Small World

Weight 272

My body finally decided to give up trying to hold on to the fluid it retained during my recent gall bladder surgery.

I've been eating pretty normal foods (for me) but have had a hard time getting more than a few bites of anything down. This is where supplementing has saved me. Felicia turned me on to Pro Complex. It can be mixed in as little as 4 oz of fluid so it's easy to get down. The best part is that it tastes like chocolate milk.

On a different note, I received an email yesterday from a woman who had taken me under her wing when I attended my first support group meeting before surgery. She was so sweet and caring and kept in touch with me after my surgery. I hadn't heard from her for a while when I got this email:

Jenn, don't know if you remember me, but I met you at the support group meeting at MMPC before your surgery and talked to you quite awhile. I saw that you had gall bladder surgery on Friday. You're not going to believe this, but I did too. I think we were recovering together. YES, I was the grumpy one across from you. I didn't have my glasses on so I couldn't really see you. All I know is that I was not feeling the greatest and I couldn't believe you were so upbeat and chipper. Sorry I was so grumpy! Anyway, this is quite ironic don't you think?

I can't believe what a small world it is!

Connect The Dots

Weight 278 (gain because of surgery fluids)

I thought I would give you blow by blow details of my gall bladder removal adventure.

• Friday the 13th, 3:00 am wake up call. Finally get Mr. Sign to haul his butt out of bed at 3:45 am.
• 5:30 am, get to the hospital after missing the the road it's on.
• Register just ahead of 10 other people. Yay, no waiting for me.
• Give a urine sample (hooray, I'm not pregnant!)
  
• Receive the largest gown the hospital has. It looked like a strapless gown since the neck hole was so large.
• 6:30 am, I'm taken to the surgical holding area where I watch the rest of the room fill up.
  
• The nurse, EKG tech and the surgeon all decide to come talk to me at the same time. The surgeon wins. He explains that he will be doing some exploratory diagnosis while he's in there. He even draws me a picture. I ask him if I can keep the gall bladder. He says that it's no longer allowed because of bio hazards. He says he can only imagine what I would do with it.
• 7:20 am, nurse tries to start an IV. I've had at least a hundred IVs in my day and show her where she will be successful. She picks a different spot. She says the new catheters are not sharp and it hardly pokes through my skin. The vein rolls and she has to call in enforcements. The new person tries a different spot and fails. I show her my spot. She doesn't like it but tries and gets it in. Yay! I only have one black and blue arm.
• The nurse anesthetist comes in to talk to me and she has the most comforting voice. She explains exactly what will happen and then gives me some "la la juice".
  
• She rolls me to the OR. I slide over to the operating table (which feels much bigger than it did last time) and she tells me we are just waiting on the anesthesiologist. We waited for 10 minutes. I got to have conversations with everyone, including the surgeon who was joking about letting the Physician's assistant do my surgery.
  
• Finally, the anesthesiologist shows up and says that he was trying to drink his coffee in peace but the OR kept interrupting him. I'm assuming he was kidding because he laughed.
• The nurse told me to think about Hawaii and drift off to sleep.
• 9:15 am (I can see the clock). My eyes are open and I finally figure out where I am. I'm shaking violently and I hear the nurse say, "give her (fill in the blank [I was on drugs, I can't be expected to remember this stuff])". They also piled 5 warm blankets on me and I was in heaven.
• The nurse gave me ice chips and I called her a goddess.
• 10:30 am, I'm returned to where I started, only there are differnt patients. I'm doing better than all of them. The rest were grumpy.
• 11:30 am, I'm told to get up to go to the bathroom. They get my clothes and tell me to get dressed. I have a feeling I'm being kicked out. As I'm in the bathroom, I notice that I've started my period. The joys of abdominal surgery!
  
• 11:45, a little tiny old lady comes with a wheel chair to try to escort me out. She hits 3 walls and can't get me into the elevator. I told her I would walk so I got out of the chair and onto the elevator. I turned around to thank her and she was already gone. Hmm..the Little Old Lady From Pasedena just sped away.
• 1:00 pm, we arrive home. I'm in total disbelief that I had surgery just a few short hours before and now I'm home lying on my couch. It's amazing that you can lose a body part and still be sent home in a matter of hours.

This surgery was so much easier than the last. Pain has been minimal. I still have some pain where the gall bladder was, but it's no worse than it was before surgery.

The surgeon took the time to look around in my abdomen since he was there. He was able to use two of my old incisions but had to make two new ones (for a total of eight beautiful scars. I didn't think I'd ever be a bikini model anyway). He checked on the previous gastric bypass surgery that he had performed. He shot dye into my liver to check the ducts for gall stones. The last thing he did was to check on my intestines for hernias. He said everything looked excellent. I'm so relieved. he also said that it was definately my gall bladder that had been causing me all the trouble. He told me all of this in recovery and said I wouldn't remember any of it. I guess I come out of anesthesia easily because I remember everything in vivid detail.

The doctor did say he would like to see me take 2 weeks off work but I'm going to see how well I do after a week. I can't lift anything for a while which won't help me at my job.

Ugh!

Weight 283

Yes, that's a gain of 4 pounds! I have no idea what is going on. Nothing has changed except that I've been taking Vicoden. I'm seriously freaking out here.

Click to visit A Longer Road

For those who started their WLS journey at or above 350lbs.

Keep On Keeping On

Weight 279

I still have pain constantly, but yesterday there were no "twinges".

Today the pain was quite excrutiating at times. I'm still working and today we were putting the lettering on our trailer. I was doubled over several times.

I can't believe I have to wait two more weeks to have this pain gone.

My other option is to go to the ER (one hour away). If I do, and they decide to keep me in the hospital, I have to pay a $500 co-pay.

I'm taking the Vicoden they prescribed right now.

Pain Update

Weight 280

I called the surgeon's office after the pain in my right side got worse. Apparently, they take this stuff pretty serious. They sent me immediately to have blood drawn.

I had an ultrasound. The technician was training someone so she talked the entire time. I knew immediately that I had gall stones because she pointed them out to the trainee.

Tim, my husband, had his 3 month appointment so they worked me in with the physician's assistant. I saw Dr. Kemmeter in the hall. He said that I had been the topic of discussion. He asked what the ultrasound showed and said I would need surgery. He almost seemed excited. I asked if he would do the surgery and he said, "Of course!".

The only problem is that I have to wait until April 13th (Friday) to have surgery. I'm in pain and the idea of having to wait that long is killing me.

I had to have a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia because of this crazy virus I've had for 2 weeks.

The PA was very excited about my weightloss. He did my pre-op exam so that I don't have to come back. That was the only good thing that came of this whole thing.

It's so strange because my head wants to be excited about my weight loss, but my body's not co-operating. I can't wait to feel better.

Woe Is Me

Weight 280

The virus still has it's grips on me, but, I'm feeling quite a bit better that way.

About five days ago, I started to feel some abdominal pain. It's dull, but constant on my right side just below my rib cage (I can actually feel my ribs!). Once in a while there is a sharp twinge. I was hoping it would go away.

It seems to be getting worse rather than better so I called the surgeon's office. I was instructed to have blood drawn immediately so I did. I'm scheduled for an ultrasound today and also with the physician's assistant. Of course, they think it's my gall bladder. I'm hoping it's not.

I'll be so mad if it is since I told them I had had problems in the past. The surgeon said he would check it when he did the RNY. He said at the time that it looked fine. I don't want another surgery but I do want the pain to go away.