Pre-Op & Just After Post-Op

This is my first post, but I'm transferring my old journal to this one.. so here are the posts before I started here :) (START AT THE BOTTOM)



4-19-07
I've been banded for 3 days now!!!
Sunday the day before, me granny mom and Russell drove down to Anniston. We got there 2 hours before I needed to do my liquid enima meds (Magnesium Citrate), so we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought some 'Beyond'. LOL. Then we got some steakhouse food to go, I got french onion soup strained with nothing on top. It was awesome. Then I took the citrate and was nervous. I made them all leave and go to mom's hotel room. It kicked in, and I had 3 bowel movements, but nothing exciting or 'gushing', like I had thought it would be. Maybe because I had been on clear liquids for 2 days!
I invited Russell back over and we watched tv and went to sleep. Woke up bright and early (4:30am) and went to the hospital.
I went into the admissions and they made me clean my belly and answer questions.. Then they wheeled me to pre-op room where I met my nurses.. the anesthesiologist said I had 100% oxygen in my blood. Woohoo..that's hard for smokers. I asked the nurses 'So who is doing my catheter?' and the lady laughed and said “You don't need one for lap-band.. just gastric bypass”. I kept saying “I AM SO RELIEVED.. that's ALL I've been worried about, I'm ready to get this on the road now!”. They gave me something to make me woozy and wheeled me more.. and then I don't remember anything else.. I guess I went into surgery! I woke up in horrible horrible pain.. MUCH worse than I expected.
I kept saying 'I hurt! I hurt!' and then passing out, repeat. I don't know if they gave me something for the pain. Then I woke up in my room with family there. Russell fed me a couple ice chips and gave me chapstick and I faded out again. The Virginia Tech shooting happened right after my surgery so that was on TV the entire time. I slept most of the day.. around 10pm I was asking if I could go home (finally woke up and was conscious). They kept saying as soon as morning came and I did a barium swallow. I could leave. So every hour a nurse came in to take my vitals. I started my period after surgery, and I was too sore to move properly, so it was very hard to 'attend' to myself. Around 5am, a nurse came in with rags and a new gown, told me to clean up and get ready for my barium. I was excited to go home (I was so cramped and restless in that room). I was in a lot of pain but they gave me demerol every 4 hours. They FINALLY came to get me at 10am to do the swallow. They discharged me but the nurse didn't get around to me until about noon. I was going nuts, wanted a cigarette bad too by this point. Russell & mom kept going outside to smoke. Finally she said I could go, so she took my IV out, and I got dressed, she went to get a wheel chair, but took too long to come back so I just walked out.
The drive home was painful as hell too. Every bump, stop, start, etc. pulled on my stomach. Finally got home, watched tv and went to bed.
Haven't felt hungry yet, just wanting comfort food. Wednesday was better, pain was less. I ate half a jar of banana baby food, a fat-free pudding, a sugar-free popsicle, 1/4c of chicken broth with protein powder mixed in.. did a lot of moving around, think I over did it.
Thursday, paying for moving a lot on Wed. Tired and sore and feeling nauseated. Hiccups and burps are painful. I burp almost everytime I sip water. Sometimes I forget and take a big gulp of water and it hurts a lot. Doctor said he gave me the smallest band- 9.75cm and said I will likely have restriction before my first fill. I lost 6lbs from Sunday-Tuesday, 3lbs from Tuesday-Wednesday, and 2lbs from Wednesday-Thursday. Woohoo!!
The incisions themselves don't really hurt, they itch a little. A square of skin under my port incision is numb, I guess severed nerves. Have ghost itches that bother me a bit.
Today I've had a few bites of baby 1st foods butternut squash and corn, a fat-free chocolate pudding, water, a strawberry frozen cup (like a popsicle, but not sugar free), a couple sips of turkey gravy watered down. Like I said, not 'hungry', but I see a LOT of food on tv, and just go 'mmm I wanna eat that'. Not for sustenance, but just to eat it. Band is keeping me in check. I don't like that I forget occasionally and take too big a sip of water and it tightens my chest and hurts till it squishes through.
The surgery pain seems to be about gone now, no gas pains.. Just burps, hiccups, moving funny, things like that.. that pull my stomach.and the itch in one of my incisions!!
I'm so glad I'm banded!!!!!


4/12/07
I've done pretty good on my unofficial pre-op diet, and now official pre-op diet. Actually I did better on the unofficial. Regardless, on both of those I have not had a single regular coke!! I cut out Mt. Dew cold turkey. I have gotten sick a couple times from it, so I've become more of a coffee drinker.. and I don't like coffee, so normally I get a shot to get the headaches away and sip on it (no sugar in it!).Last weekend I had half a cup of OJ and a banana, and was throwing up all morning. I also had headaches, so I it's either caffein withdrawal or some reason they didn't sit well with me. Either way, now I can't eat either.. bah hum bug.I'm on a soup/sandwhich/salad diet. It seems vague to me, Subway can put anything on a bun and call it a sandwhich.. so I've tried to just think healthy. I did have some chinese yesterday (rice & chicken), and then fiance had a pizza for dinner and I took the very smallest slice on it and ate it. I don't even like pizza, but I was starving and nothing in the house looked filling without going overboard (Applesauce, string cheese, soups).Had my pre-op tests yesterday. Up at 4am, 3 hour drive down there to be there at 9am. Had to pay my $15,000 up front (woosh....... ) the tests went fine.. bloodwork, EKG, chest x-ray, medical history. Nothing notable until I got to my doctor. I have a high white blood cell count, and they said it means I was just sick, I'm sick, or I'm getting sick. I haven't been sick, I'm not sick, and I don't feel like I'm getting sick..they said if I get sick before Monday the anesthesia won't do the surgery. Eeeek. I can't take meds right now either, so no Zicam or anything I better not get sick!! Doctor was awesome as always, they gave me a breathing lung strengthener. The nurse told me how to do it, then I did it and I did perfect, so that's good.. she told me to keep doing it until the surgery, and as soon as I'm awake they'll have me doing it every hour to keep me from getting pnemonia. I'm feeling pretty good about my decision for lap-band. Then they told me I'll have a catheter! Now I panic a little. I don't want a catheter That's one of those things up in my list of 'things I don't want in my entire life', up there with skydiving and enimas.I'm trying to come to grips with it, I will be asleep when they put it in, so it won't hurt, but it will be humiliating and now I feel like I need to 'dress it up' down there. My mom just had a hysterectomy and said the catheter was not an eventful part of anything and stop worrying.Today I've had coffee, water, and I'm eating my lunch of ham&cheese sandwhich. Saturday I start clear liquid pre-op diet. Not looking forward to that.. I still haven't started any good exercising, I don't know if I can till I lose some weight. I have such bad back and joint pains.I have 'The Bean' and do crunches and stretches and things like that on it.The nurse gave me medicine for 'hunger headaches', that is suppose to keep me from feeling sick from not eating. She said it's also good for caffein headaches, so I'm waiting for that Rx to be filled (today hopefully) and then I can stop drinking this coffee. Coffee makes my breath so disgusting afterward.. ick.My coworkers are anxious with me (maybe because they're going to have to cover me while I'm gone haha) and one of them is a friend of mine and she's very supportive about it. She's a tiny size 0 or 1, and very fashionable so I look at what she wears a lot and go "I can't wait to buy clothes like that".The doctor called this morning and said they want to put me on an antibiotic because of my white blood cells as a precaution, they don't want infection in my body when I go in there. I have to clean with anti-bacterial soap for my 'last shower' before surgery. I have hibiclens anyway I use sometimes, so got that covered.On my drive home, southern Alabama was having tornados.. which is where I was, but I don't know the area, so I didn't know what cities/counties I was going through.. I kept listening to the radio saying 'Tornado warning in blah blah and blah blah, crossing I-65' and I was on I-65, so I figured if I saw cars pulling off, I would too Then, out of nowhere, rain was SO bad all 3 lanes came to a stop, everyone put on their emergency lights and you couldn't see the road. I was panicking, so I rolled down my window (in this flooding rain-got soaking wet) to put my head out to try to see the road.. didn't want to go off a bridge or hit someone. That was scary, luckily everyone did finally come to a complete stop to 'wait it out' I guess, so I got to stop and just wait. It did not last long at all, but that was the scariest 3 minutes I've had in a long time. My hands were shaking.. I probably won't post again until after the surgery. I'm not good with journals really.. I always like them in theory, but I don't like to sit and write about myself.. for myself.




3/29/07
Ok, after my first doctor consult in Huntsville at the beginning of March, I felt uncomfortable with them. They had me come in and pay $250 fee to answer my medical history questions, which were already on the form I turned in. It took less than 10 minutes, and I never even met the doctor. It seemed cold, and I thought.. they don't care about ME they care about my $$.And it may seem like an excuse for my 2nd reason, but it wasn't. I was really bothered how they went about charging me $250 for something they could have done on the phone- and then didn't even introduce me to the doctor.Reason #2, I am a smoker and they require 8 weeks no smoking with urine test. If you fail the urine test, day before operation, they will not operate and you forfeit your money. I can't guarantee I won't cheat in 8 weeks and not light up, and not have a stop smoking aid with nicotine.. eek. I'm ready for a lifestyle change in my eating habits. I don't think I can handle both right now.So I found Dr. Freeman in Anniston, AL, who does not require you to stop smoking. It's a 2.5 hour drive from here (bummer), but I need this surgery before I kill myself, and I know my limits. Today was my first day at their office.I went in for a group meeting and explination of roux-en-y gastric bypass, and lap-banding. He performs both, and prefers gastric bypass. He was SO friendly. He came in to our group, and he had somehow memorized all of our names, PLUS the people we came with, he welcomed us all individually with no charts in front of him or anything. I can't say enough about how nice he is, and caring. He prayed with us, and his staff is very nice too.I felt so comfortable, and knew he cared about me, not just how quick he can get into my bank account. I am self pay. My insurance does not cover Lap Band. So after hours in the meeting and getting every question answered that I had, we had an ultra-sound to check our liver size and for gallstones. Then a heart/lung test.. and a psychological evaluation. It took all day (I did not expect that), and after our 2.5 hour drive we got home around 7:45. We had started at 8am.But, I am now scheduled for lap banding!!!!!! April 16th won't come quick enough. On the other side of that, my liver is 9.4cm, and 10cm+ is high risk for having to do open surgery instead of laproscopic. So I am having to cut out salt and sugar to shrink it down. I am starting that tomorrow. Also, he only requires a diet 1 week out from the surgery of soup,salad, and sandwhiches. And then 3 days prior something else (I'll update later, the paperwork is not in front of me), and then day before magnesium citrate which I hear is DELICIOUS (not!).On April 11th I have my pre-op consultation where they do bloodwork, I meet with the surgeon again who is awesome, and then pay everything up front. I will try to keep this updated as often as I can, I have learned and valued other lap bander's journals so much in my research and decision to have it done myself, I'd like to be able to do my part in helping someone else I am EXTREMELY tired after today, and going to go crash now. Tomorrow starts no sugar and salt!