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Vivi.

Reposting from 'My Journey' thread... Recap of surgery and my first week post-op

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After years of consideration, I began working toward surgery in December as part of solving other gastric issues that had come to light with testing - severe hiatal hernia, GEJ inflammation, enlarged liver, digestive distress. My insurance (which I pay A LOT for) did not make the surgical process easy or cheap. Several required classes and tests were out of pocket. I spent the time working all of it out, even when I felt very discouraged. I also knuckled down in June and spent more time exercising and watching my diet. I lost over 30 pounds before my surgery.

My surgery was last Thursday, August 22nd, at a hospital I'd never used before (dictated by my surgeon's schedule and by him being able to do more post-op tests at this place than the one I have used in the past for childbirth, endoscopy etc). My surgery ran long - nearly 6 hours in the OR. All total, I was in the operating area / OR / recovery for over 8 hours. Scared my husband pretty badly, from what he's said. The surgery went great. No complications. 5 total incisions, including the JP Drain.

The first 2 days post-op were rough. The pain meds coupled with anesthesia made me so nauseous, I was so out of it, and some the nursing staff this past weekend were not great. The nurse who pretty much pulled me out of bed by my arms at 3am just to have me to walk to the door and back was rude and he didn't seem to understand why I was disoriented - once I thought about this when less medicated / tired, I realized how dangerous it was. Walking when more awake was fine - hard at first because everything hurt and I was a bit out of it, but by Day 2, I was walking several times a day without prompting. I had a barium swallow test about 16 hours after surgery - mid-morning on Friday. It sucked but I got through it. Just as I was about to vomit, they said I'd drank enough and then had me move around to watch for leaks in my system / on the screen. Getting up onto the screening bed and back off of it was really difficult. They might rethink the tiny step stool and nowhere to hold onto. I was dizzy and in a lot of pain after all of that.

Not having my surgeon around for most of the time I was in the hospital made it pretty clear that many hospital staff do not read carefully, as they had 3 or 4 versions of his instructions, depending on who you asked. Had I known, I would have had my husband tape the instructions to my hospital room wall. Simply telling the staff to open my surgical info binder seemed to be too much effort. These are all-purpose nursing staff, many of whom were obviously not very familiar with this kind of surgery so they also seemed to expect me to be much more coherent the first day or two (asking me detailed questions while I was clearly medicated), which is not practical. There was one nurse who was exceptional and she handled a lot of the slack that happened outside of her shifts. I'm so grateful she was there and that she worked Friday and Saturday.

All that said, by the afternoon of the 24th, I wanted to come home. I got almost no sleep in the hospital - between very loud patients in other rooms, the constant interruptions, I am glad I went home Saturday evening despite being told I'd probably stay until Monday afternoon. One major thing that caused a 6 hour delay in my discharge - they waited to give my husband my scripts until Friday night and he had trouble getting the liquid pain meds filled same-day on Saturday...Also: fun fact - this hospital takes my health insurance (BCBS) but their 3rd party pharmacy doesn't! Surprise! No one thought to tell me that until we found out the hard way. Get your scripts ASAP so if there is a delay (or nowhere is open), you aren't without a pain management plan. Don't expect everyone you deal with to be competent, thoughtful, or thorough. Sad, but true.

At home, I have gotten better rest and better care, and each day is a huge improvement over the day before it. I'm doing great with liquids/intake. On a schedule with food/drinks/meds and taking a lower dose of pain meds during the day so I can start weaning off of it soon and get myself back to a normal sleep pattern! I'm drinking lots of water, using Unjury shake mix with 1% milk, pre-made Premier Nutrition shakes, eating jello with added Unjury unflavored protein powder mixed in (when making the jello), and drinking apple juice and crystal light flavored water to break up the monotony. Taking all my vitamins and meds (crushed or liquid, of course!) Looking forward to fuller liquids and purees in a few weeks! Getting up and walking around every hour when I'm not too sleepy / when it's not the middle of the night. Trying to use the bathroom every 2 hours or so, which has yielded good results (just do it - even when you feel like you don't "have to go"). Tidying up things, reading, spending time talking with my kids, going through a week's worth of paperwork and emails. It's all helping me feel more like myself - I think you have to work at feeling better by not wallowing in bed...but don't overdo it either!

Today was my first day easing back into work (from home), and it was fine - I was glad I did a few things earlier in the week to make it less stressful today (like paperwork and clearing out my inbox of junkmail / redundant email) and I didn't push myself or get too stressed about the work that had piled up in my absence. I'll handle it the same way tomorrow and just keep my priorities straight. Health first.

This 3-day weekend coming up will be nice for more small projects and relaxing stuff at home.

I didn't see weightloss on the scale until yesterday, when it jumped down nearly 6 pounds. So don't be surprised if you're all plump with IV fluid and gas and bodily fluids needed for recovering, and you just don't see much movement on the scale for the first week. Once the diet levels out and your activity increases, the weight comes off!

Hope my recap/rant/advice is helpful to you!

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Comments

  1. binalyn's Avatar
    I'm sorry to read that so much of your journey was a rough one.

    I agree - many of the hospitals have no clue how to care for bariatric surgery patients. I was so lucky with one nurse (over night) who was incredibly attentive and made sure I got up and got to moving and a tech, who was trained in how to care for post-surgery patients. I was also blessed to be coherent enough to let people know what did or did not need to happen (one nurse actual tried to give me my usual meds without CRUSHING them).

    I wish you much luck and continued speedy recovery.