daniela S.
Back Home and 1 week out
Mar 31, 2010
So here is my surgery story in India with the VSGI left home on the 21st arrived in India the 22nd at night and met my mom at the airport. The guy from the medical tourism company that i went through was there and picked us up at the airport. We went directly to the hospital and checked in arount 1am on the 23rd. The nurses immediatly came in and started checking vitals and took blood for testing and i had a chest xray done. After they gave me a nebulizer to clear my lungs i finally got to sleep around 3am but was woken up at about 6am when they put in an IV to get fluids through my system. About ever 30 min there was either a nurse or a doctor in the room introducing themselves to me. By noon i had met every single person that was going to be in the OR and finally my doctor came in with the cheif of surgery. They were both sooo nice and made me feel so comfortable i had no nerves anymore. He told me all about the procedure, how long it would take, how i would feel after... basically everything possible that i could think to ask. Throughout the afternoon my mom and i watched movies in the hospital room and the staff came in with all the fluids that i needed and served my mom whatever meal she wanted. I had my ultra sound on my gallbladder to make sure they didnt need to remove any stones and as well did an ultra sound of my heart to make sure it was healthy.... I woke up on the morning of the 24th at about 2am because of my jetlag and spoke with my doctor and a few more doctors that came in to check on me to make sure that i was comfortable.
I went in to surgery around 1pm and it was so nice being able to recognize all the faces in the OR and not be nervous by any means. When i got to the OR i noticed that it was just as nice if not nicer than an OR in the US, it had all the same machines which all looked brand new. I woke up out of surgery with my mom rubbing my arm waking me up in the ICU (they put all patients in the ICU for monitering after surgery for at least 1 night) my lips were so cracked from not having any moisture on them and i was in absolutly no pain i was just fading in and out. I was on a pain medacine called Fentanyl, for those of you who dont know what it is.... if you have a pain patch thats what it has in it. Its used because it is one of the fastest acting and they can use it in smaller doses because its 100x more potent than Morphine.
The day of surgery they made me pee in a bed pan, let me tell you i dont do that so well my bladder seriously just shuts down because it wanted to pee in a toilet. They wouldnt let me out of bed but i tried to explain to them that i needed to walk i finally told them if they didnt let me walk to the bathroom that i was going to call my doctor and they would all be in trouble lol. Needless to say they let me go and it was a success lol...
The next morning i was transferred back to my room, but before we went i had to do my dye leak test. OMG OMG OMG that shit tastes so bad i almost fainted in pain from drinking liquids and because i was about to puke! My doctor does all his own test after surgery because he wants to make sure he is there for all the results, and that they are done correctly. He trusts his team but he always no matter what performs his own tests and after porcedures which i like because here they will let anyone do the tests and arent really involved after you are done with your surgery.
I was transferred to the recovery house where the medical tourism patients go, so there were about 3-4 other patients there with their families when i was there. I got to my room and immediatly went to sleep because the 45 min car ride was rather bumpy and uncomfortable and i just felt exhaustion. I was up every hour having my mom help me change positions to try and be comfortable. At this point i was not on any pain meds because my doctors had said that most patients of his go back to the house with very minimal pain. He said he would send me with some pills as a sort of SOS. We looked for the pills and the pharmacy didnt give them to us!!! At this point most people would have passed gas but me, yea i had nothing!!!!! My mom tried being mean to me and telling me that walking is the only thing that will fix the gas pain and tried to force me to stay standing. I almost passed out in pain and was screaming and crying, i was at the point that i had regretted everything i had done to myself and i wanted to die. I had a very high pain tolerance because of ruptured discs in my back and 2 previous back surgeries, i could handle almost any type of pain but this was too much!
i called my doctor after 4 hours of agony and the owner of the house hearing me crying and screaming. My doctor said i needed to come in immediatly and he was going to keep me over night for observation. My mom asked me when my last bowl movement was and i realized it had been 8 days. The doctors said the reason i was probably feeling crappy was because i hadent been able to pass gas and everything was compactedin my intestines and it needed to come out and id feel better. They put me on a morphine drip and gave me an enema which after about an hour i started to feel 10x better, i was passing gas like ever 3 min it was crazy what one little thing i dint realize could do to me. I went back to the recovery house the next day, realizing i needed to feel better SOON because i was leaving in a day and a half. I was finally able to get some good sleep that afternoon while my mom was shopping and i was able to make it to the dinner table and meet the other girl who had sleeve surgery for the first time. I got better and better but then my last day there i started having stomach pain again. My mom is like my personal pharmacy so she gave me what she takes for stomach gas pain, its called dyciclamine (sp) its an anti spasm stomach medacine which was a life saver. I went and got my drain out later that morning which wasnt fun lol but was tolerable, and then started packing to go home. I went to the airport with my mom and tonya the other sleeve girl as all our flights left 10 min within one another. They had a wheel chair waiting for us and wheeled us through security and then i got on my 15 hour flight home.
The flight was long i didnt really sleep because i had gas pains but when we arrived in chiago i wanted to roll around and kiss the ground because i have never been so happy to back in the US and back home. My sister picked me up after my connection flight landed and took me straight home. I layed in bed and immediatly started falling asleep i passed out for 4 hours. I took my first shower alone and tok the bandaging off from my drain. Oh i almost forgot my surgeon closed my incisions with glue so i wont have any stiches to take out and i could shower immediatly and i can start very slow swimming if i want right now which is cool!!!!
I feel 100x better today and i hope it gets better and better
highest weight 1 month before surgery 281 lbs
I went in to surgery weighing 261
last day there at my follow up apt 249
today i saw a great number 245
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About Me
Albuquerque, NM
Location
24.4
BMI
Surgery
03/24/2010
Surgery Date
Aug 31, 2009
Member Since
