funnursechick
It is hard to believe that I am sitting on the other side of the fence now. I had my lapband almost 4 years ago and have dreamed of getting out for the last 2 years. I never imagined I would be here though. On May 11, 2010, I had revision surgery with Dr. Almanza, having the lapband removed and had the VSG done. I spent the night before surgery in The morning of surgery, my husband and I met with other patients at the airport and waited for our van to take us into Dr. Almanza then came by to discuss my revision surgery. He did not speak the best of English, but the coordinator at the clinic was very helpful in interpreting. Now, when I say clinic, I know a lot of people are probably freaking out right now, but in My surgery was the last surgery of the day because I was a revision and they expected it to take the longest and be the most complicated. I went into surgery about 4:30 that afternoon. I was told that it only took Dr. Almanza about 45 minutes to remove the lapband and another 45 minutes for the sleeve. When I finally realized that I was awake and out of surgery, I was lying in recovery and it immediately hit me, all the IV fluids that I had had that day. With assistance, I got up, went to the bathroom, then to my room. After that time I never needed help getting up or down (except with the use of the controls on the electric bed). Thank goodness for technology and electric hospital beds. I was in the private room with the chair, so there was really nowhere for my husband to sleep, so I sent him on to the recovery house. I spent the night between lying in the hospital bed and sitting up in the chair with my feet propped on an ottoman. I got up several times during the night to walk and to pee (excuse me for being so blunt). I also kept having saliva accumulate in my mouth and would spit it out into a basin. I think I dozed at one point and swallowed some saliva though and got a sudden rush of nausea. It quickly went away after they gave me some IV Zantac and I never had any other problems with nausea. The Toradol that they give you IV worked great for my pain. I had no incision pain. Surprisingly, I had little gas pain, nothing that was not resolved by walking or rubbing on my chest. Of all surgeries that I have had, this is the first time that I did not have problems with this. The next morning my nurse loaded me up with IV fluids, then heplocked my IV. I got dressed and removed my stockings after she changed my dressings. Then, I got ICE! Oh my was this the best ice I had ever had in my life! LOL It really helped with my sore throat. Shortly later, we were taken to the recovery house. My husband and I were lucky and got to stay in the only bedroom that was downstairs. The house was very clean and cozy and the staff were excellent. They even took great care of my husband, feeding him every meal. I enjoyed sitting out in the courtyard with the sun on my face with a popsicle. The only moment that I was not happy was when they suggested that they place another patient in the room with me and put my husband on the couch or send him to a hotel. I quickly interjected, letting them know that I would not have brought him with me if I did not think I needed his help, and no, he would not sleep on the couch or go to a hotel. Plans were quickly changed, my husband stayed with me, and some guests that were in town filming the clinic went to a hotel, making enough room for everyone. My husband did have to help me up at night off the bed. I suppose I just have weak abdominal muscle and had a hard time sitting up on my own. The next day I drank the blue dye from H*** then went to the radiology clinic where I drank contrast for my fluoroscopy. My husband and I had decided at this point that we wanted to go ahead that evening and go back to An amazing thing also happened that day. While waiting for our connecting flight, I was getting exhausted. There were two catholic priests, brothers, who started talking to us and the next thing I knew, they gave us their 1st class tickets and took our seats for the flight home. God surely blessed me and will definitely bless them for their generosity. I am now a week out. I am doing great. My drain site is still draining a little, but that is normal. I am still taking my antibiotics and cleaning my incision sites twice daily. I am not getting in as much liquid as I would like to over the course of a day, but I am working on it. I am now at the soft stage and doing great. Today, I have had a little incision tenderness, but I think that is just because I am getting more active and my clothes are rubbing my incisions. I am down 9 pounds at one week. I hope and pray that this journey continues uneventfully. I am blessed!
