Ulcer - ugh!

May 17, 2012

I know it's been a while since my last post but thought I should add something about what I've been going through lately.

So, the "chest pains" that I have been suffering through for the last 8 months or so is due to an ulcer.  My family doctor ran all sorts of tests but came up with nothing so he referred me back to the bariatric clinic as he thought it may have something to do with my bypass surgery.
I met with the surgeon & as soon as I explained my symptoms he said I have an ulcer.  He then asked me what I was doing for the pain & when I told him ibuprofen he got mad.  He said "ibuprofen is kryptonite" & I should not take it for the rest of my life.  

Ok, I admit that I misunderstood - I thought it was only until I healed after surgery, not for the rest of my life.  I was taking a LOT of them before my hysterectomy due to the amount of pain I was in but didn't think anything about it.
The reason why the ibuprofen started to only last about 2hrs instead of 4 was because it was helping at 1st while making the ulcer worse at the same time.  So between taking the ibuprofen & the amount of stress I have been under for the past 8-9 months, I gave myself an ulcer!  Oh joy!

I had the scope done last week & it was only a small one (thankfully).  I now have to take these huge pills 4 times a day on an empty stomach (1hr before or 2-3hrs after eating - not an easy task when I can't take them with my calcium & tend to eat every 2-3hrs) BUT it's MUCH better than surgery so I will take it!  I also have to continue taking the pantaloc that I was taking for my acid reflux before they fixed my herniated hiatus during my surgery but now I am to take it twice a day instead of once to keep the stomach acids in check while the ulcer heals.
So, just a warning to anyone out there - most of you probably already know this but I'm sure there are others that misunderstood as I did - DO NOT TAKE IBUPROFEN!!

An another note, I seem to have hit another stall in my weightloss.  I have stopped going to the gym as I thought with the nicer weather I would be going outside for walks again & doing a lot of gardening, etc.  Well, the gardening has been happening, but not as often as I was going to the gym and I have not been going on my walks as planned.
I was down to 172 lbs a few weeks ago but have gone back up to 178 lbs as of this morning.  Depressing but still under my original goal. 

I have noticed that my portion sizes have been slowly increasing too, so I'm going to go back to measuring my portions again & being very mindful of what I eat as well as going to nightly walks again (provided it's not raining).  I'm still debating going back to the gym again, too.  I will wait & see if these other changes help or not before forking out more money to the gym.

On a positive note, I have noticed the excess skin in slowly shrinking more - especially in my thighs & neck!   I was hoping my thighs would have been a little "prettier" for this summer but maybe by next summer I won't have to wear shorts over my bathing suit to hide them.

I have said in the past that I didn't want to have the skin removal surgery but after living with it like this, I can totally understand why so many people want it.  I am going to wait another year before I decide.  However, I AM going to start saving for breast implants!  I miss my breasts!!!  I had the most depressing shopping day ever last week - trying on bras!  I'm smaller now than I have been since grade 9!!  Some people seem to think that's a good thing but I always loved having large breasts (so did my husband) and I would like them back!!!  If there was a way to do it without implants, I would be all over it but for now....I am saving my pennies!!  :)

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