I'm in Mexicali with Sarsar. Her surgery is tomorrow so please send out lots of good thoughts and prayers! She had dinner tonight with Lynn and my son, I slept through it...dangit! She is an absolute sweetheart, she even brought me a gift bag that made me smile. I'm so glad I'm here with her and we can do laps around the nurses station together lol

Renee`

Thanks for the update! Wishing you both a very speedy recovery!

Sarsar, thanks for the update! Hope you're doing well!!

Reneè, just hang in there. If this story sounds familiar...

I had horrible pain in my shoulder and stomach muscles, couldn't sit up by myself (much less walk) until day2 after surgery. I also had a hard time getting enuff pain meds, couldn't sleep due to pain when I breathed & it took them a while to figure out what worked. They couldnt do the leak test til today; I wasn't allowed to drink anything at all. I had several meltdowns and I felt trapped and horrible, but today (2 days after surgery), I'm feeling so much better. I had no dry heaves but I did cough blood and I know how much movement in that area hurts!!

It f**king blows, no doubt about it. But if I feel better after all that, you will too.

It'll be over soon! I promise.

You just have to take it slow. Go easy on yourself. Give it more time. You WILL feel better! I'm rooting for you! (My husband even asked if I'd heard from you, cuz I told him I was worried!)

Sarsar and Renee' so glad you guys are doing ok. It only gets better just keep that in mind Renee'!! How are you doing Sarsar? Best wishes to you both!

You all are in my thoughts and prayers.

Wishing you both the best.

Thanks for the update Sarsar.

Hang in there Renee. I hope you are feeling better every day.

Sarsar, thanks for the update! Hope you're doing well!!

Reneè, just hang in there. If this story sounds familiar...

I had horrible pain in my shoulder and stomach muscles, couldn't sit up by myself (much less walk) until day2 after surgery. I also had a hard time getting enuff pain meds, couldn't sleep due to pain when I breathed & it took them a while to figure out what worked. They couldnt do the leak test til today; I wasn't allowed to drink anything at all. I had several meltdowns and I felt trapped and horrible, but today (2 days after surgery), I'm feeling so much better. I had no dry heaves but I did cough blood and I know how much movement in that area hurts!!

It f**king blows, no doubt about it. But if I feel better after all that, you will too.

It'll be over soon! I promise.

You just have to take it slow. Go easy on yourself. Give it more time. You WILL feel better! I'm rooting for you! (My husband even asked if I'd heard from you, cuz I told him I was worried!)

Hi everyone...thanks for all the well wishes and prayers. I went into this knowing it could get rough and boy did it. I have an extremely high tolerance to narcotics and they couldn't get me to a comfortable state. No one thought about the fact that I've been on stronger pain meds for over 2 years than what they give you there for pain. It was one of the most painful, horrible experiences I've ever had. This is NOT to scare anyone, this was my experience and due to an extremely high tolerance. Dr. Campos told us in his 8 years of practice he'd only seen one other person that had my tolerance for narcotics.

The hotel, the hospital, everything is beautiful and clean and wonderful. The people are amazing but we did have a hard time understanding a few.

So tired...thanks so much to all of you

XOXO Renee`

Hi everyone...thanks for all the well wishes and prayers. I went into this knowing it could get rough and boy did it. I have an extremely high tolerance to narcotics and they couldn't get me to a comfortable state. No one thought about the fact that I've been on stronger pain meds for over 2 years than what they give you there for pain. It was one of the most painful, horrible experiences I've ever had. This is NOT to scare anyone, this was my experience and due to an extremely high tolerance. Dr. Campos told us in his 8 years of practice he'd only seen one other person that had my tolerance for narcotics.

The hotel, the hospital, everything is beautiful and clean and wonderful. The people are amazing but we did have a hard time understanding a few.

So tired...thanks so much to all of you

XOXO Renee`

I a beyond sad this happened. I have to say this bugs me because my doctor her knew exactly what I take- I take dilaudid, one of the strongest pain meds there is- and though I only take 2 mg 2 times a day most days this of course needed to be considered when it came to my pain management after the surgery and I had a dilaudid pump - I just needed to push a button and it delivered the relief immediately and to exactly where it was needed. I am devastated that was not available for you and that you had to suffer for even a moment. I am the last person to ever doubt that the experience in Mexico is first rate medicine but in this respect, at least, it failed you. I so wanted it to go well for you!

I also heard you hurt your ear- is that ok?

Keep us posted as you can and just rest and heal. This is but a short few days in a long life of rocking that sleeve! xoxo

Renee`, did you end up leaving today or staying till tomorrow?

We got home very late after a very long day on the plane!

Glad to hear sarsar made it home. Hope you are doing well.

Renee, I hope you get feeling better soon.

Thanks Sara and Renee for sharing your experiences...both the good and bad. I am flying down tomorrow and am having my band to sleeve revision

Monday...Hope it just keeps getting better and better for you ladies!!!

I did go home that day Sarah. I wanted to state here that Sarah was the mommy in our ward. She heard me dry heaving and she came toddling in with her I.V. pole trailing behind her, lifted my head and put my hair up in a ponytail for me. Now THAT is a friend for life type person! She is so caring and kind I just love her.

Meggie, I did cut my ear when I fell out of the bed and they used butterfly bandages on it and said it would re-attach to my face. Just a small cut / tear near the lobe and my cheek. I don't remember this happening but I know it scared the begeezus out of Lynn and Logan. Logan was sobbing and calling his dad here in Vegas because he said I looked dead and wasn't responding to anything and the way I fell was a full on faceplant out of the bed. I'd been sitting up when they administered the pain meds and this may have, in retrospect, been a mistake lol

No worries, my ears have never been on of my vanity points anyways

xoxo Renee`

p.s. Lynn will be posting her take on the experience. We've talked about it and I said from the very beginning I would be totally honest about everything, even the ugly side.

Glad to hear you made it home safe and sound, Renee. Sorry you had such an awful time of it. I hope every day is an improvement

Ok, I am going to post this since it has been quite the trip being here with Renee. As is with most surgery patients, Renee doesn't remember the first day and a half of her hospital stay, which is probably a good thing. We said that we would tell the good, the bad, and the ugly. Renee and I have talked at great length about this post and she is aware of everything that will be posted and is in full agreement with what will be put out here. When she is feeling better and can get around better she plans on expounding on things.

Renee had a really rough time with the surgery for a couple of reasons. 1) She has a hard time with anesthesia and 2) because of the fibro/cfs she had developed a very high tolerance to narcotics and lastly 3) anxiety.

Our biggest concern going into the surgery was how was Renee's body going to respond to the surgery with the fibro. Was she going to come out of surgery in a full-fledged flare and be in uncontrollable pain? Fortunately for everyone, the fibro did not play a part other than her high tolerance to pain meds; which ended up being a detriment, but I will go into detail about this later.

Renee came back from the recovery room in pain, but it was normal surgery pain, nothing more. Renee gets very emotional coming out from under anesthesia, and this time was no different. There were a lot of tears; she didn't want to stay in the bed. As a matter of fact she hadn't been back from the recovery room much more than 10 minutes when she sat straight up in bed - on her own, with no assistance, put her feet on the ground and announced to God and country that she was hot and then "FLASH!" She took both edges of her hospital gown and whipped them up as high as she could and started flapping! Fortunately, her son Logan wasn't in the room. It was at this point that I decided it was probably a good idea to put her shorts on her. This was something she was absolutely convinced she could do on her own...NOT! We got her shorts on her and got her back into the bed.

If any of you own a dog, you know how they will circle, circle, circle trying to find a comfortable spot? Well, that is what it was like watching Renee after surgery, and it started right after Renee returned from the recovery room – around 5:45 pm. She was in a lot of pain and we had to ask for pain meds every couple of hours. She’d be able to sleep for 45 minutes to an hour at a time and we’d start the process all over again. At around midnight, Renee started dry heaving. Nothing was helping. When I went out the last time and the nurse said there were no more meds to give Renee, I said to call the doctor. The doctor made it in quite quickly, I was very impressed.

After looking over everything, he came in and gave Renee a strong dose of nausea medication and then stated that part of the problem was that Renee had a very high tolerance for narcotics and that in fact he had only known of one other person that had as high a tolerance as she had in the 8 years he had been in bariatrics. I asked him at the time if we could be dealing with an addiction and could she be going through withdrawals. He said it was very possible. At that point I was actually more concerned about the Lyrica and Effexor. He then gave her a healthy dose of something and said it would make her sleep for 3-4 hours. Remember that circling dog thing? Well, I had walked out to talk to the doctor in the hallway. In a split second Renee managed to do a face plant on the floor, she had fallen out of the bed. It only took me a few seconds to get in the room with the doctor on my heels. Renee had managed to end up halfway under the hospital bed. She must have hit the IV pole full on and had a pretty good cut on her ear. I don’t know how he managed it, but the doctor was down on the floor and had gotten Renee pulled up on his lap and was cradling her head on his shoulder. I have never seen a more caring physician in my life. They finally managed to get Renee back in the bed and she was down for the count, but only for about an hour.

It was when she woke up dry heaving again that the doctor explained the difference between dry heaving and nausea/throwing up. Dry heaving is a reflex action that can be controlled by deep breathing, the new stomach flexing its muscle if you will. Nausea/throwing up are mechanical, the stomach contracting, the contents coming up, etc. It was at that point that Renee made a turnaround and started getting better.

From my standpoint, we were worried about how the surgery was going to affect the fibro/cfs, more from a flare perspective. In the end, it was her high tolerance to narcotics that was the actual problem and that came out of left field, something that wasn’t even considered. Withdrawal symptoms of all three medications she takes for the fibro/cfs – Lyrica, Effexor and Loritab have the same withdrawal symptoms – nausea, vomiting, high anxiety. All these things combined made for the ‘perfect storm,’ if you will. This had nothing to do with Dr. Aceves’ surgical abilities; I have the highest respect for the man as a surgeon and still feel he was the best surgeon for Renee. This is about things to be aware of, nothing more. The hospital staff, Dr. Acevas and Dr. Campos, and even the hotel staff were fantastic!

So if anyone out there has the fibro/cfs issues please keep this in mind so that this same situation can be averted. The withdrawal symptoms combined with anxiety attack = the pain not being able to be controlled and ensuing dry heaving/nausea. Just my opinion.

Ok, I am going to post this since it has been quite the trip being here with Renee. As is with most surgery patients, Renee doesn't remember the first day and a half of her hospital stay, which is probably a good thing. We said that we would tell the good, the bad, and the ugly. Renee and I have talked at great length about this post and she is aware of everything that will be posted and is in full agreement with what will be put out here. When she is feeling better and can get around better she plans on expounding on things.

Renee had a really rough time with the surgery for a couple of reasons. 1) She has a hard time with anesthesia and 2) because of the fibro/cfs she had developed a very high tolerance to narcotics and lastly 3) anxiety.

Our biggest concern going into the surgery was how was Renee's body going to respond to the surgery with the fibro. Was she going to come out of surgery in a full-fledged flare and be in uncontrollable pain? Fortunately for everyone, the fibro did not play a part other than her high tolerance to pain meds; which ended up being a detriment, but I will go into detail about this later.

Renee came back from the recovery room in pain, but it was normal surgery pain, nothing more. Renee gets very emotional coming out from under anesthesia, and this time was no different. There were a lot of tears; she didn't want to stay in the bed. As a matter of fact she hadn't been back from the recovery room much more than 10 minutes when she sat straight up in bed - on her own, with no assistance, put her feet on the ground and announced to God and country that she was hot and then "FLASH!" She took both edges of her hospital gown and whipped them up as high as she could and started flapping! Fortunately, her son Logan wasn't in the room. It was at this point that I decided it was probably a good idea to put her shorts on her. This was something she was absolutely convinced she could do on her own...NOT! We got her shorts on her and got her back into the bed.

If any of you own a dog, you know how they will circle, circle, circle trying to find a comfortable spot? Well, that is what it was like watching Renee after surgery, and it started right after Renee returned from the recovery room – around 5:45 pm. She was in a lot of pain and we had to ask for pain meds every couple of hours. She’d be able to sleep for 45 minutes to an hour at a time and we’d start the process all over again. At around midnight, Renee started dry heaving. Nothing was helping. When I went out the last time and the nurse said there were no more meds to give Renee, I said to call the doctor. The doctor made it in quite quickly, I was very impressed.

After looking over everything, he came in and gave Renee a strong dose of nausea medication and then stated that part of the problem was that Renee had a very high tolerance for narcotics and that in fact he had only known of one other person that had as high a tolerance as she had in the 8 years he had been in bariatrics. I asked him at the time if we could be dealing with an addiction and could she be going through withdrawals. He said it was very possible. At that point I was actually more concerned about the Lyrica and Effexor. He then gave her a healthy dose of something and said it would make her sleep for 3-4 hours. Remember that circling dog thing? Well, I had walked out to talk to the doctor in the hallway. In a split second Renee managed to do a face plant on the floor, she had fallen out of the bed. It only took me a few seconds to get in the room with the doctor on my heels. Renee had managed to end up halfway under the hospital bed. She must have hit the IV pole full on and had a pretty good cut on her ear. I don’t know how he managed it, but the doctor was down on the floor and had gotten Renee pulled up on his lap and was cradling her head on his shoulder. I have never seen a more caring physician in my life. They finally managed to get Renee back in the bed and she was down for the count, but only for about an hour.

It was when she woke up dry heaving again that the doctor explained the difference between dry heaving and nausea/throwing up. Dry heaving is a reflex action that can be controlled by deep breathing, the new stomach flexing its muscle if you will. Nausea/throwing up are mechanical, the stomach contracting, the contents coming up, etc. It was at that point that Renee made a turnaround and started getting better.

From my standpoint, we were worried about how the surgery was going to affect the fibro/cfs, more from a flare perspective. In the end, it was her high tolerance to narcotics that was the actual problem and that came out of left field, something that wasn’t even considered. Withdrawal symptoms of all three medications she takes for the fibro/cfs – Lyrica, Effexor and Loritab have the same withdrawal symptoms – nausea, vomiting, high anxiety. All these things combined made for the ‘perfect storm,’ if you will. This had nothing to do with Dr. Aceves’ surgical abilities; I have the highest respect for the man as a surgeon and still feel he was the best surgeon for Renee. This is about things to be aware of, nothing more. The hospital staff, Dr. Acevas and Dr. Campos, and even the hotel staff were fantastic!

So if anyone out there has the fibro/cfs issues please keep this in mind so that this same situation can be averted. The withdrawal symptoms combined with anxiety attack = the pain not being able to be controlled and ensuing dry heaving/nausea. Just my opinion.

Thanks Lynn, for sharing this with us. I feel so bad for Renee but am glad she had you there with her!!

You could not be more right about Drs. Aceves and Campos. Just outstanding. Was that Dr. Campos that helped her after her fall?

How long was she off of her meds? I just wondered why she couldn't take them after surgery? Or are the kind you cannot crush/dissolve? Maybe a liquid version? So sorry she had the withdrawal symptoms.

Thanks Lynn, for sharing this with us. I feel so bad for Renee but am glad she had you there with her!!

You could not be more right about Drs. Aceves and Campos. Just outstanding. Was that Dr. Campos that helped her after her fall?

How long was she off of her meds? I just wondered why she couldn't take them after surgery? Or are the kind you cannot crush/dissolve? Maybe a liquid version? So sorry she had the withdrawal symptoms.

Disney, yes it was Dr. Campos that was there and got down on the floor with her. She took the last Lyrica and Effexor the morning of surgery. The last Loritab the night before. Because she could not have any ice chips or Water the day of surgery it was the following morning before we were able to put the Lyrica and Effexor into juice to dissolve them so she could sip them down. She did not get any of the Loritab until we got her home. We didn't think about giving her the Loritab because she was getting pain meds in the hospital. We didn't realize that Mexico does not use narcotics like they do in the US. Dr. Aceves and Campos tried to explain it to us, but I am still confused about it. So she had gone 3 1/2 days without it. That was where the problem was as she was actually going through the withdrawal symptoms.