Surgery Update

I woke up early this AM because of back pain, so I thought I'd write my what surgery was like post while I wait for the LorTab to kick in.

First, I woke up way too early! I got up at 4:45 because I wanted to have plenty of time to get ready, double check my hospital bag, etc. In the shower, I had to scrub with a special anti-bacterial soap provided by the hospital. I had to use that soap the night before, too. I scrubbed and shaved my legs, and generally enjoyed the feel of the warm shower, since I didn't know what the next one would be like!

I was ready, bag double checked, by 5:30, and we weren't leaving until 6:00. I could have slept an extra half an hour! But then, I would have felt rushed, so I'm glad I got up too early and could get around at my leisure. We (My in-laws took me to surgery, as Hubby is out of town) loaded into the car a few minutes early, since we were all ready.

I signed into the desk at about 6:20, and got called back to admissions by about 6:30. Just a few minutes there as I had pre-admitted, and they sent me upstairs to pre-op. I had to say a temporary good-bye to my in-laws and I went to get ready. They did all the things you'd expect -- temperature, blood sugar, weigh me (I really liked their scales!), a MRSA test. Then they gave me a gown and had me change clothes. I was on what should have been the last day of my period, so they gave me some funny disposable panties and a pad. The panties were very boxy and probably didn't fit anyone correctly -- but you know they didn't fit me well! They reviewed my medical history with me. Someone came to draw blood, and someone else started me on an IV. Everyone was so professional and good at their jobs. And, everyone made me feel comfortable and supported about what was about to happen. I was very impressed with the staff. Dr. Krahn came by to check on me and to flip through my chart. I just love that man!

Eventually, my in-laws could come back and be with me. My MIL is a former nurse, so she was very curious about all the technical aspects of what was going on. It was kind of cute to see her shift into medical-mode. Because I hadn't slept well the night before, I probably could have slept a bit before surgery if they hadn't been there, but we all wanted to be together while we could be. I am so blessed, that not only did I get a great husband, but I got great in-laws too! We all genuinely love and like each other. They are truly family to me, and not just legal family. We are all very close, especially since I've lost both my parents.

At 9:20, I said a last "good-bye" to the in-laws and someone wheeled me back to the holding area. I had to pee in a cup for a pregnancy test, which wasn't so easy since I'd been NPO since midnight! After that, I just laid around for a bit. My surgeon came through and said a breezy "hello" as he went to do the procedure before mine. I met the anesthesiologist and talked with him for a few minutes. There was a momentary scare for me, when the surgery assistant asked if I had a cardiac clearance, as I've already had a heart attack (about 10 years ago). I hadn't and I was a little bit panicky. How pissed off -- not to mention just plain old disappointed! -- would I be if surgery was cancelled because I didn't have something no one told me I needed!? But, Dude continued flipping through my chart and said all was well and he'd see me in a few minutes to take me to the OR.

Sometime after 10AM, they took me into the OR to prep me for surgery. The table was tiny! I felt like I was going to fall off of it. Surgery Assistant Dude had me spread  my arms out as though I were on a cross and he secured my arms. After a few minutes of listening to the staff chatter while they got things ready, the anesthesiologist came in and sent me to la-la land! After he gave me an injection through my IV, he told me that I'd have a funny taste/feeling in my mouth and I'd be asleep five to ten seconds later. I was asleep before I had a chance to have the funny taste/feeling! I was out almost as soon as he said that!

I started waking up around noon in recovery. No pain, no discomfort. As soon as someone noticed I was awake, she gave me a pain shot. I guess it was preemptive, because I wasn't having any feeling at all -- much less pain! Because I had no unusual feelings, I was afraid that they hadn't done the procedure for some reason, but a few minutes later a nurse came by and said "Congratulations! Everything went very well."

By 1:20, I was settled in my room. My in-laws joined me and we chattered a bit. I wasn't really ready to sleep more, so we talked about their plans for the next few days and their experience of my surgery. I eventually sent them home so that I could sleep -- and so that they could probably nap! After all, we'd all be on the go since before 6:30, and they hadn't had the sleep I'd had! I got up and went to the restroom and walked a few times before I fell asleep.

They came back at about 5PM and stayed for an hour. Then, a good friend of mine came for a bit. She brought me a beautiful purple hydrangea and a cute little box to keep treasures in. She stayed until visiting hours were over, then I started settling in for bed.

Bedtime was the worst part! Even though I was walking a lot, I wasn't passing any gas, other than burping more than usual. So, when I went to bed, I had a horrible pain just under my left breast. As long as I was sitting up or standing up, I couldn't even feel it, but as soon as I tried to lay down, the pain was excruciating. I tilted the bed as far up as it would go, and it didn't go high enough! OH NO!!! But my night nurse found a recliner somewhere and brought it into my tiny room. I slept in the recliner from about 10PM to 2:30 Wednesday morning. I woke up having to pee so badly that I was in pain! I filled the hat thing that they put in the toilet to measure output!

Then, I tried to get in the bed (instead of the chair) and that worked. I slept like a baby until the nurse came and woke me up for vitals. At about 10:30, someone took me downstairs for a barium swallow test. That went well. The barium was kind of chalky, but not too gross. Then, back to my room for more walking and vital signs. The surgeon's nurse came to visit and talked with me a bit. She looked at my wounds and showed me where my port was, because I couldn't feel it. It's just above my belly button, to the right a little bit. She went and gave her report to the surgeon, and then my regular nurse came in to tell me that as soon as they got the written report from radiology, I was good to go.

She got the report a little bit before 1:00. I called my in-laws to come get me, then we did my discharge paperwork. I was back at the in-laws house by 2:20 PM.The surgeon has taken me off of my diabetes medication (unless my blood sugar reads over 150, then I'm to take half a dose of one of the medications), and he reduced my insulin by half. WOW! That means I'm down to nine units of insulin and maybe half an Actos. This time in July, I was taking 45 mg of Actos, four 5-500 mg of Glucovance spread through the day, and 24 units of insulin at bedtime! I'm already seeing great health results, so am fully expecting that my diabetes will go into remission when I begin to lose weight. I'm hoping my blood pressure stabilizes, too.

Some miscellaneous things I didn't mention:

• At some point, I bit my lip something awful! It's swollen and hurts! 
• My throat hurts where I was intubated. It even hurts from the outside, as though my glands were swollen, but they're not.
• As you might expect, my meals were pitiful. Six ounces of watered down broth (either beef or chicken), a can of lite lemonade or a bottle of Diet Snapple, and a cup of hot tea. I always drank a good bit of the hot tea, and all my lemonade/Diet Snapple (well, actually, I saved it and drank it throughout the day). I only ate a bit of my broth. For one thing, it wasn't yummy, but for another thing, I just wasn't hungry.
• I can drink normally. 
• I'm not having any pain at the incisions. I barely know they are there, in fact. A little pain in my left shoulder, but that's all. 
• My blood pressure got pretty high (174/79) but when I took my pain medicine regularly, it went down a bit, even though I wasn't conscious of being in pain. I thought that was very interesting! They were giving me a different blood pressure medication than I usually take, so maybe it just wasn't as effective.
• Less than 48 hours after surgery, and the only pain medication I'm taking is what I would have taken before the surgery -- back, hips and knee pain. I'm taking a bit more than usual because all the time I'm spending in bed is hurting my lower back.
• For the first several hours, I was really aware of a heaviness below the lower part of my breastbone. I'm assuming that's where the surgery took place and where the band is. Now, if I really concentrate, I can kind of feel that, but mostly I'm back to normal.
• I was on clear liquids while I was in the hospital; full liquids start today! I'm glad Fudgsicles are considered a liquid, because the No Sugar Added ones are pretty damned YUMMY!

That's all I can think of right now. I am to call my surgeon's nurse on Friday for a check-in before the week-end. Then I have my post-op appointment on Tuesday, 10 August. I don't know when my first fill will be. Probably five to six weeks after that.

Thanks again to everyone for your support, encouragement, and healing thoughts. I thought of you guys while I was in the hospital and missed you! I'm back to bed for a bit more sleep now. I'll try to check in with your blogs later.

Taking Care Of Business ...

Just some random things before I disappear for a few days!

First of all, thanks so much to everyone for their warm thoughts and wishes. I appreciate every single one of them. I’ll try to answer comments individually in a few days, but in the meantime, I wanted you to know that you are loved! I am really moved by how inclusive, encouraging and caring everyone is.

To those of you who have already been banded, thanks so much for sharing your stories. I feel so much more prepared for this than I would have been were it not for  your openness and honesty. YOU GUYS ROCK!

I’ve got laundry going on, hoping to kill time. I have to shower tonight with special soap, and then again in the morning. I’ll be up around 4:45 to make sure I get everything done in a timely fashion and get to the hospital in time. Hubby is out of town, as most of you know. I’m okay with him not being there for the surgery – but I sure do wish he was here with me right now! He has a great sense of humor and tells a good story, so I’m sure he could help distract me.

I have had a naval ring that had to be removed today. The surgeon’s PA told me that it could be replaced as soon as I felt up to it after I got home, but Dude at the tattoo place didn’t recommend that. I’ve had a couple of minor infections recently, so the piercing needs time to heal. I asked him about having the other side of my naval pierced but Dude recommended that I get to goal first. That’s right at two years away.

I’ll be honest with you – I cried a little bit on my way back from the tattoo place. I’ve had my naval ring for almost 16 years. I got it done in Arkansas for my 30^th birthday. I needed to shake things up a bit, do something that someone like me wouldn’t do. Sixteen years ago, in northwest Arkansas, a naval piercing was rare enough that I had to look for someone to do it; not all tattoo shops did piercings back then.

So, it was hard to say good-bye to my naval ring. However, I’m not terribly sentimental about stuff, so I didn’t ask to keep it since I didn’t need it. Right now, I’m kind of wishing I had it. Oh well …

Thanks again to everyone. Hope you have a great couple of days. I’ll see you on the other side!

NEW Surgeon Date!!!

Hey there! This morning, I had a phone call from my surgeon's office. They want to move my surgery up ... to Tuesday, 03 August! That's right --a  week from tomorrow! Holy Crap! My husband is out of town until 08 August, but I told them YES! Now, I have to clean my house, find someone to feed the cats for almost a week, and pay some bills. I also have to work in my pre-op lab work, and my doctor is out of the office until Wednesday. So much to do, so little time!

Why, you may wonder, do I have to find someone to feed the cats for almost a week for an overnight hospital stay? I live in kind of an isolated area, so when I'm dismissed from the hospital, I'll go to my in-laws, which is about 60 miles away. We had already planned all this, for later in the month! The original plan was to stay with them until Friday and then come home, but with my hubby gone, that's all changed. I'll need to stay with them until my husband gets back in town. Even though I may be able to go home before that, technically, no one is going to let me!

Question for all of you: I'm not telling very many people about my surgery. So far, I've told eight, plus appropriate medical personal. I think I know who to ask to help out with the cats, but how do I explain my absence? We've had so much trauma in our family lately (that the neighbor is aware of) that I'm sure she'll immediately ask what's wrong. I could just tell her that I need to be out of town for the that time, but I'm betting she'll ask for details. I feel kind of funny about trusting someone enough to give them a key to my house, but not trusting them enough to tell them about the band. But I just don't want to tell her! I'm already kind of regretting telling some of the people I've told, so I'm not really comfortable telling anyone else at this point ... SIGH!

Any advice is welcome!

Surgery Date!!!

I just got home from my nutrition class and running some errands. As expected, they called us into the office one at a time to get our surgery dates ... My date is Tuesday, 24 August, 2010! I am so freaking excited! Pre-op at the doctor's office is Thursday, 19 August, at 8:30 AM. UGH! The pre-op appointment at the hospital has not been schedule yet.

After I got my surgery date, I went to the bank and got a cashier's check for the amount of my down payment, and ran it back to the office, so that's taken care of. I wanted to pay it while we had it, in case something came up and we felt like we needed the money for something else. Now, that's not even an option!

Good, good news! They weighed me at the doctor's office. My official pre-op weight is 323.5. Why is that good news? Well, when I weighed Tuesday on my scale, I was 333.8. I realize that different scales will weigh differently, so I'm not counting all of that as a loss. But some of it has to be, right? Especially since when I weighed at home, I weighed in knit shorts and t-shirt and today I had on my heaviest jeans! Now, I am so eager for Tuesday to get here, so I can weigh again on my own scales! I'm already noticing that my pants are a bit more comfortable! YAY FOR ME!

Did I mention I was excited???!!!

APPROVED!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I talked to my insurance company and my surgeon's office this afternoon. I'm approved! I have to attend a nutritional seminar on Friday at 8AM, and, if I understood correctly, I'll get my surgery date at the end of the seminar. YAY for me!

I live an hour and (roughly) 15 minutes away from my surgeon's office, so I'm going to go down the night before and stay the night with my in-laws. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep Thursday night!

Today was Day Two of the pre-op diet, and it's going okay. Heather gave me the best tip: Use an immersion blender! It works sooo much better than the regular blender works. The regular blender makes too much foam for me or Hubby. I'm having no blood sugar problems today, but I didn't take one of my meds after dinner last night, and I didn't take my insulin last night. My blood sugar was 106 at bedtime, so I wasn't comfortable taking it.

I talked to my primary care physician this afternoon, too. He told me to stop taking my Glucovance (5-500 mg) altogether. I'm to decrease my insulin from 24 units of Lantus to 18 units at night. If I'm still encountering problems, I'm to decrease the units by another three units until I'm not having a problem any more. I see him next Tuesday, so I'll talk to him again about the Glucovance, since the Metformin portion of the pill also treats my PCOS.

Woo hoo! So, I may be joining you sooner than I expected! YAY for me (I had to say it again).

Where I've Been & Where I'm At ... Update

In my last post, I said that I would catch you up to date on where I've been -- why I stopped blogging, why I came back, and where I'm at in the process. Here goes!

Actually, I'm not sure why I stopped blogging in December, 2009; that was so long ago! I probably got sick, didn't feel like tending to my blog, and then lost momentum. In March, my husband lost his primary job. Thank God our insurance comes from his second job, so that wasn't a worry. The problem was, with no steady income, we couldn't afford for me to have the surgery.

I'm a little confused about this, but because my doctor is out-of-network with my insurance, his office requires a $4,000 cash deposit, and with Hubby not working, we just couldn't afford that. I'm going to have to have Dr. Krahn's office explain to me again what that $4,000 is for. It is not a program fee, I know that. I'm just not sure what it's for, since I expect my insurance to pay close to 100%.

I'm back -- does that mean Hubby is back to work? Well, no. My mother got sick in April, and made her transition into the non-physical in June. The estate is still being settled, but my sister (who is the administratrix of Mom's estate) wants to give me the money. She thinks Mother would want that. Personally, I don't think she would, but because she gave me such a hard time about my weight for so many years, I think it's fitting that she pay for it -- even indirectly! It is, however, sad for me to think that she'll never see me at my natural weight, when my weight was such a big deal to her. I know she can see me on some level; that will just have to suffice.

As soon as Lola told me that she wanted to give me the money for my surgery, I emailed Dr. Krahn's office and asked where I was at, hoop wise. All I had to do was have a nutritional consult and watch an online, interactive, program (EMMI) about lap-band surgery, and get a clearance from my Primary Care Physician. Within eight days (Tuesday, 06 July), I had all that done. A nurse needed to review and sign off on my chart, and the office would submit to insurance. I'll call tomorrow and check on that -- find out if/when my packet was submitted. I have online access to requests for authorization for my insurance company; you can bet I'll be watching that pretty closely!