6 weeks!

Oct 15, 2010

On Tuesday Aug 31^st went to the hospital at 7am and in the operating room by 11am, longest wait ever. I was out by 1pm but I am not sure what time I actually woke up. When I did wake up I remember my mouth and throat feeling extremely dry and not being able to swallow. I had serious gas pains immediately. I remember saying help me and 2 nurses started moving around pretty quickly to get me comfortable. They sat me up, removed the oxygen mask and gave me the cannula. Another nurse gave me pepcid via IV and I immediately started belching which helped to relieve some of the pressure. They then gave me the magical morphine pump but then it made me nauseous and I threw up blood which then sent them into serious action. They gave me zofran and determined that it was leftover blood from the surgery. I didn’t get to the ICU until 7pm. It was a miserable night full of gas and nausea. Must of the same for the next day, I started clear liquids and seriously thought I was drinking glass shards instead of water or juice. I didn’t need a leak test because the surgeon did it while I was still in surgery. I did end up having to stay until that Thursday the 2^nd because of the nausea and gas. Those 3 days were pure hell and I kicked myself for going through with the surgery. Sept 2^nd, I got home and tried to stick to the plan of drinking 1-3 oz per 30 mins and rest 30 mins. More pure hell. At night was worse, because I had gas pains and nausea. The heating pad and gas x became my best friend. I moved to full liquids by that Sunday and things got even worse. I still had gas pains and bouts of nausea and vomiting. I felt myself getting weaker and weaker by the day. I was getting in less than 20 oz of liquid in a day and protein shakes made me really sick so I pretty much didn’t have any protein and no calories because everything was sugar free. By the time sept 14^th came, I had had enough and called the surgeons office to talk about the nausea and vomiting. They made me go straight to the ER and I was admitted for 48 hours but ended up staying for 72 hrs. I was actually happy to be there! They did a chest and abdomen xray. They ordered nothing by mouth for 48 hours to rest my stomach and maybe reduce some swelling and then full liquids after that. They gave me zofran and pepcid around the clock in my IV. The worse part of the stay was having to get bags of potassium, it burns like hell going in and it takes hourssss to complete. I burst out of there on sept 17^th stronger and happier but a little scared that now it’s all up to me again to keep my fluids up. Turns out that I still had problems with protein shakes so I found things to keep me hydrated and didn’t worry about protein for the first week after being home. I had my first post op visit on the 22^nd and he cleared me to start purees so that I could start to get protein in and said that I could stay out of work or go back. I decided to go back for half days starting on the 29^th and then full days starting oct 4^th. During that time before going back to work, I became stronger and able to get more liquids in and started a routine for getting my protein in. By the time I got back to work, I had a schedule going and its been good every since. I still can only get in about 40 oz of liquid in a day but I do get about 60 oz of protein and I am now 6 weeks out as of oct 12^th. I feel normal now except for when I had to eat or drink, that’s still a learning process. Eating and drinking slowly and not doing those things at the same time. Figuring out what my new sleeve can handle and what it can’t. I still get nausea every once in a while but haven’t had to take the zofran pills in a week or so. At this point, I am down 35 pounds. I don’t obsess over the weight loss because in the beginning it was all about survival because at some point I really didn’t think that I was going to make it. It seems that most people feel that way in the beginning but it really doesn’t mean anything until you actually experience it for yourself. I can eat about 2-3 oz at a time and I usually eat 3 times a day but some days I am really hungry and will eat 4 times. My NUT says it should be 5-6 but there’s not way I can right now and I am getting in my protein requirements with just the 3 meals so I am not worried. I haven’t started to exercise yet but my community is opening up a fitness center very soon and I hope to hop on the treadmill soon. Now that the gas, nausea, and vomiting are over, I feel like I can focus on really starting this weight loss journey.

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