Well I survived the surgery. Heck, I actually went through with it. There were many times while I was waiting in pre-op that I contemplated leaving or telling Dr. Kim to only remove the band and stop there. Thankfully my brains kicked in to battle my fear and anxiety and I went through with it.
This is definitely routine clock work for Dr. Kim. He had 8 surgeries scheduled that day; 5 lap-bands and 3 revisions. I was number 7 on his schedule for the day and he was right on time. The surgery itself only took 2 hours which surprised me. I guess for a non-revision it would take less. Apparently I had a hernia that needed to be repaired. Part of my stomach was going up into my esophagus or something. I do not know. He told this to my brother that came with me. He also told him something about my stomach having folded. I have no idea what that means except that I will have lots of questions at my post op appt on Friday.
So the day of surgery I am supposed to start walking that night. Like a couple of hours after I get out of recovery and into my room. I told them that I do not respond well to anesthesia and it makes me very nauseous. Despite their different medicated cocktails I would prove this to them. There was no way I could even stand up that night without feeling flustered and overcome with a hot flash and had to lay back down. I was gaggy and spitting up this frothy spit. On Friday I was supposed to get up and go to xray to do the swallow but I told them it just wasn't going to happen. I mean I had not even been up walking. Was it feasible to think I could go do this swallow and work on going home? No, I had to get the nausea under control. Friday I got up and made some laps of the nurses station which was progress for me. The gagginess and spitting up had not stopped yet. As a matter of fact all that did not stop until later Saturday. I did the swallow Saturday morning and was given the blessing to start drinking water. The odd thing was I only have a small portion of the stomach I had before. How would I know when it was full? How do I know when it is hungry? I guess because of the swelling, etc. I could not even feel the water going down. I opted a Saturday release was not an option for me. I told them I wanted to stay another night. David, Dr. Kim's PA came up to visit. He ordered some other meds and then gave me some positive conversation and told me get a good nights rest and be ready to drink up in the morning.
The little cup that comes on top of a medicine bottle - that's what I am drinking out of. It is 1cc and I need to sip one every 15 minutes. I am taking the chewable gas-x but it is because I am belching like crazy. I sure hope that stops before I go back to work but I have time since I am off until the New Year.
When I began the liquid diet I weighed 296.2. When they weighed me in at the hospital I weighed 279.4. I did weigh before I left today and I was back up to 283.4 but they said don't concern myself with it because I had so many days of IV fluids and there was still swelling and bloating.
Today, tomorrow and Tuesday I am on a really restricted diet of only clear fluids and I need to be sure I am taking in enough so I do not get dehydrated. On Wednesday Phase 2 begins and I will blog more then...
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