YAY! I can finally count myself among those awesome folks
known as post-ops! This is going to be a bit of a long update since it’s been a
while since I was here last…I promise I’m trying to get better at this…I really
am.
For starters as you can see from my last post I broke
through that stall at 416 and then on down to under 400 finally and on the
morning of surgery I was at 387.5 pounds. That’s 63 pounds lost PRE-OP! I know
everyone keeps telling me how proud they are of me for reaching such a goal but
a small part of me still is sort of sad that I wasn’t able to go into surgery achieving
my surgeons 60 or under BMI goal of 372 pounds. But you know what…I’ll take it.
There is not a lot to tell about the endoscopy which is why
I didn’t really make a whole post about it. I went in, had it done, and was ok
afterwards (according to my Mom I “woke up” as a “Chatty Cathy.” I say “woke up”
because apparently they don’t really put you all the way to sleep…it’s just
some kind of short acting cocktail of anesthesia that sort of puts you in a “twilight”
state. Not exactly what I wanted to hear since I cringe at anything remotely
related to Twilight, ‘tweens, Bella, vampires, and Teenagers—all in that order.
ICK.
Leading up to surgery like everyone else I had a few fears.
I will tell you that I honestly relied on my faith for this one because I never
once thought that I would pass away or anything like that. I knew logically that
I have a better chance of being killed by a rabid squirrel rather than dying on
that operating table but if I continued on the path that I was previously on
being almost 500 pounds that I definitely could end up in a casket or at least
on an oxygen tank before my 40th birthday.
Basically I just kept calm and level headed about the entire
thing and I found that suited me even better than anything else. I did have to
prepare a sheet with phone numbers of friends and family and my insurance info,
etc. for my Mom to have just in case she needed that information and I even
took the additional step to make a little note on the bottom that if I was incapacitated
for any reason that she was to be the sole person to make any life changing or
preserving decisions for me. I think I have
told her before (and it’s on my license) that I am an organ donor so that is
something that we did not have to cover again.
The morning of surgery we got to Lake Norman Regional Medical Center a few
minutes early (had to be there by 9:00 AM and we got there at like 8:50 AM so I
had a few minutes to spare and get out of the car). When we got there we let
the auxiliary staff (I think that’s what they call the elderly people that help
out and volunteer there when they retire) know I was there for surgery and it
wasn’t even 5 minutes before they called me back.
First thing they did was check my name, info, make sure I
was who I said I was (how many times are they gonna ask you your birthday
sheesh!) and then I weighed and had my Mom take my official pre-op picture.
After that I got changed into my Bear Paw Gown (same
as I had during the endoscopy on June 1-see small blurb below) and my nurses
got my IV started and Dr. Heider came in to see me to go over any last minute
questions, etc. Finally they wheeled me off to surgery after I said goodbye to
and kissed my Mom and off I went to the operating room to get some sleepy meds
and wake up a member of the itty bitty belly committee! Bwahahahaha!
First thing I can remember after coming to was the PAIN! OH GOD THE PAIN! Now I will tell you
having never had any other type of surgeries in my life it was WAAAAYYY less
than what I had expected (in fact pain was the only thing that I was seriously
worried about) but there was still pain none-the-less. I remember someone
telling me that they were going to get me something for it and I briefly
remember being in recovery at that point. The next thing that I can remember is
waking up in my room and my Mom being there and she said I told her again that
they hurt me. She said she was just so hurt at that thought and felt so
helpless knowing that there was nothing she could do to help her baby (I know
that feeling…I remember when she was in the hospital and thinking she looked so
small and helpless :-( )
From that point forward I have been pretty lucky to have a
smooth journey in terms of post-op life. The first day I was not allowed to
have anything by mouth and the only thing that bothered me is just how dry my
mouth and throat were. They gave me these swabs that looked like a big pink
q-tip and then some that tasted like lemon drops (they had glycerin) on them
but once I was able to drink after that horrid leak test, I was all good (SN:
That stuff that you drink tastes like LEMON PLEDGE!!! UGHHHHH!).
After the leak test results came back and all was well I was
able to start on ice water and later that afternoon they brought me a tray with
decaf iced tea, lemon and orange sugar free gelatin (that tasted like
hospital), and beef broth. I finished the orange gelatin, took a few sips of
the tea, finished my water from earlier, and left the beef broth…it was nasty.
(I have found that I only like the broth either from Campbell’s chicken noodle
soup or homemade that my Mom makes).
Now I am just a little bit perturbed about the hotel
stay. For one the “best” rate that we
could get with a discount from LNRMC for Bariatric Surgery patients was $104
per night. But get this…I think we saw all of FIVE PEOPLE staying at the hotel
the entire time I was there. I know it was a holiday and all (July 3-4) but
considering they had NO guests virtually you would have thought that we would
have been given some sort of a break or at least a better rate. On top of that when I called downstairs the
morning we were to check out to see if I could do a late checkout we were told
that the latest that we could do was 12:00 PM! WHAT!?!!?!? SERIOUSLY!!?!?!?!
Unless there was a tour bus of nuns that was due to arrive in Mooresville on
the Fourth of July I think we quite frankly could have stayed in our room a
little longer. (For the record we only
needed to stay until 1:00 PM as I had a friend that came to pick me up to drive
me back home. I just wanted to be safe since I was still taking pain meds at
this time).
To top it all off since we had to check out early and I didn’t
want to overdo it with trying to move bags and stuff to the car my Mom and I
went down about 11:15 to take some things to the car. Now before we left I
looked carefully at our hotel room and noticed that the “DO NOT DISTURB” sign
was promptly displayed. Do you know when we came back (and a lot of stuff was
still in the room) that the housekeeping staff was actually cleaning our room!
Really? That’s what we’re gonna do now? Just ignore the signs on the door? And
when I stopped outside she had the nerve to ask, “Oh is this YOUR room?” No b**ch! I just saw an open doorway and
thought I’d stand here with a gaping hole in my face until you noticed me!
Luckily they were out of the room pretty quickly, nothing
was missing, and we finished packing, resting, and checked out on schedule at
12 noon. We then waited in the lobby for about an hour and a half until my
friend Candace came to drive me back home. Thanks Candy! :-)
Since I’ve been home things have went really well. Today for
instance I was able to get in about three bottles of water, my regular meds for
blood pressure (back on those since surgery but I am thinking it won’t be long until
I am off them for good!), lots of chicken noodle soup broth which seems to
soothe my little belly, a sugar free popsicle, and I have even had chewable
vitamins. Money is tight right now so I won’t really be able to get my official
vitamins that I will be using until next week but somehow I’ll make it work.
I can tell you that no one was more shocked than me when I
went to my first follow up appointment with Dr. Heider this am to have my JP Drain removed
and saw the scale read 379! 379!
379?!?!? Seriously? An 8.5 pound weight loss in 4 days? OMG how is that
even humanly possible? It defies logic I tell you! And yet…I’ll take it any way
I can get it! HA!
(Yes…that is a gross blood clot that stayed in the
drain until my surgeon took it out as it was too big to pass out when I had to
drain it each night)
Everyone keeps telling me how proud they are of me and I of
course always say thank you but I still don’t feel it quite yet. I know I’ve
done an excellent job but the perfectionist in me will not be satisfied until I
reach that first goal and make it to 200 pounds. But the way things are going, I think it won’t
be long until I get there.
Well…I’m tired. I need half of a pain pill (abdominal area
still kind of sore when I try to lie down), and I want to see what Mom is up to
in the living room. She’s watching her DVR’d “stories” LOL!
I think “Bebe” is starting to shine through
and on that note I will leave you with this inspirational poster…
