JoJo22

I had my lap-band surgery one week ago yesterday at Yale New Haven Hospital. The surgery itself went fine. My PAC-U stay was long since I was having severe chest pain (or possibly heart burn for a few hours). The post-op in the hospital was rough. I felt A LOT of pain and nausea - as if I was run over by a truck. No one prepared me for this. They said it would be "uncomfortable" for a few days or weeks. They kept giving me meds that either wouldn't help or that caused an adverse reaction... I was dry heaving and throwing up, even while they took me for my x-ray... (No barium test because it was friday evening by the time I got to my room and everyone was trying to get home before the big hurricane).
To be honest I felt the hospital treatment was very lacking and I would not go back there for any other procedure. It seemed like no one knew what was going on or what they were doing. It took forever to get meds or ice chips or help with getting around. AND -- they actually sent me home with a perccocet liquid med even though I had a red band on saying I was allergic to perccocet!!! I was so out of it that I didn't realize what I was given. As a result, the next 24 hours at home were a nightmare, too. Outside, hurricane Irene was barraging us and trees were collapsing around us; inside, I was experiencing severe chest pain and difficulty breathing in addition the the pain around my incisions and my abdomen. I thought I was having a heart attack or a collapsed lung! It was very scary until I realized it always happened 15-20 minutes after I would take my meds. I have a baby and there was no way we were getting back to the hospital in the middle of the night with a hurrican raging and all. Luckily, my husband is a firefighter and EMT and he was keeping me calm and taking my pulse, and assuring me it wasn't a cardiological issue. The next day I stopped taking the syrup and called the doctor. Pharmacies were all closed and out of power around here, so it was a lucky thing that I still had my oxycodone that I took after my c-section. The doctor said to crush that and use it until we could get to his office and get something else.
Once I pased that hurrdle I started to feel a little better every day, and tomorrow it will be one week since the surgery so I guess that's good. However, I am having a really hard time with my liquid phase, which for me is 2 weeks. Believe it or not, I hate sweets, and they only stuff I'm allowed to have is 6 oz a day or ensure, boost or one of those nasty overly sweet shakes. I can't drink them without feeling nausea. In the first few days I wasn't even hungry, but now I am starving and drinking this stuff out of lack of choice but it's really torture at this point. Yesterday the nurse at the doctor's office said I could have low sodium broth. That's gross and does not feel like anything nurshing... I also found out yesterday for the first time that the dr. expects me to be on basically an Atkings diet until I reach my goal. REALLY??? I didn't have this surgery and go throw this to do the Atkins. I could have done that without this. My intention was to eat a healthy, low fat, balanced diet in small portions. Not to feel like I can't certain things (unless they cause pain, obviously).
So to sum it up, right now I an starving (don't know how I'll go another week without eating anything), doubting my decision to have the surgery, and dissapointed with both my doctor's orders and the hospital care. That is my story so far...

UPDATE 5/21/14:

Meanwhile, since I'm only a week away from surgery, and this is my second run around, I thought I'd also take a few minutes to share my journey. I had a lap band put in 2011 and lost 110lbs within a year. I was eating well and exercising a lot and for most of that time had very little to no restriction on my band because for some reason just having the band itself in there was restricting enough. About a year and 1/2 into the surgery, I started to get stuck a lot, (with no restriction). In fact, for almost a year after that I could not eat solids without throwing up. So if I chose to eat solids I knew I would be vomiting a few minutes later... Awful year+ and when I got pregnant and could not even keep liquids down, I ended up getting my lap band taken out at 8 months preggers. It turned out that it has slipped and twisted inside me. What upset me the most is that my Dr. didn't catch that in any of the test we did, including and upper endoscopy. In any case my baby is now 10 months old and though initially I ate like a fiend when the lap band was out and I could finally eat solids (and I was at the end of my pregnancy), I lost the baby weight pretty quickly. BUT THEN... When went back to work the stress and pressure of managing it all just got to me and I snapped back into my emotional eating habits. When I think about it now, I also realize that the whole time the lap band was twisted and slipped and I couldn't keep solids down I lost all my good eating habits because I would eat more unhealthy liquids (i.e. ice cream, creamy soups, juices) just because that is all I could eat.

In Feb. I went back to my surgeon and said I wanted to talk about options because I was starting to gain (and did gain by the time I had the Sleeve surgery almost 50lbs of the 110lbs I had lost. I was devastated, couldn't get things under control, and wanted to figure out how I could stop the downward spiral. That appointment led to a "revision", which although it did not happen in one surgery, essential that is what the second surgery was. I can't believe I'm here all over again! The first few weeks really are rough since I do not like sweet shakes and that is pretty much all I can have. BUT, I am grateful that I was able to find another solutions and get back on track. Also, what is great is that after the lap band it was a crappy, long recover for me, mostly because they gave my Percocet for pain and it turned out I was very allergic to it but we didn't realize that was what was causing me chest pain, shortness of breath, etc. Can you imagine that first week when all the gasses they pump in are killing you and chest pain/inability to breath/rash on top of that... This time around at a week out I feel like a different person! I am grateful for my journey and everything it taught me, but it sure was a roller coaster.

Thanks for reading my story.
Jo