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Queenie10

Member
Hello out there!!

My surgery date is April 19th and I am having an R-N-Y! I am sooooo looking forward to getting on with it! It took me almost a year to get the insurance approval, and when it came, I was thrilled!...for about 10 minutes. Then the "oh crap - this is real" feeling set in.

I am leaving for DC on Monday, April 9th, with my son and his 8th grade class school trip, and have to start my pre-surgery liquid diet on Thursday, the 12th. This is going to be interesting. We are a group of 22, mostly 13 year old kids. All meals are scheduled and provided. But I think it won't be too bad. I have my protein drink mixes and shaker, and my refillable water bottle. Piece of cake, right? Oh... I guess I should lose those automatic food references... Opps!

Well, wish me luck! I am gonna need it!
 
It's only a week and will get easier after the 2nd or 3rd day. Take along some bouillon cubes and some single serve sugar free, caffeine free beverage powder. I don't know what's on your list of acceptable foods but I was allowed to have hot cereals like cream of wheat and plain oatmeal. If you are allowed to have this take some single serve packs along with you and some no calorie sweetener.
 
That totally explains how I felt! Excited and then "OH CRAP" had a total mental down. But i worked through it. It helps to know its a normal reaction, I was so close to changing my mind. I am starting my second week of the liquid diet, how lucky for you its only one week. Good luck to you
 
Thanks for the kind words! It is now 24 hours to go befor I check in for my surgery. I am lucky to have an early time of 7:30 am for my operation. It will make the anxiety less that day.

The week of liquids has been pretty easy. After I got home from DC and was able to get some rest, I didn't mind it so much.

Last day of work today, and tons of things to take care of tonight, so I won't have time to worry. I wonder if I will be able to sleep at all tonight?
 
Bernieanne, you are only a few days away from your surgery too. Good luck! I am slightly afraid of the post op pain, but I know it will be only for a few days. I can endure anything for that long. Then it will go uphill from there. I already feel better after 6 days of liquids. Down 6 or 7 lbs. I can't wait to know what 100 pounds less feels like. Let us know how it goes for you.
 
I will be thinking of you tomorrow and pray all goes well. This will be a small hiccup compared to the rest of your life.
 
Good luck to both of you with your upcoming surgery dates. I know you must be excited and nervous all at the same time. I had my last nutrition appointment yesterday, and am just waiting for the insurance approval, they said it should take up to 2 weeks, since I have everything in place. Then they will schedule my 2nd consult with the surgeon and then my surgery date, so we are looking at sometime in May.
 
OK, so got home from the hospital yesterday and the surgery went fine. No complications or anything, but it took longer than expected. Apparently the band that was being removed had developed a lot of scarring and he had to remove much of that to remove the band. Then he started on the GB. All told I was there for 3.5 hrs instead of the planned 90 minutes.

All of that additional work and time led to more pain post op than I expected. The surgeon was not disturbed by it, said it was normal after all he the extra work he had done. Gee, that made me feel so much better! Then I had a very hard time controlling the pain with the morphine. I won't go into the details, but it was pretty awful. Turns out I was having an adverse reaction to the Morphine, which I learned today runs in my family. My sister who passed away from cancer, and my brother who has COPD, both had adverse reactions to the drug which match my experience precisely. So I ended up staying in the hospital for an extra day while they tried to get a handle on the pain using other drugs. Once I was on the Lortab, things started to improve.

Today I started protein drinks in addition to the clear liquids. Got one whole shake of 11 oz down in only 6 hours! Also got in about 8 more oz of diluted juice and water. Working on my second shake now. Walking good, down to the stop sign on my cul-de-sac and back twice. Once more before dinner.

I am not at the stage yet where I am glad I did this. I am still at the "wth was I thinking???" stage. But I am sure as the pain reduces and the weight drops off, I will get excited again. No weight loss yet, the nurse says it is because I was filled by the IV fluids and not releasing all that gas yet. Maybe next week.

That's about it. I will update again as things improve.
 
Queenie- Glad to hear your pain issue is under better control. Don't get discouraged about not showing a weight loss yet. It took me 5 or 6 days to lose the 24 pounds of IV fluids I came home with. My legs were so swollen I couldn't bend my knees for more than an inch or 2. I have to take GasEx every meal. Things are much better than they were the first 2 weeks after surgery but was told I would probably need the GasEx from now on. By the way, gas doesn't weigh anything but will cause major discomfort in the beginning.
 
So glad that things went well for the most part. Glad that you found a pain reliever that would work for you. Keep us posted on how things are going.
 
Hi queenie10

congratulations on being strong and making it through your surgery, your new healthy journey has started and will only get better.
Keep comming back sharing how things are going for you, for your inspiring other 's like me whom haven't had there's yet. I know it will be worth all the pain and discomfort, just knowing skinner day's are ahead and will also be healthy, yeahhhhhhhhhhhh take care of yourself
donna
 
I also am not able to use Morphine. My surgeon recommended I have an Epidural placed for the first 3 days. I am interested to see how well it works. Eleven more days till surgery!
 
Hi Queenie, Glad to hear everything went well, although the morphine thing didn't sound very pleasent to bad you had to find out the hard way. I remember being at the "wth did I do" stage for a couple of weeks but it slowley went away with the first few lbs. Hang in there. :cool: Tom
 
I too had a couple of weeks of WTH did I get myself into. Like Tom, that went away when I saw the numbers on the scale drop. It also gets better when you can start eating "real food" and not feel like you just swollowed a handful of rocks and gravel *LOL* Unless you have another serious complication you will feel fine in a short while.
 
1 week post op update: Doing good!

I am still taking pain meds, which I thought would not be needed by now. But I tried to stop on Tuesday and it was too soon. I will be taking it more slowly and weaning off more gradually now.

As for nutrition, I am doing OK, but not close to getting my protein in. I am switching today to a powdered form of Muscle Milk because it has 50% more protein in the same volume of liquid as the premixed version. (32 grams vs 20 grams in 11 oz) I find it important to use small cups to sip from. I find drinking from a water bottle or a regular glass, I tend not to sip but to gulp, which is NOT GOOD! So I have found a variety of small cups that hold about 2 oz and use them for all my liquids. I measure off the volume so I can record the amounts I am taking in, and I pour that into a milk picture, and then can top up my little cups as needed.

I am getting in my walks and supplements as recommended. But I now know why it is going to be at least another week, if not two, before I go back to work.

The best news is that as of today, I have lost 6 lbs since the surgery, and 15 since I started the liquid diet 3 weeks ago. It's just a start, but it is very encouraging!
 
Ladybicknase - Good that you know ahead of time so they can take an alternative approach to managing the pain. Let me know how that works so I can keep it in mind if I ever need other surgery. It sounds like it will work since that is how they do caesarian surgeries, you will just have to keep it in place until after the first 48 hours, which is when they discontinue the morphine. Good luck!!
 
So I am now 12 days post op. My follow up apt with my surgeon is tomorrow. For the most part I am doing well. No more pain, so thank God no more Vicodin! I am surprised how drained I am still. I think I thought once the pain went away I'd be ready to go back to work. HA! 5 minutes of minimal effort and I am back on my butt for 2 hours! I am feeling very weak still.

I am having a hard time getting in my protein. I can get between 65 to 70 grams in but my target is 80. I am constantly sipping on protein drinks or other fluids, yet I find myself thirsty. Worried about dehydration because I can not drink a lot at a time. Also the sicky taste in my mouth is not helping. Makes it hard to swallow anything. I am feeling very lethargic.

My husband thinks I am depressed, but I think I feel normal. I expect these emotions are pretty standard from what I read on this forum. Any thoughts?
 
Queenie-I had a post op visit with the surgeon a few weeks ago and also complained about being tired and weak. He said it is perfectly normal and I should start feeling better in about 2 months. He was right. I'm just over 2 months out and am starting to feel better. I can do almost everything I could pre-surgery except I'm still on a lifting restriction for another full month. You can't expect to go back to your routine just because your pain is gone. Look at what your body has just been through. You have a lot of healing to do and that is where your energy is going right now. Make sure you get your rest and follow your meal plan and you wll feel better soon. I was told that some depression is normal after most surgery so try not to stress over that too much. If your symptons last for more than 2 weeks or if they get too strong then you should let your surgeon or PCP know.
 
Thanks, Pat99. I had my post op with my surgeon this morning and he said pretty much the same thing. Also said I should drink more fluids, of course. But everything is on track, and once I get to start eating real food again, which is at about the 2 month mark, I will feel a lot more energy. Unfortunately, as you say, I am going to be healing until then which really saps my energy. I go back to work in a week and a half, and I am going to have to take it pretty slowly at first. Unfortunately I have a very demanding job, so I do not know how I am going to manage. I'll just have to do what I can without over doing it.
 
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