mousecat88

Still in the game! Sorry no posting for a few days! Was in the hospital Friday to Sunday to get my gallbladder out and fix a surprise hernia! Gained 2lbs, but I think it's from all the fluids. BUT, now I can eat and drink without being sick! Not sure if I'll make my goal weight for Feb. 1, but this was way more important anyways. Just been vegging out while I heal!

Yeah it was just so inflamed it started to mesh into my liver. He said it must have started doing that years ago, normally it just pops right out. Ironically, the pain helped me eat like I was supposed to. Now I want to shovel everything into my mouth. I just need to learn to ignore the hunger.

this is really weird to me. aside from the pain of where the gallbladder was, all the nausea is gone. i don't feel any restriction at all and i am ridiculously starving. i have to train myself all over again. i had 4oz of oatmeal super quickly, inadvertently, but had no ill effect. it's like the pain was keeping me on the right path. i hope i get some fullness cues back.

heparin injection bruise, I mean.

Heyyy! I got home a noon today. So, it turned out my gallbladder was so inflamed it had fused to my liver! I also had a hernia, not another ulcer specifically. The area where the intestinal junction meets under the new pouch had developed a hole in it. He said most people retain fat there but if you lose weight weight, sometimes those sutures separate before healing so he fixed this hole. I just took a 5 hour nap. Basically feels like a cracked rib and some muscle soreness on my right side. Can't wait to see the brutal heparin injection I get this time. lol! I havent eaten in 74 hours so tomorrow I'll experiment with some food! Tonight is rest and water.

yeah had they not done the gallbladder they woulsnt have seen the other ulcer until it was way worse off!

surgery done. they found an ulcer in my intestine that was about to open up and leak stool into my torso! they fixed that and removed my gallbladder. have some pain. will probably be here 2 more nights. sigh.

I LOVE MY SURGEON. I am scheduled with him for tomorrow noonish for gallbladder removal. He came by to see me personally in the ER after he got out of a 10 hr surgery. He also explained that he made my stomach slightly larger because some surgeon's make them too small which causes issues swallowing and that if later on in life a patient develops an ulcer that doesn't heal, they have to remove the pouch entirely.. so he leaves a tiny bit more so if that ever were to happen, I would still have a stomach. Which makes so much more sense now that I'm not on drugs from my endoscopy. Anyways, they are admitting me tonight. Surgery tomorrow. Thank God!

I'm basically like a cat trying to cough up a hairball that doesn't appear.

It's mucus from your stomach that comes up. I guess that's what people call slime. lol. But it's like less thick snot. People only typically have this happen if they eat too fast. I just have been having it happen on occasion when I "dry heave" due to nausea. Usually nothing comes up; sometimes snot comes up a little. Today was a little snotty.

It's my less gross sounding term for barf. lol.

Just blarfed. Up snot. No more uncomfortable pain, so that's cool.

Oh. My. God. WTF! lol! Having a rough morning. I've had frequent burping since surgery and some days it is really painful! Gas just gets stuck in my esophagus and I have to force it out. I rarely had gas pre-op. Just feel generally uncomfortable today, but TGIF!

Topamax is the devil tho. lol.

Honestly, I mean take your physician's advice, but I was on multiple SSRIs before, and SSRIs mixed with antipsychotics, and all kinds of things that "say" they increase the risk for serotonin syndrome, but it's pretty much really unlikely. And you'll know if something is off and you just stop the other medicine right away.

Phentermine is an amphetamine derivative, like Adderall. I don't have addiction issues, so I didn't find it addictive. I don't think it has the potential for addiction like Adderall does, but you can have withdrawal and that sort of thing from it. It won't make you hyperfocused like Adderall can, but it will keep you awake. If you had issues with Adderall before, I probably wouldn't risk Phentermine.

Just watch your heart rate on Phentermine. It helped the first time I took it; lost about 13lbs fast but I NEVER ate. Then I stopped due to my heart rate. Started it again like 2 years later, but it didn't do anything that time.

Yeah I've been on Lexapro about 10 years now and if I stop taking it within like 2 or 3 days I am in EXTREME PANIC MODE. lol. So now I know... just never... stop... taking... it.

I did not do well on Topomax. I was given it a few times for weight loss (alone and part of another medication) and for migraines. It made me pretty depressed. I take Lexapro, Valium, and Guanfacine for anxiety and don't really have depression issues, but Topomax was not goooood. Personally, anyways.

DANGIT. I missed the "official" weigh-in, but I weighed myself yesterday and was at 234lbs. By February 1, I hope to be 224lbs. Because that's the next "milestone" in Baritastic and I just hit the milestone 1 of 234lbs yesterday! Goals for 2019 include reaching my weight goal of 140lbs. Or coming darn close. I also plan to start walking on my lunch breaks after my gallbladder surgery in 3 weeks. I also want to use my home gym a minimum of 3 times per week. Really, just get my exercise level up immensely. January goals are simply trying to get to 50oz of water a day. It's been a real struggle for me. I know I eventually need much more, but 50 is A LOT for me right now. Since I am on primarily liquids until post-gallbladder, I am not as concerned with protein yet. Water is my biggest concern right now.

They have me on a waitlist in case someone cancels their surgery. I told them to reschedule a hesitant pre-op bypass patient that needs more time to think it over so I can hurry up and enjoy a 3oz filet mignon like a normal person. LOL. Today I actually ate something! I've been around 100 cals a day the last few days, but today I had half a side caesar salad and half of a french onion soup from Outback. Not dead yet. So that's a plus. I've been really mulling over the whole "I made your stomach bigger" thing and it is really pissing me off. I just keep thinking about it and how he said it can make ulcers more common and how I dealt with one already and I just don't know why he would do that. I still have the appointment on Monday and I really cannot wait to talk to him about all of that.

He said he will repair anything he sees wrong while he is in there. He does not expect any hernias. I just had a CT of my entire abdomen with contrast and it looked perfect. He said there *could* be minor adhesions, but doubtful.

It may not be phentermine. There's a lot of other weight loss medications... Topomax, Belviq, Qsymia, Contrave... all of which I was on before and none of which do anything. LOL. It is weird he wants you on weight loss medications... you aren't going to medically managed weight loss... that's what they do there... Medifast and rx meds. I used to take Adderall. I don't know if you've taken Phentermine before, but it made me much more strung out the first time I was on it than Adderall ever did. The second time I took it, it did nothing. But my resting heart rate was 165BPM. It was bad.

he basically said if I have no stenosis, no ulcers, no hernias, and the gallbladder issue doesnt solve it, the final thing to try is a revision but he doesnt want to do that because the bypass areas look so healthy. honestly I am really really terrified of having my gallbladder removed. it was my only fear about having wls. that I would eventually need it out. the bypass surgery didn't make me nervous at all. but thinking about having my gallbladder done is making me so panicky. my mom had open surgery back in the day and said it was excruciating. I know it's laparoscopic now. he said he would check for adhesions while he is in there. I am scared of it being converted to open. and I am nervous about what my employer is going to say about me taking MORE time. the whole thing just sucks, especially because it's all speculative. i DO have severe nausea but no pain. I DO have polyps and tons of gallstones... so I guess that can cause this. I am just annoyed and nervous for another surgery.

He told me not to eat greasy or fatty food. The fattiest food I eat is my lowfat light n fit yogurt. lol. The Atkins shakes were 7g, but I quit those. Everything I eat is super low fat and low carb. And greasy? I would die if I ate anything greasy! I think the only things that haven't bothered me are actually 0 fat things. I hope the gallbladder is it because I can't eat ZERO fat items forever. The next 3 weeks are going to take forever. I hope I don't need recovery very long because I burned all my leave on my bypass.