I had surgery. I had complications. I would still do it again

Well it's been almost three weeks so I suppose I should get this all jotted out while it's still fresh!

My vertical sleeve gasterectomy was scheduled for March 10th, 2014. I had been waiting anxiously for the day for almost two years. Finally it would be my turn and my last chance at a healthy life. I see a lot of people at different stages in their journey toward this huge decision and one of the most common things people debate with themselves over is doing it all on their own. They see that they drop weight in a pre op or monitored diet and think, "Well, I don't need surgery then, do I?" Though I lost over 20 lbs in my monitored diet, it didn't phase me one bit because I have yo-yo'd so many times in my life. 

Anyway, let's get to the show. Well without much surprise things didn't go quite as I had imagined them to right from the start. I had my surgery scheduled for a Monday. The day before that, our oldest daughter had been staying at a friends house and without asking for our input, the friend's father thought it a grand idea to take two nine year old girls to a skate park to skateboard, even though neither had any experience. To make a long story short, my daughter hurt herself badly. The dad didn't call. Didn't ask permission to give her the advil. And had her laid up with a bag of peas on her leg for 7 hours until we picked her up that evening. 

When we picked her up she couldn't walk. At all. Our first thought was she was being theatrical, but that was quickly squelched. We rushed her to the ER and low and behold her leg was broken in three places. BROKEN IN THREE PLACES. No phone call. NOTHING. She sat at her friends house ALL DAY with a broken leg. It still infuriates me. 

So there we were with our broken girl and the doctor came in and said that we would have to bring her back at 8:45 the next morning to get her cast.

My check in for surgery was at 8am.

At another hospital 50 miles away. 

The realization came. I would be driving myself and embarking on this journey alone. 

 

So the morning came. I was excited! And nervous. But more excited I think. I drove to the hospital with music blaring and singing my heart out. I was able to get all checked in and ready to go. In hindsight it was nice being able to just not talk about it and go with the flow of things. I was able to talk to people around me about their lives and stay pretty distracted from what I was getting ready to do. It wasn't until I was in my gown and I had to lock my phone up and basically text my husband goodbye and see you on the other side from there that things got real and I became nervous. 

I met my resident doctors Dr. Black and Dr. Canary first and they would be the ones who stick out most in all of my memories for my entire experience. God bless residents. Dr. Canary came to talk with me about what I was preparing to do and as I shook with nerves I asked him if he was Christian and if he would be willing to pray for me. He said he was and he took my hand and prayed right there at my bed. Oh thank you Jesus for the people you placed on my team.

 

Well I had my Sleeve surgery along with gallbladder removal that morning. Later I would learn that my gallbladder was embedded in my liver and was difficult to remove. I imagine them digging into my liver like icecream when you find a big piece of candy in the container and you want to make sure that you get it. Digging like that. Yeah that's what I imagine.

So, here was my stay in a nutshell. I'm going to list the days because it's easier I think. 

1. Surgery
2. Felt good. I even asked if I could go home to be with my family. Specifically to be with our oldest and her gimpy new leg. I'm glad they didn't let me go, because that night would prove to be the first sign that something wasn't right. Around midnight I woke up in a searing and blinding pain. 
3. They upped my oxycodone which did nothing. Then they put me back on a pain pump with morphine, which didn't do anything either. When they put me on Dilaudid and my pain was still at a 10 they finally did something about it. At 10pm that night I was back in the operating room where they went back in and found that my body was flooded with acidic bile. That explained the pain. They washed me out and installed two drains. One for regular surgical output, and the other for bile. 
4. I felt better but my drain was pulling bile off my body at an alarming rate. 
5. I had an endoscope procedure that would show that all my common channels which lead from your pancreas and liver to drain into your intestines were all collapsed. They couldn't get to my liver so they ended up having to cut through my pancreas in order to install a 6 inch stent in my liver to my intestines. They also had to install a small stint in my pancreas.
6. Pancreases are angry little organs and very sensitive. I was diagnosed with pancreantitis on the morning of my 6th day. 
7. The angry pancreas wasn't angry anymore and the angry enzymes present with pancreantitis went away. Bile drain pulling less. 
8. Another endoscope to go back and remove the small stent.
9. Removal of regular drain leaving just the bile one. Sent home! 
10. Pain in upper right quadrant again. Went back to ER. Ctscan showed pools of bile from site to pelvis. Readmitted that night. Spent the night in prayer. Believing wholly that Jesus is my healer. I was scared. It felt endless. But I trusted I was headed where I was meant to no matter the outcome. 
11. I spent the entirety of the next morning in nuclear medicine with radioactive material pumping through my system while crazy machines took images of me for hours. Then I saw a miracle. Where there were pools of bile before, there was nothing now. Not one pool. Not one leak. God is so faithful!

 

I have been home for almost a week now. Slowly getting back to a sense of normalcy again. My bile drain was removed a couple days ago. Paranoia steps in every now and then but I am trying to just relax and go with things. 

My complications were all related to my gall bladder being removed and thankfully the leaks I have had were all from my liver and not my sleeve. My sleeve has been great through it all. Right now me and the new stomach are getting to know one another. I have to play a bit of catch up thanks to my extended stay in the hospital, but I'll get there.

When all is said and done, would I do it again? Yep. I would do it all again. It sounds crazy, but I believe that without this surgery I was set for a miserable life. I was on the brink of diabetes which took my grandmother's life, and my mother's vision in her right eye. I don't want that for me. I want to live a long and healthy life with my little family. Was it traumatic? Kind of. But someday all of this will be a distant memory.

I am feeling stronger everyday. I am thankful for this gift I have been given. 

Thanks for reading.

Praise Jesus!!! I am so glad that you had a doctor pray with you, that's awesome. 

Glad to know you would do it again.... I am nervous as I am very new to this and have just started on the journey.  Thank you for sharing.

Wow.  I have been reading this forum for many months now and always enjoy your posts.  This one was both scary and inspiring!  I am so glad you are ok!!  Please keep posting to let us know how you are doing. 

wow im glad you are ok :) my surgery is on april 8 and cant wait.

All I can say is WOW...I loved your story...glad you are better.  You inspired me to stop be such a big baby.....lol

Hey! Tears are okay with me! We will get through this!

I am glad that you posted this. I had complications as well but no where near what you experienced. I asked my psych dr. Why they didn't tell anyone about possible complications he said no one would have the surgery if we scared them with complications. Personally, I would have liked to have known what could have happened and been prepared for it.  I am glad that you are doing well. 

I'm glad to hear you're home and doing better.  Given that all your complications were gall bladder related, I suspect you would have had them without the VSG.  With your gallbladder grown into your liver, it would have started acting up and having to come out eventually, but without the nifty sleeve to go with it.  Also, my name is also Katie and I also live in WA state.  Weird coincidence.