lizzybee
I started my journey in September 2007, when I attended a WLS seminar with Dr. Duperier. I had a history of blood clots (one in my arm, resulting from a PICC line and a second one a couple of years later in my jugular vein-scary!) and I was not sure if I was even a candidate for the surgery based on that factor. I stayed after the seminar to ask the surgeon about this and he said he would be willing to consider it as long as my hematologist was on board with a plan for anti-coagulation. After taking the first few steps (appt with surgeon, sleep study, etc), I learned that my insurance was absolutely NOT going to cover any of the cost for the surgery. Very disappointing! Like so many other folks, it was not realistic for me to arrange for financing to pay close to $20,000 for surgery, so I had to more or less give up on it for a while.
Fast forward a couple of years, I was in a better position to finance the surgery and I attended a seminar with my husband. We chose to go with Dr. Duperier again because I had really good feelings about his abilities. I met with his partner, Dr. Seger, in February, and we discussed everything that needed to take place before surgery. One of the items was that I needed to lose 50 pounds. As we left the office, my husband and I agreed that the best way to do this would be by following a very high-protein, low-carb diet, like Atkins. We started on that plan the following week. The first few days were really tough, because I was cutting out all sugar, caffiene (and I was a coffee fanatic!) and almost all carbs, all at once. I felt literally sick, shaky, and exhausted, but on the 5th day, it was like my body said "oh, okay, so this is what we're doing now?" and all of a sudden I felt better and my energy level skyrocketed. We also added exercise, including water aerobics. From February through the end of May, I managed to lose 53 pounds. Mu husband also lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 pounds and was able to go from 4 diabetes meds a day to just 2! I was fortunate enough not to have diabetes, but I have no doubt I would have ended up there if my weight had stayed the same or increased.
I teach high school, so I really wanted to have the surgery early in the summer, allowing me to have a long span of time off from work to recover and learn how to eat, drink, and live with my new pouch. My original date was June 14 but about 3 weeks before that date, Dr. Duperier's scheduling office called to see if we could bump it up to June 8, as Dr. Seger (Dr. D's partner) was going to be out of town on the 14th and Dr. D really wanted him there to assist with my surgery. I was considered high risk both because of my blood clot history and my weight-even with the 53 pound loss, I was still at 460. My last day of work for the school year was June 7, so the 8th actually worked out well, as it gave me less time to sit around and be nervous before the surgery, LOL!
My surgery was scheduled for June 8 at 2:30 in the afternoon. I had to be at the hospital (Foundations Surgical in San Antonio) by 11 so they could draw more blood and check some things, mostly dealing with anticoagulation. I had been off the coumadin for 5 days and was on Lovenox shots, which will continue until my hematologist is able to get my coumadin regulated again. I've heard this can be tricky after RNY, so we will see what happens with that. Anyway, I got to the hospital, had the blood drawn, sat in the waiting area with my husband until they called me back to get the IV started and all that good stuff. The nurses in that area, as well as the rest of the hospital were simply fantastic. The time went by pretty quickly, my parents got there and we got to visit a little before it was time for me to go. Dr. Duperier came by to talk to me, then the anesthesiologist. Pretty soon it was time to go and as I was telling everyone good-bye, the anesthesiologist gave me my "margarita", I'm pretty sure it was Versed. I felt pretty relaxed and I honestly don't even remember getting into the operating room.
When I woke up in the recovery room, I was in fairly significant pain and I remember several nurses talking to me, calling my name and telling me to look at them. I told the one closest to my head that I was hurting and asked her to please, please make it stop. She told me they were trying. After that I kind of drifted in and out and I vaguely remember being moved to my room. One of the perks at this particular facility is that it is small, so the nursing care is great, my nurse only had 2-3 other patients. Also, every room is a private room. There is even a little sitting area near the door for family members to sit if they want to kind of hang out. My husband stayed there with me both nights, sleeping on the pullout sofa in that area. Well, the second night he brought an air mattress from home because he said the pullout was like sleeping on a rock, LOL.
Back in my room, I was hooked up to a morphine pump, so my pain was really well managed. By the time I was more or less awake, my parents and husband had already been brought in, so that was nice, waking up to see them there. I kind of drifted in and out of sleep for a while, but within 3 hours I was already up and walking around. I had read SO many people's posts on the boards here talking about how important it is to walk and thought "yeah, yeah, yeah" but I can honestly say that the walking was the BEST thing for relieving the gas pains and just generally making me feel better. The first night I walked twice, all the way down the hall to the doors leading into the lobby, probably 40-50 yards. I was slow, but I was walking. And my nurses were like cheerleaders, telling me how great I was doing. I also got a cup of ice chips to nibble on and was told I could take small sips of water. That was heavenly!
Slept pretty well that first night, in spite of them coming in to take vitals and draw blood. Every time I woke up, I just hit the button on my morphine pump and I was back to the land of zzzzzz. The next morning my surgeon came by to see me and I told him I was actually amazed at how great I was feeling. He told me he was probably as excited as I was, because my surgery had gone AWESOMELY WELL. He gave permission for my drain and my "On-Q" pain ball to come out-this was a pretty nifty little thing that delivered pain medication straight to the surgery site. I didn't feel the pain ball removal at all, but I did feel the drain. Like people say on the forums, it just felt WEIRD. Like I could feel it winding its way out. Not all that painful, just weird. Nothing I would get too worked up about, as it was over quickly.
So I got to shower (yay!) and sit up in a chair and drink all kinds of clear liquids, broths, and even have jello. I also had sugar free popsicles. My husband and I joked that the hospital must only get green ones, because every one I got was GREEN. No complaints, thought. And my all-liquid meals were served on a tray with really nice dishes. Kind of cute! 
I spent most of that day sitting up in a chair, visiting with my hubby, along with my parents, brother, and aunt who came by to see me. Everyone who came said the same thing-"wow, you look GREAT!" I honestly felt so much better than I would have anticipated. The thing was, before the surgery, I was so scared about the possible bad things that could happen, I didn't really let myself think too much about what the "after" would be like. I was just focused on coming out alive. After that, I figured I could deal with anything! I did take a short nap that day, but I was up and walking again, a lot. I lost count of how many times I made my little journey around the area where I was allowed to walk. At one point there were several patients in the hall and it was kind of funny, looked like some sort of very slow speed Nascar race, hahaha! That night the morphine pump was taken away (boo! LOL) and I was given a liquid version of vicodin/lortab for pain. At one point the pain got ahead of me and I was pretty uncomfortable, but they liquid meds worked really fast to get that under control.
The second day after surgery, a Thursday, I woke up feeling even better. I got to shower again, walked some more. Walked again. And again. 
Around 11:00 I saw my surgeon's PA and she said I was doing really well, so I was allowed to go home. Woo! I had been told I would be in the hospital 2-3 nights, so it was nice to get sprung after only 2. It took a short time for the nurse to get my discharge papers ready and I was on my way home. Got home and took a short nap, then did some more walking. The first day I was still taking the liquid pain meds but after that I started taking them only at bedtime. Most of my pain has been in the lower left side of my abdomen, where I was told the surgeon does most of the work, inserting of tools, etc.
As of today, I am one week and one day out from surgery. So far I have been out of the house every day, walking and going shopping, etc. I went bowling with the hubby and some of his family. I didn't BOWL, but I watched and walked a lot. I've also been by work a couple of times to see what is going on with my classroom, I'm being moved to a new room for next school year. In general, I feel really great! The weekend was a little rough, just kind of felt down and blah. I'm attributing that to hormones and my body trying to sort things out. By Monday I was feeling great again. Today was my first follow up with the surgeon and I saw his PA in the office. Saw him for a minute in the hallway, too, and he said I was looking amazing. I was kind of bummed out to see that my weight is exactly where it was on the day of surgery. I didn't expect a 20 pound loss or anything, but the same??? I asked the PA about this and she said it could be excess fluids, as they pump you full of IV liquids in the hospital, and it could also be my body just holding on, trying to figure out what's going on. As she explained, my body will figure out pretty quickly that it doesn't have any choice BUT to lose weight. I also wonder if I am taking in too few calories right now. It has been like a full-time job just trying to get in all the liquids and pills I have to take every day. Multivitamin 2 times a day, calcium citrate 3 times, sublingual b-12 at lunch time, iron at bedtime, and at dinner: biotin, nexium, orsodiol (for gall bladder), coumadin, potassium. And the twice-daily injections of Lovenox. Ugh!
I can feel a difference in how my clothes fit, even if the scale doesn't reflect anything. And my energy level is very high. Still hoping to see the scale move soon. I have been cleared to drive again (yay!), start exercising again (yay, going to the gym tomorrow!), and I got to remove the remaining steri-strips, as the incisions underneath were healed and the strips seemed to be causing some sort of reaction/irritation. It felt good to get those off, as they were itchy and just generally uncomfortable.
I have not yet taken any "official" before pictures, though I have some I can use later. Maybe tomorrow I'll ask the hubby to go ahead and take some, just to have a good reference. I have one more week on clear liquids, then I will move on to soft protein foods for 2 weeks, then on to the "regular" RNY diet. It's interesting to read people's experiences and instructions. I have been surprised to learn how different surgeons are in their post-surgery diet. Some people are having soft proteins, pudding, etc. at less than one week out. I am following everything my surgeon instructs me to do, down to the letter. His PA explained that RNY surgeons each have their own way of doing things. She worked for a surgeon in another city prior to coming here, and she said my surgeon makes a much smaller initial pouch than she had seen before. This may be one factor in the post-surgery diet and protocols.
Okay, I just wanted to get all of this written while it was fresh in my mind. Hopefully it will help other people who might be considering surgery or in the pre-op phase. Feel free to send me a friend request if you're looking for a WLS buddy!
