tgrar

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It has been awhile since I gave an update so here it is..

I have been recovering from knee surgery on the 18th of June. I am still in considerable pain when I walk. I can't sit to long and I can not walk to far. I have been on darvocet since early April. I was banded on the 25th of June and everything is going well with that surger. I was given percacet which actually took all of my pain away from knee, shoulder and abdominal. I stopped taking them 5 days ago. I have been having severe headaches at the top of my head which were lasting about 8 hours. I have never experienced this before. At first I thought it was  withdrawls from the narcotic But yesterday, I did not have one for over 12 hours and only after I ate several sugar free popsicles I got one that lasted all night and even after taking a sleeping pill I could not fall asleep until 5 am.

Last week I also had an inflamed Achilles tendon in my left foot so it was very painful to walk. Needless to say I have not gotten in my 30 minutes of walking unless it was in a pool and I did that several times. So today I actaully feel pretty good no headache and I am walking relativety good with minimal pain and no cane. My calves ache getting into and out of cars. I pray I will only get better, because it has been a bitch, lately. My family is loosing their compassion probably because it has been one thing or another for the last 8 months. On a brighter note my wife's boss' boss called and told her she is not being (terminated) severed like 45% of her coworkers. So God is watching out for us and I have so many things to be thankfull for that I can't let a little bump in the road get me down. What doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger. That's all for now....Terry     

Yesterday 6-25-09 after not sleeping the entire night Shelly(my wife) and I left the house a 4:15 am to drive 60 miles to the Barix clinic. We arrived at 5:15 am and I waited in the lobby. A short time later a woman came out and took me and another guy by the name of Rick up stairs telling our families that they would come back for them in about an hour.

Once up in the pre op room we were met by nurses who told us individually to change from our clothes to their gown in the bathroom; only leaving our socks on. My nurse was a man by the name of Aster , the nicest guy you would ever want to meet.
He then weighed me and On June 9 at my pat's I weighed 351 and today I weighed 333.2. I could have cried because I lost18 lbs that will never be back I was a winner already. I then was taken to my stretcher/bed and several other nurses came by. As Aster was asking questions another nurse began to shave me and she shaved from the nipple line to the pubic line incase the Doc cannot do it laproscopicly. I was given 30cc of a liquid to drink to settle my stomach. They joked that they were going to do a prostate examine and I said the could but I had left my prostate in Ann Arbor about 6 yrs ago. She used a lint brush to clean up all the hair. I can grow in places I don't want it and not on my head  where I want it LOL!  The nurse even cleaned the hair out of my navel with her finger which was a strange feeling to say in the least. They were so non judge mental freindly and compasionate people and really put me at ease. Needless to say I was nervous because they told me I could die from my knee surgery a week ago and so I know any surgery has the possibility of killing you.

Shelly was brought up and stayed with me until I went to surgery and she saw both the surgeon and the anestiologist. The surgeon told Shelly that he would be out to see her in about 45 mins after they take me in. Well at 7:10 am I was wheeled into operating room. I was given the happy juice and I woke up in recovery at 9:35 am. I was not nauseated at all, but I did want to sleep and that is the last thing the nurses in recovery want you to do.

Abiut 10:10 am I was taken to my room where I saw my wife and was able to sleep which I gladly did. After waking up around 1 or 2pm Shelly told me that the Doc did not come out to see her for 2 hrs and she was beside herself and the first thing he said was that there we complications and I might have to spend the night. He told her that they had trouble intubating me(putting a tube into my trachea) and I aspirated a brown fluid in my lungs. He also had a lot of scar tissue to cut through from previous abdominal surgery and that I had a lot of fat around my stomach, imagine that a guy who weighs 333.2 lbs has fat around the stomach, lol.

The nusres had me practice my breathing and wanted me to cough which was odd until I found I aspirated. Anyway I was up and walking and most importantly peed and ate with no complications. I had no trouble breathing and we left the hospital arround 5 pm and drove home. My knee did not hurt at all and I was able to walk better than I have in months. I was able to sleep in my own bed with strategicly placed pillows. I am taking oxycoten for pain  every 4 hrs and I feel relatively good for having 5 stab wounds.

My wife, kids and family are all supprtive of the surgery now and I am so excited about my new life. I will be able to play with my kids and their kids and will be doing alot more playing with Shelly. I thank God and all who have prayed for me. Yesterday was the new begnning for me and it is all down hill from here.

 

Well today is Tuesday and I will be banded on Thursday. My left knee is still causing me pain. \The doc said that he had to cut out a fat pad so no 2 surgeries are the same. It feels as if it is bone to bone which I guess is a possibility. I just don't remember this type of pain with my other surgery. I have been fasting since Monday and drinking Matrix 5.0 for protein and I would recommend it to everyone vanilla that is. I can't wait to be banded because my mind is saying if you can stay on a fast why do you need the band. Thankfully the inner me realizes that I need the band as a tool and the band alone won't do it. I still need to WORK at it.  

Well this is the second day post knee surgery and I am feeling it. Yesterday I took my bandage off and the wound burst open blood every where. Shelly my wife bandage it up pretty good last night so I would not bleed all over the bed and it has worked,i.e.,it hasn't bled all day but I have been in a great deal of pain. Back to taking darvocet. I am also having second thoughts about the surgery wondering if I can stop eating late at night. I believe it is just normal doubt but I have not told anyone about this so your the first to know.  

Had my knee surgery today and all went well until a couple of hours ago when my knee was bleeding bright red. It is probably an artery, I applied ice and it slowed. If it doesn't stop by tomorrow I will call my surgeon. I also recieved a call to be at the Barix clinic in Ypsilanti at 5:45 am next Thursday for my lap banding surgery. If I am in a hospital it must be Thursday.  

Well it is the second to the last day of school so I will be off for the summer. You see I am currently a reired cop and now drive a big yellow school bus and yes I have fun with kids.I worked all day on a field trip and could not takeany pain pills until I got home and yes they were needed about 5 hours ago but I waited till 4:30 and they didn't take effect until 5pm. So I am feeling good right now and thought I would share that with anyone who cares. One week after knee surgery I will have lap band surgery so I think the month of June and the first part of July shot for the most part. Thats all for now.

I hope my photos hasn't scared everyone away. My face is much better I just didn't want to put the face with the pics iets keep everyone guessing.    

I went for the pre admission testing and everything went well. I had an xray of the chest spoke with the NUT and say an Internest and I was ggiven the go ahead for surgery on the 25th. I mentioned my knee surgery on the 18th and they said it was ok to goahead with it and it was ok to keep taking the darvocet but no motrin or aspirin.Yippee surgery here I come. I also met jessica who is bein banded on the 23rd which was neat. She is a really nice person but then again most fat people are lol. I was surprised that I wasn't given a special pre-op diet but I am going to cut down anyway. I also metpatients of Dr. Taylor and they all speaqk highly of him. All in all I had a very good experience with all the nurses including the one who drew blood gas's.It only hurt a wittle bit.
 

Ok I have not been faithful to the diet but I am eatin less from my view ,not my wife's. I am going for the pre admission testing in 2 days and I suppose I will be given the real pre op diet then. Lets hope so. I am gettin shit from my family who are not thrilled with my decision to be banded in the first place like, why can't you stop eatin now because you won't be able to eat that when banded. You really don't need that cheese and pretzels. NO SHIT but I want it! I am just tired of it and I know the band will not solve all my problems but I am hoping it will give me that full feeling where I won't want to eat.  

It has been a few days since I posted so I thought I would update the blog. I was no so successful on the hospital pre op diet because I have not really gotten it yet, but I have cut down so that is good. On the ninth I go for the pre admin. testing and I am very excited. I guess it is a waiting game. I am always checking out the board for encouraement and strength and I am getting that.
well that is all for now.