Lynn C

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Got my first fill today - 1.5 cc's in my 4 cc band. It was pretty cool my surgeon had one of his fellows do it and it was absolutely painless. Then he had me chug some water to see if it was to tight - I'm chugging away and he looks at the fellow and says "You might not want to stand there" - Luckily the water stayed right where it belonged - in me not on the floor. Also got weighed - down to 257.2 so that is -42 lbs. Yippeee. My scale has been lying to me for weeks (tonight when no one is looking I am going to chuck it out the bathroom window!).

Had my first follow up appointment today and everything is going well. I have lost 34lbs and been advanced to the stage 4 diet (mushies/soft foods). My incisions are healed and looking great according to the Doc.

So far I can't complain about anything except the liquid diet. Boy that was rough. Well I'm off to try some Tuna.....wish me luck!

Time to update - My BMI has gone from 51.5 to 45.4 since surgery so I am no longer super morbidly obese! My unoffical weight at this time is hovering around 265. I have a follow up on 10/5/05 at which time I will get my offical weight.

So it has been 12 days since surgery and I am finally feeling about 98.2% myself. I no longer have insicion pain and can easily get out of bed or in and out of chairs with no problem. I am still having trouble bending over to pick stuff up off the floor but it gets better every day. I can sneeze and cough with no pain. I have gotten my hunger back but I am so disgusted with all of the foods on my list that I am struggling to down my protien shakes. Just 10 more days and then I should be on to mushies - what a relief. I'll check in as I have more to share

Well I am home and banded - Yay!! It is day 4 and I am feeling soooo much better. Here is my story

9/12/05-10:30am Arrived at BIDMC, waited about a half hour before being brought into pre-op, one of my anesthesiologist came and started my IV (BIDMC is a teaching hospital so although he got my IV in with no problems you could tell that he needed to practice more - he almost forgot to put on gloves - but he did a good job).

2pm still waiting to go into the OR - they were cleaning the room - must have been the cleanest one around when they were done. The anesthesiologist came and wheeled me into the OR - My main anesthesiologist is also my surgeons wife - Stephanie Jones, she was wonderful - she went out and talked with my Mom after surgery and told her that I wake up very well.

3:45ish Surgery went great - no problems, I lost 25lbs before so my doctor was able to fit me with the smaller band. Recovery - my first though "What in the hell have I done" I was in pain but that was quickly remedied.

5pm Into my room (my room mate had been taken to brain surgery and did not return until the next day) I rested comfortably - had a morphine pain button that I could dose myself with - Wonderful. Nothing by mouth until tomorrow but the mouth swabs are great for getting that dry feeling in your mouth and throat to go away.

Vitals ever hour or so - I don't remember what time I got up for my first walk - it must have been around 8pm. One lap down the hallway and back - the nurse said that was enough for day one.

9pm-7am I don't sleep well away from home and this was no exception I was away every hour and the night crawled by but I wasn't in any pain.

9/13/05-9am my IV stopped flowing - I was getting back in bed from a walk and bent my arm and that was it - no more IV. A nurse tried to start one in my hand but couldn't get it - no fluids and no morphine - but still OK.

10:30am Transport came to take me down to have the barium swallow done - still no IV but my nurse got me a couple of Morphine injections - oww. Fluoroscopy was awesome (barium is not as bad as the clear stuff they make you drink first - gag) I got to see my port and all my plumbing - pretty cool! Back to my room - more walking - went to the solarium to read. Got to have my 1oz of water by mouth - it was sooo good.

12:30ish tolerated water well so I got to have 1oz strawberry CIB per hour. Not bad. Walking & resting. IV nurse came to start an IV - tried two additional locations with no luck - said that they should put a long line in my whole arm (I think not) - feeling like a human pin cushion. Got my catheter out - Yay.

1pm another IV nurse arrives - told her to go away that I was leaving in a few hours and she wasn't poking me anymore - she left.

3pm Peed - cleared to go home!!!

5pm Chocolate CIB for dinner - Yum.

6pm My surgeon stops by to check on me. Told me I could stay and leave tomorrow. I had to convince him I was good to go (I needed to get some sleep and it wasn't going to happen there). He reluctantly agreed (Dr. Jones is so over protective - I like that in a doctor)

Home by 8pm exhausted, sore but happy. (all times are approximate as morphine has a way of making you a little fuzzy)

More to come....

3am

Well, it is offically the "day before" and sure enough I can't sleep. I am not nervous more like excited with nerves on the side. I am forcing myself to go to bed now so that I am not a mess when I go to the hospital tomorrow. See ya'll later.

Hi all, I'm back from having my pesky gallbladder removed. It wasn't as bad as I thought (don't get me wrong - I wouldn't sign up to do it again just for fun). So for those of you who may need to have this done I will chronicle my day.

Arrived at 10am on 8/18 for a 12:30 surgery - it turned out the my surgeons first case of the day was a bit more involved than anticipated so I didn't end up going to pre-op until about 6pm. I was a bit crabby but I understand that we can not control all aspects of life. So, I go into pre-op, chat with the anesthesiologists, get my IV and my hat, booties and rear air conditioned gown. Right before we go to the OR my anesthesiologist give me a "cocktail". We roll into the OR and switch tables and then everything goes real fast.

I had people bustling around but mostly I remember the two anesthesiologists, one on each side adjusting my IV - attaching electrodes, etc.. Then on with the mask - "take deep breaths". Well I think I fought them on this because after the first few breaths I couldn't exhale anymore and I panicked. The good news is I don't remember a thing after that until I heard someone say "OK she's responsive" (I'm glad they thought so because I don't remember responding to anything.)

I was wheeled down to recovery about 8pm. I wasn't in any pain but I was dry and fuzzy (good for club soda not for me). I would say that I felt myself or as close to it as I could around 11pm but the nurses had decided that it was to late to send me home so I would have to spend the night (my wonderful Mom who came with me spent the night in the family waiting room of the hospital on a couch and the liaison got her some pillow and blankets - she was more comfortable than me I think). I was in my room at 1am and got no sleep - partly because I couldn't sleep and had really wanted to go home and partly because there was always someone in and out of the room for either me, my room mate or the trash barrels. The nurses were wonderful and brought me Jell-O and tea at 1am - I was starving as I had been "nothing by mouth" since 7pm on 8/17 and here it was 1am on 8/19. I was discharged around 10am after a lovely breakfast of eggs (I think), tea, oatmeal (I didn't chance it), sausage and cranberry juice.

I have been home for two days now and all systems are operating within normal parameters (no colace for me - yay). As for meds I had one percoset at 9:30pm the night of surgery and have been fine with Tylenol since. Hopefully my band goes as smoothly! Time for a nap - I'm giving work a shot tomorrow so off to bed early tonight.

TTFN