GBFree82

OMG! You guys are so funny! Thanks for the offer to help hide the body but if I did that then I'd have no one to take the trash out. lol.

Defiantly Chapstick or whatever you have for your lips. I also brought my own robe for walking and my phone. The hospital provided everything else. I had my husband bring a dress the next day to go home in and a pillow for the car ride home.

LOL

I know! But man does it smell good! Lol I'm being good and drinking my shake. :-)

Edit: the vanilla I tried was from BA.

I had to switch to unjury from BA also, I tried the vanilla and it was like trying to suck back shots of cake frosting. Gross! I really enjoy the unjury chicken soup with just water. I've been pretty much living off it since surgery 8 days ago. I'm getting some unjury chocolate splendor today to break up the routine. I tried it with water before and it wasn't so great, but I will use it with skim milk so I can add the 8g of protein!

Thanks everyone! Everyday is a better day right now! I was actually good enough to walk around the block this morning between the rain storms. Please don't be scared to have this surgery, you are changing your life for the better and every journey has a bump or two! :-) If I had to be honest, once I was feeling better I rather enjoyed my time in the ICU, as said above, I had three nurses (three shift changes) who were dedicated to helping me and looking after me and maybe one other. And I attribute my recovery to their personalized care! Best of luck to you all!

I'm 8 days post op and already up to 64oz of water and 24oz of protein drink - unjury chicken soup. That's 8oz total liquids per hour. It only bothers me if the water is too cold.

I'm doing better. Just now getting the enegery back. here's what I posted today: I was sleeved on August 5th, just now getting up the energy to get this written. Anyhow, my husband and I arrived at the hospital at 8am and I was feeling pretty good, not all that nervous, Just ready to get it done. I get admitted and set up in the pre-op room waiting for 10am to come around. My inlaws drove over that morning to be with me and with my husband while he waits and I can tell that my MIL is sooo nervous, she keeps rubbing my arm. When the nurses come in we all chit chat while they are taking vitals and hooking me up with this thing and that thing. Someone brought up the question on if I needed a blood type band, but the other nurse said no it wasn't necessary. My husband asked why and was told that my Surgeon "Never needs to do transfusions so we don't worry about it." Meh, sounds good to me, I have complete trust in my surgeon! Before i know it my surgeon is here and the anesthesiologist is here and we are headed down the hallway. I don't even remember making it to the OR. Fast forward a few hours and I'm in a small hospital room, my husband is there and he says everything went great! I remember my mouth being soooo super dry and the nurses let me swish some Water around and spit it out. I remember telling my husband to go out to lunch with my inlaws and get something to eat! Then darkness. I wake back up to several nurses in my room and my husband and lots of beeping going on, someone is trying to either get a vain to put something in me or take blood I'm not sure, I'm so tired I can hardly even keep my eyes open. Everyone is shaking me and telling me to open my eyes, wake up, stay wake but I'm so tired. I hear my husband tell me to open my eyes and now my surgeon is in the room and nurses are on both hands trying to get a vain, I don't feel anything anymore. I hear my husband say "Take Her!" and then I don't remember anything. Fast-forward to 8pm that night, I wake up in the ICU of the hospital with a very stressed out looking husband. I am hooked up to several machines at this point. My surgeon comes in to check on me and tells me what happened. My sleeve procedure went smoothly, but while organs were being moved around some blood vessels that go from between the stomach and the spleen had gotten pinched/torn but it was in a way that nothing was showing itself as a problem. I had my surgery and was in recovery for 2 hours and in my room for 1 hour without any issues at all, I was a star patient. Until, as my husband told me, the nurses came into the room to start getting me up to walk, as they lifted the head of the bed all of my vitals crashed. As they were trying to get me to get up those blood vessels that were pinched were shifted and I started bleeding out. My surgeon took me back into surgery and said it was like a mini geyser in there. He said he cauterized it 9 times to stop the bleeding. I lost a lot of blood and while I was in ICU, I received two units of blood. I was on a pain pump, morphine and I remember I kept asking the nurses for something stronger, I just couldn't breath, it felt like I had done a thousand ab crunches and I couldn't even take a breath. After giving me morphine and Vicodin through the IV they finally called in something stronger called HydroMorphin. That stuff was AMAZING! within 20 minutes I was able to take my first real breath. I had lab techs coming in every hour to take blood samples and check my platelet count, my veins were collapsing and they had to call in the big wigs, he said he was only called when no one else could get anything, and it still took in a try or two, I;m still foggy at that point. I think I fell asleep because I open my eyes and my husband is there the next day, he had to go home shortly after I arrived in ICU to feed and let out our dogs and get some sleep. I am still having labs drawn and by this point I'm still not really feeling the needles, at one point the poor tech only got out a few drops before it was over. That lab had to be redone since it was so small it had clotted. They successfully attempt to get blood out of the IV that they had been giving me blood through. It must of been ok because they didn't hook me up to anymore blood bags. Yay! It's time to start getting up! My ICU nurse starts to position the bed into a seat position and my heart goes from 98 to 160, she panics and lays me back down and starts on the phone with my surgeon who has told them to call him if I go over 110. At this point my respiration drops and more alarms are going off. the nurses come in and check my breathing and open up the air thingy behind me. Respiration goes back up, but I can still hear my heart beating in my ears. that slows down and they draw more labs! Over the course of the day and three shift changes, I was able to get up and out of bed, I walked a few short trips around the ICU and I was bubbly happy when I was cleared for my first sip of 1oz water! I over heard the ICU nurses talking about me and how crazy it was that they actually had a bariatric patient because "That NEVER happens!" My Surgeon came by and told me how i was a first for him as well, as in bleeding and having to go to the ICU. I was in his "less than 1% complication" I graduate to phase two and started on my Protein drinks, no problems at all, maybe a little gassy but not bad. At 11pm that night, (day 2 post-op) I get moved to the bariatric floor of the hospital. I text my husband the room and try to get some sleep. No luck, hourly checks have me awake most of the night. I scare the hospital staff when I try to getup to go to the bathroom, (they took the catheter out at the ICU), my heart rate jumps back up into the 160s and I suddenly have a couple of nurses in my room. Eventually they come to accept that if my heart alarm is going off then I'm out of bed. They slowly stop checking on me throughout the day. I've been up and walking the floor, I've peed tons! I've walked some more. I keep asking to have the IV lines taken out since I wasn't hooked up to them anymore. I keep getting told at 3pm. I am going to get checked out at 3pm. Thankfully 3pm shows up and I've meet with the head nurse, and the nutritionist and some other ppl and I am cleared to go. By 3:45 I am home and exhausted. I sleep on the couch and my husband tends to me sweetly. So now that I am 8 days post op here's what I have to say. I absolutely LOVE my surgeon, as my MIL said, other surgeons would have maybe tried to wait and see if my vitals leveled out but not my surgeon, he saw that there was a problem and took Immediate action! I would absolute do this surgery again even with time spent in the ICU, The staff there were amazing. Days 1-6 TOTALLY Completely SUCK Monkey Butt, but it gets better. I don't want to weigh myself until my two week check up, but I am as gitty as a school girl about it! So, pick your surgeon wisely and trust him/her completely! I did and still do!

My sleeve alone was $14500

I'm having the same thing but my hiccups mostly start up when I go from laying down to standing. The first few times I though my chest cavity was imploding on itself it hurt so bad! I'm only 6 days postop now.

Hey girl. I'm home now. There was a complication after surgery and I lost a lot of blood, went back into the OR and spent the night and all the next day in icu. Everything is fine now, I'm just exhausted from the lack of sleep. Ill tell you more when I get my energy back.

We are one month away!! How exciting!! What are you doing to get ready? Have you tried the Protein Drinks yet? The Vitamins? So far so good for me, though I have the chewable Calcium pills that are huge!! I also worked on refinishing my craft desk so I will have a place to work while recovering!

Today's the day!!! In three hours I check in and two hours later my new life starts!! Good luck everyone!

A new wedding ring! When I've lost weight in the past my original wedding band would just fall off, my husband bought me another one with three diamonds (past present future thing) I love it. I gained my weight back and can't wear the newer one now but looking forward to it!

hey chicka, It's been a very busy few days for me. So I had all my pre-op stuff done, and yes it's mostly done with a room full of other ppl. no one said what they were having so I don't know who was having what operation. He told me that where he would be making the incisions and that was pretty much the only thing new. He said it was extremely rare for him to have a patient with a drain, I asked specifically about this. I work retail in Rogers, it's busy but not very demanding. I'm taking off for two weeks, I think by then I should be good to go. My liquid diet starts tomorrow, Clear Liquids and then a bottle of magnesium citrait... oh joy. lol I will warn you though, when you start your diet for this, don't be surprised if you are extremely forgetful. I am having a hard time from one thought to the next! I think if you stay up with all of your Vitamins and wash your hands you will be fine not getting sick. I hope your time flies for your surgery, do you have a goal weight in mind? my fertility dr wants me to lose 100lbs, I'll see where my body wants to go. Everyone (that knows) asks if I'm getting nervous yet, but I'm not I'm just ready to get it done and start my new life. it might be a while before I'm back, take care until then! -Ginger

Okay, give it to me straight, how bad is this stuff going to be? I bought the grape. I (for obvious reasons) took the day off but I'm worried about stomach cramping.

Just got home from my preop stuff! Monday can't get here soon enough!!

They make a Splenda brown sugar.

So the pre-op diet of two Protein drinks a day and either a healthy dinner or a lean cuisine/smart choice type meal stinks! lol I was so hungry the first day, but I think I've figured out a system now. I have my self on a three hour time plan, first shake at 9am second at 12, coffee at 3 dinner at 6. TONS of Water between 6 and bed and I've been going to bed hungry so that stinks too. I go in for my pre-op tomorrow and I don't have too many questions, the handbook we all got pretty well lays everything out for you. Saturday will be my last day at work for a while and I've been using this time to really clean the house and get stuff organized. I still have to buy a protein mix that I like and so far the Bariatric Advantage Orange Cream is in the lead. Oh, and here's a tip! Mix your Protein Drinks with Almond milk, it makes them taste sooooooo much better! I tried water and gagged the whole time I was drinking it. I liked the banana one too but it was a very obvious fake banana flavoring. I'm so glad you got the credit to bariatricchoice! It's a really good deal! I'll get my credit after your first purchase but please! I'm not worried about it at all, I just wanted to make sure you got it! The only things I've bought for this are some glad snack size storage containers, I read on here that they help with portion control and to trick your mind. they say that you feel different eating 2-4oz out of a snack container than eating the same amount out of a huge Cereal bowl. lol. guess I'll find out soon enough! Well, i'm off to Wal-mart, I'm putting together a goodie bag for my husband to have while I'm in surgery. Just a few of his favorite things and drinks and maybe an iTunes card or something for him to pass the time! Take care and let me know how your next appt goes!

Have you scrapbooked your journey? Or created something else to record your progress? I'm starting a mini book I think but I'd love to see what you have!

5 days to go!! How are y'all doing? So far I'm handling the shakes pretty well so long as I mix them with almond milk, mixed with just Water is nasty! lol My pre-op is Thursday and I am so ready! Everyone is paid and now I just wait. What are you taking with you to the hospital? I don't plan on taking much at all, but I am packing my husband a goodie bag to keep him happy and occupied during surgery lol. Good luck this week to you all!!!

I only have one day of clear liquids and that's the night before surgery and I am so okay with that! lol.