Home... My Next Steps..

Hello Everyone, I am so sorry I have been delayed in my post so many things have happened and boy I can't believe that the time has flown by.. It sure seemed like a snails pace waiting for the surgery day to arrive and now here it is 6 days later. Soooo let me bring you all up to speed!!

The day of surgery arrived with quite a bit of anxiousness on my part. I tried very hard to keep it in check but well that went to the way side a few times, but I do have to say I did manage to keep it under control for the most part. I had to be at the hospital by 515am on Tuesday morning my poor mom & sister sure had a long day of waiting! Anyways I started out the morning by taking my day of surgery "Before" pictures. At the hospital I was brought in, given one of those very stylish gowns, pee'd in a cup, weighed ( at my request) and started my IV. In case I did not mention before - 2 weeks prior to surgery you are required to be on a high protein liquid diet, the purpose of this diet is to shrink your liver so that it allows the laproscopic tools easier access to where they need to be. This diet was EXTREMELY hard to stick to but I managed with very few exceptions and lost 23lbs prior to my surgery day, hence the reason I requested to be weighed. Anyways the hospital staff were very friendly and things were done in a very prompt manner. At 730am I was rolled into the Surgery room. I remember, of course, the room being completely white, & sterile along with several big trays filled with surgical tools. I even made mention about all those tools being needed for just ME??? The biggest thing that surprised me the most was that when I was to get on the surgical table I had to make sure I had my feet flat against a bottom shelf, I asked about this and they said that this was when they tilted the table and stood me up.. I had about 30 seconds to wonder about that and make my last minute comments about them not telling any fat jokes during my surgery and it was lights out!!!!
Hours later or what seemed like minutes to me I remember being in my hospital room with what seemed like swarms of people around me. I had an oxygen mask on and people yelling at me to wake up and to stay awake. I was having allot of trouble with the anesthetic, my blood pressure was dropping to dangerously low levels and I was have breathing issues. The morphine pump for pain that was given to me had to be taken away ( I was robbed..lol) because that was also causing my low blood pressure. I remember my sister & my Mom tag teaming me, standing on each side of me, tapping me on the hand, arm or whatever every time I dozed off to wake me up. I remember thinking to myself that they were very annoying and I wanted to slap them back but was unable to do anything more then think about it. In retrospect of course, they were doing what was necessary to keep me or try to keep me awake. I also remember the PA telling me that they were gonna have to put in a breathing tube if I did not get better soon.

The pain itself was very intense, I always have thought that I have a very high pain tolerance and to be honest I really had no thoughts at all prior to the surgery about how much pain would be involved. I guess, I blocked that part out, I mean I know that it was not gonna be a pain free but I did not expect what I was feeling. I guess I had just heard laproscopic RNY was so much easier then the open I was expecting things to be a little less then what was. Anyways, I remember blurting out that no one told me it was gonna hurt so much !! Of course, even if I had been told it would have made no difference I would have still had the surgery.

The next morning ( Day 2) I was doing better, by then I had gotten most of the anesthetic out of my system, they found a pain medicine that was working and had me up doing some walking. Walking is one of the best things you can do for yourself after surgery, it does wonders. I still had a tube down my nose into my stomach for drainage ( very Uncomfortable) a tube out my side for drainage and the catheter keeping my bladder empty. Earlier in the morning I did have the nose tube removed and went to have my upper GI to make sure that all holes inside were sealed up tight. I passed that test and was given the go ahead to be able to at least drink liquids. The PA - Nancy came in to check on me and said I was doing much better then the night before, she still had some concerns specifically about my breathing but things were looking up. I was being given Breathing treatments on a regular basis ( Every 4 hours on the dot) and yet I was still having shortness of breath. They also felt that my urine out put was not right either so they decided to piggy back my IV's and get things flowing. Needless to say all that did was increase the amount of water I retained. I hope that I am not the only person to ever go into the hospital for bariatric surgery to lose weight and came out gaining 25lbs.. No joke either, that is what happened.

Day 3 started out better, they removed my catheter so that made me more comfortable, my out take started to increase so everyone was much happier about that. However my breathing was still given me difficulties, they changed my breathing treatments, had me go for a vascular ultra sound to make sure there was no blood clots and checked my blood gases or whatever they call that. It is when they take blood from the main artery in your body to get better O2 readings. ( They ended up doing this 3 times) and chest xrays to once again make sure that they were on the correct road to getting my breathing problems under control. Everything turned out fine and they realized that my breathing issues had to do with the smaller vessels in the lungs not opening up correctly or quick enough I think after having the anesthetic. They continued the same treatment course and by Friday I was well enough to come home .

Friday day 4 - I woke up feeling noticeably better and was ready to go home. I still had tons of stomach bloat and gas and you can see by the pictures that I looked like I was pregnant with a baby elephant but my breathing was better, the pain under control and I was doing well. I was moved up to the 2nd level of of the bariatric diet and all was going well. So by Friday afternoon my sister came and got me and I was on my way home.

I would like to say that the staff at Hurley Hospital was great!! DR. Farhan did an excellent job, the nurses really seemed to care and the PA Nancy was an absolute godsend. She was excellent at her job and made you feel like you were her only patient. She was wonderful in all aspects and I think went above and beyond her call of duty. She answered all your questions and also consoled you when you were having that "Why did I do this to myself moments" Which I admit I did have One of those moments, I think it was day 2.

The rest of the weekend I just spent at home trying to get my wits together and getting a routine going. There is a bunch of stuff that you have to try and get in through the day. All your medicine, vitamins, proteins, and the water. It can all be every overwhelming but I understand that I must just take one day at a time and try to get as much in as I can. Sleeping has been something of a chore, laying down flat on my back is very hard to so I am forced to try and find comfortable positions with pillows used as props here and there. I have 6 incisions that average about 1" each at different places in my abdomen 2 on each side, and 1 on the top and bottom areas of my abdomen. These incisions make any sleeping on my sides impossible for now but the pain is getting much better. I am slightly concerned about 1 of the incisions as it burns quite a bit and developed a kind of hardness underneath. I have called the clinic about it but have not heard anything back yet. My only other major complaint it still my stomach bloating. I still feel like I am very pregnant and can't wait for what I assume is gas to go away. Once I think my stomach goes down I will start feeling much better or at least feel like I will begin making headway on my weight loss journey. The one thing that does also really surprise me is how normal my insides do feel. I am not sure exactly what I was expecting but I thought things would feel much different inside, like when I ate or swallowed but mostly it feels just like it did before surgery with the exception of not being hungry. So I guess that is a very good thing.

In closing, I would like to Thank everyone for all the well wishes and emails without all of your support going through this by myself would be very hard. The hospital told me I was a very popular and lucky person to have so many people who cared and I agreed whole heartily. I would also say a special Thanks to everyone who has helped me out. Rich & Wayne for taking such good care of my horses, Dawn for looking in on Porter, my brother & sister in law who help with my outside work at home this weekend, my mother who is taking such good care of me and keeping me on my toes, my sister Rena' who has spent hours running around for me and covering with the extra burdens at work and so on.. I hope I did not leave anything out as if I did it is not intentional.

Till next time.. Take care.. Michele.

Goal -- Help me reach mine. I need to walk and walk and walk some more. So everyone take a few extra steps over the next few days in support of me. It won't hurt you and will help motivate me along.