trinchuckle
9-17-07
There have been a few more steps regarding my surgery. The psychological clearance went in.
The total cost, barring complications, is $18,000 to $18,500 for surgeon, anesthesiologist, and hospital. I am going to pay for my own surgery. The insurance company has a list of requirements designed to make it impossible to get this surgery. I am 60 years old and am staring down an old age full of degenerative weight-related conditions. I do not like how I feel, and do not have a year or more to waste fighting them. Fortunately, I have the money in savings.
10-6-07
Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, October 24, at 2:00 in the afternoon.
I have started telling people and received supportive responses so far.
I will arrive the day before, spend that night in the hotel . . . go to the Dr. office at 10:00 then to the hospital. One or two nights in
the hospital, then a "few" nights in the hotel, because they don't want me to be hundreds of miles away until I reach a certain point in recovery.
10-10-07
I am not consciously anxious about this surgery, but am very absentminded so obviously affected more than I realize..
10-15-07:
The hotel connected with the hospital did not have a room available. I looked at some other hotels as well and they were all either depressing or booked for the weekend. So I rented a room at the Kabuki. It is expensive, but I don't want to recover in ugly surroundings. Besides, none of this is going to be cheap. I spent the ENTIRE DAY dealing with hotels, shuttles, airplanes, and other arrangements . . . trying to figure out how to pay the doctor, anesthesiologist, and hospital. One wants a cashier's check, the other two will take a card but not the same one. To top it off, the fiberoptic cable connecting Humboldt County to the internet and the rest of the world was severed, and I had to try to explain to folks in San Francisco why I couldn't access my bank account or credit information today!
10-24-07
Got everything pulled together for the trip, including resolving some issues affecting City Council and my mother. I am so exhausted I feel sick. My dear friend Doris will meet me in San Francisco and will assist me through this surgery. I am so grateful.
10-26-07
The surgery went well. The second night, however, I had heart problems: first atrial fibrillation, then a fast rate. (Evidently, this will happen anytime I have a medical procedure done, due to the thyroid/heart issue of 3 years ago. In the future, I will warn the doctors and make sure I am hooked up to a heart monitor whenever any invasive medical procedure is done.) I also ran a fever, threw up, and may have hallucinated. This was very scary. My perception was that I could not rouse a nurse for a very long time. Then, the nurse said, "You have to be sure to buzz me." They sent me to the cardiac unit, and seemed to be working on me all night . . . shots, IVs, tests, etc. I remember praying that I not predecease my mother. The situation was resolved by the next afternoon and I went back to the hotel.
10-27-07
Doris went to the Asian Art Museum. I hung out in the room, which was pleasant, and the lobby.
A brief period of irregular hearbeat tonight. Scared me.
10-28-07
Tonight also. Scared again. Terrible restless legs.
10-30-07
No more heart irregularities.
My dear friend Doris drove me home. The trip was quite pleasant and enjoyable, in spite of our respective ailments. (She picked up food poisoning, apparently from the hospital cafeteria!) I am so fortunate in her friendship. She will stay for a few days and we will do whatever activities I can tolerate.
11-4-07
I have been astonished at how exhausted I am. I have not been hungry. My restless legs have been exacerbated to the point where it is difficult to get any rest at all . . . and it is difficult to take any medication for it. The only thing that helps is the liquid codeine that was given for pain related to the surgery (which has been minimal.) Without that, I would not be able to sleep at all.
11-12-07:
I can now insert myself into my mother's half-barrel shaped chair without becoming stuck.
11-13-07:
It is easier to cross my legs.
11-14-07
Ate first semi-solid food today . . . an egg!
11-17-07
I am not quite so exhausted anymore . . . because of healing, or the semi-solid food? Who knows? I had enough energy to go to the City Council meeting on the 15th.
11-19-07
I am beginning to understand how people can defeat this surgery through grazing. There is not room to eat huge amounts at one time, and constant hunger has been removed as a part of dieting. But, you still have to deal with all the other issues: boredom, emotional eating, a sweet tooth, whatever. For me, the deadly time is at night when I am having restless legs and am miserable. Then, I want to eat.
12-2-07
Thankfully, my restless legs have beern MUCH better. I had a (part of a) sandwich yesterday and was OK with it. I am going to try some stewed chicken. Since it is the Christmas season, there are cookies EVERYWHERE. My digestion is now good enough that I am sorely tempted, and have yielded more than once. This scares me. I DO so want to continue losing weight!
12-10-07
A return of atrial fibrillation today. It started at 3 PM Friday. On Saturday morning I was still in fibrillation and was getting ready to go to the ER, and my heart reversed to normal rhythm at about 9:00 AM! The episode lasted about 18 hours and was very scary, with extreme fatigue, breathlessness, and dizziness when standing up.
The heart issue is one reason I needed to lose weight . . . I hope this does not become any kind of a pattern. There may have been a problem with potassium levels or electrolytes because of diarrhea. I will make a stronger effort to control that. This episode makes it hard to know how vigorously to exercise. I need to build stamina but don't want to precipitate another episode.
12-17-07
Somehow, I managed to injure myself WALKING ON MY TREADMILL! I pushed a little bit beyond what I was comfortable doing, but not much, and woke up the next morning with sciatica; then, made it worse by pivoting. My massage therapist says I should not try to increase my exercise tolerance right now, but walk VERY slowly, paying attention to form and posture.
12-21-07
Still can't walk without pain. Without exercise, I feel rather debilitated. have managed to take off another few pounds and am grateful for it.
No more recurrence of the atrial fibrillation, though!!
I've listed stuff on the Clothing Exchange and have sent off several packages. It is fun to know that the clothes I can't wear anymore are helping other OH members with their weight loss.
1-15-08
I have been recovering slowly from the sciatica and have gradually, carefully increased my walking to 1/4 mile at a much slower pace than what I was doing before I was injured. Scarcely where I thought to be at this point!
I also had several recurrences of the heart irregularities. After drinking a cup of coffee, my heart thundered along at 140 beats per minute, then fibrillated. VERY scary! Bloodwork revealed that I need a reduced thyroid dosage, because of the weight loss. It was very relieving to know that is all that was going on.
People continue to compliment me on a regular basis. Clothing is an issue - everything hangs. I'm pleased with how i look, just want to get physically stronger ASAP but my massage therapist says to increase exercise slowly and carefully.
1-25-10
Three years post-op . . . I'm very grateful to have had this surgery available to me and would do it again in a cold minute. I could have worked harder at the weight loss and taken off that last 35 pounds. But, I feel so much better and can do so much more. Being obese was like dragging around a backpack full of rocks 24 hours a day! Co-morbidities that were present before surgery have all improved:
1. Chlorestoral is now normal.
2. Blood pressure is now normal.
3. Atrial fibrillation still sometimes occurs but it controlled with medication.
4. Back issues greatly improved.
I can work in the yard, walk and do all sorts of things I couldn't do before surgery. I recently had a total knee replacement . . . no doubt, many years of overweight contributed to that problem. My biggest problem continues to be eating at night when I can't sleep.
My advice to any seriously overweight person is to carefully consider bariatric surgery as a tool. Don't listen to the nay-sayers or the guilt-mongers. It is not a panacea, but can make it possible to lose weight if you have struggled for years without success. And what a difference weight loss can make in your life!
