Post op Day 2

I got home yesterday evening.  So far I am feeling bloated and sore, and hungry.  Otherwise, not too bad.  I slept from about 8pm to 6 this morning, got up a couple times to the bathroom which is very unlike me.  I guess I got a lot of IV fluids during surgery, because what I got post op doesn't account for all this urine output.

Definitely hungry, but I am reading that initially stomach acid doesn't catch up with the small new stomach, so an antacid might help.  I will try that today and see if it makes a difference.  I am on "stage 2", full liquids diet. I can have blended soup, pudding, Carnation Instant Breakfast, that sort of thing...and as much water as possible.

The scale was down 10 lbs from Saturday...I don't see how that is possible, even with all the fluid I'm losing.  I don't feel 10 lbs lighter.

My daughter and husband are still asleep, so I have this quiet morning to myself--fireplace going, a little bit of coffee to take my caffeine withdrawal headache away.

Done

The lap band is gone and I am sleeved. I had surgery yesterday morning. It took about 3 hours. They found that my band was completely loose and the buckle was unclasped. Apparently that is an unusual finding. Also, my original surgeon did not tack my stomach around the band as is common now, so it might have moved more, especially when I was pregnant. Basically, I didn't really have a band for an unknown period of time. My surgeon considered just resecuring it, but I'm glad he didn't. I am done with fills and band stuff.

I had great OR staff, people with lots of experience, and one of my favorite anesthesiologists. (Dr D asked me if I had a request for someone specific, but I really trusted my whole department so I didn't request anyone.). I went in at 7:30 and got to recovery about 1115. I was quite nauseous, and a little painful. I threw up a few times, which was memorable because I never threw up once when I had the band, even with morning sickness. After some phenergan and fentanyl, I was brought to my room pretty sleepy. I mostly slept the rest of the day, but continued to have a lot of nausea, especially when I drank water. After trying all the antiemetics, I called the anesthesiologist on call, who happened to be my boss, the chair of the department. Our department has several MDs and CRNAs who are trained to administer acupuncture for nausea, so he came up and gave this to me, two tiny wire tacks taped inside each wrist. Finally, the nausea improved, more than I expected. I still have two of them on now.

I still am not able to take more than water or jello, everything else makes me nauseated. I took one shot of dilaudid when PT came to work with me yesterday, but didn't need it after that. I've just been taking Tylenol and Toradol. My pain has been minimal, which was my experience with the lap band as well.

I'm being discharged today, so I can be a lot more comfortable at home. Yay!

Finally!

Insurance company relented...they reversed their denial!  Interestingly, my employer is switching insurance providers on Jan 1, which I didn't know until very recently.  I think that might have been part of why they did not follow their own revision policy...they didn't have a lot of time to wait me out.  But, they reversed, and just in time. My surgery is one week from today.  It's hard to wrap my brain around.  It's hard not to feel like this won't help.  I think I have really gotten accustomed to the disappointment from the band, and it's hard to think that I might be successful long-term this time.

I've ordered my B-12 vitamins, and I'm preparing for the whole surgery thing again.  This time I am doing it as a mom of a toddler.  I've never spent a night away from her before!  I don't know how that's going to go.  And she likes to be picked up, won't be able to do that for a while either.

I've started talking with my regular counselor about my food issues.  It felt really good to do that.  I hope that I can work through some of that stuff that holds me back and keeps me holding onto this weight.  I guess the biggest difference for me this time versus the band surgery is that now I know the surgery is not the biggest part of this.  I don't believe I can eat as little as I need to to lose weight without this surgery.  But a much bigger part is going to be dealing with the emotional issues around food, which are extensive and very difficult to bring into the light.  If I can't be successful in dealing with the emotional issues around eating, no weight loss is going to be lasting.

Wish me luck! :)