Tina Mendonca
I'm back and lucky to be alive!
Jul 16, 2013
Hello, everyone! I am so glad to be back. I have been gone for a very long time dealing with many health issues and just getting through the days, hours at a time. My headaches are less, but Stanford didn't seem to help anymore. I have been on more medication than I ever had been in my life. My night stand looks worse than my grandmother's ever did and I just turned 36!
Because of all my pains and being referred to so many specialists and given prescription after prescription. I couldn't even fit food or my vitamins in after the amount of daily meds I was on. I changed my PCP and she is excellent! I have been taking waaay less than I have in the past 2-3 years. With the New year I had various complications and could not figure out what exactly hurt anymore. In April I had already been dealing with being 'sick' to my stomach literally whenever I did eat. I was nauseous, stomach pains in my side and became just very uncomfortable with EVERYTHING I ate and dank. At this point I stopped caring about myself. So many people told me it was all in my head and didn't take me seriously. I was also pegged as a drug seeker or "frequent flyer" when I'd go to the ER with abdominal pain. Ultra sounds came back normal, blood work...normal, but the pain would just get worse and I would vomit with anything that went into my body. Finally a CT scan was done at this time in April in the ER and they found a mass in my abdomen and my Gastric Bypass surgeon Dr. Patrick Coates was contacted. He had me admitted and wanted to have me in surgery that morning. If anything, at least to explore my intestines and pouch.
Upon looking at my scan he and Dr. Antonio Coirin (his partner), saw what appeared to be my intestines telescoping! Or also know as an intasusception. The goal was to go in, do some exploring and fix the problem. When they went in a good 2 feet of my intestines were affected, but they were not dead or dying..YET. Dr. Coirin then proceeded to undo the mess and saw that there was no damage and just 'tacked down the curve where the point of entry happened to keep from happening again. But nothing is 100%.
Well, to make an even longer story short. My pain got a bit better after surgery, but never really resolved. A few more trips back to the ER, one willingly and another after I passed out in the Walgreens pharmacy. Yeah, not pretty, but no one found ANYTHING wrong with me. I was told they called my surgeon and that they were sending me home after getting my B/P stable and a rush of sugar water and gave me percocet! That made me trip out a bit. My doc wouldn't prescribe that and not want to keep overnight at least after my history, but I went home. I had a few follow up appointments the following week with hardly anything to eat and no sleep all week. I finally got to see my original surgeon and he admitted me right away. That night we did all the blood tests, another CT and plenty of pain medication. I had my surgery the next day and had part of my intestines removed and then reconnected. I do feel a huge difference! Recovery is slow going, but I have been feeling so much better than I have in months! I am now working on recovering and getting healthy again. Part of me gave up and I changed for the worse during this hell of pain. I have not been a happy person. A biotch to be exact and I am just so grateful to be here and able to start over. There is a small chance that it could happen again, but I think we have finally turned a corner.
I was asked if I would still do the RNY again knowing what I have gone through and honestly...I would. I was almost 300 lbs and would've died in my sleep because of not breather or aspirating on my own vomit. Graphic, I know, but either way my life, health wise has been crap! But there is some kind of reason for it. I am looking at my life a little more closely and makes me think more about what I want to do as far as a career. I am leaning more towards being a personal trainer that specializes in Gastric bypass patients. Who better to sympathize and understand her clients than me!? I think it would be a great job. It motivates me to want to get well and to get out there and meet more people and learn about their journey and in some ways be there from the beginning. That would be awesome!
