So....this is a long story but I'm going to put the point right up front. Be prepared to be your own advocate after your surgery! I had my sleeve surgery on 03 December. 04 was a bit rough but that night I was finally making peace with my sleeve when at about 0130 in the morning I slipped into atrial fibrillation...which means the heart is not beating correctly. The atria, which squeeze the blood away from the heart were fluttering and my heart rate was fluctuating between 120-200...normal is a range, but generally under 90.
I was quickly moved out of my room on a floor that has had extra training in bariatric surgery care and moved to the cardiac unit. I wasn't in pain or uncomfortable at all...in fact my surgery healing has been amazing! However, the cardiac nurses required a lot of education about what I could and could not have/eat/drink. The hospital is not prepared to feed a new bariatric patient. The only "protein drink" they had was Ensure which was over 350 calories for only 11 g protein. Then they started bringing the pills. I don't know about you, but it has been drilled into me NO PILLS! So I refused to take them until the surgeon gave his ok which he eventually did. THEN, the put me on nothing by mouth, meaning no water, no nothing until they did a procedure where they tried to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm. This whole time I'm only allowed to go to the bathroom otherwise I had to be in bed...so much for walk, walk, walk.
Conversion attempts failed and they discharged my on the 6th still in Afib but with what we thought was a controlled heart rate. Best.Shower.Ever was how I would describe getting home!
Unfortunately because the heart medications were run through the same IV, I developed cellulitis and by Sunday evening my forearm was hot, swollen and the redness was moving up my arm....so back to the ER we went....here in my hometown which is 75 miles away from the hospital I had my surgery. The local ER folks FLIPPED OUT because my heart rate was 190 when I showed up....and by midnight I had been transported back to the hospital in Tucson.
Now I was a bariatric patient with cardiac complications on a general medicine floor...kind of like the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer. The staff here were competent, but definitely not the A-team I experienced on the cardiac floor. So back to the same old thing, only in bed and to the bathroom....spend all day Monday waiting for a cardiac consult that never came. Didn't see a dr after 0700...very frustrating. At one point they brought me 2 horse pills to take and when I said I couldn't the nurse asked "Why not?" It took everything I had not to unload on her..."Um...let see because my stomach is the size of a sharpie....let's start there". Then she came back a couple of hours later with 7 pills at once...she was not my favorite as she never did get my situation.
Tuesday morning the surgical fellow came by and I kind of unburdened myself to him...I was frustrated that no one was talking/consulting with me. I had been in Afib for over 4 days now, still had a heart rate that spiked every time I walked the 6 steps to the bathroom and was worried they were going to discharge me still in Afib again. I told him my "island of misfit toys" analogy and he agreed. He also got my surgeon involved (Dr. Galvani is head of surgery at UofA) and by 0900 I had 3 doctor visits! When I told the internal medicine doctor that I was still spking up as high as 205, she had no idea....not a real confidence builder in the staff of the floor. She agreed though that they wouldn't send me home with an unstable heart rate...which is all I wanted to hear.
At about 1130 Tuesday morning as fast as it started, my heart converted on its own back to normal sinus rhythm. YAY! A few quick laps around to ward to make sure it wasn't joking around and I was being processed to leave the hospital!!!!!
So upshot is I'm on a ton of new medications, including a blood thinner and will remain on them for at least 3 months. They think it was all caused by the fluids/electrolytes/stress of surgery but want to make sure.
I'm home, eating my plain yogurt and I couldn't be happier! I'll post later about what my husband brought to the hospital to help me stay close to being on my plan. Cheers! Beth
So this morning marks the start of the 5th day of my liquid pre-op diet. Here's what I'm taking in every day:
3 protein shakes
1 8oz plain/vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese
4 oz apple juice
11 0z low sodium v8 juice
Broth/sugar free jello/popsicles within reason
So it isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I posted on the forum about my meltdown day one...went grocery shopping and was totally unprepared for the rush of sadness...got through it without going off plan and haven't felt that way again...but it was INTENSE! Silly, but intense.
I find that I'm waking up earlier (usually because I'm hungry), staying up later and my house is getting really clean! In fact my husband said I'm freaking him out a bit because I'm not a natural housekeeper. We used to invite people over so we would be forced to really clean up...lol
I'm still cooking and that makes me happy. I made my own homemade chicken broth and beef broth because the canned stuff is nasty. I'm still cooking for the guys (husband and adult brother that lives with us) and for the most part that is a relaxing thing for me. I put my broth in a pretty Starbucks coffee thingy to keep it warm and drink that while I'm cooking, then I have my shake when we all sit down.
I wont say it has been easy...but I am determined to make the most of this surgery and so I'm following the instructions exactly. I've weighed every morning since I started and am down 9 pounds in 5 days. I'm really going to try to stop weighing because I'm worried that A. when it slows down I'll be bummed and B. I don't want the scale that involved the first couple of months after.
See I'm a scale obsessive. Whew, it feels better saying that. I think I've written about this before but I let the scale dictate way too much! Either I'm successful so I allow a "treat" or I'm not and I figure nothing that I do matters and damn the torpedoes (order a pizza!) so not weighing for the next few weeks will be better. In fact as I'm typing this I think I'm going to move the scale out of the bathroom altogether. In fact I'm going to go do that right now, because my memory seems to be a little suspect the past few days. But more about that next time. Beth
So after lurking on this awesome site for about a month, I finally took the plunge and joined. I thought I would explain my screen name because it kind of sums up my approach to this whole endeavor.
As I was working through the decision to pursue WLS I spent some time thinking about WHY and more specifically WHY NOW? I will turn 50 in August and that is certainly part of the WHY NOW, but I also have this amazing granddaughter and I want to be able to play with her, see her grow up and be a part of her life. I'm also starting to see the light at the end of the work tunnel that is retirement, and although it is just a pinpoint right now if I want to enjoy it I need to get my weight off.
So the "4me" part is obvious and is my declaration that first and foremost I'm doing this so I can have the future I want. the "4them" is all the people in my life that I want to spend time with, laugh with and play with...granddaughter, husband, kids, friends...
I'm sure that like the other journeys in my life, it wont be a straight, flat route, but I believe that the opportunity WLS provides is one that will ultimately lead me to my desired location and I'll have a wild ride along the way. Wanna come along?
