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What’s Your Worst Post-Op Memory (or Fear)?



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Had pain and throwing up some blood. But it was worth is and it passes! The nurses were there for me. Not everyone has such a hard time

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Fear: I am terrified that I will lose so much weight so quickly that all the Water and excersize wont be able to keep up and i will have loose skin all over the place and having my insurance NOT cover the cost of removal due to it not being medically necessary.

Any tips to avoid this happening other than Water and excersize?

Not much you can do about the loose skin. I've gotten very good at hiding mine and fortunately, my boyfriend is age appropriate for me (57) and doesn't expect physical perfection. Maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones with good genes and skin that snaps back instead of hanging.

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Fear: I am terrified that I will lose so much weight so quickly that all the Water and excersize wont be able to keep up and i will have loose skin all over the place and having my insurance NOT cover the cost of removal due to it not being medically necessary.

Any tips to avoid this happening other than Water and excersize?

Not much you can do about the loose skin. I've gotten very good at hiding mine and fortunately, my boyfriend is age appropriate for me (57) and doesn't expect physical perfection. Maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones with good genes and skin that snaps back instead of hanging.

That has been my hope since day 1, but i saw myself in the mirror last night and got really self concious about how big my thighs are and how stretched my skin already is. It might snap back some, but i have a feeling i am still going to have quite a bit in some areas.

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I am so worried that I will wake up during the procedure. recently had a colonoscopy- I asked them I will be put out right? they were snappy saying YEs!! we have to get you situated first..lay onyour side etc..well they started and nothing I didnt feel any of the meds..the anesthesiologist nurse kept pushing the meds (verced?) bad spelling.. into my iv. and nothing.nothing.I screamed and cried. they cut out a polyp and took tissue samples..I felt it all. some people think I am crazy but I felt it. it hurt so bad. I have a history of colon cancer and had a big tumor in my rectum that has staples in.. so already issues down there. after it was over ( I never was out at all) the nurse came in and said she gave me 700 units of verced and they usually only give 500 units. and that should have knocked me out. well it didnt (dont you have an alternative pain management plan in place??) then the doctor who kept telling me to be quiet came in and said you dont do well with Verced..umm ya think?? and she told me next time I have a procedure to ask for fentenal? she said just ask for the drugs that killed michael jackson?? umm wow I have to associate me having a procedure with dying?? when I got off the gurny/bed there was blood all over the sheet. needless to say I will now be making sure before I go in to get a guarantee I wont wake up. that was a nightmare. so I guess I am worried I will wake up ..or nothave pain meds that I need. Just gotta have faith.l have had lots of good experiences.this happened a month ago..so it is still fresh.. ughh

thanks

R~

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I am worried about the same thing. I dont want to tell anyone. so they can say oh you took the easy way out..yeah right..this has been such an ordeal and I have the surgery on Oct 19th..cant wait. thanks for sharing with us.

Ramona

I'm not afraid of the surgery, as a Nurse I'm ok with it but crazy as it is my big fear is people guessing I had surgery!
I'm a private person and have only and will only tell my partner so I really don't want others knowing.

As for Constipation ask your Dr if Miralax is an option, it works well and is over the counter.

Or I always give my hospital patients who are post op and constipated from not only surgery but meds like morphine my concoction! It's equal parts prune juice and OJ mixed and warmed.
It never fails to do the trick!

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I literally don't have any bad post-op experiences.

Some parts of recovery were uncomfortable, but nothing seemed overwhelming. My surgery was great, post-op care was great, the team is great (except for the nut who doesn't add much value, but doesn't detract either), never threw up even once, tummy doesn't hurt.

Reached my goal in 8.5 months. Holding steady (actually, still losing a little) the last 5 months. Feeling great. Looking great. Doing great. :)

I may have been lucky in many ways, but it helped (I think) that I wasn't scared.

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fear - that they will make my stomach too big and it won't work.

worst memory - the gas pains they were worst than i expected and lasted longer.

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Versed is conscious sedation. It is very different than general anesthesia.

this is true but unfortunately that didnt even give me any kind of sedation conscious or otherwise all I felt was pain and agony. I am still nervous about this anesthesia.. just dont want to know anything or wake up..

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I didn't have much pain after surgery. The Constipation was horrible post-op. I tried diluted prune juice and dumped for the first, and almost only, time. I had surgery about a week before thanksgiving so I was a little nauseated by the smell of food and I had to cook for my family. Oh yea I had some pain after 2 weeks because I felt good and overextended myself. My doctor told me to rest and gave me another week off work. Other than that it's been smooth sailing. No regrets!

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I would agree with most that the Constipation is a real "pain". Never worked so hard in my life to have vowel movements. Luckily I don't normally have to intervene with mural ax. But when I do, it works. Might try the tea though, sounds like a good alternative! But yeah "ouch" on the going part sometimes!

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Besides the usual string of "Hypothetical Horrors" (boy I had a long list of those), the absolute worst thing that happened, was a nausea incident. This happened 4 months after surgery. We went out to dinner to my favorite restaurant and after careful consideration, I decided an appetizer lamb quesadilla would be great. I could pick the lamb and some cheese and leave the tortilla. Well, lucky me, I hit the jackpot with the jalapeños. It was delicious but spicy. It caused a stomach reaction that can only be qualified as epic nausea. It required many trips to the bathroom. Fortunately, the bathroom was not a stall and I had relative privacy. My nausea was so violent nothing helped. It lasted over an hour. My friends were very concerned and nobody even knew I had surgery. I would return to the table drink a little Water and run back to the bathroom, countless times. At some point, I decided I had to go home, I just had to make it through the front door. If I could only make it to the front door without losing my Cookies it would be so good. I worked on mind over matter to achieve that goal. On the way home we had to stop by the side of the road and get sick twice more and it's only a 5 minute ride. A video of my runs to the bathroom while holding a napkin over my mouth would have made U-tube history and some of those were mad sprints too. I must have made 20 plus trips to the restroom. OMG, can you imagine! I was so sick I couldn't even leave because I was going to get sick before I got to the front door.

I never went back to that restaurant, my memory of that event is still overwhelming. No more Lamb quesadillas for me and jalapeños are not my favorite either.

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@@Elode where do you get the tea? Constipation is almost all the time for me.

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@@Elode where do you get the tea? Constipation is almost all the time for me.

I buy mine at Kroger. It's in the health food section. I've also seen it at Vitamin Shoppe. I believe she said she found it at Walmart.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
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