2.5 years post-op

Jul 23, 2010

Wow, I have not been on here in a while!  So much has happened.  The best thing is that I am now 7 months pregnant with our second child, after going through two difficult miscarriages last year.  We started trying for a baby as soon as we reached that 18 month post-op milestone and got the OK from my doctor, my body just didn't want to cooperate.  Typical.

My son is doing fantastic.  He still talks about mommy being sick, and is very nervous about me returning to the hospital soon to have the baby (repeat c-section), but otherwise seems to have made it through our horrifying ordeal OK.  It's amazing how much a 2-year old can remember, though - he's 4.5 now and still talks about "mommy's food" (feeding tube) like it was yesterday.

I had a tough year with weight gain last year, I put on about 20 lbs.  I was very depressed after the repeat miscarriages and unfortunately ate my way through the pain.  My parents also moved from Tucson to OK, due to a job transfer, which was extremely hard.  This led us to put our own house on the market and start the process of moving back to Texas, which is where the rest of our family is.  I'm happy to report that a year after we decided to move, we finally made it!  We love our new home and my SIL is able to watch our son for us, which is wonderful.  No more daycare!

So the question I always get asked (still) is would you do the surgery again?  Absolutely, yes.  I still have a lot of guilt around almost dying and leaving my family alone, but my post-op post-traumatic stress disorder problem is finally gone and mentally I feel good.  The only physical  problems remaining from my ordeal are my 12 ugly scars, including the lovely 18 inch midline one which is stretching out even bigger with pregnancy (great.).  And it hurts when I sneeze and breathe deeply in the mornings, which is due to scar tissue around my lungs (the abscess and leak were on my left side under the diaphragm).

Every time I tell my story, especially to anyone in the medical field, I am grateful all over again to have made it through this - especially happy and whole.  What I went through *should* have killed me, but by the grace of God it did not!  I know others are not as fortunate.  Every time my OB sees my scar, she reminds me how lucky I am to be alive.  The best thing about nearly dying is that I now cherish everything in my life so much more, because I almost lost it all.  

Good luck and best wishes to all contemplating this surgery.  It is lifechanging in ways you can't even believe.  Anyone who is experiencing a leak or difficulty post-op with VSG, please feel free to contact me. 

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