lorilea
My name is Lori Myers, I live in Brooklyn Park MN and work at the corporate offices of a major retailer.
For most of my adult life I have been overweight. After many attempts to lose weight and keep it off I made the decision to follow my sisters footsteps and have the gastric bypass surgery.
I started this process in June 2010 by attending a seminar. Probably the biggest thing that scared me at that time was quitting smoking, which is required by my surgeon. But I DID IT, with the help of Chantix. I only took Chantix for three weeks, but kicked that habit and never looked back. I was also required by my surgeon to lose 15 lbs. This was actually harder than quiting smoking, because I had just quit smoking........quick smoking and lose weight. I struggled through my six month physicians monitored diet up to the day of my final weigh in where I was 1 lb over my required weight loss.
I was extremely lucky in my hospital stay and my pain management. I had never had surgery before or stayed in the hospital and for me not knowing what to expect was a blessing in disguise. I was super nervous and nautious the day of surgery. My surgery started an hour before it was supposed to and it only lasted an hour and 15 minutes. My pain was managed very well by the nurses in the hospital, until they took away the good drugs and started giving me the pain medications I was going to go home with. I ended up with a bad headache about an hour after every dose of medicine and it was horrible until they changed my medication. I went home that day.
I gained about 20lbs while I was in the hospital and lost all of that in the first week. At 11 days out I lost 10 lbs from my pre-op weight.
My amazingly wonderful parents stayed with me for over a week and made sure that I had everything I needed, plus did some small projects around my house. Since I got home I have had relatively mild pain and have rarely taken any pain medication. I am walking, doing light activities around my house and trying to do everything my surgeon has asked me to do.
There are days where I am thirsty all day no matter how much I drink and days where I feel like I can't drink anything. The same for food. I am on a full liquid diet and can't wait to move to the next food stage.
I have done a ton of research leading up to and since my surgery and I am looking forward to building relationships on this site as we all go through this journey.
