Lauren C.

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I can't say enough how ready I am too lose my excess fat and be healthy for the first time in about 10 years. I can't bad mouth my fat completely though. It has been my protection from relationships I just want ready for. It allowed me to work on my relationship with my self and learn to love myself and not be so focused on my weight and size of clothing I wear. I learned alot about myself in the past few years. Things about who I am and what I want from life and what I want from my relationships. I've struggled and learned to over come. Nothing builds more character than being a fat girl living in a society that is obsessed  with how you look, and how much you weigh. I'm thankful for the time I've had to get to know myself. I feel that now I'm finally ready to say goodbye and tear down this defensive wall I've built. I'm really to make a change in my life. To live healthy and happy for myself. Its time to lose this weight and this is not something I can do without help. I needed a tool that could give me the opportunity to do just that. This is why I had weight loss surgery.

I started feeling better on day 8 and my Dad, stepmom, brother and I went to San Francisco to see the Giants play the Dodgers. It was the hardest day I've had since surgery because of all the amazing smells! Burgers, and hotdogs, and popcorn, and beer, and garlic fries, and nachos. I was in head hunger hell for sure! I'm glad to report that I didn't give in because I didn't want to risk getting sick at the ballpark. Luckily the Giants crushed the Dodgers 9-0 with totally made my night. The next day I went out with my mom and stepdad doing errands. The morning of my 10th day post-op I couldn't get out of bed. I was having severe sharp stabbing pains at the large incision site and deeper into the muscle. It was getting worse and I could barely move so my mom took me to the emergency room. I was triaged quickly and admitted. The doctor did an ultrasound of the incision and said everything looked fine and there were no fluid pockets and it looked like it was healing very nicely. She said it was probably because I was overdoing it because I was anxious to do things and be active again. She prescribed me more of the liquid painkillers and send me home with orders to rest and heal. So that's what I've been doing. This coming Thursday will be 2 weeks post op and I will get to start on puréed foods so I'm pretty excited for that. I'm so sick of pudding and jello. I think my thrush is about gone now and I don't have a sore throat anymore but I got a refill on the anti fungal rinse and I'm going to keep taking it just to make sure it's gone for good. I also started taking acidophilus pills to help restore the natural bacteria in my system. 

After coming home from the hospital I set up a little nest in the recliner and that's been my are ever since. I was on clear liquids for three days post op and I was very diligent in tracking my fluid intake. I was getting about 40-50 oz and by the third day I was getting all 64oz in. On post-op day 5 I had a really bad sore throat. I thought it was strep so I went to the doctor. It turned out to be an oral thrush infection, which is a yeast infection of the tongue and throat. I was in a lot of pain and everything burned my mouth when trying to drink. Luckily I was able to get all my fluids in from water and premier protein shakes. My surgeon prescribed me Nystatin oral rinse to kill the thrush. I had my first post-op appointment with my surgeon on day 7. I was still in quite a lot of pain from the thrush but my surgeon said the medicine should start to work in a few days. 

My surgery was on September 4th, 2014. I had the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy, laparoscopic. According to my surgeon, I had to do a 2 day pre-op liquid diet. It was a small glimpse of my life to come in the following weeks. I went to the Kaiser South Sacramento hospital at 11am. I got checked in and into pre-op area and had to wait around until 2pm for my surgery. At that point everything moved along very quickly, and before I knew it I was out. I woke in the post op area in so much pain. I couldn't wait till I got some of those lovely pain meds. I was taken to my room in the surgical suite where my family was waiting for me. Once I got into the bed and all adjusted I was ready to sleep. My mom stayed the night with me in the hospital. It was a restless night since the nurse came in to take vitals very 2 hours, and the fact that I couldn't pee. Finally around 6 am I was able to pee and it was like 1.5 liters. Lol I felt much better. I took many little walks while I was in there. By around 10 the next morning I was ready to go home for sure!