ILKrista

Hello all,
I got through my surgery and 2 weeks of recovery just fine. I thought I would post a detailed description of how it went because I know how apprehensive I was about the whole thing, and I really wanted to know exactly what to expect.
February 23 was the date of my surgery. I was having the gastric sleeve procedure, a hernia repair, and my gall bladder removed. I had these procedures done in Downers Grove, IL by Dr. Rosen. I had to arrive at the hospital at 5:00 am. They weighed me and put me in a room where I was asked to put on the hospital gown and get in the hospital bed. They then put an IV in my hand and put the compression stockings on my legs. I was given a couple of shots (I'm not entirely sure what they were for). Every time a nurse stopped in I had to repeat my name and date of birth and they had to check my wrist band. All this happened over the course of 2 hours. I was allowed to have one person in the room with me and we pretty much just chatted in the in between times of the nurses visits. At about 6:45 am the surgeon stopped by to review the procedures we were doing. I also met with the anesteologist.
My surgery was scheduled for 7:00 am, and at about 7:05 am they started to wheel me to the operating room. I did make them stop at the bathroom because I was nervous and really felt the need to go one last time. Up until this point, I had been very calm and at peace with my decision. My heart rate had been right around 65 the whole time. But now I was extremely nervous. They wheeled the bed through what felt like 20 different corridors. We arrived in the operating room. It was COLD and smelled funny. They had me move to the bed they would be doing the surgery on. I lay there and looked up at these 3 huge lights (reminded me of old movies where the police were interrogating you and they had that big bright light in your face) and I started to really freak out. I kept thinking that this was going to be the last place I would ever see (I was so nervous about the idea of dying that the night before I wrote goodbye letters to all my friends and family). I started to cry and the nurses and doctors tried to comfort me, but I can't say it really worked. I would say that they knocked me out within about 2 minutes of when I started crying.
The next thing I remember is waking up in a considerable amount of pain. I believe it was around 10:30 am. The nurse wanted to know my level of pain on a scale of 1-10. I told her 6-7. I also told her I had to go to the bathroom. It was horrifically painful to have them lift my hips to put the bedpan under me, and in the end, I couldn't go anyway.
I stayed in the recovery area for 3 hours because they didn't have any regular rooms ready. For the most of the time I slept and the pain medication kicked in, so I didn't feel so crappy. Finally, at about 1:00 pm, I was taken to my room. I again pretty much slept and i would say that with the morphine, my pain was about a 2. I didn't feel bloated from gas. My biggest problem was a constant need to pee... major inflamation due to the catheter.
In fact, the need to pee was so overwhelming that by 4:00 pm, I forced myself to get out of bed and try to go to the bathroom again. Getting out of the bed was incredibly painful. As long as I was not moving in bed, I felt fine, but getting out of bed hurt! I became incredibly nauseous when I sat up and I told them I needed a bucket in case I puked while on the toilet. I dry heaved a couple of times (that hurt like a mother!). They put something in my IV to get rid of the nausea, and I never experienced it again. I still wasn't able to go to the bathroom, but as long as I was up, they had me walk a lap. I pretty much had to get up every hour from that point on to try and use the bathroom. Most of the time, I would also walk a lap. I should add, that they put some blue dye in the ice chips so that when I was able to pee, it was bright green. The blue dye helps them make sure you have no leaks. If there is a leak, the blood in the drain would turn purple. If there is no leak, then your pee will be green.
Around 5:30 pm, I went to radiology where they made me drink something that really left me feeling like I might hurl. After I got that down, I had to do the barrium drink. That wasn't as gross. The cool thing was that I could see the screen so I could watch the Fluid move down my throat and into my stomach. I was down there for about 10 minutes and then it was back up to my room.
At 10 pm the nurse came in to tell me I had to give myself my first heprin shot (my dr. requires all patients to give themselves 3 shots of heprin a day for 2 weeks following surgery). The idea of injecting myself with something really freaked me out, but I knew I had to do it or they wouldn't release me from the hospital. I had to give myself the shot in either my thigh or my stomach. I did the thigh. It took me a while to work up the nerve to put the needle in my leg, but I did it. It wasn't really painful and I would say that by day 3 after surgery, it was no big deal to do anymore.
They also checked by blood sugar level which was 159! This completely freaked me out because one of the big reasons I wanted this surgery was to prevent diabetes, which runs heavily in my family. Because the blood sugar level was so high, I had to get a insulin shot. They had to check the sugar level every 6 hours after that. The next time they checked it was 139 and the time after that it was 88. They told me that sometimes surgery causes your blood sugar levels to spike, but it will usually drop back down to where it should be by the next day.
That night I had to sleep with some tubing below my nose because the sleep study showed I have low oxygenation in my blood when I sleep. This thing was to monitor that. A buzzer would sound if the oxygen level dropped below 90. So, every single time I would fall asleep or start to drift off, this annoying buzzer would start ringing and I would have to call the nurse to get it turned off. At 3 am I finally asked what the purpose of this was, other than making sure I didn't sleep a wink the entire night. I was even more irritated about the whole thing when she told me the buzzer didn't sound out at the nurses station. The only place it rang was in my room. I made enough of a stink about the whole thing that they changed the tubing so it was putting out oxygen and would keep the stupid alarm from ringing the second I started to sleep. I don't think I slept after that because I was awake every time a nurse came in to check a vital or give me a shot. I will say, expect to be woken up at least every 2-3 hours.
The next day, they took me off the morphine and gave me a form of vicodin as a pain killer. I continued walking every hour (and going to the bathroom). The surgeon stopped by around 8:00am to check on me. He said that since I had been up moving around so much and I was doing quite well, that he was going to have them release me around 2pm (provided I could drink 4 oz of Water every hour with no problem). I had no problem with this and was ready to go, but my nurse was so ditzy that it was after 4:30 by the time I was finally released. Before I could go, they had to remove the drain, which I was really nervous about. She assured me it wouldn't hurt, but would be more uncomfortable feeling than anything. I was still braced for serious pain because friends had told me it hurt a lot. However, when she pulled it out, it really wasn't painful. It was more of a bizzare feeling because you can feel that tubing snaking around your internal organs. I think because it was only in there for a day, the skin hadn't grown around it so there was no pain.
I went home. The next 4 days, I was stiff and sore. I continued taking the liquid vicodin type medicine and my pain levels were around a 2. sleeping was difficult. I slept on the couch with my back propped way up so I could be in an almost sitting position. By day 5, I stopped taking the pain medication except for at night. By day 7, I quit the pain medication all together and was able to resume driving. If I had had to, I probably could have resumed working, but I was still very easily exhausted. I took a full 2 weeks off of work because I didn't want to have to give myself injections at work.
Overall, I felt like the surgery was far easier than I had expected. The only hard part was getting in & out of bed & moving position, but the more you force yourself to do it, the easier it gets. I haven't had any problems with throwing up or anything like that. Relearning how to eat has been a struggle and is my biggest focus right now. I hope this long and detailed (and in some cases TMI) story is helpful to those of you with this surgery in your future.
Krista

Try not to focus on what others are doing. I know that as soon as I start seeing how people hit their goal 6 months after surgery, I get depressed. Focus on how much healthier (and lighter) you are compared to your starting point. Every person will have a different experience & journey with this surgery. It's excellent to get support here, but don't forget that your journey won't match up with anyone elses!

Hmmm... I was dying for some pizza this weekend. I found this recipe http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/deep_dish_pizza.html and it turned out really well. It also reheated nicely. I froze some too, but haven't gotten to see how they will reheat yet.

I really related to your post. I'm a little over 10 months out, but the past couple of months I've just been up & down the same few pounds. I know the problem is me indulging too often in things I don't need. Instead of dwelling on the mistakes I've made the past few months, I'm really going to try to focus on what I can do right over the next couple months to get that weightloss moving again. I'm trying the Valentines Day challenge to see if that won't keep me motivated.

I started exercising a few years before I had the surgery... this was my last big attempt to lose all the weight without surgery. I went to the gym 3 times a week doing zumba & walking. I imagine most people thought I was on the verge of a heart attack because I would be red, dripping with sweat & ready for collapse... People have no idea how difficult it is to exercise with an extra 150 pounds on your back.
After surgery, I waited 2 months before heading back to the gym. I started doing a couch potato to 5K program. I did it more slowly than the program recommended because I really didn't feel like I was going to be doing my knees and ankles much good running on them when I was so heavy. However, I always do intervals. I would walk slow for a few minutes, then walk fast for a few minutes. I increased the amount of time of fast walking until I was eventually doing the whole time at a fast walk. Then I started adding in a slow jog for a few minutes at a time, etc.
I think the exercise has been the biggest factor in my weight loss. For one thing, if I've just forced myself to work out, I tend to follow my eating plan better because I know how much effort I just put in & don't want to undo all that work. I also think it has increased my muscle mass & bumped up my metabolism a lot.

Thanks, Yecats! This board is always so motivating and inspiring. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think I'd be where I'm at if I didn't have the support of this board. Best of luck to all.

I started exercising a few years before I had the surgery... this was my last big attempt to lose all the weight without surgery. I went to the gym 3 times a week doing zumba & walking. I imagine most people thought I was on the verge of a heart attack because I would be red, dripping with sweat & ready for collapse... People have no idea how difficult it is to exercise with an extra 150 pounds on your back.
After surgery, I waited 2 months before heading back to the gym. I started doing a couch potato to 5K program. I did it more slowly than the program recommended because I really didn't feel like I was going to be doing my knees and ankles much good running on them when I was so heavy. However, I always do intervals. I would walk slow for a few minutes, then walk fast for a few minutes. I increased the amount of time of fast walking until I was eventually doing the whole time at a fast walk. Then I started adding in a slow jog for a few minutes at a time, etc.
I think the exercise has been the biggest factor in my weight loss. For one thing, if I've just forced myself to work out, I tend to follow my eating plan better because I know how much effort I just put in & don't want to undo all that work. I also think it has increased my muscle mass & bumped up my metabolism a lot.

Ten years ago when I was in college, I bought a nice brown wool coat, size large. Even then it was about 4-5 inches away from closing in the front, but it was my goal to wear it. Well, over the 10 years, I got bigger & bigger & it got packed away and forgotten about. Last week while at a friends house, his dog ate the zipper off my fall coat. When I got home, I went looking for a different coat to wear and uncovered the long forgotten coat from college. So excited to put it on & discover that it FITS perfectly! I still can't believe it. The scale may not always be moving, but these things can really make my day.
Krista

Thank you! That's my diva look. lol. Good luck with your surgery & feel free to message me if you have any questions! I remember how overwhelmed I felt about it all during most of the process.
Krista

Hard to really say exactly, but my timeline went something like this:

July 2010- Approached Primary Care dr about the surgery & got a referral. August 2010- Met with surgeons office & began 3 month supervised diet for insurance. During this time period, I also had the psych eval, labs, & sleep test done. I was hoping for a November surgery. No problems with insurance approval. September 2010- Found out my work would not let off work in November because my boss was going to be on maternity leave from early December- mid February. (I am second in command, so to speak & they were afraid she could have the baby early). December 2010- Met with surgeon's office again. I had gained 10 + pounds due to quitting smoking & depression over the delay in surgery. Told to lose it or no surgery for me in late February. January-February 2011- Worked my *ss off to lose that weight. February 23, 2011- Had my surgery. Although I was upset at the time about the delay in surgery. I read the boards on this site every day & felt that it actually helped me understand what the realities of my new life would be & just how committed I would need to be to be successful. I hope this helps a bit.
Krista

Miters36- I feel like I could have written your post myself. We started at about the same weight, have lost about the same weight & have about the same amount to go. Like you I am just past 6 months & have been losing & regaining the same 3 pounds for the last 2 weeks. It is so frustrating. And the days when I feel like I've done a good job seem to be the days when the weight actually goes up! I'm sure I am eating more carbs than I did at 2 months out, but I really don't think it has been much. I'm thinking I'm hitting my first real stall & after having the weight fall off so easily at the beginning, it is just FRUSTRATING! Good luck & let me know if you figure out something to break the stall. I need help, too!
Krista

Baby girl.... they are called haters ;-( Unfortunately they are our friends and you think they would be happy for us, but they are not. They are jealous instead. You can either say something to them or let it roll off your back.
Deb