Frustr8

And you have hit on the" Fly in the ointment "of Buckeye and indeed Midwestern living. Dismal at times skies, cold tempratures that seem forever, treacherous,walking on ice, snow that doesn't stop with Lake Effect ( our friends around Buffalo NY have this in Spades also) but many of us when Spring and Summer. come get temporary amnesia and forgive the weather fairies their manifest sins! And we do have glorious. autumns and so do our cousins in New England. I liked it so much more before a spoil- sport told me those were the leaves dying gasps before they fall to the ground and turn into compost. Always at least one☁on a sunny☀ day!

Starry*Night please be easy on yourself, don't dwell on regrets. You're starting purees, that is SO GOOD, you could be in my moccasins, 19 weeks solid of liquids, few very runny purees, protein shakes. Tuesday I made a mini- branch out to mashed potatoes gravy and 3 well-chewed shreds of Turkey meat. Doesn't sound too thrilling ? Honey it was the first MEAT I was able to keep down since before my RnY September 5th, I literally wanted to cry. You see I have a stomal stricture and jejunem ulcers that aren't healing well, I spent a Week in Ohio State University November28- December 5th, had a PICC line put in November 29th, I am on TPN feedings 14 hours a night, I couldn't get enough protein in orally to help my ulcers heal, this way I do have a fighting chance at healing. Do I regret my surgery? Nope my life was pretty abysmal before it. Obese, in constant arhrotis pain from dragging my heaviness around, my peers dying and I wasn't sure I wouldn't be next! Mad at my facility? Nope they took a chance on me and my surgery, many 72 year old women get turned down, many facilities have a cut-off at 60 or 70. Oh I am more than a little peeved that my body is malfunctioning, not healing as fast as some, the knowledge that I will end up with baggy saggy skin, it was stretched too many years to BOUNCE back. But I am Still alive, kicking a little complaining but I am not as short,of breath as I once was. I came into this world, red-faced,red hair and shaking my fists, probably go out the same way. But nobody better ever consider counting Me Out, I still have a lot to offer this sad old world, maybe I will stick around and straighten things out. Oh this challenge is not easy, and there is discomfort, my PICC LINE feels at times like someone stapled me with an industrial stapeler, but it will be a tool to help me get better, 14 hours wearing a bag of feeding solution , which is 8 pounds of dead weight, that's why it is in a black backpack, oh I do feel wearied but not ? worried. And I'm here if you ever want to vent more, and I am here for the long haul because I believe in tomorrows,i believe in the future and I believe in my surgeons, if I am broken now, they have the tools to repair and restore me! And I shall be victorious yet!

Wonderful ??maybe you will keep on being better, want THAT so much for YOU!???

On the verge of a healthy Irish Setter but trying to,become an American walker instead of settling for "setting" anymore! And I'm gonna Do It!?❄⛄?

And NurseNatty had a RnY at the Cleveland Clinic on September 10th, There was Crazee Connie from Ashtabula who had her surgery at Cleveland Clinic. A fair contingent from NW Ohio as well as all of us from Downstate. And miss Moe we all are gonna live you being around!

Hey @ miss Moe here's someone from your neck of the woods also. And rachietach I'm sure is only one of many!

So will we all defrost come Spring or we in Permafrost the rest of our lives? Does your thermostat reset after a year or two?

Firehorse?, now that I have started on my Weight loss I'm not as big as a House?ANYMORE!

Okay, just like an old firehouse who heard the bell and tries to put her own bridle on, here I am. I have had 7 endoscopies in my life , 1 transnasally, the other 6 standard route through the ? mouth. I believe that might qualify me as a lay witness if not a near pro. So ask Auntie Frustr8 anything you want! I was asleep for all but one. Even that time it was not one tad scary. Normally they spray the back of your throat with a numbing novacaine type spray. You gargle it for a designated amount of time and then swallow it down. And you feel it numbing as it goes down. I equate it like an icicle going down but not choaky. Okay I am a Buckeye born and bred, a sports geek, an only child so not only was I Mama's little Angel Princess, I was Daddy's Tomboy Fishing and Hunting sidekick. So I mentally hum the first 6-8 bars of Buckeye Battle Cry in my head, that way I'm concentrating. on ? music instead of the taste which isn't world class wonderful. The you lay down on your left side, and they put a mouth gag in, well that is its name but not all that big, the ones I had done at KCH, my local community hospital, were kind of black and big, whereas at OSU they were smaller and clear white, maybe an inch to 1.5 across, basically to just keep you from biting the fiberoptic tube, they give you sedation through the IV and you're smoothly asleep, when you wake back up, it's over, doesn't take very long, if you have someone skillful like my Dr Noria you won't even get a sore throat or anything. Now for the one when I didn't go to sleep. I should state I have red hair, the color is called Strawberry Golden Blonde, on bottles but,mine is natural. Okay redheads need a higher dose than brunettes and the rest of sedation, somebody miscalculated. We went through the usual drill, the steps I cited above, one of the helpers, Anesthesia or a junior surgeon? Anyway after stretching out on my left side, the voice said" You'll be dropping off to sleep but I DIDN'T. Now I could not actually feel the tube go down, wasn't panicked , figured I would doze off any minute so I watched it in the monitor just like Dr Noria did, she was standing in front,of my table about hip height or lower and at a 30% angle to the table. Now I am kind of a medical geek, requested to be awake for my colonoscopy before, so this was like YouTube only better, because it was ME. Now I did feel the tube as she extracted it, rather a swoosh sensation, about like the sensation you would feel at a gentle dentist office visit. She removed my mouth gag and said. "You can wake her up now!" I rolled onto my back and announced " I've been awake the whole time" other doctors looked at me like I dreamed it. Dr Noria looked abashed for a second and then said "I guess I don't have to tell you what I found" Nope I saw the ulcerations also. Not one drop Scary Larry for me, I was honored got to see it all! But I requested the next time I be given enough to doze off, it had been a Bear of a Week, had a traumatic few days of relocating and moving, and I honestly needed the relaxation, I had not been sleeping well, and I didn't even want to irritate my Precious Pouch with even mild acetaminophen. But if you're the 1 in a million occurance I was, it is Not A Bad thing. Sugar free POPSICLES helped me boost up my fluid intakes, use your baby clear medicine cup, use a teaspoon to drip more down. Yes a bag of IV fluid, even 2 if necessary, you feel like you have a new lease on life. Just remember what goes in once you get it in, will need to come out, so stay close to nearby plumbing. And you will be having your upper GI on my birthday and I will want know how things go, I have a repeat one on December 28 myself. Relax kid, you will do fine!

Can you imagine breaking wind and having it echo? I have heard it jokingly called the? Porcelain Palace, sounds as though yours could just be THAT!??

Usually the Campbell soup that causes the Dump deDump-Dump is ? in fact quite notorious. I don't know if someone in the original got the pea-sized brain that tomatoes were bitter and so nasty that you had to add sugar and starch to the formula, nut they did it and some of us end up "reaping the whirlwind". And alas and alack, there we are!?

Might check these out myself!

Oh it is going to happen , and at least you don't have to resort to. a PICC line like me. Wouldn't it be groovy if we are both better within a month? Take your Carafate, I will too, much as I HATE the chalky old stuff, it could've,helping heal me. I now have 240 or so on board, when I picked up my meds after I got back to Mount Vernon, there was another tall bottle, guess i dont mind THAT much, copay is only $1,25. So each and every day, 4 get dissolved and down the hatch, at a minimum I have them for 3 months ordered. I just think they taste like drinking flour water!

And I had a small child who was on it for duodenal spasms. I always thought it smelled a little minty from the times he would urp up on me. And I think it may be somewhere in the opioid family,minor league but still qualified to attend the Family Reunion.

You know it is great to read these threads, not saying surgeons and the bariatric staff generals aren't great, they are but sometimes the humble footsoldier in the Weight Wars has the Best Ideas!?

Never Binge Again, I'll start looking around, see if I can find a cheap enough copy, might try my local library system. If I can't find one, it will be one of the first items I buy in 2019.

Danke leibling, in the midst of bewilderment I do try. Did I ever tell you my story of why I am a ?bumblebee? Okay Thebumblebee is aerodynamically impossible, his little wings are too short to hold up his fat little body. But no one EVER TOLD him this so he just keeps on flying. People thought it was much too late in life for me to attempt surgery, let alone be successful. And like the bumblebee I just keep on flying and flying, trying to fly a straight course, trying to achieve a ✌ victory against all the doubters, nay-sayers and ones with flyswatters who wanted to put me down. And it has been a bitter, hard-won victory, I used to want to be like this one or that one,but finally I came to realize I am a good bumblebee,there is room for me to be me and that is Good Enough for me at the finish?

??Fluffy Chix calls this emjoi Jazz Hands , I call it a hug from ME to You and we both may be correct, just heard from my TPN dietician, yeah got my own, her name is Kelly that since my blood work shows I am at least trying to eat, for 2 nights I go to a clear formula, no fats so it won't look milky like baby formula anymore, and there is a possibility I may decrease length of feeding from 14 hours to 12, depends on what my Thursday blood draw says. Surprise, I NEVER KNEW it could talk! But she, and by extension Dr Noria are pleased , that's nice but ultimately I should be the one pleased, not them. I have been 2oz cupping down a strawberry shake, after 19 weeks of protein shakes my my palate is jaded, I am varying from one shake, 2 soups to 2 shakes, one soup, and liquids , vitamins, minerals, Dexilent, Zofran, Wellbutrin, Carafate in between . Tomkitten wants to sell one TV to make money at the pawnstore, I am resisting, I HATE pawnstore, check into cash places and all those liwlifes. Been trying to sell my very nice Kerosun heater worth $159 for $30, that would ensure he and I at least get our haircut for Christmas, next month will be better November I had those moving expenses, December I was in the hospital, had to buy meals for Tomkitten because he was loyal enough stay in Columbus with Me. Next month, should be early- mid, my insurance settlements will disperse, the ones originally set,to come August at latest but it he side drug their feet, they were and are a self- insurered entity, does the term" Big Box Store" ring a? bell? Yep THEM People, the original pay low, sell High folk founded by a gentleman named Sam . Worked for them for over 11 years, showed up H***, High Water, Tornadoes, Cracked ribs, drug myself in, I believed in THEM, did they reurn the FAVOR? Nope, a full wallet has no conscience, consequently we Did Part company. Oh I miss my customers, especially the regulars, my former work area looks worse than a train wreck , try to not to look when I shop there, I do not miss the ungreatful lying for their own gain supervisors I had. Might have bowed under, dropped my case without a whimper,but one came up to me one day , stated "Why should we pay you anything, you don't work for us any more, why don't you just disappear from sight? " honey I do have strawberry blonde(golden red) hair, grew each and every strand myself, not that fakey rose-gold from a box shade she was wearing. Now don't get me wrong,it is pretty,on many ladies but not with an ugly bulldog face. When I did still work there, I often thought I KNOW who her mama slept with. But I am not the compliant sweet tempered person who buckled under, kept her mouth shut for the good of the COMPANY. Throw me down a challenge like THAT , and like Dee Snider of Twisted Sister " We ain't gonna take it anymore!: I thanked her for her observation, told her I had other things to do and left her standing with her ugly mouth hanging open in the middle of the Produce Section. Went home ,called my extremely competent Columbus Lawyer and Said " Let's Rock" , after 2 and a half that Corporate Turnip will bleed, bleed, bleed. And although it does reflect badly on the local store, the money ultimately comes from the Head Honchos at Corporate. And after any outstanding bills are paid, I have a few little projects to plow money into. When it happens I may tell ALL about it, just keep tuned!

Mouse's you said you would like a permanent IV in you? Be careful WHAT you wish for, I have had a PICC line in my upper left arm for 2 weeks tomorrow, not a barrel of giggles and laughs, oh it does have some sterling features but my feeding solution weighs close to 8-10 pounds, which is (surprise surprise) the amount you cannot safely exceed lifting with affected arm, so must remember to always puck bag apparatus up with right arm, yeah the one that has broken twice and had to be surgical repaired 8 years ago with a titanium plate and 12 screws. So both of this birdies wings have been wounded! Squawk squawk! Most of the time I wear it on my back, let my back muscles bear the strain, get fed for 14 out of the 24, so if I put it on at 9pm it isn't through until 11 am the next morning. And a story upon myself, last Friday I made a trek to. the BR, and 2500mp being fed in means frequent #1 trips. Took bag off, laid it on my shower bench to take a test from the weight. Got up and went to swing it back on, over balanced , staggered trying to regain my center of gravity, ended up hitting the bathroom door with my rump and sliding down it to the cold floor. And there I am, cradling the bag in my arms like a sick toddler. Tomkitten , hearing the commotion, comes trotting from the other end of the house. Now remember hes's all mine , even thinks like me, poor kid. " Are you all right?" Oh yeah, every 72 year old woman dreams of sitting on a cold slate floor on a Friday Night! " Shall I pick you up?" No Junior, any stress on THAT ARM you better have your Funeral suit found because if the catheter snaps inside me, it goes to my ❤, my lungs I might make it to local hospital but I'll die before I make Columbus! So I rolled to my least injured side and by bracing my feet and doing some fancy maneuvers managed to regain an upright position. TK wishes he had. made a video to post on YouTube, said he would earn MASSIVE? and it would be,popular. How much longer will I have this? End of year soonest, longest FOREVER? And since it is an open access to my innards it has to be kept very clean and sterile as possible. Monday was to be a blood draw day for me, went to my local Band Aid Station, derogatory term Columbus hospitals have for my county community hospital, and the access was clotted off, had to get order to declot and make the PICC line open again. It was accepting the saline flushes and TPN in, but like a little toilet flapper valve, it was flopping closed. So spent a couple- 3 hours having it rectified, and I actually got a small free dinner. I had about a third cup mashed potatoes, some gravy and a Tablespoon maybe Tablespoon and half very tender Turkey that I chewed, chewed and put gravy( one bari-pal called it meat lube) on it, swallowed and kept it down. Mousecat, that is the first MEAT I have had since September 5th that I could keep down. And I took it abysmally slow but it worked. I almost cried with joy. And now my TPN for the next couple days will be clear, they are stepping back on the fat content, since I kept some food down. I made myself some potato soup with skim milk and my lower fat cheese, celery and onion, and pureed it down smooth. Heat up about a 1/2cup in the microwave, sometimes I can get it all down, sometimes not but slowly. with baby spoonfuls I try. I want to get WELL so badly!

My guess and its a IMHO, stomach secretions, maybe a tad gastric acid, your ulcers romping and stomping in there,, remember I too am fighting the stomach spasms et al right along side of you. HAVE often said Do I WANT to wake up today?

And also it is possible they (your insurance) might accept documentation from your primary care physician for the 6 months. Mine wrote a letter that did that , cited days where we discussed my obesity, how it affected my quality of life, how we had tried non-surgical means of weight control, whether it was lack of meaniful mobility or that my body refused to deplete its fat storage, that I had given the "old college try" and that he felt a surgical intervention would be in my best interest before my body totally broke down from the strain. I was at High Weight of 365, 3 months after my RnY I am 260 with a goal of 175. Since I am older it may take 18 months instead of the year many achieve it in, but I have been given a life extension to do it now. And in the midst of a day where I am gloomy about other things, Christmas, my birthday, insufficent money for my bills and other needs, this still shines brightly. So Keep on Keeping on and I will also!?❄⛄❄⛅

Jacie, honey, I am So So happy for you. As someone who almost left it until too late , I congratulate you for doing it at a much younger age. Your son will be getting a new improved model Mommy, one that will have fun , play games with, and generally be fun to be around. Not saying you were all those things before but mobility does mean a lot. You'll now be the express train instead of the Huff and Puff model. And I want to be kept updated as time goes along because I do believe in the operation and its benefits. And mine has not been a textbook recovery, ask anyone who has followed me, but I find much to be upbeat and hopeful about, and I will not die soon from obesity, as once was predicted. I WILL MAKE IT AND DO A GREAT JOB DOING IT! This is my vow before God and all my Bariatric witnesses!????

17 months, she started before sleeve at I think 41BMI. She c was supposed to wait the extra month but she and Scottie celebrated and she got the "Gold ring " off the marital merry-go-around. She wasn't sure at first because she hadn't been fertile in the past, she was 26 so youth was on her side. Her mom teased her --why 3 names for her son? She said " He's a miracle,I'll use all my favorite names at once" her success, although she is so much younger, kind of inspired me to "keep on Keeping on" when I hit some roadblocks along the way to my own. And I swear in my county there are No More Rny, so I befriended mostly sleevers. Haven't seen updated pix for a while, maybe if they come for a visit I can see them again. But once her morning sickness abated. she walked, did prenatal yoga ate so clean, green, she was a poster model for good living, basically went towards minimal meat, I would say close to vegan, grew as much as possible. I'm sure there are girls out there maybe didn't do so good but I'm proud of Emily.

Try doing your liquid with just a teaspoonful, barely let it trickle down, also a barely warm heating pad on your upper tummy to relax the muscles, try warm instead of room temp or cold liquids, and although it sounds counterproductive to what i just said, sugar free POPSICLES. All else fails still notify your surgeon/surgical team, the valve between your esophagus/st9mach could be spasming. Although you're sore I'm sending you a virtual hug anyway!

Well Mr Viking you have gone from fat chubby Hagar the Horrible to Wulfgar the Wonderful. I was ahead of you,on high weight 365 to your 346.5, 319 on my surgery day 9/05/2018, I also cheered when I too broke 300 and last Wednesday 12/05/2018 I was 260 when dismissed from my Ohio State University-Wexner Medical Center after a weeks stay. I now have a PICC line in my upper left arm, get fed 14 out of 24 hours a TPN solution, but still am regarding it as an unexpected quicksand on my Bariatric Journey, I shall still dance in the sunlight☀ and claim a Final JOYOUS VICTORY!