Woo Hoo!!!

Happy Anniversary to me!

Wow – when you’re a pre-op all you can think about is how stinking eternal the wait is for surgery.

 

Now – on the 7 year post-op side, all I can think is that the time since has gone in a heartbeat.

 

If you’d like to read my musings on my anniversary, you can see them here:

 

http://knownbyname.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/%e2%80%a6and-7-years-ago%e2%80%a6/

 

Blessings,

 

dina

If you're looking for updates, let me send you to my Blogger address:

www.livingthedslife.blogspot.com

If you aren't following stuff, I had a revision recently, and you can learn more about it at my blog above.

Blessings,

dina

I was horribly anemic before my DS.  I know my numbers were always marginally low due to extremely heavy menstrual bleeding for – well – decades!  But they went way south when William was born via emergency c-section – his head was so stuck in my pelvis they had a hard time getting the kid out, and I lost 9 units of blood in the process.  For over 5 years before my DS I was *always* battling anemia.  Tried all sorts of iron supplements, but my doctors didn’t feel like anything horrible was happening because of my anemia.  So I accepted it for what my normal would be.

Had my DS.  Started taking different iron, and lo and behold – my iron numbers finally came up in the normal ranges – and stayed that way for over 5 years!

The past year or so my H & H were kinda wacky, so when I went in for my hip replacement in August my surgeon felt strongly that I needed a 10-day course of Procrit injections to get me ready for my surgery.  He went majorly to bat with my insurance company – finally talking them into covering the injections.  (Which is good, because even with great insurance coverage, our co-pay was still over $500!)  So – had the injections.

The day of my hip replacement surgery I remember waking up in recovery and seeing a bag of blood hung and being given to me.  I asked the nurse about it and she told me that they’d harvested my own blood and were giving it back to me.  (I’d been told beforehand that hip replacement is a very bloody surgery.)

So, I go on with recovery – nicely, I might add.  Did notice some kind of different things going on over the past few months – some insomnia, some itchy skin, some little owies that took AGES to heal, and then this big need to consume sour stuff (was keeping Smartees in business!).  Went in for my labs at the end of December and the next business day I got a call and letter – both – from my PCP notifying me that my ferritin level was 10!  Good grief!  It had been fine in August!

So, it was determined that I needed to see a hematologist and pursue iron infusions.  Saw the hematologist on Monday of this week.  His opinion was that the Procrit injections, combined with the hip replacement is what finally did my ferritin levels in.  They scheduled me for an iron infusion – had it on Thursday, actually.

Had iron dextrose given – which can sometimes cause an allergic response, and being that I’m the queen of the allergic response, they proceeded cautiously.  I was given 50 mg of Benadryl via IV and then given a test dose of the iron.  No reaction – woo hoo!  So, I got cozy in my comfy recliner, and slept through the 4 hour infusion!

I'm pretty amazed at the changes that I've noticed since the infusion:

I've slept through the night both nights - I've not slept through the night in over a year - before the hip replacement it was from hip pain, since then, from anemia!

I haven't had a single sour candy - don't want them, don't care about them.  Amazing!

I'm not as cold.  It was taking four quilts and a heating pad on my side of the bed with me wearing flannel PJ's and 45 minutes to get me warm enough to fall asleep.  I love that I'm warmer!

I feel more satisfied with what I've eaten...  I don't know if that's the right way to say it - but it seems that I'm not as hungry or something.

Just a few things.  So far - only positives from the experience.  I'm so thankful for a proactive PCP, a really educated hematologist, and the wonderful care I received during my infusion!

Blessings,

dina

Okay - not since the last post, but since I had my right hip replacement.  I am AMAZED at my recovery thus far.  I can't believe that it's only been that long!

I went for my *almost* two week post-op appointment last Wednesday, the surgeon took one look at me and said, "You look more like a 4 week post-op, not an almost two week post-op!  Amazing!"  and then he immediately upgraded me to a cane from my walker.  Cool!

So - interestingly enough, while I was still in the hospital, one of the pharmacists at the hospital came to talk vitamins with me (ha!) and try to understand all that I take and why...  We got into a talk about how smoothly my surgery and recovery had gone thus far.  He said the first thing, of course, was having a fabulous surgeon, and the other he felt was diet.  He asked if I'd had any diet changes of late.  I said no, not much - well, except I'd given up High Fructose Corn Syrup May 29th and that I hadn't had any sodas since then.  HIs eyebrows raised and he said, "Interesting!  I was just reading about how folks who abstained from carbonated beverages healed up faster!  I wonder if you'll be my first in real life confirmation of the theorum?!"  VERY interesting, huh?!

So - I'm walker free.  Have the cutest cane - it's white with little blue flowers all over it.  (The little old ladies at the memory care facility where my Mom lives want it!)  Not only am I getting proficient with the cane, but I can actually walk a little bit without it.  AMAZING!  I'm still getting used to the fact that my right leg is now 5 mm longer than the left - a little wild how that feels.  But, it seems to all be easing into place, and I'm feeling more and more "normal."  Hooray!

Interestingly enough, since my hip replacement surgery, I've actually lost some weight.  I've lost about 10 pounds.  I'm not eating less.  I'm not eating much differently from what I would normally eat.  BUT - walking does take a lot more work...  Who knows.  But it's kinda fun! 

Hugs,

dina

I will praise your mighty deeds, O Sovereign LORD. I will tell everyone that you alone are just.
Psalm 71:16 NLT


I had always felt - as a pre-op - that when I hit the 5 years post-op mark that I'd be "real" - or at least a little bit "grown-up" as a post-op.  But honestly, if you think about it, I'm only a kindergartener!  LOL!

So today, July 2, 2007, I am 5 years post-op.  I can't believe it.  On one hand it feels like it was just the other day.  On the other - it seems like aeons ago.

Of course, I was just as sick as they came back then.  I'm still amazed that Dr. Baltasar would take a risk on me.  What an honor to have him as my surgeon - and now five years later - a dear, treasured friend.

I remember saying about a year or so after surgery that I'd never be able to forget how badly I hurt, how difficult it was to live, how hard it was to get through even the simplest tasks - living my life as a super, super morbidly obese woman with a BMI of 64, and pretty much every co-morbidity in the book.

Here I am five years later, and I can say that it - the remembering how hard it was, how bad it hurt, how difficult it was to live - all of it - remembering it - is a little hard.  I can see someone who is struggling to make it under the weight of morbid obesity and my heart just literally aches for them.  But do I remember the acute pain?  Do I remember clearly what it was like?

To be honest, I think it's fading.  I think the crisis of the day to day living is becoming a more faint memory.  And in a way, that sort of makes me sad.  Not that I would want to go back there and relive it.  But it makes me want to be careful to NEVER take this amazing gift I've been given for granted.

And that's what I firmly believe my DS is to this day.  It's a gift.  I feel honored and privileged to have been given this amazing opportunity to be given my life back.  I am still in awe over the generosity of that amazing (still anonymous) faithful follower of God who went to my bank that morning of April 22, 2002 and deposited $15,000 into my surgery account so that I could have a chance.  I'm still moved to tears that God would value me so - even though in my head I know He holds me precious in His sight.

I still wonder - Why me, Lord?  Why did you choose to bless me so incredibly?  How can I ever say thank you enough?  How can I ever give back enough to begin to show my gratitude for you faithfulness and amazing mercy and grace - for me, someone who totally just doesn't deserve it?

But God...

My favorite phrase.  Just when it all should have been over, it wasn't, simply because God chose to step in and willed a miracle to happen.  I guess I could ponder it forever, and I likely will, but I've learned some over the past five years just when I feel overwhelmed by it all, to stop, to be still and know that HE is God, and to simply thank and praise Him.

So five years later.  Had the bounce.  Bounced back to the place I stayed FOREVER before I hit my all time low.  I'm not so stressed about the number on the scale, as I am about the excess skin that I would SO happily say goodbye to!  But in the scope of the real world, it's not that important.  There are far more important things that need to be dealt with in the world.

I still have an incredible quality of life - the likes of which I had no HOPE or ability to fathom I could ever have as a post-op.

My labs are pretty darn good.

My marriage is the most amazing and precious thing ever.

My children are a blessing to my heart.

And God continues to bless me - even in the midst of personal storms and heartaches.  My Mom is dying.  There are other difficulties in my extended family that I can't go into at the moment.  When hard times hit I am amazed anew at the fact that God brought healing to my life when he did - and that I'm able to do so many things I couldn't have ever dreamed of doing now five years ago.

I'm still just awed over the fact that just a little over five years ago I'd never even dreamed of going to Spain - once - and here I am five years later, having made the trip nine times!  LOL!  Who would have thunk I'd be a world traveler some day?  Or that I'd have the incredible privilege to be able to accompany thirteen other patients to Spain as their support person for their surgery?  Or that I'd get to scrub in and observe - pretty up close and personal - four DS surgeries (one open, three lap).

Wow.  I'm so thankful.  I'm so awed.  And I'm so humbled that God would bless me so.

Here's to the next five years!

Hugs,

dina