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!