Diana M.
All of the mental prep that you do before surgery is beneficial, just make sure you prep your mind for all of the possible options. I loved to eat so much before surgery, that I thought for sure (And was scared) that I would wake up hungry. So I did a lot of mental exercises, e.g. thinking about the size of my pouch...that kind of thing. And then I had my surgery. The first 2 weeks after my surgery were horrible. I remember waking up from surgery and saying "what have I done". The pain was so "heavy", sometimes it was hard to breathe. But of course, the next day was easier. About 3 days after surgery, I was still on Dilaudid, because of allergies, and I was eating Zofran about every 6-8 hours around the clock. Nausea-was not my friend. Just to see a soup label made me want to vomit. So I turned all of my Campbell's soup tins facing backwards. I had bought protein bullets prior to surgery-and they made me nauseated too. Water didn't even taste good to me anymore. It was about the 6th day of this that I sobbed, and I couldn't even sob really because of the pain and I really regretted what I had done. For those of you who'd seen "Pirates"-when Captain Barbosa in the beginning says something like "too long has food turned to ash in our mouth and too long has the water not quenched our thirst" and I told my husband- what if that is me. What if I am like this forever-nauseated ...forever... I had prepared myself for the worst of all cirucumstances...to expect to be that patient that would want to go to Burger King after the surgery-after all, you can't imagine, after dieting through hunger for so many years, that you might actually "not" be hungary...but I hadn't mentally prepared to be nauseated most of the time. At least I wasn't nauseated when I was asleep. So prepare yourself, your mind, for anything and everything.
Well, about the 8th day, having tried several different brands of water and tasting every metal in them, I tried Evian. I almost cried then, too, because it tasted like water to me...not like I was licking a lead pipe! Finally-I could drink water. Now I only mention a few things here...about what I tried. But you would be well tired of reading this if I put every thing that I tried down...every kind of crystal light, every type of broth, every type of most anything you can think of- but I was some kind of nauseated...all the time.
Then, about 2 weeks later...I finished my Dilaudid and that was the day that I advanced to a semi-soft diet. And much to my dismay-the nausea went away!
Whether it was actually being able to eat food or if it was not taking the Dilaudid (probably the Dilaudid), something wonderful happened.
That was when I started to feel God's blessings upon me and I knew that I was going to be okay.
The only other "kind of" thing that I had was a stricture about six weeks out- but that was easily fixed. I have a great surgeon and I love his PA, too. So when I called to let them know that I was vomiting all day and not even being able to hold down a sip of water, he admitted me to the hospital right from home. He was there waiting for me at the hospital. A wonderful guy, or what?
Well, no other problems since then and I am now 16 months post op, 124 lbs gone forever, and watching everything that goes into my mouth!
