First follow up

I learned yesterday that it was ok for me to remove the bandage covering my bellybutton/port site. I was really nervous because through the bandage, I felt something hard and was worried the port hadn't been implanted. I was vey happy to see underneath the bandage was additional gauze stuck in there. I tried to get it off, but couldn't; it was stick to the skin glue! But it was nice just to have that bandage gone and the itchiness from the tape gone.

I had my first follow up appointment this morning and they said I'm healing well. He took the stuck gauze out relatively easily and put me on a ticker consistency diet... Custard style yogurt and runny oatmeal mmmmmmmmm. Ok, not so knim, but nice that I will have additional options to eat! I also scheduled my first fill... Feb 14! Happy valentines, no chocolate or romantic dinner for me! That's ok... Once all this damned fat is gone, I'm sure there will be plenty of romantic dinners!

I have to say, though, that when I called to make the follow up appt yesterday, I ended up feeling like nothing but a number. She was nice as pie (mmmmm pie) but spoke to me as though she had no idea who I was, although I assumed she had my info in front of her. She was talking about me getting fills and I was telling her not so quick, and she kept on about the fills, finally realizing that I wasnt at that stage yet. It was a little disappointing. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has felt like that. At least I'd
Ike to think I'm not alone in that... At least the tech I met today was really nice. (he didn't seem to know much about me either though).

Ok, enough Debbie downer shit. Between my boohoo-wahwah and the horribly depressing newscast on tv, it's time for me to take a walk and activate some feel good endorphins!

Ttfn

Week one, down!

I'm at the start of week 2... Ok, well it started a day or two ago... Not sure if the count starts Friday or Saturday? Is surgery day day zero or day 1? Guess it doesn't really matter in the scheme of it all. So as I was saying...

Early week 2 and I woke up kinda nauseous. I realized that I forgot to take my pain med last night; I fell asleep early (which was really nice, I might add! Insomnia has been kicking my ass!). I had some pain this morning, but nothing too terrible and good morning - I pooped! It always seems to go back to poop somehow.

I found out that I have to call my surgeon for a follow up. All this week I was waiting for someone to call me. I did get a number of follow up calls from the hospital though.

I also realized I didn't take my walk yesterday or the day before. I got too caught up in getting my iTunes and playlists added on to the Mac (recent pc crashed) and I am still fighting with the damned thing... All music is finally there but where the he'll are the playlists? Grrrrrrrr.... The fight continues, but I will go for a walk as soon as my husband gets home.

Ttfn

A little more clear

Hello world! Nice to see you again. A least a little more clearly than I have in the past week.

I didn't take any pain meds yesterday except for a dose last night to make sure I got some sleep especially since yesterday was borderline torturous between the soreness at the port site, atrocious gas and the worst, burning itchiness that took over my belly! Plus it was my first day all alone. My husband went to work and my bff had to go, well, just be I suppose. Anyway, I disnt feel comfortable at all being that out of my head and not having anyone there if something should go wrong. I'm a huge worry wart, always worrying about the worst case scenario... What if I slip and fall? There's an intruder? I set the house on fire? There's a zombie invasion... Seriously, what if? So no meds for me... My husband got off work early so there was some relief. I felt hungry yesterday, too. Like nothing could satisfy me. I even cheated myself and ate some cornbread crumbs. Im so weak!

Today, I woke up feeling the closest to myself than. Have in a week. Not a lot of pain, gas isn't awful, not overly hungry. I'm glad I have the wherewithal to limit how I take those pain meds. It tastes like shit, but I kinda appreciate the vegetative state it puts me in... Inasmuch as I like it, it's no way to live so limits are good. I only have 5 doses left and id prefer not to have to request an extra refill. I am, however, really happyi took off more time from work than I originally planned.

Initially, I was only gonna take a week but after reading message boards, etc, my dr put me off for two weeks.I don't thinki can imagine going back to work and having to wear real clothes. I've been walking around with sweats pulled below my belly, being as comfortable as possible. All my work clothes are tight, and not all that comfy. I hope next week will be enough for me to feel better enough to go back, but we shall see. I'm getting nervous because I haven't heard from my dr yet and don't know when I get this bandage off... Guess I will call Tuesday if. Don't hear from them today.

I had butternut squash soup mixed w veggie broth for breakfast. I love squash and sweet potato but just do NOT dig the soups! I think I will leave poop colored lentil alone too. Not bad, just not my flavor. Now, the corn soup and tomato/red pepper trader joes and ralphs broccoli and red potato/garlic soups are BOMB. Definitely no problem for me to eat those! I love the potato mixed with turkey brith... So yummy. It tastes like gravy with a little drop of mashed potatoes.. Kinda tastes like thanksgiving!

Clearly, it's lunchtime for me, so ttfn!

Living in a fog

My life since Friday has been a thick fog. I only remember bits and pieces, but I guess not much has really happened to remember. I went to the store yesterday... My husband obviously drove. We started at Trader Joes where I picked up more soups and broths and then a couple more soups and v8. Im trying to go a little longer in between pain meds. I took a dose last night at 10p and didn't take it again until about 11a today. I was having some sharp pains in my port area so that's when I decided to take it. It leaves me completely useless and I'm hoping not to have to request an extra refill.

So three cheers for poop cuz I finally pooped yesterday! It was a complete and utter mess... Nuclear warfare, really, but man what a relief!

Today gas started early and it's been a more difficult day. Walking and a hot shower didn't help at all. I went for a drive and thought we were gone for hours; We hadn't been gone an hour. I'm all dopey now from the drugs and just finished my lunch. It was a low sodium broccoli soup and I added chicken broth to make it more runny. It was really yummy! I plan on trying the potato and garlic soup and I will add turkey broth. Hope it gives me the flavor I'm expecting! The soup diet isn't bad for me although I cannot wait to chew!

Ok, guess I will sign off. This medicinal babble is boring even me, and I'm high as hell!

Something else that deserves the finger:

Gas. I have so much gas. Day one it came out the top, day two it came out the bottom and today, it just wants to stay trapped. I walked a couple of blocks and took some mylanta, but no relief. Shit, this sucks! Pain meds are doing their job for sure. I've been in a fog for days now, but I'm still managing to function. Oh! I took a shower today, too. It was so refreshing!

Anyway, gotta try to move more to work the bitchy bloat away. Good luck to me!

Lap-Band vs. Realize

Just before surgery, my surgeon asked me if I'd prefer the Lap-Band or Realize brand gastric band (ain't that a mouthful!) . She said the only real difference between the two are their sensors; that the Realize website is really robust and users really like it. I told her that I found the lap band website wasn't so user friendly and I will be using online support so I went with the Realize band.

Well, GREAT decision because I created a post on the lap band website a couple days ago looking for a buddy and someone responded! YAY! =). But when I went to reply this morning, I got some lame error message that said sometinh about needing 5 posts before I could reply. Seriously??? Seriously. Thank god I was able to respond thru a direct message. I am giving that damned site the finger!!!! =( meh.

Post-Surgery, Day 1-2

The folks at Cedars are quite fantastic and I will surely send in commendations for the nursing staff. Ok so this is how it went down:

After surgery when I "woke up," I just remember eating tiny ice cubes and needing to drink water. As I've read on the message boards, I had a significant amount of pain from the gas. I asked if I could take Gas-X or if the could help me and I was told to walk. Eventually I got up to pee, which seriously was a painful trickle, but no gas release. I figured if they wouldn't give me anything, I'd take the gas x in the car.

As info, I checked in @ 5a, pre-op began around 6a, surgery was 7:15, and I think I woke up just before 9a. I was released to go home at 1:30p. I had a thick pillow with me that I strapped the seatbelt around which was really helpful. I didn't feel every bump on the road but I certainly felt those godawful bigger potholes that lie all about this damned city!

When I got to the car, my teeth started chattering which I thought was weird. I took a gas x, which is seriously disgusting, and waited for it to kick in. When we got home, I didn't feel like I needed as much help to get out of the car and walk into the house but my husband was right there to help.

When we got in the house I immediately felt pain, so I took some of the painkiller. The dosage said 15-30 ml so I took 15. I also took the smashed anti-barf pill with a lil applesauce, which was so bitter it made me gag. I kept drinking water and started on some v-8, but suddenly I couldn't deal with any of it. I started getting sweaty hot but had the chills, got super dizzy, nauseous and just felt pain. None of the meds were helping. On top of it, my throat was super sore from having a tube down during surgery and I had lots of sticky, dry phlegm at the back of my throat that I was trying to get out but couldn't because of pain. That gas pressure felt like my ribs and lungs were bruised. I was trying to burp myself by patting my chest and even had my husband patting my back at the same time. Nothing. Eventually tiny burps came out but did nothing in terms of relief. I just kept pacing and trying to sit straight up to get the gas out. Nothing. The pressure seemed to get worse and my panic about it started making the pain worse but I was afraid to take more meds because it had only been 2 1/2 hors since the last dose. A half hour later that went out the window and I started with he meds. First was Prilosec capsule open in applesauce - the wrong medium btw. The med balls got stuck in my teeth. The nausea got so bad, I felt like I was gonna barf, and I couldn't finish the applesauce. I took another anti-barf pill but took it whole with a swallow of water. I knew I'd definitely barf if I smashed it again. I paced some more then sat. My husband just rubbed my back for what seemed like hours. When i finally got up to pee, i burped a little and felt a slight relief, but still horribly painful. I started freaking out which exacerbated all the pain and caused me to cough. The phlegm was so bad, I tried to cough it up which triggered me to totally gag. Since I was extremely nauseous already, my mouth started watering, I got hot chills and immediately threw a cold, wet cloth on the back of my neck and ears because I knew I wad about to barf. Just the gag was extremely painful and I knew if I let myself barf, it would just be a bout of painful heaves since I had nothing but water and drugs. As I stood over the sink getting ready to face the faux barf, my husband immediately started rubbing my back. It felt so good and soothing, shortly the barfiness subsided. He just stayed there with me for an hour and rubbed my back. Finally, more burps came out and relief started showing up. During that time I felt ok enough to take more pain meds, but took 20 ml. Suddenly, everything seemed to kick in all St he same time and I felt like myself again. I was still in pain and gassy, but it was tolerable and I was able to relax and actually rest.

I took another dose of pain meds at midnight and went to bed. Woke up today at 6a and took a dose of pain meds. I still have some gas stuck and sticky phlegm and am sipping on some sweet potato soup for breakfast. I will have some protein laced v8. I'm gonna go for a walk later too.

The tip of the story: gas x sucks and be sure you have someone to stand behind you for hours and tub the gas out. Ttfn

Woke up this morning hungry. Shocking, I know. I haven't drank any breakfast yet. I feel like once I do start today's liquid, it will trigger the hunger more. I guess I'm gonna have to chance it.

I noticed last night (or more like this morning) that I had really bad heartburn/acid tummy. Prilosec helped and I was able to go to sleep. I slept in until 8a today... Super late for me! But I noticed that with every toss and turn I was very aware about how much we use our stomach muscles and more, how much it's probably gonna suck for the next few days. I hope the pain meds work well! And mother nature decided to share a surprise visit from aunt flo... I was not ready for that bitch to be here, especially with the worst day falling on surgery day. Man, that is gonna SUCK! It's gonna be a mess.

I'm glad to have taken work off today so I can do all my last minute running around. Guess I better get going!

So my lap-band surgery is on Friday. I am so nervous and excited! Today was the first day of my liquid diet. I am so hungry! I am also experiencing insomnia, which is probably the nerves, and now at 1am, I am feeling heartburn. I read some posts of people who had some really bad proble,s and regret the surgery, so now I am starting to reconsider. I won't back out, just adds to the nerves.

Today, I weighed in at 227 lbs. Let's see how it goes!