Gastric Bypass Surgery Support Group

It's been a while since I've been able to be on here, but I've been curious about something for awhile. Since my surgery (I had gastric bypass on May 12th, 2010, and i've lost 75 lbs) I have a pain in my left side when I drive. It's very close to an incision site, but it feels somewhat like a "side-stitch". For quite a while, I only felt this pain while driving, and I assumed it was something about the way I was sitting. But in the past two weeks, I had a stomach virus with severe diarrhea (which resulted in some fantastic weight loss but also in me feeling horrible and weak). Since that time, I'm having the pain in my side frequently. It's especially bad if I lift something, like my toddler or a heavy laundry basket. It's also hurts while just walking around. Sometimes it's mild, with an occasional sharp pain.

I called my surgeon's office and talked with the nurse, who seemed unconcerned. She just said that I was still healing, and that my incisions may have been irritated by the stomach virus. I'm really just curious if anyone else has experienced anything like this, and if so, how quickly did it resolve. Any input would be appreciated!

read my post "SO much pain" and let me know if the pain seems like that... I'm having pain on my left side as well... came on very quickly, very suddenly and I've had it almost every day since, going on 4 weeks. My docs are looking at either a)ulcers b)kidney or c)hernia/internal bleeding. I do have horrible diarrhea, though, but am fairly sure it coincides with whatever's going on.

Yours might be different than min, because it doesn't matter what I do, if anything, the pain always comes. It's not affected by food or movement.

rara9021- I would check to see if it is a small hernia. I had one after picking up something too heavy to soon. It was near my incision.I hope this helps. Cappy

Thanks to you both for the input. I'll definitely keep researching all the possibilities. The pain has been much better in the past week. I did some research that said that the incision site on our side is the normal place for the camera and othe large equipment to go in, and that it just takes longer to heal internally, and that it's also more easily aggravated even after healing. I also read that as we lose, that area is "pulled" more as our skin pulls from weight loss. Not sure how much that applies. What I have noticed for sure is that it gets better until I have some sort of bowel upset, and then I have a recurrence. Not sure what that means, but I"ll be talking with my doctor about it.