Gall Bladder Removed, Leaking Bile Ducts

Rhezekim

I am a 52 yr old male. I had my surgery Sep 4, 2009 at the VA hospital. I suffer from Ankylosing Spondylitis so I am pretty hunched over, so my surgery took four hours. Also back in 1985 I had surgery to remove 1/3 of my stomach and my small intestine hooked up to stomach (Bell Roth surgery) due to ulcers. I am telling you this so you know why I had to have my gall bladder removed the old fashioned way. When I woke up I had a Jackson Pratt (JP) tube coming out of my stomach. Then a week later they put a tube down my right rib, through m liver, and into my small intestine. This tube was to help drain additional bile. I went home in three weeks and was back in the hospital a week later with a bowel obstruction. During a CT Scan they found a blood clot in my right lung. My JP tube came out on it's own (very scarry) after two months. It's healing well but I still have the tube in my right rib. On Oct 20 they injected dye into my tube and said I still had a leak. I have my next dye test this Friday, Nov 20. I am hoping and praying that the bile duct quit leaking. I am getting much better, I am starting to eat some regular food but I stick to a non fat low fat diet as much as I can. I lost 30 pounds due to this surgery. The blood clot is still a concern but I am currently on Cumadin and taking a shot once a day in the stomach because my INR keeps going down, today it went from 1.3 to 1.2 and they said even though it's bad for my blood clot it shows my body is healing and my Albumin level is where it needs to be. I am just hoping and praying that this tube can come out. I was told people can have tubes in after surgery for up to six months. I have been though a lot but I am getting better each day. I am posting this so that if there are others out there like me, I want you to know you are not alone, or maybe you can share your experiencee and let me know I am not alone.