Coming home was the start of the full recovery process, and I couldn't be more excited to get through this phase and move on to feeling a bit more "normal".
The first two days home were okay, still dealing with a lot of gas pains so I went on frequent walks throughout the day with my dad. I also brought home from Mexico, sorry for the possible TMI, was this awful diarrhea! It was VERY unpredictable and annoying to say the least. It was Wednesday, and still having gas pains WITH frequent diarrhea, my dad decided it might be a good idea to take some Imodium to stop it. I took one pill and it did what it was supposed to. Stopped the Diarrhea and stopped me from being able to release ANY gas whatsoever!
So Thursday was my worst day yet. Stopped up and in the worst pain I had felt since getting off the surgery table! Walking, talking, and just breathing hurt this day. I was miserable. I had 3 dizzy spells. 1 happened in the shower where I literally almost passed out. I jumped out of the shower as soon as I felt the dizzy sensation come over me and sat on the toilet until I felt I could walk to my bedroom across the hall. I. Felt. AWFUL. After a night of breathing pains and finally being able to pass gas throughout the night, by morning I felt much better. Not quite 100% but on my way. I dealt with residual pain and burped just about the entire day Friday. I took a late night walk around my backyard for about 15 minutes or so.. approx. 600 steps according to my pedometer and FINALLY felt better. I could take in a full deep breath without ANY pain. SUCCESS! So as a treat, I decided I would introduce something new to my body. I had a few spoonfuls of Yoplait Light Yogurt in the Red Velvet Cupcake flavor. Let me tell you... This flavor tastes like Cake batter! it is SO GOOD! It went down well and tasted SO yummy after a week of nothing but broth, water, Gatorade, and sugar free popsicles.
Now it's Saturday October 25 and I feel like myself again. My dad, who is a nurse, took out my stitches around 4pm and according to him, they look great. I've felt the best today. I could even drive the speed limit! Which doesn't seem like a big deal, but having those gas chest pains and trying to drive.. equals me driving about 30mph. For dinner I decided to be adventurous again and introduce something else new that I haven't eaten since before surgery. Egg drop soup. This also went really well. If I got a big chunk of egg I just chew chew chewed and then swallowed. Some of the super small pieces towards the end felt like they were stuck in my throat or something. But with fluids, that feeling went away.
As for my weight. I've been a really bad scale watcher! I'm obsessed and can't help it!
So here's the breakdown:
Weight before Pre-op Diet: 262
2 days before Surgery: 255.4
3 Days Post Op (10/20/14): 253.6
5 Days Post Op (10/22/14): 250.4
6 Days Post Op (10/23/14): 249.2
7 Days Post Op (10/24/14): 246.2
8 Days Post Op (10/25/14): 244.2
Total Weight Loss: 17.8 lbs!
Saturday, October 25, 2014
The First Day of Forever
Friday October 17 was my big Sleeve day. The first day of the rest of my life.
My mom and I arrived in San Diego around 11am on Thursday October 16 and we were picked up shortly after by the HMN Hospital driver. There were 5 patients on the bus, myself included. After about a 25 minute drive into Tijuana and another 15 minutes from the border, we arrived at HMN Hospital. I was incredibly nervous, even though I knew that this wasn't the actual day, but I knew this was the official start of my new life. Each of us patients had to get some blood drawn and have an EKG done. After that we headed to the beautiful Hotel Ticuan. I was told to expect a phone call later in the evening to let me know what time I had to be in the lobby to be picked up the next morning for surgery. At around 4:30 ish in the afternoon we heard from a woman who was on the same bus, had already been told her pick up time. So after picking up some water and other snacks for my mom at a nearby convenience store we immediately went back to our room to call to find out when my pick up time was. It was 10:00!
After a restless nights sleep, I woke up around 8:30. I was nervous as can be. I was even doubting whether or not I was making the right decision for myself. After a quiet morning of getting ready we made it down to the hotel lobby. 15 minutes early, and we were the only ones there. I thought that was a bit weird. Then right at 10:00 a fellow patient made it down and we all started talking. The driver didn't arrive until almost 10:30! We made it to the hospital and after about 15 minutes of waiting myself and the other patient that rode in with me, were called to a room with beds in it to change into our incredibly fashionable hospital gowns. Our legs were wrapped up and our IV was put in and we were told we had an hour. An hour and a half later our surgeon Dr. Almanza came in and greeted us. He was super nice and told us about our procedure and took pictures with us. We were dying to know who was first up, so we asked. It was ME! Ahh! My nerves on a scale of 1-10 went from 10 to off the chart! I think I was even shaking a little. This was my first surgery EVER.
A nurse held onto my arm and escorted me up this small elevator onto the surgery floor. She left me in this recovery room where 2 other patients I had met the day before were in recovery. I saw one of the patients had a tube down her throat, I already knew I wasn't going to like that, but I was gonna be knocked out so I was hoping I wouldn't even notice when it came to my recovery time. After about 5 minutes another nurse came and escorted me to the actual surgery room. I walked in and was pointed to my surgery gurney/table thing. I climbed up and laid down on the table. At this point I was so scared/nervous that I was almost in tears. They pulled my arms out and wrapped them with gauze so I couldn't move. The anesthesiologist came over and tried to make light conversation but because I was a sentence away from full on tears, my words were short. He asked where I was from and I said Rialto, and that was it.
I barely woke up in the same recovery room, and from what I saw earlier.. I knew I had a tube in my throat. I didn't like it and wanted it out STAT! I could barely open my eyes and couldn't talk so I decided to make make as much noise as I could muster up. After what seemed like a few short minutes a nurse came by and took it out. Next thing I knew I was being wheeled back to my room. I was really out of it but I knew my mom was there so I felt better knowing she was right beside me. My chest was hurting a lot more than I ever imagined. I was told it was gas pain, so my mom immediately started feeding me Gas-X Strips like they were candy. I burped a little but not nearly enough to subside this awful pain. I'm not sure how much time had passed but it was time for me to get up and start walking. My mom and I walked the halls on and off until she was forced to leave at 10:00pm. I got up a few more times throughout the night and walked on my own but this pain was out of control. Everytime a nurse would come in with pain meds I asked to make sure this was normal. When I had come back in January with my mom, the gas pains was something she feared the most. But when it came down to it, she didn't experience the gas pain like I had. So needless to say my expectation was more like what my mom had gone through. I didn't fully prepare myself as to how bad it could possibly get. And this? this was the WORST.
After what seemed like the longest night of my life, with the worst sleep Ever! It was finally morning. We were told we would be leaving at 9:00 to head back to the hotel. So I asked for some extra nausea medication for the van ride back because I was super nervous to get in a car at this point. I slowly got myself dressed and ready to go, but fell back asleep waiting for our time to go, and I apparently missed out on an otter pop! When we got out to the van I asked the driver to please go nice and SLOW, and thank goodness he did. I made it up to the hotel room and was exhausted. I drank a little bit of water with a couple Gas-X strips and went to sleep. After my nap my mom insisted we go walking to help relieve some of this gas pain I was still experiencing. The walk helped but didn't make it go away.
Sunday was the leak test day. Something else that was weighing on me. We had to drink this dye early in the morning, it wasn't TERRIBLE, but it wasn't good either. But once we made it to the X-Ray place we had to drink this Barium solution, and this was DISGUSTING. BUT I did it and passed my leak test! In my X-Ray there was this cloudy/fog looking mess all over it.. turns out, this was all the gas that was giving me trouble since surgery night! So my goal for the day was to walk as much as possible, and to burp as much as possible. I was OVER this gas pain. We walked a total of 3.5 miles up and down the streets of TJ looking for a pharmacy for friends who had placed a medicine order prior to the trip. I was exhausted by the end of it all, but I was also proud of myself for sticking it out and not giving up.
Finally it was Monday morning, time to go home. I was again nervous about being in the car. But LUCKILY we waited a total of 3 minutes at the border! Bumps were not fun but we made it to the airport in what seemed like record time. I put a pillow in the backseat of my car for the 2 hour car ride home. This definitely saved me when going over rough patches and bumps. We made it home in 1hr 45 min. I was at first scared to go home fearing my pets would be all over me. But once they got over the initial excitement of me being home, they were fine and it felt SO good to be home.
My mom and I arrived in San Diego around 11am on Thursday October 16 and we were picked up shortly after by the HMN Hospital driver. There were 5 patients on the bus, myself included. After about a 25 minute drive into Tijuana and another 15 minutes from the border, we arrived at HMN Hospital. I was incredibly nervous, even though I knew that this wasn't the actual day, but I knew this was the official start of my new life. Each of us patients had to get some blood drawn and have an EKG done. After that we headed to the beautiful Hotel Ticuan. I was told to expect a phone call later in the evening to let me know what time I had to be in the lobby to be picked up the next morning for surgery. At around 4:30 ish in the afternoon we heard from a woman who was on the same bus, had already been told her pick up time. So after picking up some water and other snacks for my mom at a nearby convenience store we immediately went back to our room to call to find out when my pick up time was. It was 10:00!
After a restless nights sleep, I woke up around 8:30. I was nervous as can be. I was even doubting whether or not I was making the right decision for myself. After a quiet morning of getting ready we made it down to the hotel lobby. 15 minutes early, and we were the only ones there. I thought that was a bit weird. Then right at 10:00 a fellow patient made it down and we all started talking. The driver didn't arrive until almost 10:30! We made it to the hospital and after about 15 minutes of waiting myself and the other patient that rode in with me, were called to a room with beds in it to change into our incredibly fashionable hospital gowns. Our legs were wrapped up and our IV was put in and we were told we had an hour. An hour and a half later our surgeon Dr. Almanza came in and greeted us. He was super nice and told us about our procedure and took pictures with us. We were dying to know who was first up, so we asked. It was ME! Ahh! My nerves on a scale of 1-10 went from 10 to off the chart! I think I was even shaking a little. This was my first surgery EVER.
A nurse held onto my arm and escorted me up this small elevator onto the surgery floor. She left me in this recovery room where 2 other patients I had met the day before were in recovery. I saw one of the patients had a tube down her throat, I already knew I wasn't going to like that, but I was gonna be knocked out so I was hoping I wouldn't even notice when it came to my recovery time. After about 5 minutes another nurse came and escorted me to the actual surgery room. I walked in and was pointed to my surgery gurney/table thing. I climbed up and laid down on the table. At this point I was so scared/nervous that I was almost in tears. They pulled my arms out and wrapped them with gauze so I couldn't move. The anesthesiologist came over and tried to make light conversation but because I was a sentence away from full on tears, my words were short. He asked where I was from and I said Rialto, and that was it.
I barely woke up in the same recovery room, and from what I saw earlier.. I knew I had a tube in my throat. I didn't like it and wanted it out STAT! I could barely open my eyes and couldn't talk so I decided to make make as much noise as I could muster up. After what seemed like a few short minutes a nurse came by and took it out. Next thing I knew I was being wheeled back to my room. I was really out of it but I knew my mom was there so I felt better knowing she was right beside me. My chest was hurting a lot more than I ever imagined. I was told it was gas pain, so my mom immediately started feeding me Gas-X Strips like they were candy. I burped a little but not nearly enough to subside this awful pain. I'm not sure how much time had passed but it was time for me to get up and start walking. My mom and I walked the halls on and off until she was forced to leave at 10:00pm. I got up a few more times throughout the night and walked on my own but this pain was out of control. Everytime a nurse would come in with pain meds I asked to make sure this was normal. When I had come back in January with my mom, the gas pains was something she feared the most. But when it came down to it, she didn't experience the gas pain like I had. So needless to say my expectation was more like what my mom had gone through. I didn't fully prepare myself as to how bad it could possibly get. And this? this was the WORST.
After what seemed like the longest night of my life, with the worst sleep Ever! It was finally morning. We were told we would be leaving at 9:00 to head back to the hotel. So I asked for some extra nausea medication for the van ride back because I was super nervous to get in a car at this point. I slowly got myself dressed and ready to go, but fell back asleep waiting for our time to go, and I apparently missed out on an otter pop! When we got out to the van I asked the driver to please go nice and SLOW, and thank goodness he did. I made it up to the hotel room and was exhausted. I drank a little bit of water with a couple Gas-X strips and went to sleep. After my nap my mom insisted we go walking to help relieve some of this gas pain I was still experiencing. The walk helped but didn't make it go away.
Sunday was the leak test day. Something else that was weighing on me. We had to drink this dye early in the morning, it wasn't TERRIBLE, but it wasn't good either. But once we made it to the X-Ray place we had to drink this Barium solution, and this was DISGUSTING. BUT I did it and passed my leak test! In my X-Ray there was this cloudy/fog looking mess all over it.. turns out, this was all the gas that was giving me trouble since surgery night! So my goal for the day was to walk as much as possible, and to burp as much as possible. I was OVER this gas pain. We walked a total of 3.5 miles up and down the streets of TJ looking for a pharmacy for friends who had placed a medicine order prior to the trip. I was exhausted by the end of it all, but I was also proud of myself for sticking it out and not giving up.
Finally it was Monday morning, time to go home. I was again nervous about being in the car. But LUCKILY we waited a total of 3 minutes at the border! Bumps were not fun but we made it to the airport in what seemed like record time. I put a pillow in the backseat of my car for the 2 hour car ride home. This definitely saved me when going over rough patches and bumps. We made it home in 1hr 45 min. I was at first scared to go home fearing my pets would be all over me. But once they got over the initial excitement of me being home, they were fine and it felt SO good to be home.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
The Ugly Truth
Well I made it back from Mexico and I'm starting my life as a sleeved citizen. I will go into Operation details in my next post. But for now I thought I'd post my official before photos. These photos were taken 2 days pre op. My weight here was 255.4lbs. I only lost 6.6lbs preop. My goal was 10, but hey life happens I guess. Anyway... on to the previous version of myself...
I feel so gross looking at these. But this will be the LAST time I EVER have to look in the mirror and see this version of my self. Everyday will become easier and better than the last.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Ready to go...
Well I'm officially ready to go! I've bought all of the items necessary for pre and post op. I picked up butterfly bandages, hibiclens body soap to wash my incisions, and all of the other items that were listed on my "Items to pack" list. I'm anxiously excited and can't wait til these hunger pains are officially gone! My mom and I are leaving early tomorrow morning to head down to San Diego where the fun OFFICIALLY BEGINS!
This liquid diet has been brutal! The worst is late night hunger pains that set in between 11:00pm and midnight. I was only supposed to be on the liquid diet for 5 days prior to surgery but I decided to start 3 days earlier. My mom, who had her surgery back in January, started her pre op diet 8 days before surgery and she had zero complications. So I'm hoping by following in her footsteps I will have the same success.
As of today, Day 7 of the liquid diet, I have lost 6.6 pounds. My goal before surgery was to hopefully lose 10lbs. But I'll be happy getting as close to that number as possible. I have 2 days left, only time will tell.
My official starting weight was 262. Today I'm at 255.4. My overall GOAL weight is 135.
So.. only 120.4lbs left to lose! yay! I'm ready to start my journey as a BIG LOSER!
This liquid diet has been brutal! The worst is late night hunger pains that set in between 11:00pm and midnight. I was only supposed to be on the liquid diet for 5 days prior to surgery but I decided to start 3 days earlier. My mom, who had her surgery back in January, started her pre op diet 8 days before surgery and she had zero complications. So I'm hoping by following in her footsteps I will have the same success.
As of today, Day 7 of the liquid diet, I have lost 6.6 pounds. My goal before surgery was to hopefully lose 10lbs. But I'll be happy getting as close to that number as possible. I have 2 days left, only time will tell.
My official starting weight was 262. Today I'm at 255.4. My overall GOAL weight is 135.
So.. only 120.4lbs left to lose! yay! I'm ready to start my journey as a BIG LOSER!
Saturday, October 11, 2014
The beginning...
Recently I decided to embark on a journey that will forever change my life. I made the decision to undergo a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy also known as VSG or Gastric Sleeve surgery. I made this decision not only because I have struggled with my weight all of my teenage years and all of my adult life, but because I was tired of being unhappy with myself. So before any more time can be wasted on failed attempts, I made this decision to become a better version of me.
My surgery is fast approaching. 6 more days! eek! and I'm on my 3rd day of the dreaded pre-op liquid diet and let me tell you.. day 1 I thought I was going to crack! I was emotional, hungry. Starving! but thanks to a much needed very large bottle of water with a can of chicken broth and the encouragement of my boyfriend and mother, I made it through. Day 2 was hard but not AS hard as day 1. I woke up feeling starved! so my boyfriend got up and brought me a protein shake. About 10 minutes after finishing I felt like a new person!
Today, Day 3 has been the best. My body doesn't feel its in shock as it did compared to day 1 and 2. It's still hard but I don't feel as cranky as I did the past 2 days, but I do feel a bit emotional today. Ever since I made the VSG decision I've been riding this roller coaster ride of emotions. One day I feel like wonder woman, I can do this and nothing and nobody can stop me! The next day I'm a puddle, questioning my decision and thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong. It's been crazy! But as I explore forums and other blogs I am relieved, thank goodness, that I'm not the only one who rides this crazy train.
Over all, I'm happy with my decision and look forward to my future and can't wait to look back on my journey and see how far I've come and how much further I'll be able to go.
My surgery is fast approaching. 6 more days! eek! and I'm on my 3rd day of the dreaded pre-op liquid diet and let me tell you.. day 1 I thought I was going to crack! I was emotional, hungry. Starving! but thanks to a much needed very large bottle of water with a can of chicken broth and the encouragement of my boyfriend and mother, I made it through. Day 2 was hard but not AS hard as day 1. I woke up feeling starved! so my boyfriend got up and brought me a protein shake. About 10 minutes after finishing I felt like a new person!
Today, Day 3 has been the best. My body doesn't feel its in shock as it did compared to day 1 and 2. It's still hard but I don't feel as cranky as I did the past 2 days, but I do feel a bit emotional today. Ever since I made the VSG decision I've been riding this roller coaster ride of emotions. One day I feel like wonder woman, I can do this and nothing and nobody can stop me! The next day I'm a puddle, questioning my decision and thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong. It's been crazy! But as I explore forums and other blogs I am relieved, thank goodness, that I'm not the only one who rides this crazy train.
Over all, I'm happy with my decision and look forward to my future and can't wait to look back on my journey and see how far I've come and how much further I'll be able to go.
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