I am to have all the post-op bariatric labs done. This includes the following: CBC, CMP, Vitamin B-12, Thiamine, Vitamin D, PTH, HgbA1C, Iron, Iron binding capacity, Iron Saturation, Ferritin, Lipid Profile, and Folate. I will also have these done yearly from here on out.

Game plan for the next few weeks:

1.       Don’t lose any weight

2.       Start physical therapy

3.       Get labs done

I see Dr. Frech next week. I haven’t seen him since my colonoscopy/EGD. We shall see what he would like to do. My next appointment with Dr. Rasmussen will be in 6 weeks to give some time for the physical therapy to work.