The story....
Got to the hospital on time at 7 am on Wed. My surgery was scheduled for 7:40. So at 7:30 I was walked from pre-op room into the surgery suite where they were going to slice and dice me. They decided to hold off on anaesthesia until last minute possible to ensure the least risk of complications. The surgical staff was super nice and I had a great time with them all. Lots of jokes and goods time. So fast forward to me in being in the recovery room. Oh yeah, lets talk about some pain. Thankfully though the recovery team did their best to manage it by giving me regular morphine injections. The big problem was when I had to go to the bathroom and I needed to get out of the bed. You see, the port was put like and inch or two below my boobs by the breast bone area. And apparently the port was slightly tilted so it was rubbing up against the muscle in my left breast. So every time I moved a certain way I felt a very sharp pain through the left side of my chest. Shortly after I managed to go to the potty, they decided to move me upstairs to my home for the next couple days. This all went down at about 3 pm on Wednesday.
I get up to my room, and I share it with 2 elderly women. My sambo was waiting for me and we spent some time together before he had to head home. That day was mostly a blur spent getting morphine shots every 2-3 hrs. I didn't sleep too well. Usually waking up after 45 mins to an hr of sleep. I couldn't get comfy in the bed because of my back. So I'd try sitting up in the "day lounge" and that didn't last long because it hurt my chest and stomach (the incision areas). So I went back and forth a lot. Good thing was I was doing plenty of walking like they wanted. :) (Pic Left: Me first afternoon the afternoon, looking a bit drugged up and in pain)So I finally get to sleep at like 3 am, and at about 4 am, one of the women I share the room with starts sleep walking or something, and woke me up. First she takes one of the tables for visitors and uses it as a walker as she walks next to my bed. Then she starts grabbing and yanking on the curtain around my bed, pauses starts urinating in front of my bed and then walks to the bathroom....leaving a trail. So I end up getting up and letting the night nurses know what happened and they came in to clean up. So I go back to dozing for 45 mins-1 hr at a time until about 8 am on Thurs when the morning nurses wake me up
The morning nurses tell me they hope to discharge me at 2 pm that day. So, of course I'm freaking out since I had always been told I'd spend 2 nights in the hospital, so my boyfriend took Friday off instead of Thurs. But thankfully his boss ended up giving him Thurs off too. BUT! I ended up not going home on Thurs! Why you ask!?! Well. Turns out there were a few communication issues. The nurses call everything gastric (banding and bypass). But the post op instructions and diets are different between the two. And the nurses had me on the bypass meal plan. Which involved 500 ml of liquid, spread out over 4 meals 4 hrs apart. I was supposed to be on 1600 ml, spread over 8 meals every 2 hrs!! So the doc decided I hadn't been eating enough liquids, so had to stay another day. But that wasn't the only reason.
When the morning nurses woke me up they gave me 2 dl of yogurt to eat. Swedish yogurt is nothing like American yogurt! Much more sour and bitter. Needless to say I wasn't the biggest fan. After about 4 teaspoon fulls I started experiencing a lot of pain in the center of my chest. So the doc ordered an "x-ray" (which really was a contrast catscan). Turned out all the gas they put in my stomach and chest during the op, had moved into my intestines and was stuck since my bowels weren't functioning at the moment. So I was having trouble getting the liquids down. By the end of the night I was able to eat the 2 dl of food within the recommended 40 mins. Which was a vast improvement from the 2 hrs it took me to drink a low calorie 2 dl diet shake earlier in the day.
By mid-day of day 2 they cut me off the morphine and gave me pills to take. Which wasn't so bad. And by the end of Thurs I felt like I was well enough to go home. But alas, had to stay till Friday morning. So immediately after rounds on Friday morning doc told me I was free to go!! Woohoo!!!! So by 1 pm, my boyfriend arrived at the hospital to take me home!!!!!
(My hospital bed and home for 3 days.)
The technical...
Hospital admittance weight: 124.5 kg (274.5 lb)Day 2 (Thurs) weight: 125.3 (276.2 lb)
Day 3 (Friday) weight: 123.1 (271.4 lb)
The was able to do the surgery via laproscopic. So instead of having a large cut down the middle, I have 5 smaller ones. He was able to slip the band on and upon review of the catscan the following day it showed that there was no leaking or complications! The plan is to fill the band little by little every other month up to 6 times (so up to over the next 1 year). The port is just above the big circular red bandage in the center of my body. All my incisions have been sealed via staples. Which I will go back on Wed June 30 (exactly 2 weeks after surgery) to have the staples removed.
Doc says I should lose like 10 kg during the liquid stage, then gain back most of it when I start eating food again. Then when they fill my band some more in 2 months I should steadily lose ½ kg a week. Which is only 2 kg a month!!! I'm hoping to double if not triple that number!
My feelings/thoughts...
Well....the nursing staff was great! Yes there were a few mistakes made. And I did feel things were a bit chaotic on Thurs, but no matter what, everyone did their best to give me what I needed. Whether that was drugs or someone to talk to about my concerns. No matter what was going on, everyone at the hospital had a pleasant attitude and made a stressful situation much more manageable!
While there I made friends with 2 other patients. 1 is a super sweet woman from the UK who was in a wicked car accident (but she's making a speedy recovery). The other patient was a local swede who had the gastric bypass the day before done by the same surgeon. She is also really sweet! I look forward to hopefully connecting with her and perhaps we can lean on each other throughout this adventure we are both embarking on.
So all in all. I think it was totally worth while! I'm happy with my decision to do this. I know the liquid diet will be rough, but I find it's a lot easier to deal with mentally then I thought. My stomach doesn't want to have much more then a dl or 2 of food at a time. And I've had the pleasure of trying some really tasty VLCD (very low calorie drinks) and soups by Modifast. Plus I have my stock of soups and smoothies I've been making at home. So I'm totally stoked for it all! Just looking forward to the weight loss now!
Left: 2 of the wonderful nurses who took care of me...and me. (L-R: Anna, Eva, FXA)
Right: T-Shirt I rocked in the hospital. Should get one that says Next Skinny Thing.
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