DonnaS1952

I'm a 62yo female. My husband and I live at the beautiful Jersey Shore, I had a lap band put in over 7 yrs. ago, I maintained the weight for about 4 yrs.,Began gaining weight even though I was getting fills and had the same eating habits .Always a lot of vomiting ,UGH.I don't think that could be so healthy. Last year I had to see an ENT .My  surgeon thought I had a "something" on my esophagus. Turned out fine but had me thinking that the longer this goes on with the vomiting the more chance there is for something to develop .So I really was thinking at some point of taking the lap band out.  Moved out of state and began seeing another surgeon who did an endoscopy and discovered the band had prolapsed. I originally lost about 125lbs, Put about 40 back on. I developed psoriatic arthritis ,So my rheumatologist ,pcp and surgeon all agree that the band should come out and the gastric sleeve done. The less weight and inflammation on your joints ,the better it is. I'm just under 5' and my starting weight pre surgery was 198lbs  My insurance company approved the procedure practically overnight. .So  I had surgery a week ago on 8/20/14.I'm not going to lie ,It was a rough week. I had some pain. I had infusion therapy at home and developed a small blood clot at the midline site that sent me to the ER 2 days ago. I had the drain removed last night and am feeling a whole lot better today. Never thought I would feel so much  better in 2 days. Really my fist week was very "dark" and "scary", regretting this surgery. but today I feel like my old cheery self.  My weight last night was 187.So I am on the road. The doctors would like to see my weight down to 120lbs. So I feel like I'm on the way. I think if the insurance companies would approve longer hospital stays for these procedures there wouldn't be so many complications, I was sent home only 23 hrs after surgery. My husband had to do the infusion bag changes, check the drain site and empty the bulb with very little instruction and like I said I wound up with a blood clot that could potentially have been very serious ,but aside all that this is a good day!