What Did You Wish You Knew Before Surgery

[Jjen 10]

What I wish I was told before surgery is that each incision was going to be 2 cuts instead of 1. My hysterectomy scars are just 1 & my VSG scars are 2. Anyone else have this?

[Kristin 34]

I have six scars! Be lucky it's only two.

[Jjen 10]

No i mean I have 11 scars. 1 from the JP drain & each of my other 5 have 2 like equal signs = but more space between them.

[BeautyVGSJourney 99]

Warfarin = Coumadin® are anticoagulants and yes you are correct feedyoureye they work with Vitamin K (meaning they stop/inhibit Vitamin K epoxide reductase which is required for vitamin K to do its job of helping in coagulation, and it inhibits/stops the conversion/changing of some Proteins (clotting factors) that are required to clot blood). So since it stops vitamin K, when you eat “green” veggies you are putting in vitamin K, so that means that you would need more warfarin to give you the same effect of anticoagulation. Lissa trust me I get confused on this too! and I am in med school and have a final exam on the subject in two weeks! Warfarin is super tricky, specially since it can have so many drug-drug interactions with other medications and foods. Its why its not often prescribed unless you absolutly need it! And like you both I am sure already know they often check your blood to see its levels because it can cause a lot of problems if the levels are too high or too low.

For everyone else, this is not the medication they put most people on for the surgery. Most of the drugs used are also anticoagulants but they are most often Low Molecular Weight Heparin or other anticoagulants that do not work the same way. (they don't work against vitamin K so you don't have to worry about eating or not either greens).

Someone else (sorry can't remember who right now) how long do you have to worry about blood clots. Well if you have no other problems and are not a smoker and do not take birthcontrol pills, for the most part most blood clots happen within two months or so after surgery. If you are a smoker and take birth control pills you are at a much higher risk. I would say like Lissa said talk to your doctor, but walk, walk, walk. Blood clots do not happen very often, they can be fatal when they do, so its good to know about them and worry a little about them. But if you do all you can to prevent them (walk), its highly unlikely that you have to worry about them very long. If you want more specific information feel free to ask, or you might want to read some of the journal articles that I put on my youtube video.

[beautifulnewme2012 164]

I take birth control pills now but plan on stopping them for good as I start my pre op diet. I hope they are out of my system prior to surgery long enuff not to cause any clots....this is scary stuff. What do u think?

[Almostthere34 128]

I take birth control pills now but plan on stopping them for good as I start my pre op diet. I hope they are out of my system prior to surgery long enuff not to cause any clots....this is scary stuff. What do u think?

Be careful. I had a co-worker who was scheduled for her VSG when she went to get her gallbladder ultrasound they found out she was preggars. Her surgery has been postponed for obvious reasons.

[BeautyVGSJourney 99]

yes definitely be careful. you may want to talk to your doctor about other options of birth control that have less associations with blood clots. I have an IUD and love it! The least amount of estrogen in the birth control the lower the risk of blood clots. So definitely talk to your doctor before stopping them, because you also do not want to get pregnant right after surgery.

[D1NOnlySexyLady 70]

yes definitely be careful. you may want to talk to your doctor about other options of birth control that have less associations with blood clots. I have an IUD and love it! The least amount of estrogen in the birth control the lower the risk of blood clots. So definitely talk to your doctor before stopping them' date=' because you also do not want to get pregnant right after surgery.[/quote']

Which IUD are you on? Mirena or ParaGud?

[beautifulnewme2012 164]

Hubby and I used condoms without incident for over a year but we got tired of them so we switched to the pill back in Nov. We will just go back to condoms for a while. He is in his forties and we already have 4 kids...3 mine and one together. We plan on exploring vasectomy after surgery. We do NOT want to get pregnant...I had the Mirena but had it taken out due to severe pain it was causing me. But believe me, we will be extremely careful prior to and after surgery. I am NOT having more babies...my oldest graduates high school next year!!

[BeautyVGSJourney 99]

Which IUD are you on? Mirena or ParaGud?

I have Mirena, have had it for about 2 years now. I had a previous Mirena but had it taken out because I thought I wanted to get pregnant again, then started school again and decided it was a bad idea LOL.... I have not had any problems with it. Beautifulme you don't look old enough to have a high school student! Could it had been that your Mirena was misplaced? I have never had pain with mine other than the cramps shortly after it was put in. And I love not having a period!

[D1NOnlySexyLady 70]

I have Mirena' date=' have had it for about 2 years now. I had a previous Mirena but had it taken out because I thought I wanted to get pregnant again, then started school again and decided it was a bad idea LOL.... I have not had any problems with it. Beautifulme you don't look old enough to have a high school student! Could it had been that your Mirena was misplaced? I have never had pain with mine other than the cramps shortly after it was put in. And I love not having a period![/quote']

Did that effect your weight loss at all

[BeautyVGSJourney 99]

I have not had my surgery yet (its May 10th) but with my experience dieting no, it never affected me with my previous diets. I used to get the Depo shot and that killed any diet I did, I was always super hungry! and always gained a lot of weight on it. I have read that Mirena has little to no effect on weight loss. (~5% of women do gain weight in it but that is very small number compared to other contraceptives, and the study that found that was not a very good study because it did not compared it to woman not using it, so the same 5% might had gained weight regardless).

[BeautyVGSJourney 99]

oh and Mirena used a form of progesterone which is associated with less blood clots than estrogen

[D1NOnlySexyLady 70]

Thanks for answering my questions. I have felt that from the moment I have had the Mirena, I have gain weight pretty quickly. Not sure if it has to do with the IUD or just bad eating habits, but once I have the surgery I think I'm going to change to the ParaGud, to be on the safe side since it has no hormones

[beautifulnewme2012 164]

Thank u!! I had her when I was very young so that's why! Also, I am certain something had to have gone wrong either during placement or soon after because a lot of my female friends have Mirena and haven't had one issue with it...just my luck. I have a different doc now. Maybe I will try it again after surgery.