Thanks for the best wishes everyone!

I should be released this morning (Sunday), hopefully around 9 am.

The surgery was a nightmare - I was under for FIVE hours (I'm not sure if I was acutally in surgery for four or five hours, but I was out of the room for five hours). The doc said I was full

of adhesions, and they all had to be cut and cleaned away. When I woke up from the anesthesia, I was in pain like you can not believe. I was crying, moaning, whimpering. Dr. Lopez said they had to give me THREE times the pain killer to bring my pain under control. Once that initial pain was taken care of, the rest hasn't been so bad. Late afternoon Saturday they took out the drain, and removed the IV bag but left in the hand catheter to give me antibiotics and pain medicine.

Friday when they tried to put in my IV, the girl hunted and poked around in my hand with the needle, then gave up and tried up on my arm by the elbow. She kept fiddling with it - pushing it in, pulling it out, pushing it in. I'm lying down for all of this, but said "I'm going to faint." and did.

Cheryl said it was pretty freaky, because my eyes were still open, but rolled back in my head, and my mouth was open and I was making weird noises. The nurse gave her the smelling salts to hold under my nose and went off to get help. Cheryl said

then my face flushed a brilliant red, and I started thrashing my hands around. Very weird and creepy.

Right now my back hurts more than my stomach from laying on it so long. I begged them to let me send an email - these machines are only for their cancer patients, but for $5.50 the gal gave me the password.

I am feeling much better this morning (Sunday) - can you imagine that at the moment, my shoulder hurts worse than any other part of me? That muscle stiffness really settles in.

The doc finally came by Saturday, and said that he had to use stitches instead of glue for my incisions, because the stomach is full of bacteria, and it wasn't safe to just glue the incisions shut. I'm not sure how that would make a difference - gluing as opposed to sewing, but I have big black ugly stitches across each incision that I'll have to come back in two weeks to have removed.

Dr. Lopez also said that all the adhesions was an indication that my body was trying to get rid of the foreign body from the get go, so it really wasn't anything done on my part that caused the erosion - just my body's way of dealing with a foreign object. Thank God.

I see it's only 6:30 here at the moment, so I will probably trundle back off to bed for another hour or so. Dr. Carmen is supposed to come by around nine and release me. They were three and a half hours late yesterday, so I take nine with a grain of salt. Hopefully she'll take us back to the Mexicoach station, though, when she leaves, as opposed to us having to wait for the hospital's driver.

The night was uneventful, and I don't have much other news for you my wonderful online friends and support network. The

best news so far is that I have absolutely no hunger to speak of - I could not even finish my Jello and tea that they brought for dinner last night, and I worked on it for over an hour. I'm sure that won't last, but maybe by the time I get home I will have seen those last few pounds disappear and put me at one of my two intermediate goals - century club, or onderland. God, after all this, I'm still worried about losing weight. Sigh.

Thanks again to all of you for your prayers and well wishes. I'm sure the rest of my recovery will be uneventul, and I plan on catching up on messages and posts in the next couple of days.

In the meantime, I hope everyone else is happy and well, and that your journeys are bringing you pleasure.

Love to all -

Donali

Donali: Typically when you have any kind of surgery you are susceptible to getting adhesions. The adhesions you are describing do not necessarily mean you were rejecting the port or band. In fact I would say you did not reject it but I could be wrong. You would have had more symptoms of rejection I would think. But this is still a relatively new process in the States and if the Mexico surgeons are not reporting the problems they are having to Inamed then we will never know how common this really is. I sent Inamed an email asking them for stats on adhesions being related to band rejection. I will post any response I receive.

On a side note, I am soooooooooooooo glad that you are home and on the mend. So did they do an open procedure to remove the band or was it laparoscopically again?

May you continue with God's speed in your recovery.

I thought of you the day of my surgery:cool:

I am doing great and appreciate your great advice prior of the

procedure.

I liked someone's remark about the "mystery band" still working.

May that be true for you and an inspiration to get through all this.

God Bless,

Kathy

Hi guys!

Teresa, no I never had any port infection, or any other symptoms of erosion. Symptoms include port infections (after initial healing), and loss of restriction, but I believe both of those things would be deep into the erosion, once the band has actually penetrated the stomach wall.

The band was removed laproscopically, thank goodness.

I know adhesions can form just from any kind of injury - it's my understanding that people with endometriosis can have adhesions, even though they've never had surgery. I think of adhesions as another word for internal scar tissue. (right or wrong).

I still am unclear about what exactly the condition of my stomach was after the band was removed. Dr. Lopez pointed out the discoloring of the band at the point of erosion, and I thought he said it was due to the stomach acid, but Dr. Carmen said the stomach had not been comprised (which I assume meant the erosion had not gone all the way through...). Anyway, here's a pic of the band, and the next post is a pic of my incisions.

My unbanding incisions - look! Is that a hint of a waist?!?!?

OOOPS!

Try that again...

Hi Sweetheart

Glad your home. Relax, take care.

So glad to see you back.

Hi Donali,

I am glad to see that you are bouncing back to your old self and providing us with a wealth of information. Thank you so much for sharing of yourself and your experience... BUT please, please take care of yourself and get plenty of rest.

We want you back here 100% as soon as possible! :D

Take Care,

Donali's statement

I think of adhesions as another word for internal scar tissue. (right or wrong).

Yes you are correct in that definition. IT can also mean excess growth of tissue from an internal damage of some sort. I had endometriosis and lots of adhesions.

Donali's statement

Dr. Lopez pointed out the discoloring of the band at the point of erosion, and I thought he said it was due to the stomach acid, but Dr. Carmen said the stomach had not been comprised (which I assume meant the erosion had not gone all the way through...).

If the stomach had been compromised I think the band would have had more damage to it. I also think you would have more complications than you currently do. Did Lopez say anything about having to sew up your stomach wall? If he did then your stomach was compromised and it did erode through. I would ask for your medical records be sent to you regarding this surgery in particular. At least you will know for sure what they did. You need to know this anyway in case you are in a situation where you can't talk to let someone know you had this type of surgery.

As a side note, I wanted to let everyone that is banded that they should carry on them at all times a card that says they were banded and who their doctor is in case of a situation where you cannot talk and no with you thinks to tell the powers that be you have a LAP BAND. If they try to do some procedures on you without this knowledge it can put you at risk. I have one that Lopez gave to me.

Glad you are recuperating well at home Donali. VIVA LAS VEGAS in October.

Donali, you sexy thing, that is indeed a waist!!

I agree with Penni, accumulated Fluid can weigh an enormous amount. You watch that scale, it's going down again as we speak.

Thanks for all the info, Penni. I have to go back in two weeks to get the stitches out, and I'll ask for a copy of my records then. Maybe I can make Dr. Carmen do a rough translation again, like she did for the endoscopy pics.

Just got back from the movies with Mom - saw the 3rd Harry Potter movie - really good!

And I'm a little tired, but feel about 90%, so I'm not complaining!

Wow, Donali, you already feel like sitting through a show? I'm so glad that you have the surgery behind you. I'm so sorry that it was such a rough surgery. Please take it easy the next few days. It's easy to overdo it and I know you don't want to go through any more surgeries.

I've been thinking that maybe we could name you the patron saint of this website. Sister Donali has a sort of angelic ring. What do you think?

:banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana ;-) ;-)

So glad to have you back, safe and sound, Donali. You have come so far, I'm sure you'll do well, even without the band. Either way, your health is the most important thing. Take care of you!!

Leatha

Ouchie... Ouchie...Ouchie!

Looking good there Donali! It is so great to have you back! ((((hugs))))

Darcy

Hi Donali

I was away for a few weeks on vacation and then a work conference, so have been off the boards for a while. I've had to catch up on the whole story.

So sorry to hear about your "erosion", but glad to hear that surgery went well. You sound great. Hopefully that "ghost band" will be working.

I can only imagine how difficult this all is. I would hate to have to lose my band at this point. But you sound like you have a terrific attitude - and you've come so far.

Keep up the positive outlook. And good luck.

Mary

donali

i am so glad you are home and recovering. i thought about you all weekend. i gave away my home computer and couldnt check on you.

you definitally have a waiste!!!

((((((((hugs)))))))))))

michelle