Dr. Sherman Smith

I ventured out in the massive snow storm today to meet with Dr. Sherman Smith. The one day I have plans, it decides to dump 10" of snow in 4 hours. Just my luck!

Dr. Smith is a very nice Dr. and I was very impressed with his knowledge and assertiveness with my case. Dr. Rasmussen had called him ahead of time which helped a lot!

Let's just say from the beginning that there are not a lot of options at this point. I would have more options if I had some stomach left, but since most of mine was removed nothing can be reversed. I may just have to live with the reflux and the gastroparesis for now. I may just be one of the unlucky ones with this. But the pain issue should and could be resolved with surgery (he believes).

The plan right now is to gain at least 15-20 pounds. Whether I do that on my own or by TPN (basically vein tube feeding) or nasal feeding tube it needs to happen first. Once the weight has been put back on, I will be cleared to have surgery. He says that at this point, I would have a very hard time withstanding another surgery. This next surgery will be an exploratory surgery to release adhesions/scar tissue and should happen in 1-2 months. The bowel will also need to be run by hand to make sure there is no deformity or obstruction in them. The small intestine will also need to be released from the abdominal wall as to not cause any future problems.

However, the most important pending issue is with the liver. Dr. Smith says the only things that cause this type of edema in the liver include blood clot, infection of the ducts, or beginnings of liver failure. This is the part that scares me! He said that I absolutely need to follow up with this and at least have a CT angiography done to rule out blood clot in the liver (now if I could get Dr. Frech to call me back about this). He also said that he absolutely recommends to not take out any more stomach. This will only cause more problems and this should be a last ditch effort to save my life basically.

I was so appreciative with how he just took charge and said this is what I will recommend to Dr. Rasmussen. He wants me to get back in to see Dr. Rasmussen in the next week or so. He will call him and let him know his recommendations.

I do feel a lit bit better about things after today. The liver stuff scares me, but there is no point in worrying until I know for sure I have something to worry about. I can handle surgery and I trust Dr. Rasmussen to handle this part. Should have another update in a week or so and will continue working on gaining some weight!