One Week Out

Today is 6 days post-op and I had my first post-op visit.

Good news #1 from the visit - I am down 10 pounds since surgery.  Which is a total of 40 pounds since my first appointment on October 11, 2012.  So 7 months and 40 pounds.  The first 30 were difficult to lose and took all my focus and determination to achieve.  These most recent 10 have been relatively easy - if you don't consider I had to go through a major surgery to get here!  :-)

Good news #2 from the visit - I get to start a FULL liquid diet.  What does that mean?  Since surgery I have been allowed to have water, skim milk, broth and sugar free popsicles.  NOW I get to add, smooth lite yogurt, sugar free pudding, cream soups (strained so no pieces), and I "get" to have DOUBLE milks instead of just normal milk.  Double milk is 8 ounces of skim milk and add 1/3 cup of dry milk powder.  the reason - double the protein in only 8 ounces.  Luckily, the dietitian had 4 pages of recipes to make the double milks more palatable.  I think tonight I will try the Malted Milk Ball!  (8 ounces of Chocolate milk sweetened with Splenda, 1/3 cup nonfat dry milk powder and 1 Tblsp malted milk powder.  Blend, chill and serve!)

Good news #3 from the visit - I got the drainage tube out.  Now...a word of warning...the picture I am going to post is "strong" as Mike says.  It's not explicit, it's not vulgar - it's my stomach today.  It shows the 6 incisions and the tube coming out of one.

It's hard to see all 6 - but as you look at the picture - there are 3 to the left side (all in the upper "roll") and 3 on the right side (one right by belly button, one in the upper "roll" and the 3rd one is below the upper one, kind of in the crease between the "rolls")

That tube is pinned to my pants and below that there is a bulb that I compressed after emptying and as the bulb expanded it sucked out extra fluids in my abdomen.  You can see that the fluid is reddish - but no, it is not blood.  It's juices and stuff.  It started with blood last week, but this was more orangish now and very clear, not thick like blood.

So - taking it out.  THAT was weird.  I am not sure what I imagined it looked like inside, but I was wrong.  It was a good foot long with tons of holes in it.  It was rectangular and flat and long.  The doctor simply pulled the tube out.  Did it hurt....no.  Did I feel it...YES.  The best I could possibly describe it was like I could feel a snake squirming through my abdomen.  VERY weird.  But now it's gone.  They do not sew up this incision or steri-strips or anything.  They say it heals better and with less chance of infection by allowing it to come together on it's own and heal.  Okay - not going to fight with them!

So...people have asked what the last week has been like.  I will tell you.

Tuesday, May 7 - I had to be at the hospital at 6am to check in to pre-op.  We stayed in a motel in Iowa City the night before as we are both better doing that than getting up at 4 am to drive up!

They did a pregnancy test - ha!  That made me laugh.  But that's typical procedure.  And yes, it was negative!

After I got into the hospital gown the Nurse Anesthetist showed up to go through what would happen during surgery and to get the IV started.  Now THAT is the funny part.  I make a much better pin cushion than blood giver or IV taker.  It took SIX sticks to get the IV in.  Yes, SIX.  They tried 3 times in the pre-op room.  And he was SO confident that it would go in.

Here are the remnants (taken today) from the attempts 6 days ago.

The large bruise is from the first attempt the smaller one to the left is the third attempt.  Keep in mind - this was 6 days ago.  It just keeps getting prettier and prettier!

The final destination for the IV was the top of my left foot.

The picture shows the IV spot slightly - but in real life the bruise is more evident.

Several years ago I was sick and in and out of the hospital for 3 months.  They did a bone marrow biopsy, spinal tap, skin biopsy, you name it, they did it.  To this day my mom laughs at me because I say the thing that hurt the worst was getting the IV.  But look at my skin - IVs are NOT my friend!  At least this time, the last 3 sticks were done in the OR and I had gotten nitrous oxide already.  I felt the 4th stick, but really did not care since things were floating!  NEver felt stick 5 or 6!

The surgery took longer for me than they expected.  They expected that Mike wold see my by 11:30 but it was 2:00 before he did.  I guess my rib cage is more narrow than they expected and that caused them difficulty and made them have to be slower.

When I got to my room on the floor - my mom, dad, Mike and the kids were all there to see me.  That was nice.  Then Mom and dad and the kids had to leave pretty quickly because Maggie had her conference track meet at 3:45 and then a jazz band concert at 7:30.  My parents played taxi!

That whole first afternoon and night I was allowed ice chips - that's it.  I was on a morphine PCA (patient controlled push button thing).  They also gave me tylenol through the IV and antibiotics and anti nausea meds and daily heprin to thin the blood so it doesn't clot.  Before the day ended they had me up and walking around.  My first walk took me as far as the nurse's station.  I thought I was a wimp but the Nurse Assistant who walked with me said most make it to the door of their room and turn around.  Nope - they tell me that walking is the best way to recovery so I will walk!

Through the night they woke me up every 2 hours or so do do my vitals.  And every 4 hours I had to walk.  So not a very restful night.  But at least I got a bed!  Mike got the "comfortable" hospital recliner next to my bed!  

Wednesday had me walking, trying to not take morphine very often, getting weened off IV morhpine and moving to pill form.  Plus - moving to actual drinking of water!  Starting at 6am I was allowed 30 ccs of water over 30 minutes.  That would be ONE ounce of water and take 8-10 sips over 30 minutes.  Wow - that takes patience.  Eventually they let me go to 60 ccs in 30 minutes.  Woo hoo.  Then I got broth!!  Wowsers - broth!!  That was delicious.  it was warm and salty and nummy.  I got to have 3 ounces of soup!!!  Then we found out I was going to go home!!!!  Before I left I had 2 ounces of milk!

That first night was hard at home.  I still hurt quite a bit and couldn't find a comfortable way to sleep.  The next day our recliner was here and I thought I may have to sleep in it.  But I found that sleeping in bed when I wasn't in so much pain worked just fine!  Hurrah!

Since then it's been drinking water, drinking milk and having broth and delicious, sugar-free popsicles a couple times a day.  And I have to force myself to drink - I have NO appetite at all, no desire for food at all. And going for walks 3 times a day for a total of 30 minutes.  10 minutes is still long enough at one time - I get pooped!

Saturday we went to a couple of graduation parties.  That was awesome...I finally felt like a person again, not an invalid.

Sunday morning found me getting up to get ready for church.  Now, my typical routine is to get up, shower, get ready and get dressed, then eat.  NO MORE.  I had had nothing to drink since 10pm the night before - and the warm water of the shower combined with that....nearly passed out.  Luckily I recognized what was happening and yelled for Mike and I got out before I passed out.  Then Mike ran to the grocery store because we had NO milk in the house (kids finished it at breakfast) and I NEEDED milk to regulate my blood sugars.  I did make it to church, but was shaky - not nearly feeling as human as I did at the graduation parties.  I was pretty worn out all day yesterday.

Now we arrive at today.  I don't know if I was excited about today - but I could NOT sleep last night.  I was trying to make emoticons at 2:30am just to pass the time.  (they don't work like the posts say they will, btw)

Got up today and started the day with milk!!!  Then worked on paying some bills and when Mike got home I showered to get ready to head to Iowa City.

I figured it was a good time to "document" me before we left.  

So this picture is me wearing the pants that I wore, and they fit, last fall.  I think it's time to get some smaller pants.  They are falling off and SUPER baggy in the butt and the front.  So shopping must occur!

This is my face as of today and 40 pounds down.  I just realized - this outfit I am wearing today is the outfit I wore in the picture of my first blog - the picture was taken last June on our anniversary.  So proof that these clothes used to "fit" properly.

AFter the doctor visit Mike and I tried 2 used clothing stores to look for some new clothes for me.  We tried "Stuff" first in Coralville.  HORRIBLE selection of plus-sized clothing.  And the ones they do have are not from plus-sized clothing stores.  Walmart and Old Navy do NOT specialize in plus-sized clothes and their sizes are just off. 

Then we tried the GoodWill Store nearby.  They MAY have had plus-sized clothes - but I would have had to go through 4 racks of pants one pair at a time.  They are organized by color, not by size.  They can go from size 3 to 20 to 5 to 16, one after the next.  That lasted 5 minutes and I said.....NOPE.

So - I am going to head to my normal clothing store and buy a few things I need so clothes don't fall off.  But I WILL be taking my clothes to Stuff to sell.  May as well try to get back a little money for all the clothes I have.  I love clothes - so I have a LOT of them!!

Tomorrow I start adding to my diet, but I also start my supplements.  For the rest of my life I will be taking a chewable daily multi-vitamin - 2 times a day, a chewable Calcium with D - 3 times a day, a B12, a B complex and an Iron.  In addition - for the first 9 months I take a pill 3 times a day to prevent gall stones.  This is in addition to my normal prescription meds.  The good thing, however...as I lose weight, I will probably get off at least 3 of those prescription meds I am on!!  Leaving only the pills for my asthma and allergies.  Now THAT would be fabulous!

Since some meds can't be taken together there is a list of what I take when.  To organize that for myself I bought a 7 day holder with 4 compartments for each day.

The pill bottles - minus the daily vitamin and the calcium bottles - they are huge!

One day of pills in their holder.

All 7 days of pill holders.

So - that is my life for the last week.

Things I am trying to wrap my brain around....

• I am NOT hungry.  I can honestly say I do not remember ever not being hungry!
• These clothes are NEVER going to fit again so I can get rid of them.
• This is really happening to me!  People probably think I'm nuts - because I will show, my stomach, to anyone who asks (and to 6th grade boys who don't ask...just to gross them out!)  I will freely talk about weighing 327 pounds in October and that now I am at 287.  Most women won't admit to being 145 pounds let alone 287!  But I think I am sharing because it makes it more real to me - just knowing in my head isn't enough for me.  I need to say it aloud and admit it - you know - you must admit you have a problem before you can get help.  Well admitting I am overweight and doing something about it is allowing me to get the help I want/need.

Life is moving fast.  It is an exciting time for me.  Knowing I am 40 pounds lighter and I will NEVER see 300 pounds again is an amazing feeling.

A big thanks to my mom and dad for making the 9 hour trip to be here for my surgery and to take care of my kids while we were in the hospital.  They took care of meals the whole time they were here.  Dad cooked and the kids ate and I just relaxed and had my water!  :-)

I have to say a HUGE thank you to my husband and kids.  Their support in going through this is wonderful.  No pressure from the kids, infact...last night Matthew took my nightly walk with me.  I still don't like being alone when I walk because I get a little light-headed at times.  The cute part was we ran into some of his friends and they asked him to stay and play.  His response, "When I am done taking my mom on her walk I will come back."  What an awesome kid.

Maggie does anything I need and ask for.  Sometimes she is thinking of things I may need before I do - she is awesome.

Mike - I cannot say enough about him and his support.  He had to be SO incredibly bored at the hospital.  All of Tuesday I was either in surgery or recover or out of it.  And he was there the whole time.  If I needed him, he was there.  He was feeding me ice chips like I was a baby bird - so funny.  He did do some google searching of one of my surgeons - he was a professional tennis player before he became a doctor, so Mike wanted to find out more!

He slept in that horrible recliner and was prepared to do it a second night if they decided to keep me a second night.

He walked at a snail's pace with me in the hospital halls.  At home he comes home at lunch and we go for a walk, after work, we go for a walk.  In the evening we go for a walk.  He takes time to go to every single appointment with me.  He is my rock and without him, I could not do this!