DownInSocal

I have a scar forming under my incision. I think this means I am developing an adhesion. I am going to begin massaging the area after some gentle heat and see how that works. I guess this is common after abdominal surgery. There is as lump under there though. I am going to watch it for Orchid's wonderful mention of a hernia. Thanks so much!!

Before my complaint session and questions below: I am eternally grateful for having the opportunity to have surgery. My other insurance would not cover the surgical portion so the Navy was my only hope. Even with things that have happened and problems below I would do it all again 100 times. With that being said..... I had my follow up today with the "team". It is not much of a team anymore as my doctor has "left". I am not sure what that means exactly. He was a civilian doctor working at a military hospital. Soooo he is just gone and that is all I know. No one would share. There are other doctors I can see if I asked but it is kind of awkward. I am the patient with no doctor. Not really anyone's problem. I have not seen a bariatric doctor since the day I left the hospital. Odd to anyone? If you had surgery in the states how often have you seen your doctor after surgery? So the "team" that now seems to consist of a nurse wants to start weaning me off Prilosec. I take one in the morning and one at night. So I am supposed to start taking it once per day. I feel like I am being weaned early for an unknown reason. I don't feel 7 weeks is that long to worry about long term side effects. My tummy is still kind of sensitive. I know when I miss my dose of Prilosec. I am kind of intimidated by my now only team member as we have had trouble before. I have been having nausea out of the blue and felt like I had to fight to get medication today. I am out of Zofran. At first they wanted to give me Reglan. That is a mess of a drug if you Google it. I refused to even fill the scrip. Now I have Phenegrin (sp). She was also stingy with it though, 12 pills and that is it. I don?t want to throw up and there is no reason to feel nauseous when there are medications that can help. For gods sake I just had most of my stomach cut out 7 weeks ago. What gives with being stingy? My other insurance reimburses the Navy for all my care (except the actual VSG surgery) so it should not be a cost issue. I have brought this up but it didn?t help. I have options. I can cry to my PCP who is awesome but is not a bariatric doctor. I feel I should still be under care of a bariatric doctor at 7 weeks. I know my psychiatrist would prescribe me nausea if I needed it also. This whole situation is just odd and unsettling. Thoughts from my trusted friends? How long did your doctor keep you on Prilosec?

She is sleeved. Me thinks she has been into her Lortab too much :cursing: I have read some of the posts I made right after surgery. Wha? My spelling is bad anyway but geez :thumbup1:

I figured I would post early since I already admitted my Starbucks problem. The problem with me going all the time is not about money, my husband doesn't care about the money either. After all our grocery bill has dropped by about $40 a week or more. It's about the fact I should be having shakes in the morning made at home. They are lower in calories. Period. Tomorrow there will be NO Starbucks. I will make my shake and that is just all there is to it. Ok here is today: Breakfast: You guessed it. I won't bother with the details. It had 300 cals and 18 grams Protein but I didn't drink it all so.... Lunch: Hummus and 1 slice swiss. Dinner: 2 meatballs. I am not hungry today and didn't eat much because of bathroom issues making me feel sick. Don't worry we will be discussing that at follow up tomorow.

Bah! I grilled my surgeon about what staples he used also. I was not having any of that nickel business. He was like "No one uses that anymore. Where do you get these questions?" I said "Online :thumbup1: " For the record I have titanium.

My follow up is tomorrow. I am going to talk about this. I can't even sit up without it hurting. This can't be right. I am seeing on other boards people are doing ab workouts at 4 weeks? And I think those people had the several incision operation. I only have one incision! wtf? Will update tomorrow.

I am assuming this person was talking about long term "dying" but mine is almost all removed and I am still kicking. All jokes aside...... A friend's husband had stomach cancer. 95% of his stomach was removed. He did pass away several years later but it was from the cancer metastitis (moving around the body) not from his stomach being gone. He ate fine but did have trouble with tough breads, like some do with VSG including me. She remembered when they looked at the Dr. in horror when he said they would remove most of his tumored stomach. "How will he eat and stay alive?" Dr. said "You don't need your stomach, you might need B12 suppliments later but we will do blood work to see in about 6 months." My father had a bypass in the 80's. He was fine. He died later from something unrelated but never had trouble that I remember.

I had my first fall off the wagon day yesterday. What a disaster day. Breakfast: Back and Starbucks. :001_tt2: Cream mocha with 3 scoops Protein. 300 cals :fencing: but 18 grams protein. Grazing food: I bought a pumpkin scone to give to a coworker who loves them. She was not here today though. Of course I could have given it to someone else or threw it away but no I grazed on it the whole day while drinking Water so it slid right through. There was 400 calories in that thing. I am so angry at myself. Scones work but bread does not? Whatever. I am over it and that won't happen again. Lunch: Funny. I should not have been hungry from grazing but I hate 2 oz pureed chicken and 2 oz pureed carrots. Dinner: I guess I was finally full from all the BS I ate. I had two meatballs with some spagetti sauce and little parmasean. :smilielol5: (for tomorrows post I am already going to admit I have been at Starbucks)

I am so glad you are happy and things went well. I think this is possible yes. I am sure a lot of it was Water weight but take it! The first several weeks I lost rapidly and made other people get on the scale to make sure it worked. When I came back to work I even got on our freight scale which is certified and it was spot on. Keep us updated!!!

I was never a fan eggs so that is why I don't eat them. I am also a creature of habbit Linda. Even before surgery I didn't need to vary my diet much. Now I could eat the same thing most days and I wouldn't care. food just is not that important to me. 10/12 Breakfast: I could lie and say no Starbucks but alas I was there. Tall white chocolate mocha with 1/4 shot decaff and non fat milk, no whip. After it cooled off I added half a pack of ujury unflavored Protein powder to it. Lunch: 2.5 oz pureed chicken and 2 oz pureed carrots. I am trying to cut out this two lunch business. I don't want to be a snacker. I think that will lead to grazing for me later. I am being proactive. Dinner: My husband wanted In and Out. We both got off work 2 hours late. So I had an In and Out cheeseburger, animal style, and protein style (no bun, wrapped in lettace. I ate the patty and tomatoes. Didn't eat the pickles or most of the lettace. I ate 3 of my husbands french fries. Not as good as I remember, my tastes are changing.

Oh god do I feel your pain. There are some answers here: http://verticalsleevetalk.com/vsg-complications-support-group/1650-fluids-fiber-tmi-story-but-important.html I take a stool softener now. I am trying every 4th day. I get the ones that is only a stool softener, no laxitive or stimulant. Also I take fiber now. Things are better but not great. Feel free to pm me if needed.

Are you sure we are not sisters already? You sound exactly like I was right before surgery. My emotions and thoughts were all over the map. Somedays I was in denial like the day would never come. Other days it was right around the corner. I tried not to dwell on what could go wrong during surgery but would go wrong if I did not have surgery! I had it easier than many on the board because my psychiatrist gave me Ativan for the last days before surgery. The day before I was taking full doses every 4 hours. I have to admit I have PTSD and have tendancy to be shall we say "excitable". I am leaps and bounds where I was years ago. I have some work to go though. I also got two doses of Ativan in the hospital because of panic attacks. One brought on by difficulty breathing because of the position I was in and one who knows why. My point to all that was ask for help if you feel your anxiety is interfearing with your life. Some doctors will give it, some won't. There is no reason to live in a constant state of anxiety. You used the term "Waves" this is actually quite telling because those waves can be the start of panic attacks. "Waves" is a trigger word in the physcology world that anxiety is escalating. Everything is going to be fine. You know when it became fine? My husband and I did my pre op pictures the morning of surgery. I took a look at them on the camera and said "If those won't get me into surgery nothing will, lets go. I am ready now." We then marched out the door. I don't think you can prepare yourself for this surgery fully because it is unlike anything you have been through. If I can do this in my half fragile state most of the time, I know you can do it! You are so well organized already! You are leaps ahead of where I was. I can't wait to see your updates. Oh and yes I did feel like I was in suspended state of reality, but it might have been chemical who knows. Come here as much as you need to. Get reassurance, whine, cry. Anything you need we are here!

JoAnne I am so sorry this is happenign to you. I just wanted to lend my support. I don't know anything about appeals. I know some here do and the other board has a lot of threads about appeals.

Welcome Dancer. Being a nurse do you have to do a lot of patient rolls, moves, etc? You won't be able to do that right after you get back to work. Better talk to your doctor about what nursing moves you can do and what you can't. My mom is a nurse and I know she gets pooped just from moving patients around all night. I work a desk job so going back was no problem. Just a little tired and sore.

Pffffffffft

Oh that is terrible. Thank you for sharing this. You could help someone in the future. You have been through so much. Stay strong.

WOW linda that is so awesome.

Yikes. I had not thought of a hernia. I wonder if it can develop after surgery. Ok, I just read about hernias. I don't think it is one. I don't feel anything under the sutures like something is protruding there. Edit again. You have given me something to think about. I am going to start a log of when and how it hurts for my appt on Thursday. Thanks!

My understanding is when food backs up into your esophagus from your stomach. This can also make your saliva glands overactive in anticipation of throwing up so you are producing so much saliva you feel like you are foaming at the mouth. I have had something back up into my esophagus but not all the way to my mouth or had the extra saliva. But then again I am missing one saliva gland so I don't have much to start with.

I am 52 days out right now. No real complaints but........ I have a strange pain kinda at my incision site. I only have one incision. For an idea of where my one is see this pic: http://www.ucsfhealth.org/adult/images/bariatric_surgery_images/lap_incision_call.jpg It is the middle left incision (patients left so the ride side of your screen) that is marked "10 to 12 mm" in middle of the three. Mine does not tilt down like that though. I guess if you do it only through one incision it does not tilt. Anyway, after I eat I get kind of a stabbing pain there sometimes, but not every time. I have a dull ache there about 80% of the time now. It kind of came on gradually about 2 weeks ago. The pain wanders around sometimes too, I can't say it is always at the incision site but when it does hurt, it hurts to push on the incision, regardless of where the pain feels like it is at the time. I have no shoulder pain, no fever. Nothing to suggest a leak. My incision is now closed but you can tell still healing on the inside, kind of a purple color. I have never recovered from having my abs cut so I am thinking maybe this is the pain, just healing. Anyone else have this or had your abs cut before your WLS and get pains? Yes I will email my team but I see them on Thursday for a follow up so I am not in a big hurry. :confused:

Trust your doctor. I trust my doctor. He went to school forever to do this. They care about helping people or they would not be doing this. Everything is going to be fine.

Well I just wanted to post that first I think my stall has broken. I am losing again and not yo-yoing up and down 2 lbs like I was. Stupid stalls! My personal onederland was going to be 179. I have not seen that number in years. I didn't think 199 was a good first goal because at surgery I was 204. So here I am. Onederland for two days so I think it will stick. :cursing:

Yeah that little incident cured me carne asada for a long time. Yesterday I pulled another dumb move, this time though I should have known what the outcome was going to be. Why? Because it has happened before. :sneaky2: 10/11 Breakfast: Starbucks again. I am almost ashamed to admit it. I was out. It was there. Anyway I had a pumpkin spice frap, forgot to have them make it light but did get 1/2 shot only of decaff, no whip and Protein powder added. 18 grams protein and 250 cals. Late Lunch: Here is where things went south again. I ate half a California thin crust personal pizza. I chewed well but it cramped my stomach. It was the crust. I know better. Bread and I do not mix anymore. Some people are lactose intolerant. I am bread intolerant. I would rather be bread intolerant though by far. I don't crave bread like I used to which is wonderful. I just need to stop trying to eat it because it does NOT work. Why can't I understand this? :cursing: Late Dinner: My stomach was so angry at me I just purreed some chicken. About 3 oz.

Stalls SUCK. I have just finished a 3 week stall I *think*. It is so upsetting to eat so little and your body rebels. Your attitude is great. Don't let it get you down. It is ok to cry and whine about it I think. I have shed a few tears over it.

I have never heard this. I have not thrown up or slimed into my mouth yet. I can say though I can't use my Sonicare toothbrush right now. The minute I start brushing with it my stomach gets upset. Dunno. I am just using a regular toothbrush right now. What the stomach wants the stomach gets........