- Name: Carla Bunde
- Age: 53
- Surgery: Lap Band Revision To Sleeve
- Surgery date: July 7th, 2017
- Testimonial date: July 19th, 2017
- Surgeon: Dr. Galileo Villarreal
For the rest of the day I was in pain and extremely worried. Things did NOT feel right.
When Karen, the patient coordinator came to visit me that evening, I was scared that I may have leakage and I told her of my fears. I said, Well, its a good thing I have another barium leak test tomorrow!
Her response was that no I was not going to have another barium leak test. I found this to be extremely scary as one of the potential side effects from the procedure is death due to leakage.
She said: Carla, look at this food here that we are feeding you? (I was not able to eat anything at that point) I gave her a quizzical look, she said "notice that the apple juice is yellow, the jello is orange and the tea is brown? If you were leaking these colors would be coming out your drainage tube." I told her I would keep an eye on it and began trying to force down some apple juice and hot tea.
A few hours later I noticed my drainage tube was entirely yellow, the same color as the apple juice and I got very scared and demanded attention.
I was ridiculed to some extent by the nursing staff because as I later found out, those colors are all normal in a drainage tube. So... my only conclusion was that I was misled in an attempt to calm me down.
The symptoms of leakage are increased heart rate and fever.
As I made a fuss over it I sincerely hope she does not try that line on any other patient.
As I stated before, except for that very scary time I actually enjoyed my procedure. It was a peaceful break for me, the nursing staff gave top notch care, the hospital room was very nice and I enjoyed speaking Spanish and leaving English behind. Everyone was very friendly and if I had to make the decision again I would do it again, but educate myself just a little more on the symptoms of leakage.
I am now 11 days post op and since beginning the preop diet have lost 17 pounds. I am quickly healing and very happy I had it done.
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