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What do I do next???

S

skinny me

Member
My surgery is scheduled for April 17th. I'm both excited and nervous...I'm going alone because my family does not agree with this method of weight loss. We had a family member who under went a open "gastric by-pass" who suffered from fluid and eletrolyte imbalance, a revision and everthing else that could possibly go wrong did...but this was well over 15 years ago and the family member did not follow her surgeons directions. needless say she did not win her fight. I'm not concern about the surgery I have faith and confidence in my surgeon plus I'm with a center of excelleance. My concern is the home care...will I need someone there to see that I get all the required fluids in, will I need to be waken to drink through the night? Should I hire a home health aid for a few days? Should I stay longer in the hospital because I live alone, and no support system? This is the part that makes me anxious: What do I need to have on hand prior to surgery? What should I take to the hospital? All suggestions, and ideas would be greatly appreciated.:confused:
 
Hi Congratulations on starting your healthy journey. I think you should be fine alone. Truth is I was up moving around the same day. When I got home all I wanted was sleep and water. Just have plenty of water and some protein shakes around. Other than that you will want to walk, walk, oh yeah walk some more.

again congrats
Best of luck
 
skinny me said:
My surgery is scheduled for April 17th. I'm both excited and nervous...I'm going alone because my family does not agree with this method of weight loss. We had a family member who under went a open "gastric by-pass" who suffered from fluid and eletrolyte imbalance, a revision and everthing else that could possibly go wrong did...but this was well over 15 years ago and the family member did not follow her surgeons directions. needless say she did not win her fight. I'm not concern about the surgery I have faith and confidence in my surgeon plus I'm with a center of excelleance. My concern is the home care...will I need someone there to see that I get all the required fluids in, will I need to be waken to drink through the night? Should I hire a home health aid for a few days? Should I stay longer in the hospital because I live alone, and no support system? This is the part that makes me anxious: What do I need to have on hand prior to surgery? What should I take to the hospital? All suggestions, and ideas would be greatly appreciated.:confused:
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Everyone is different. I stayed in the hospital a week and I most certainly needed someone with me for another week at home. My blood pressure was somewhat low and I felt a little faint at times. The surgical procedure didn't cause me much pain at all. I really thought it was a positive experience however I think it's better to have someone there to rely on just in case your not feeling all that well at first.

Most of all at the hospital I was thankful I had several pair of my cotton stretchy waistband pants to relax on my bed and to walk the halls with and my butt wasn't hanging all out for the world to see. I took my Kindle for the internet and games and my cell phone, reading glasses and my favorite toiletries I can't live without. The hospital I went to gives most anything we need such as toothpaste, toothbrush, hairbrush, deodorant etc.. and although I like my own brands of stuff, it is easier to just use what they give me.

Good Luck!!!

Cheyenne :cool:
 
Good luck and congratulations. For me the aftermath of surgery was pretty good. Like others say everyone is different. I didn't really need help but it was nice initially to have someone around. My biggest challenge was with lifting anything. You aren't supposed to initially and my dog had just had a back problem so I had to have someone to carry him up and down the stairs. As for when you get home, my advice is don't over buy anything. I bought all kinds of soups and baby foods, etc. But you can't really eat much initially just make sure you have enough protein shakes, water, maybe a little soup and eggs. You can also make ahead some pureed foods and freeze small portions so that you don't have to do too much and you can stay on scheduled eating times. All in all it really isn't too bad.
 
I want to thank everyone for their support and well wishes. Yesterday I brought a journal to begin documenting my journey in hopes one day I may feel comfortable enough to share it with my family. My surgeon's protocol is two weeks post op of full liquid diet then proceed to soft. he wants you to begin with the protein shakes, water, clear broth and progress. I have read that you should not over stock so I'm afraid of buying too much or too little. What if I'm not able to drive myself after the first week or so? Should I have liquid tyenol on hand? I really dont do nacortics well they wipe me out. OMG I have so many questions I probable sound like a nervous ninny. For the gas does Beeno or Gasx help?
 
Hi. Your fears are normal, but they are only fears. You should do fine. On the off-chance that you have problems, is your family so mad at you that no one would come to help? Probably they are not that cold-hearted.
I live alone and had people to call if I needed anything, but I didn't need anything that couldn't wait. For example, I needed someone to carry 60 pounds of dog food upstairs, so I waited until I had a visitor. Initially I waited for someone to carry my laundry basket up and down 2 flights of stairs, but that was annoying, so I just carried 1 small load at a time by myself.
The biggest thing with driving is that it is prohibited when you are on narcotics. Since you don't like to take narcotics, you should be able to drive after a week or so. And yes, you should get some liquid Tylenol for the pain. There is another non-narcotic pain reliever that needs a RX and you can ask for that. It's called Tramadol.
You do not need to drink in the middle of the night and you will not need a home health aide unless you have other mobility problems that you haven't mentioned. I used gas-x strips and continue to use them occasionally. I found that antacids work well also.
So relax! you'll do fine. And there is always someone here on this forum who is in the exact place you are, just beginning the journey, or post-op. Or somewhere in between. They will answer any question you have, because frankly, we all started at this place not knowing what we were doing and dying to have someone direct us, comfort us, listen to us, or listen to us complain. No one understands what you are going through unless they have been there themselves.
 
Hi. I am in the begining process as I attended the seminar last week and was wondering, is there anyone who works out there and if there is how long before you could go back to work? I am a dispatcher in an office so I am pretty sedentary, no heavy lifting or anything like that. My hours are 8pm to 6am four days a week so I don't think there will be a problem but was just wondering if I took a week off ( which is 10 days including days off) if that would be enough. I am waiting for them to call me in for my first appointment.
Thank you,
Stacey Jones
 
StaceyFJones said:
Hi. I am in the begining process as I attended the seminar last week and was wondering, is there anyone who works out there and if there is how long before you could go back to work? I am a dispatcher in an office so I am pretty sedentary, no heavy lifting or anything like that. My hours are 8pm to 6am four days a week so I don't think there will be a problem but was just wondering if I took a week off ( which is 10 days including days off) if that would be enough. I am waiting for them to call me in for my first appointment.
Thank you,
Stacey Jones
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WELCOME to the Forum!!!

Which type of surgery are you going to have? If you could take 2 wks off it would be better but because you are sedentary at your job you may be ok.

Cheyenne :cool:
 
Hi Cheyenne and thank you for the welcome! I have decided to have the sleeve proceedure. Which one did you have? What happened afterward?
Stacey:eek:
 
StaceyFJones said:
Hi. I am in the begining process as I attended the seminar last week and was wondering, is there anyone who works out there and if there is how long before you could go back to work? I am a dispatcher in an office so I am pretty sedentary, no heavy lifting or anything like that. My hours are 8pm to 6am four days a week so I don't think there will be a problem but was just wondering if I took a week off ( which is 10 days including days off) if that would be enough. I am waiting for them to call me in for my first appointment.
Thank you,
Stacey Jones
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Hi Stacey and welcome to the forum. I had the sleeve procedure on a Wednesday and went back to work in 2 weeks (counting weekends, it was 19 days). I could have gone back to my sedentary job a week earlier. You could probably do it.
 
Well lots of great advice here already.

The surgery procedure has dramatically changed over the last decade from the open procedure to minimally evasive today and now going to center of excellence hospitals and having doctors recognized as center of excellence doctors.

So, the tragic family experience you mentioned should NOT occur.

As to pain, I used the narcotics in the hospital for the 2 days I was there and when I went home I think I needed not more than a couple of pills at night for a few days and that was that. It allowed me to rest at night. During the day I used Tylenol and that was fine.

Best wishes,

Ralph
 
Went to the surgeon's office today, signed my consent, for the gastric sleeve. Now I just have to get through the liquid diet for the next 6 days...When talking with my surgeon told me not to worry about it and do the best I can...I'm not sure what that means...I feel if I fell during this time I'm setting myself up for failure. Oh my this is tuff. I have a friend that is going to be my transportation to and from the hospital I still haven't told my family of my decision it is what it is 6days till the begining of my new life.
 
Thank you Karenia! Thats a load off my mind! I work in a pretty small office, 6 employees including my supervisor, and it can be a burden when someone takes more their scheduled week off but if I need it they will do what they can to accomodate it.
Ok lots of questions running through my head. Did you hurt alot when you came out of surgery? Was it difficult to sit up cause of the stomach muscles hurting? What did you think of food or how did you think of food that day? Did you lose weight right away like in the first week or so? When you started feeling your clothes looser I bet that was exciting!! :cool:
Sorry about all the questions! I'm excited, can you tell??!!:eek:
Thank you for taking the time,
Stacey :)
 
StaceyFJones said:
Thank you Karenia! Thats a load off my mind! I work in a pretty small office, 6 employees including my supervisor, and it can be a burden when someone takes more their scheduled week off but if I need it they will do what they can to accomodate it.
Ok lots of questions running through my head. Did you hurt alot when you came out of surgery? Was it difficult to sit up cause of the stomach muscles hurting? What did you think of food or how did you think of food that day? Did you lose weight right away like in the first week or so? When you started feeling your clothes looser I bet that was exciting!! :cool:
Sorry about all the questions! I'm excited, can you tell??!!:eek:
Thank you for taking the time,
Stacey :)
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Stacey, I had a fair amount of pain, but I'm not opposed to taking pain meds. I really had three operations at the same time-- the sleeve, my gall bladder taken out, and a hiatal hernia repair. No it wasn't difficult to sit, but bending over was painful for about 2 weeks-- but just in one spot where I think he had to cut through the muscle.
I treated eating and drinking like it was a job, and was determined to get my nutrition and liquids in every day. Liquids go down really easily after the sleeve, and after a couple of weeks you start wondering if they really removed most of your stomach. But after starting more solid foods, you understand the need to eat slowly and chew thoroughly. I had 2 cravings: solid food when I was on liquids only (NOT a good idea the first three weeks as you can damage your healing stomach), and French fries. Don't know where the last craving came from, but salty bouillon seemed to satisfy it.
They fluid load you in the hospital, so I didn't see any weight loss for about 2 weeks. Once it started, I lost about 2.5 pounds per week. Slow but steady.
Yeah, loose clothing feels so good especially when most of your life everything felt tight and restrictive. I don't ever want to be that uncomfortable again. When you get close to goal, your body will change without much weight loss. Two weeks ago a size 10 was tight, now it's more than comfortable and I've only lost 3 pounds. It's very weird.
 
For me the surgery was almost to easy. I didn't take pain meds, spent two days in the hospital and was walking hours after surgery. I know this is scary but the results are amazing. Be sure to have your protein shakes and vitamins handy. Have the person driving you stop to fill any prescriptions on the way home. Better to have and not need than not have and well be in pain. My husband was with me but I honestly did everything by myself. The first day home I slept not from the surgery but the nurses insist on waking a patient up to ask if they need anything. The lack of sleep in the hospital was the worst part for me mostly because I get grumpy. Have a plan for walking around and staying busy, everything else can wait.

Good luck
 
I haven't had surgery yet, but I wanted to say thanks for asking all of the questions! They sure have been helpful and encouraging to me! :)

I have young children so knowing that I can walk around and do simple tasks right from the time I get home (heating meals for them I prepare in advance etc) is great. My husband is a doer and I'm sure I won't need to do anything if I didn't feel up to it, but I enjoy being able to do that stuff for them.

Stacey, I'll be looking for your post-op updates! :)
 
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