debadove

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I can't believe it is 2010!  I'm doing really good..still gaining strength every day.
I've lost 190 lbs. and am still losing but still very slowly..
My husband had an accident on Dec. 27th. He slipped on ice and crushed his ankle. He had to have emergency surgery with the outcome of 8 screws and 2 plates.  He is now home but still in a lot of pain. He will not be able to bear weight on his foot for 3 months.  I'm saying all this to be able to say
I THANK GOD FOR HELPING ME LOSE WEIGHT!!  If I had not lost what I have there is NO way I would have been able to take care of him...I don't really know what we would have done..God is sooo good! 
All glory goes to Him for without Him , I would be nothing....

It has been a long time since I posted so I thought I would update.
It has been 1 year and nearly 3 months since surgery. 
I have lost 185 lbs. now.
My life has changed and I feel like I'm living again, finally.
My hair has grown back and I'm off of most of my meds.
I have gone from a size 34 or 5x to a size 18-20.
I would really like to lose another 100 lbs. but it is coming off very slowly now and I have to work very hard at it and be very diligent. I am not complaining and I thank God for my tool every day and ask for the wisdom to know how to use it properly.
It was very hard for me to say for a long time that I was glad I had the surgery.  I can now say I am glad.. I would not want to go thru all that I've been thru since then but the journey has been worthwhile.  Even if I don't lose any more I can do a lot of thing I could not do before.
List of things I can do now.
1.wear pretty clothes
2.wear heels
3.walk in heels
4.cross my legs
5.be free from my wheelchair
6.sit in a booth at a restaurant
7.play with my grandkids
8.be a better wife & mother
9.ride in anyones car and not worry if the seatbelt will fit or not
10.not be stared at like I'm a freak show
11.exercise
12. fit in a seat at movies and ball games
right now I can't think of anymore, but I'm sure there is a lot I'm forgetting.
Once again I will Thank God for giving me life and for not taking me after surgery.
He does perform MIRACLES!

This is my story of my experience with my surgery. I had LRNY on July 22, 2008. I had my surgery at Durham Regional with Dr. DeMaria and Dr. Myers.
My husband, sister Denise and Mom and Dad went with me. I was very excited because I had waited for this day for nearly 3 years.  I was not scared and could only anticipate my life to come. Little did I know that I was to be the less than 1% that has severe complications.
They took me in for surgery and I woke up to my family telling me how good I did and they loved me.  The Dr. came in and told us that I had a small leak and they fixed it and all should be well. They stayed a while longer then left to go home which is in Lenoir NC(3 1/2 hours away).  My sister who had been with me thru the whole process of testing and waiting for surgery had promised me that she would stay with me and help me until I recovered. So she stayed and they went home. 
Later that night, after using the morphine as frequently as possible, I kept feeling the urge to pee and couldn't. The nurses told me that I had a catheter and just to "let it go" Well I tried and tried and nothing eased the pressure I was feeling. After a few hours of being miserable I finally convinced them to take the catheter out and let me go to the bathroom..I got out of bed and it was very hard because my left shoulder was killing me. I was told that it was gas and it would pass.  I went to the bathroom and tried for over an hour to pee, but still couldn't. I got back in bed and the Dr. was called in.  He checked me and told my sister it was possible I still had a leak.  He was not given permission by the head Dr. to take me back into surgery, instead he wanted them to get me a barium swallow test and see what was happening.  So they took me to get the barium swallow.  At the test site they give me 2 cups of barium and told me to drink it and I did. (2 large cups! after just having my stomach cut to the size of a thumb!)
of courseI obeyed because they are the "experts" and I was drugged out of my mind on morphine. I could not think straight and hardly even knew where I was. As soon as I drunk the barium they had me stand up and do the test. The next thing I remember was being put back in the wheelchair and wheeled out of the room and I told my sister that I was very scared and to please not leave me. She promised she wouldn't and she didn't.  The next thing I remember is waking up with my husband on one side and my sister on the other telling me" It is so good to see you" and how much they loved me.
What I didn't know is that they took me back into surgery on the 23rd of July and found a leak. Because of the barium swallow, I aspirated all of the barium into my lungs and had to be put on a respirator. My kidneys also failed. They called my whole family in and told them I would not live thru the night.  My whole family,friends and a lot of my church members came to Durham. During this time I was told a Dr. Branch bagged me for over 2 hours himself to keep me alive.
I was also told that they let my family come in to say goodbye. My family was not taking this. My Daddy is my pastor and is a true man of God.  He gathered everyone around and they started praying for me and begging God to let me live!  How I love these people!  The Drs. came out and told them that whatever they were doing to keep it up because it looked like I might have a chance.
So what happened is I was put into a medically induced coma. I was on about 26 different medicines and all kinds of machines and sent to CCU.  During this time my sister and my mom stayed with me and took care of me.  My husband was there as often as possible, he had to be home to take care of our son who had Down Syndrome. Of course I was told all of this after I woke up.
They started bringing me out of the coma on August 1,2008.  I remember waking up and seeing my husband on one side of me and my sister on the other. They were saying"It sure is good to see you!" and how much they loved me.  Then the nurse started saying you don't know how far you've come and what you've been thru and I had NO idea what there were talking about.  I wasn't even sure if I had had my surgery or where I was at.  The only thing I could think of was that I was thirsty. I mean thirst that I have never ever had before and would have done anything to have a drink of something.  They kept telling me that the Dr. said I could not have anything, only mouth swabs. Finally after 48 hours they let me have some apple juice in a pill cup. I swear that it was nectar from heaven. I will NEVER forget what it tasted like.  For the next few days I was in and out and don't remember much. I know now I was hallucinating and I thought I could see out of one window the beach and out of another window I thought there was a truck stop. There was only one window in the room and where I thought I was seeing stuff there was no window.  Anyways I was still so thirsty and I got my sister in a headlock and whispered to her to please go over to the truckstop and get me an orange slushy. She just told me the dr. wouldn't let me have it, and I told her"but I won't drink it I just want to put it in my mouth and spit it out. She said NO you have come to far for me to do that!  I still didn't understand what had happened to me. During this time she and my mom took care of me. They stayed there without even going out to get something to eat. They found places to take showers and lived in the waiting room.  I started improving and they transferred me to a regular room. I was only in there a short time until I started having what I thought were panic attacks but come to find out my oxygen was depleted so they sent me back to CCU. I can't say enough about the nurses who took care of me. They were like angels and treated me so good.
Also during this time PT started coming in and getting me to get up and stand.  I must say this is the hardest thing I have EVER tried to do and I really contemplacted just letting go and dying. Thought of my son and loved ones made me fight.  I had bed sores and am still recovering from one. They had me in an airbed and after I woke up it made me seasick! I hated that bed!  I started improving again and was sent back to a regular room for a day until I was sent back to CCU.  During this time I developed large water blisters all over my body and they kept bursting and they kept changing my sheets. I was not in any pain. After the blisters got better I broke out in a skin rash from head to toe including the palms of my hands and soles of my feet.  I started peeling like I had had a bad sunburn and I kept peeling for after a month I got home.  I had lots of experiences that I just won't go into.  On August 26th they started getting me ready to go to Rehab. It is located on the top floor of Durham Regional. This scared me to death because they told me noone could stay with me. My sister had been with me all the time and my mother had been there at least 95%of the time.  I depended on them and instead of letting the nurses take care of me I would call for them for everything..the Drs. told them that they were enabling me and they needed me to rely on myself and the nurses. So I went to Rehab on August 27.  I was told that I would need to stay for 2 weeks. After "doing" rehab I figured I could do that for myself at home, so I talked them into letting me go home after just 9 days of being there. A lot of things happened in rehab, maybe later I will tell some of that, nothing really bad, just bad experiences for me.
So I came home on September 4, 2008.  When I finally got home after a 3 1/2 hour drive, my mom and my sister and my son were all waiting for me.  I barely could get in the door.  I was so weak I couldn't get up the one small step into my house.  I just started crying..so my sister pulled me by the hand and my husband pushed me from behind and I finally got in the house.  HOME SWEET HOME
The next few days are a blur.  I was very weak and was using a walker and wheelchair and could barely make it to the bathroom and bed.  I was so weak I couldn't even roll over in the bed by myself.  My husband would turn me and prop me.  There is a whole lot to tell about my recovery but I just can't do it now. I wil say that I'm still not able to say I'm glad I had the surgery. I have lost 98 lbs. and feel much better but I still have good days and bad days. Later I will tell about my eating and stuff like that.
I don't mean for this to be a scary story or to disencourage anyone from having WLS.  It's just MY story and what happened to me.