sabrina
I went to the information seminar in the first week of June 05. My mother had WLS the last week of June and during the next few weeks following we had many set backs and complications for her. She was diabetic, congestive heart failure, kidney problems etc. When she finally went home from the hospital she was home a little while decided to go out and water her flowers and fell straight back onto her back hitting her head! Ouch! Went with her to the Emergency room where she stayed for the next 15 or so hours without getting a room hmmm ER is NOT like the 3rd floor ok enough said and then she spent her birthday and the next 7 days in the hospital. They said her electrolytes had fallen dangerously low and she would need to stay in , bring those levels up etc. She went home and slowly but surely she is now gaining strength, she has lost I think like 60 pounds since last part of June the 27th I think. So I watched her for weeks seeing her recover , get stronger and thought to myself gosh why are you being such a chicken! Your mom is 67 yrs young and she did it with all of her complications it shouldnt be as hard on you and finally decided to turn in paperwork they were waiting on. So I called Hillary , and she called about my medical records, got those within a couple days. Already had my RD consult and then set up to have my psychological exam. I went for my standard 4 visits and hmmm have a GAP score of 96! go figure guess my head is healthy!lol I waited about 2 weeks after my final psych appt. and Hillary called to say your approved! yea! and that is when the next part of the journey began. I was very nervous most of the week but on tuesday i had one of those sick headaches mom came and took me to my pre-op appointment didnt think anything of it since I had a sick headache the week before- allergy season. Everything went well at the pre-op appointment- I saw the PA Darryl and he went thru all the information with me about diet and such following the procedure. I went to the hospital for my pre-admit and had my lab work done. Apparently all the blood work came out fine as I was ready for surgery on Friday morning. 10-7-05 Arrived at the hospital at 720am. They took me in around 840am or so, got undressed, weighed, cold feet and clammy feeling if that is a word lol and well nervous as heck! what can i say my bp was 156/83 or something like that up from the normal 123/72 and hmmm nurse said oh are you sick i think your temp is above normal but maybe im wrong i need to check the charts i was like i do not know celsius :) so the day goes on. The RN came in , tried to get the IV going. She couldnt get it in my left arm, got warm blanket still couldnt get it , i explained maybe she should go with my right arm as they had no issues getting it in that arm two or three days ago.....she finally does, i feel myself warming -face, chest etc. Anestiologist comes in really nice guy ask all the standard question, yada yada yada and then hes out. Dr. Coates comes in very nice surgeon answered all questions reassuring me of anything i wanted to know. Then another nurse comes in from OR and says are you sick? Im like not that i know of.......well ok but I dont think we can do surgery if your sick. Ok so the anestiologist comes back in and says after sitting down. For some reason probably being that your sick we cannot do surgery temp was like 99, you can get an upper respitatory infection that can lead to phenomina and that would be very hard for your body to fight combined with surgery. So ok surgery is off, you will have to reschedule WOW i was floored had to get up and go home! i was laying there crying all by myself because they had to find my family and my clothes. The guy across the way tells his wife wow that lady over there is having a really hard time with her surgery isnt she....he had no clue Oh and btw, on the way home i stopped at the doctors office and I had no fever, pulse normal, oxygen normal, bp back down. She said maybe your getting over a viral infection BUT it could be counter effects from the antibiotics since im deathly allergic to the "cillian" family of drugs I said ahhh ok.....went home and here I am. So the weekend was an emotional rollercoaster at best! asking myself maybe i should have tried one more diet, maybe this wasnt meant to be and such! Well it has been an interesting last couple of days or weeks to say the least. My surgery was suppose to be October 7th but i was sent home because of a fever. I left the hospital went straight to the doctors office where I had no temperature. The only thing I can think of is that I am deathly allergic to any of the penicillian family of antiboitics and my doctor said that possibly the drug they gave me in the hospital had a counter effect or hmmm maybe my brain is stronger than I imagined......i was very nervous, my stomach hurt all night long beyond imaginable...but anyway I am here! I just had to stay clear for a couple days as I was totally upset about the whole situation and now trying to decide what to do. Thank you everyone for your support. 10/10/05 Today I called the doctors office and they have tentively set a new date of 10/17/05 at 12 noon. This weekend was a real emotional rollercoaster to say the very least. I hope that I can now pull it together and get ready for next week. I need all the prayer and strength I can get to make it through this. As it gets closer to the date I will continue to update. 10-22-05 Hi everyone! BOY am I glad to be home! I went to the doctors on Friday instead of monday which would have been my one week follow up appointment so I will have to update you with what I weigh on this monday in order to tell you how much I have truly lost.....I can tell you what I have gained! new wonderful friends from here! thank you so much *Tink* and Jennifer G , again you two are the best and it meant so much to me as you two were my only vistors besides family....ty and hugs. I went into the hospital 10-17-05 at 10:15 am and surgery was scheduled for 12:20 pm but Dr Coates had some other surgery he had to attend to so mine was put off til like 1:30 wow was I hungry!lol Hmmm my mom, my bf and my moms friend were there with me in the waiting room for surgery- Thank you for the support and my family continued to wait til 8:30pm at night and were a bit freaked to say the least! god bless them! I guess I had a bit of a time in recovery. My heart was throwing PVC's pre ventrical contractions - irregular heart beat. And I was having a time waking up.....so they put me on the heart floor for the first night. I got to move to the surgical floor on the second night at 11pm. Don had came in the second day around 4pm and said they would move me as soon as they had a room available. He also said I could finally take out the catheter, morphine aka nasty stuff, and could have the bariatric diet- liquids. I finally got to my room and hmmm love those ice chips and I think they finally took off morphine Thank goodness!!!!! Oh man I had the roomie from psycho hell! lol she wasnt there for bariatric surgery something about being there four weeks and something to do with her stomach-anyway she fake cried all night and all day, and then laughed with the cna's and cried for the nurses no joke every 15 min and on top of it had her tv on LOUD all night and her light on BUT thank god I got the heck outta dodges peoples LOL I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo Happy to be home I could seriously throw a party for everyone on this whole site! lol Thank you Dr. Coates you are very kewl and hopefully the pics that Tink sent me I will try and put on here very soon everyone~! Oh yea I came home Thursday and its now Saturday and I feel pretty good considering everything! will continue more later............. 10-24-05 Ok today is Monday, I am feeling ok but mornings definately are rough and slow to get going...am I Garfield or what? I have lost about 25 pounds since my journey began which puts me at 249. Wow how do I stop the sagging! dang its like I hope this skin draws in with exercise...but just walking for now since it is so early since I had the surgery only one week ago. I tried a boiled egg mashed with some light mayo, mustard, salt and pepper not bad but couldnt eat much of it so i put it away for later. I think it might be easier for me to get a protein drink down made with water for the moment....helps with water and protein. I need to get a few things from the store so maybe the walking will help also. Hope everyone has a great day! 11-17-05 Today was my one month anniversary and Dr.'s appt. Thank goodness ive been feeling a bit better the last week or so before that I had to go back to the hospital because I was severely dehydrated-they gave me three iv's and I started feeling better. The doctor said it had to do with Ketosis-burning fat and such wow a really yucky feeling not even being able to drink water and someone is saying protein drink? how about puke drink? that is what it equates to me lol sorry folks but i vow to tell it how it really is for me! No sugar coated lovey dovey story here :) So ok back to now, I am feeling better surely but slowly....and eating a little bit more each day, trying new things such as turkey, chicken yuck doesnt go down, beans, cheeses and such , fruit....and I am down about 40 pounds now since my journey began.....im at 235. So I believe the weight loss is going pretty well so far........they stated my liver count was way high so im hoping and praying those go down as i do not want gallbladder surgery-he did not take it out as I was told he doesnt really do that unless a patient has severe problems and insists upon it repeatedly.....so im saying my prayers.......I will try and update a little better now that I am feeling better and hey guess what we only have like 2 more weeks of this semester! yea! now i have to catch up during thanksgiving week for the three weeks of school i missed ( was too sick) to go........talk to you all soon! 12-10-05 Hi everyone- good news im feeling a lot better now and now Im down 50 pounds YEA not even two months out yet....finally I can eat a little so I am starting to try and eat the amounts of protein they want me to and get the liquid amount in....now gotta exercise that is for sure! wow when you lose weight fast you really gotta exercise cuz things need a lift if ya know what i mean! Oh and I have added my web page now to go straight to the photos so I put in my before photos and then some photos I took this month......have a very happy Holiday season! 2-9-06 Ok I know im bad for not updating sooner than this! spank me! god it has taken me so long to feel like a normal person with having acid reflux i totally do not wish this upon anyone! Ive lost right at 80 pounds and I will not be four months out until the 17th of this month.....really exciting but scary at the same time because when i look in the mirror i realise wow i need to lift weights and hopefully regain some of the muscle i have lost due to this fast weight loss and not feeling like doing much. I started walking and of course this semester has started so the crazy woman i am I decided oh yea sabrina you can handle 16 units in graduate school no problem! GOD i am nuts! OH yea i weigh less than 200 so that is totally exciting since the last time I weighed this I was 18 and getting married to my ex husband! WOW time totally flys by so fast! which brings me to this point I have felt like for the last two weeks that it is time to live life to the fullest for some reason.....i want to do all the things that ive not been doing, going to the ocean, walking on the beach, hiking in Yosemite you name it riding quads, bike riding, going to the gym I honestly do not know what has taken over me! But all I can say is this- the time is now, live life like there is no tommorrow and be happy while you can :) oh yea new pics are on my www page i believe it has the link to my yahoo pictures page if you want to see me :) 4/18/06 Just wanted to stop in and let everyone know wassup with me since I think about all of you and seem to never have the chance to stop by and say hi! I am feeling a little better at the moment although im sure I must have the flu or something currently....I go in wednesday to do a physical because I have to have my gallbladder removed coming up on the 24th Monday of April ahhh those darn gallstones! they make you feel like you are dying when you have a nasty attack! I definately do not wish those on anyone.......I hope and pray this surgery goes a lot smoother for me than my bypass as it was not the easiest thing to go thru in my life....Now what im wondering is if anyone else feels like me.....im 6 mo out, i feel better BUT dang my body naked is a scary sight to see! not exactly what I had in mind....hopefully if i get out my gallbladder i can eat more protein and exercise to tighten some of this loose skin up...lets see according to my scales ive lost 95 pounds now..... I weigh 180 pounds and wear usually a size 12 or 10 just depends and top usually medium or large in juniors. Eating is still a chore to me, probably because of the gallbladder situation and having to be extra precautious of everything i eat so i know what sets off these nasty attacks....If i ever get a break from being sick and carrying way too many units in grad school i would love to meet up with some of my friends from the Modesto area! and meet those who had surgery when I did :) well ibetter get back to writing this 15 page ethics and law paper oh what fun! have a great day! May 2,2006 Hi everyone yes im back and its only been a couple weeks lol went on my cruise and it was fun also got the opportunity to go to Papas and Beer wow they can drink! and a week ago today i had surgery again! gallbladder removal thank god! im feeling much better without that particular organ lol im down to 175 so thats 100 pounds gone forever and made the mistake the other day of goin into a "girls" store in the mall and trying on pants so heck i bought them they fit! even if the store clerk gave me dirty looks i dont care! lol i actually thought it was funny....hey us OLD people can wear what we want too u know! :) all is well and school is almost finished for this year! yea and next year hopefully i will be graduating from GRAD school! yea~ well have a great sunny day here in cali! June 22, 2006 Summer has arrived and is in FULL FORCE here in the Sin Cal Valley lol its HOT anyways all is good just trying to get my bearings so that I can run full force since for so many months i was very very sick from surgery and my gallbladder thank you Dr. Coates for taking out that nasty organ that didnt like me anymore! Im at 165 lbs now putting me at 110 lbs weight loss not sure how much more I will lose I think that is up to my body trying to transform back into a normal looking human being lol OH yea im 8 mo. out so I guess when im a year out maybe I will know more about where I am going to be? I wear mostly juniors clothes since they fit better but ladies is like a 7/8 guess thats cause im tall at 5'7 all is well except these darn bat wings lol have a happy summer day all! August 11, 2006 Ok lets see not sure if anyone ever reads these but what the heck~! lol First let me start out by saying that I am doing really well, I am now at 155lbs and well Diane says im below my goal weight........I seriously didnt know I had one until she mentioned it at my 9mo appointment lol hmmm she said you can stop loosing weight now.....ok sounds good BUT in reality im not sure im totally in control of that situation as I think this little stomach of mine is more in control of it than I am! Ok and now onto the other part........I think one of these days im seriously going to lose it on someone because of this one thing.......I am going to sound really weird BUT fat people are discriminated against and there is no way to fight that one off peoples! seriously I get treated soo much different now not being overweight which i find pathetic beyond belief! I am sick of men hitting on me, hey I was a person before when I was heavy so guess what IM still me! and women, girls , ladies who wouldnt give me the time of day in a clothing store, or any type of store for that matter now practically fall over themselves to help me.....Im like what is going on ? look guess what im still ME! Ive had people say we love being around you but dont bring your friend im like what are you talking about? they are like oh that one....guess what all my friends are heavy! so get a clue just because ive lost this weight doesnt mean im going to DUMP on my friends! Because they are who they are , and I LOVE them regardless of their weight...........So if your out there, see me someplace and make some comment about me needing to stop loosing or dumping my FAT friends, GET A LIFE ! im not going to do what you want me to ever! Fat GURLS RULE! :) I love everyone of you who have helped me so far in my journey and those long terrible months when I just wanted to die, thank you all for hanging on for me! I will be forever thanking you! Oh and IM NOT TOO THIN mom , and no I do not want your bologna sandwich lol that is for all the times my mom said if your hungry you would eat a sandwich guess what MOM im IN CONTROL OF ME NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! love ya! Photos 270 me at birthday party in sept. 05 Surgeon Info: Surgeon: Patrick Coates, M.D. Dr. Coates is personally an angel that was sent to be an integral part of my saving grace. And yes eventhough I had some complications I can now say a year later that I have a NEW LIFE!!!! Thank you so much for having a huge heart to help others and perform GB for those of us who for one reason or another cannot lose the weight without surgical help.
Wow im sooooo excited I found out how to make this work!!!!! gosh this is amazing!!!!!!!!! thank the html GODS lol
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Sabrina - Turlock, CA
Surgery Type: RNY
Surgery Date: 10/17/2005 Surgeon: Dr. Coates
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