Mammabudd

Thank you all for your well wishes and encouragement. trm, good luck on your surgery, I pray all goes well for you. My surgeon is very pleased with my progress and my healing - I no longer have any restrictions on exercise, so I can begin some weights. Time to get to the gym!

Hi, I had my surgery on 11/10/16 - exactly one month & one day ago. I am doing quite well. But it was not the walk in the park I had planned. You see, I was one of the lucky less than 5% of all sleeve patients that have surgical complications. I had a bleed. My surgeon came up to my room to check on me, this is actually the first I recall since going under. Seems to me there were a lot of people there & discussion on my blood pressure & pulse. Once the windpipe was removed, I just said "pressure". The doctor looked at me & said "we have to go back in" - I saw my husband & daughter & said I was scared. My husband said "you are in the best place for this to happen, everything will be alright". So, my overnight stay in the hospital became four days in ICU & 2 more days on the surgical floor. Later I found out that my surgeon had never had any surgical issues in his career - I was special - clearly I intended to never be forgotten. I went from 5 small scars to 4 small scars and one rather large scar from my chest to my belly button. I am thinking a future zipper tattoo is in order. But that is a long range plan. Today I am down 29 pounds since the surgery - in addition to the 10 I lost in the pre-op phase. I admit I was actually afraid to eat any food, even baby food. That has passed. I am on the pureed stage, find it difficult to always get my 64 oz. of fluids in - I sometimes get busy with work or at home & have to remind myself to drink. Oddly enough, I did not have pain in the large incision area (at least right away) but the incision that my stomach was removed from hurt like the dickens. Because I am bending more, some discomfort has developed along the large incision, but I suspect that will stop as well. My second follow up appointment is on the 13th & I can't wait to see what is next!