eswack Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Hello, I posted this question a few days ago in under the doctors/questions section, but only got a few responses so I thought I would try again here. The whites of both my eyes have turned a very distinct shade of yellow and now my face is also yellow, has anyone had this happen to them? Could it possibly be from a vitamin deficiency? I am 10 days post surgery and am now on yogurt drinks and clear fluids and feel fine except for the occassional shoulder (gas) pains and some tenderness in my stomach. I have attempted to contact my regular doctor and am still waiting for a call back (2 days now) and just hoped someone might have had this happen to them before. ~ Emily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eswack Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 You should try to contact your surgery doctor ASAP...as this isnt normal - out of all the boards/forums Ive been on you are the only one I have seen with this problem. Please contact the doctor - and dont wait for a call back...if u cant get ahold of one person call another - this could be something really serious and irreversable if u wait I did contact OCC and they just said to contact my local doctor. He suggested running some blood tests and indicated I might have jaundice, but did not say why I would have this or what the impact would be. I am pretty frustrated with my local doctors I have two different health insurance plans and one I have contacted 3 times and still no call back, the other did get me in yesterday but the doctor basically frowned on the fact that I had my surgery in Mexico and then sent me to the lab for blood tests, but I found out this morning she is out of the office for a few days so I will probably not hear back on my results or what they mean for awhile. I would think if this was possibly something serious I would get a better response from these doctors, so I am crossing my fingers that it turns out to be nothing. Thanks for the suggestions, I too did a search to see if anyone else had this symptom but could not find anyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mona-camille Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 As I posted previous, you need to get somewhere. Yellowing is a liver problem and should have nothing to do with the lap band as far as I know. If your doctors are not returning your calls, then why don't you call or go to the emergency room? Is your urine a funny color at all? Like orange or brown? Please call the emergency room and tell them what is going on and ask what you should do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eswack Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 As I posted previous, you need to get somewhere. Yellowing is a liver problem and should have nothing to do with the lap band as far as I know. If your doctors are not returning your calls, then why don't you call or go to the emergency room? Is your urine a funny color at all? Like orange or brown? Please call the emergency room and tell them what is going on and ask what you should do. I did call the doctor again just a little while ago and got them to give me the lab results, turns out my lab work is fine, but they said the doctor left a message after I left the clinic requesting I go in for an ultrasound as she feels that during the exam my spleen felt enlarged so I will go in for that tomorrow. My urine is orangy/brown, I will mention that to them, they never asked and I didn't think to mention it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mona-camille Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 I did call the doctor again just a little while ago and got them to give me the lab results, turns out my lab work is fine, but they said the doctor left a message after I left the clinic requesting I go in for an ultrasound as she feels that during the exam my spleen felt enlarged so I will go in for that tomorrow. My urine is orangy/brown, I will mention that to them, they never asked and I didn't think to mention it... I don't pretend to be a doctor, but I am thinking that is liver related with jaundice and brown orangy urine. Once you get the ultrasound, that should tell you more. Hopefully, they did ALL the liver values when they did your blood workup. If those came back fine, then I don't know. Please let us know how the ultrasound goes, and good luck to you!!!! I'll be thinking about you and worrying to! I do that a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michelleintj Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Hello,I posted this question a few days ago in under the doctors/questions section, but only got a few responses so I thought I would try again here. The whites of both my eyes have turned a very distinct shade of yellow and now my face is also yellow, has anyone had this happen to them? Could it possibly be from a vitamin deficiency? I am 10 days post surgery and am now on yogurt drinks and clear fluids and feel fine except for the occassional shoulder (gas) pains and some tenderness in my stomach. I have attempted to contact my regular doctor and am still waiting for a call back (2 days now) and just hoped someone might have had this happen to them before. ~ Emily I had maybe a total of two days that I looked yellow in the face, and lil week, but didn't notice my eyes...But it seemed to happen when i finished doing a moderate activity like at work and i didn't have time to get soup or somthing in my tummy...but it went away! Hope you feel better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CindyLou Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 I did a search and the only thing I could find regarding lap band and jaundice was the following, "Complications of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding occur in 10 - 20% of patients. However, hepatobiliary complications of this procedure are very rare. We report a unique case of gastric band misplacement around the hepato-duodenal ligament. The patient developed obstructive jaundice several months after the gastric band placement and suffered recurrent episodes of obstructive jaundice and cholangitis that were initially erroneously attributed to fatty infiltration of the liver. Further diagnostic work-up demonstrated the presence of the gastric band in the hepatic hilum. Exploratory laparotomy confirmed the diagnosis, and the band was removed. Jaundice reversed and hepatic function was restored following removal of the occluding band." I would call the OCC and mention this as a possibility and ask them what to do. It may be nothing but it could be soemthing like this. I hope you feel better. Cindy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLGIRL Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Hi. You may have a condition that isn't directly related to the lap band, but the stress of surgery has caused it to "blossom". It sounded like you had jaundice which is high levels of bilirubin in your system. The liver enzymes being normal points to a non-liver cause. The spleen enlargement may also be a clue that this is a hematologic (blood disorder). None of this is meant to scare you, but you need to get some answers about what is happening. I agree with the canadian, you may need to be seen in the ER to get proper attention. Do not postpone this. Please re-post to let us know how you are doing. Thoughts and prayers. Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clynn Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Emergency rooms can be expensive and depending on where you live, could be a little scary as well. If you have insurance, is there a walk-in clinic or urgent care in your area you could go to? Can't speak for your insurance but mine treats it as a doctor's visit and just charges office visit copay of $25, as opposed to emergency room copay of $100. I've had good experience with those types of facilities. Today my gyno flipped me some "don't give a damn" attitude but a clinic bent over backwards to get me the help I needed. You just need to keep at it until you get some answers. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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