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Originally Posted by bridgetgirl
............. Another member Phil, statrted going to OA and modifying his eating behaviors NOW, he recognized the problem and addressed it immediately, he would be a great guy to turn to about it, he's an inspiration................
Someone posted about a "drain" they have. Is this part of the operation like on a temporary basis? The purpose? Soometimes they put in a JP drain, this is not often but it does happen, usually when there a juices in the OLD stomach and that stuff has tobe drained out.... the JP tube goes into the old stomach not your new pouch..............
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Bridget, you're making me
BLUSH!!! Thanks!
As was made abundantly clear during our preop support group sessions in Dr. Callery's practice,
the surgery gives you a valuable tool to use in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. By having a stomach too small to stuff with plates and plates full of food, you've got built-in portion control. It is great up to a point - but if you don't address the reasons for overeating, you run the risk of finding ways to defeat the surgery - by 'grazing' all day long on high-calorie, high-fat, unhealthy foods. So find a program that you like that will help you learn what it is that's going on in your head (therapist or Overeaters Anonymous or Recovery, Inc., whatever) so you can learn to deal with these issues.
As for drains - I had a Jackson-Pratt (JP) drain installed at the end of my surgery due to some complications they had in extricating the surgical instruments. The drain is a thin plastic tube that comes out of your chest and drains off fluids around the places that were stapled and sutured. It empties into a plastic bulb that you pin to your underwear and empty daily. The purpose of it is to make sure that there are not any leaks in the digestive tract - we're warned to look for signs of fluid that looks like the color of something we drank, or for signs of it looking like saliva, which indicate a problem. I had my drain in for about 10 days after the surgery. It was uncomfortable, and the incision where it came out of my chest got infected, which caused the only significant pain of the whole experience.
There's another device that's sometimes used - a gastrostomy tube. Here's what it says on Dr. Callery's website about this:
A gastrostomy tube is inserted through the left upper abdominal wall into the lower stomach in about 10% of patients. The tube is a safety device that allows stomach juices to escape if the juices can't drain easily into the small intestine. Most patients don't need the tube, and the decision to place the tube is made at the time of surgery based on how loose or tight the tissues are where the small bowel is attached to the Roux limb. The gastrostomy can cause complications, and it is inconvenient and uncomfortable, so we do not use it routinely. If a gastrostomy tube is inserted, it can easily be removed in the office 2 weeks or so after surgery. Click here for full info.
Feel free to post more questions, or email any of us for more info. We're here for you!
Phil