That's a great story! My surgery was 2 weeks ago and same experience except they had me on a dilauted drip the day of surgery and took me off the day after... Boy did the pain kick in in my back and shoulders!
Over all I'm happy too and the only reason that lady at work is like that is because she doesn't wanna look bad while your losing weight and she's not! Best of luck to ya.
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I'm writing this as I'm sipping a chocolate flavored Premier Protein shake. I want to gulp so bad! Hehehe...
This is going to be long, so unless you like to read, turn away now!
So, I had my surgery with Dr. Miles at St. Vincent's East on August 4th. I had horrible gas pains (as expected), and for about 2 days I felt as if I had been beaten up in an alley, lol. After that, it was pretty easy as far as the pain goes. He told me that he removed a golf ball sized hiatal hernia, that I had NO IDEA I had. I had no symptoms or pain from it, except for when I ate rice, because it would get stuck halfway down. But I figured that was normal since I was eating the rice and drinking tea at the same time. (This was way before my surgery.) Anyway, they fixed that and removed about 85-90% of my stomach. I really didn't hurt much from my incisions or inside of my body like most people would expect.
The nurses were butts at first, but they became really nice on their 2nd shift. The first nurse got mad at me because I unplugged my blood pressure machine. It kept beeping because the battery was low and my mom was getting annoyed from the beeping. Well, when the nurse came in, she got mad because 4 hours of vitals weren't taken. But dang, I was still heavily medicated from the surgery and I wasn't fully aware of what was going on. I just knew my mom was annoyed and I felt bad that she had to stay there with me, so I wanted to make sure she was comfortable. :/ The next nurse was nice at first, and she was overall a nice person. But the gas pains were becoming horrible and the liquid lortab wasn't taking the edge off at all. It just made me drowsy and I wasn't able to sleep because laying down was EXTREMELY painful. I would try walking like they suggested, but since I was so drowsy, I kept running into things, stumbling, and forgetting where my room was even though I stayed in one hallway. No nurse ever came to make sure I was walking like I should have been. The only time they came to check on me was to get my vitals. But anyway, I finally asked her if I could have Dilaudid. She looked almost shocked because I knew what that was. Well, I've had 3 kidney stones before, and Dilaudid is the ONLY pain killer that takes that much pain away. She hesitated and said, "Well, you need to keep trying the Hydrocodone." So I told her that it wasn't working like it should because I cannot sleep at all. Even sitting down made the gas pain hurt. I guess maybe she thought I was an addict. But trust me, Dilaudid takes away your quality of life because you literally cannot do anything when you're on it. I can't even speak a full sentence when I'm on it. But, she had no right to assume that, if that's what she was thinking. Her excuse was, "Well, you won't be able to have Dilaudid when you go home." (NO DUH LADY! I'M HURTING NOW. By the time I go home, I won't be hurting like this anymore! UGH! ) After 4 hours went by of me "trying" the liquid lortab, she came back in to check on me. I told her the pain has not yet gotten better, and I actually almost started crying because of the pain (which is very unlike me because I never cry from physical pain). She knew my family was around, so she finally gave me Dilaudid. The gas pain didn't completely go away, but it definitely took the edge off. The gas pain was at a constant 6 on the pain scale, and a 7 when it twinged. The Dilaudid brought the pain down to a 4-5, so I was able to sit up at a 90 degree angle and get some rest. About 6 hours later, the Dilaudid wore off and the pain came back. Once again, she didn't want to give me more. So I agreed to "try" the liquid lortab again. It did nothing for my pain. So 4 hours after that, she gave me more Dilaudid. That was the last dose I got, and the last dose I asked for. I was fine after the 2nd dose because it helped the gas pain almost go away. I told her this and she kinda seemed sorry for being difficult at first. Nurses just need to listen to their patients a little better. We got along great after that. She even showed me her puppies at home and I hugged her because I thought she was just so sweet once she opened up to me.
Once I got home, I slept in my mother's bed for about 6-7 hours. I surrounded myself with a soft shield of pillows, lol. That really helped me get comfortable. When I woke up, I literally felt as if I'd been beaten up. So I got in about 20 oz of liquid, took 1,000 mg of B-12, and went back to bed. The next day, I no longer felt sore all over. I actually had energy! So I got up and walked around the house a lot. I felt pretty good.
Challenges:
My biggest challenges right now are learning to eat slowly, taking small bites of food, not gulping what I drink, getting in enough Protein and liquid (64 fl oz and 80g of protein), and taking the medicine I was given. I'm scared about taking Xarelto because I heard there have been a ton of lawsuits with it causing internal bleeding and even death. But I paid $99 for it (my insurance covered most of the cost) and now I feel obligated to take it instead of the shots. I took it last night, but I figured that a one month amount won't hurt me.
I'm not having a hard time moving around and walking because I can hardly sit still for too long, unless I'm sleeping. And even then, since I have night terrors, I think I'm getting enough exercise while I sleep, lol!
Ever since I started my liquid diet and began losing weight, my ovaries have been hurting a lot more. I'm even a month late on my period. I'm guessing my body is confused since I'm dropping weight and not eating as much as I was.
Speak of dropping weight, I've lost 22 pounds in 3 weeks. I feel pretty good about that. I also have a pip in my step, lol. My shirts are already getting looser. It's awesome!
Tomorrow is my first day back to work. I'm kind of dreading it because of the woman I work with. She's very overweight (over 300 pounds) and she's been pretty nasty to me about this surgery. She's convinced I'll fail at losing weight. But I know me and I love who I am, so she can get over it, lol.
I also got myself a purple FitBit Alta for $130. It was very pricey, but I love it and it's going to help keep me motivated.
Oh! And I also went to a support group with my mom. My mom is very nervous about getting this surgery for herself, so I was hopeful that the support group would help her with that fear. She loved going! It really did help her. I spoke in front of the group of about 100 people. I even inspired a bunch of people with my words. One girl came up to me and said, "I just had to come talk to you. You're so direct when you talk and I love that. I'm so scared and you actually made me feel better." That meant a lot to me for her to say that. I love to help people. So I gave her my number and told her to call me anytime she feels nervous, even if it's 2:00 in the morning, lol! I want everyone to succeed. So if I can be the help someone needs, I'm all for it! I'm going to another support group in September with my aunt, who is over 300 pounds and has congestive heart failure. I am really hoping she likes it, too. I feel like I've been somewhat of a guinea pig in this whole thing for my overweight family members. I don't mind at all because 90% of the time, I'm very brave.
When I was at the support group, some lady came up to me and told me she thought I was pregnant, LOL! She said, "You have tiny little arms and legs, so it doesn't look like you're meant to be overweight." Well I have an apple body and I gain weight primarily around my stomach. I was told it's from high cortisol levels and stress. I don't feel stressed, but I guess maybe I am and I've just gotten used to it, lol! I actually feel pretty relaxed and happy.
As @@KristenLe said, it is gas that is used to inflate your abdomen. For me, I only really felt it in my left shoulder.
People do use GasX but I am not sure how much good it does because the gas is not in your digestive tract.
Walking, moving, a heating pad, raising my hands over my head, etc. helped the most.
It's not really gas in your intestines that's the biggest issue. They put gas into your abdomen during surgery for more room and better visual of the organs. Walking and moving helps the most.
Thank you so much I totally get it I believe they have a lot of patients too where I'm going but 2 months is way better than 3 almost 1/2 I feel like but I'm going to try to enjoy it all. ????
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I started my 6 months back in January. Had my final weigh in/nutritionist appt. on June 27. It was submitted to insurance around July 5 and approved the next day. I just did my pre-op testing this past Wednesday and my tentative surgery date is August 24, so pretty much exactly 2 months from my final weigh in appt. I am going through a center of excellence so they see a lot of patients. I had hoped that things would move much more quickly but since I can't do anything about it, I'm just embracing it as part of my journey and the process. It will go by faster than you think!
My last visit for my 6 months was the Monday before Thanksgiving. I had to wait until Jan 26th for my surgeries. They may have given you a dummy date as sometimes the insurance or in my case the PCP requested it before he wrote my medically necessary form to the insurance. I took the whole 8 months I had to wait to change my bad habits I stopped drinking coffee as I had stopped drinking soda over 4 years ago. Also started taking smaller bites of food, getting in more Protein, chewing my food slowly, and not drinking during meals and at least 1/2 hour after your meal. All those changes took time and made it so much easier after my surgery to cope as I had done it all before the surgery.
Also ppl do tend to chicken out and cancel their surgery which sometimes mean they'd move down the list to other patients
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@@Ambie
Honestly that is kind of the way it works. Once you get through the 6 month process they a lot for time to insurance submission and then they are usually another 4 to 6 weeks out on the schedule. You are actually lucky they gave you a tentative date.
My 6 month process went exactly 9 months to the day from day to day of surgery. It's not uncommon and honestly I am now glad I had that time to get all of my changes in place. It takes a while to build a habit and I leveraged that time like crazy and I think it really helped me set myself up for success.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. You would probably benefit from talking to your insurance coordinator or who ever is in charge of your paperwork and ask them how far out are they scheduling surgeries. It being tentative means it's an unsure date the system could have just automatically set that date for you. I started my 6 months at the end of January and my last weigh in was July 21st and I'm looking at a date of about mid August. So about 3 months out is a little far out there typically people get scheduled within one month atleast that's the trend of the people on here. Your insurance company requires 6 months either way but if your hospital confirms that date of March you may want to look into other hospitals within your network that could get you a sooner surgery date.
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Ambie got a reaction from JustVanessa in Got My Surgery date but disappointed....