I had my surgery June 10th at 11:30- they got me into the pre-op area where I was gowned, started my IV fluids, got my vitals, took a pregnancy test, weighed in, yadda yadda...
They gave me something on the way into the OR to start the process of putting me under; I remember getting into the OR, transferring over to the surgery table, talking with the staff, and then it was lights out.
Surgery took about an hour and a half- waking up took me another two hours.
Waking up from anesthesia is the hardest and most miserable thing: you're in pain, you're nauseated, you can't breathe....you feel like the biggest complainer in the world. Nurses in recovery have to be the most patient people in the world. I got dose after dose of every pain and nausea medicine they could possibly give me. I had a catheter inserted during surgery which really wasn't a terrible thing; what was horrible was having a crotch full of goo from the lube they use to insert it.
Have I mentioned that anesthesia removes your ability to filter what you say? I saw a good-looking male nurse walking around in recovery and told my nurse that, if I were single, I'd have asked that male nurse to help me with my itchy crotch-full-of-goo situation. She laughed and told me he played for the other team (true story- he ended up being the nurse helping me to my room and helping me put on a clean hospital gown/transferring me to the bed...and I think he had heard about my earlier request for his assistance....I still wasn't embarrassed).
Once in my room, I was hooked up to a pain pump that gave me .2mg of Dilaudid every ten minutes (another true story- I watched Jeopardy that night and pretended that it was my buzzer...best. episode. EVER). I also had continuous IV fluids. My family didn't stay long because it was after 3 when I woke up, and I told them to go so they wouldn't have to fight rush hour traffic. I laid there and dozed off and on most of the evening anyways...who wants to sit around and watch that?
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| After surgery selfie! |
The pain pump did its job, but I did have some intermittent nausea, so I had to request some IV Zofran every now and then; the first 24 hours after surgery, you're NPO. The next day, I had to go down to x-ray and swallow some contrast so they could check and see if I had any leaks. The contrast tastes as good as it sounds; it's thick and syrupy as well. I thought several times that I was gonna puke on the poor guy doing my x-ray. When I got to turn around and see my new stomach, it was shocking; it looked like a Twizzler. It was so small that even the doc, who sees sleeve gastrectomy stomachs on a daily basis, remarked "wow, he made it really small". This isn't my actual stomach, but this looks very similar (and just a bit bigger)
The first 4 days after surgery were horrible because of the pain, nausea, and trying to stay hydrated.I have 5 incisions; the incision that hurt the most (and still does) is the one furthest to my right- that's the incision where they insert the hook that lifts up your liver so they're able to get to your stomach.
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| incisions 3 days post-op |
We went on vacation 4 days after surgery. Nothing too far away or extravagant- we just went a few hours away to the Indiana Cave Trail in southern Indiana. It was a little hard at first because I was taking in so few calories and had little energy. I ate mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, and drank protein shakes. I could only eat about 2 oz at a time. My biggest struggle was getting in 48-64 oz of fluid a day. Even now, 13 days out, I still have to sit here and focus on drinking constantly. I'm just getting to the point that I get in all my fluid plus 40-60 grams of protein.
I'm no longer needing my pain medication, but I do still need my anti-nausea and reflux medicine. I've backed off from the protein shakes (I may have one every other day) and I'm eating things like scrambled eggs with cheese (1 egg), italian baked ricotta (super delicious), refried beans with cheese, and string cheese. I made the mistake one night of having some canned chicken and it was incredibly painful....Sleevie Wonder wasn't ready for that yet.
My only complication at this point is that my top incision is getting infected- I noticed it looked red yesterday and when I was cleaning it, I gave it a gentle squeeze and a pea-sized ball of green pus came out, followed by serous fluid. My two week follow-up is tomorrow morning, so I'm just keeping it clean and watching it.
I went into surgery weighing 283 lbs- today, 13 days later, I'm down to 272. Counting my pre-op diet weight loss, I've lost 22lbs since May 28th.
So, my stats are:
HW- 380lbs
SW- 283lbs
CW- 272lbs
Can't wait to watch those numbers drop!
