Terri D.

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Surgery occurred on June 2 but instead of the approimately 3 hours I was in surgery for over FIVE hours, I think closer to six.  Anyway, the surgery was more difficult than what my surgeon had originally thought  or rather "as difficult as I thought it would be."  I had a vertical banded gastroplasty in 1987 and had developed a stricture which had to be removed, had a small hiatal heria which was repaired and then the gastric bypass which my nurse told me was like the ones they did a while ago but at any rate the gastric bypass is done.

The night of surgery they got me up to walk and I was so nauseated they put me to bed.  I was in horrific pain.  I don't remember a lot about the rest of that night other than people waking me up off and on for vital signs or IV meds, etc.

Post Op Day (POD) 1:  I thought I was insane because I knew dying would be a better option than dealing with the increased pain I was having, feeling like my entire abdomen was ripping open.  The nurse checked and assured me that all seven of my incisions were fine.  I received three phone calls that day but was in so much pain talking wasn't really and option.  My boyfriend came up that night after he got off work and I thought that would help but I still had horrid pain.

POD 2:  Dr. Pohl came in again today and asked me how I was.  Still having pain at least 4/10 but not 10/10 as the day before I told him "I think I'm going to live."  He said he knew I was going to live so that was comforting.  I had already been started on water the day before and tolerated it so was startd on shakes that morning.  I actually got the whole thing down for breakfast but I dno't know how because I wasn't interested in anything going in my mouth, just knew I had to.

POD 3:  Going home.....wow, what a difference from POD 1 but I still have pain, a LOT of back pain probably from being on the OR table for somuch longer than expected.

Got home got on the scales to find out I had gained 9.5 pounds while in the hospital, WHAT????  I knew I had been pumped full of fluids so was hoping it was just fluid.

To make a long story short since I got home, today is POD 3 and I am now 2.5 pounds below my surgery weight losing 12 pounds in 4 days which includes the hospital weight gain.  The pitfall is that I am still having horrible back pain, I can't get comfortable no matter where I sleep and I am always hot.

Regardless of what I have endured so far, everyone keeps telling me that in the long run this is going to be worth it.  However, most days I feel thre isn't enough time in a day to get my shakes, fluids, meds, vitamins, calcium, iron, walks, etc in.  Not sleeping well is not helping.  Vicodin gave me horrible nightmares so I switched to ES Tylenol but it doesn't control the pain where I would want it which is 0/10.  The best my pain has been is about 3/10 since I've been home.  But Dr. Pohl told me in the hospital, "You had a big surgery" so I guess a little extra discomfort is to be expected.

Today is the first day I've felt I had enough strength to write anything of substance on here.

I am so thankful for my support system that words cannot even begin to describe.

I am up showered, dressed and ready to go, too early yet as procedure not until 11 but we are going to be at the hospital by 9 as I received conflicting times to be there.  Not as nervous as I thought I would be.  I just know there's a lot to be done when I get to the hospital and the focus right now is keeping a positive attitude going into surgery so I wake up with one when the surgery is done .

are made.....will post them later.  I can barely stand to look at the side view.....grrr....but it's true...pictures don't lie. 

Today is the day before surgery and I am tired from lack of sleep but there was no real sleeping in this morning even though I went back to bed.  The property maintenance team is out mowing and it's impossible to sleep through the noise of the lawn mowers.  My dear BF gave me an errand to run this morning and after that I am going to try to start getting ready for the hospital tomorrow.  The BF has been wonderful in helping around the apartment getting things ready and doing laundry.  Isn't it funny when you are getting ready for something like surgery or even the doctor's office how you notice things like oh my God my toenails need clipping......that jumped out at me this morning as I was drinking my first liquids this morning.  So that is done.  Of course, there is a lot of other stuff to be done but I traveled so long as a nurse, I can get ready for just about anything in an hour or less so I'm going to try to relax today as well.  We'll see how that goes as it didn't go so well last night.  At any rate, the 1.5 pounds I had gained yesterday were gone this orning, thank God for that.

It's a little after 4 a.m. and I can't sleep.  This is my totally liquid day pre-op but I don't feel hungry or thirsty just wired up.  And to think I took something so I would sleep.  This is unbelievable.  I really wanted to sleep in this morning since I worked yesterday and tomorrow is surgery day but if this is any indication of my ability to sleep in...I think I need to pick a different hobby for today LOL.

Well, less than 48 hours until surgery and I am a bundle of emotions.  I feel excited, scared, anxious, excited and have occasionally felt like crying today although I haven't.  I know I have a lot to do tomorrow to get ready for the hospital but I am going to sleep in tomorrow morning (because I can) and then try to organize the rest of my day to welcome myself home hopefully on Friday this week.  I know thousands of people have successfully gone through this surgery and I trust my surgeon so much so yet why do these emotions seem like I am going to be overwhelmed at any moment with a bucket of tears.....I wonder if anyone else has felt this way as the surgery date draws nearer.  Hopefully I will feel better after some much needed sleep.   Maybe the difficult lies in that my life is centered around taking care of others as a nurse and now I am going to have to focus on just taking care of me.

I gained 1 .5 pound since yesterday for no obvious reason.  I'm supposed to be going the other direction!

I can't believe I had to work the weekend before my surgery.  Thankfully I do have Monday off before surgery on Tuesday but having the weekend off would have even been better.  Hopefully tomorrow will go smoother than today went. 

I just got back from my pre-op testing and everything went very well.  The EKG, blood work, meeting with the anesthesiologist....woohoo....I think it's a go unless something really weird comes back on the EKG or blood work and considering I just had those same two tests done earlier this month and they were fine, I am going to think positive.  

Well I went for my weigh-in, just as expected but the lady who weighed me in this time was so much nicer than the last one who made me feel like no amount of weight lost was going to be good enough.  This one commended me on my weight loss even thought wasn't a huge loss, it was SOMETHING.  I also picked up a copy of the consent form I signed back in April knowing I was having more than an RNY but wanted to see the whole gamut of procedures that might be done on June 2 and they are "stricture repair, possible stomach removal, repair hiatal hernia, possibly with mesh, ROUX-NY reconstruction surgery to gastric bypass, repair ventral hernia" and this could be laparoscopic but possibly OPEN......am I scared, no terrified would be a better word but I have all the faith in the world in Dr. Pohl to do what needs to be done.