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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/20/2011 in Blog Entries

  1. 1 point
    ann_franc

    The right choice for me

    The sleeve is the right choice for me. I am currently 224 pounds, down from my highest weight of 265. I no longer have to take high blood pressure pills or the diuretic that went with it, I'm off Lipitor, I no longer need my cumbersome CPAP machine to sleep at night, my plantar fasciitis is resolving (no pain), and I don't believe I will be diagnosed with diabetes. Im staying focused on the right diet and I'm exercising on a regular basis. When I first thought about surgery to lose weight I thought it was a bit of a cop out, but I don't believe that anymore. The choice to have the sleeve is an irreversible lifetime commitment and I'm learning how to live on this new journey everyday. I have no regrets and I'm looking forward to a healthier me. Godspeed to all of you.
  2. 1 point
    Monday - I left Halifax early o'clock in the morning and flew to San Diego via Toronto. Flight was uneventful even if it was with Air Canada and strike threats. Arrived in San Diego and was met by driver by the Info Booth. Was driven to the Hospital where I was met by my coordinator Trish and escorted to my pre-op tests. I was early arriving and was given the option of having my surgery that afternoon instead of the next morning as originally scheduled. I decided to wait till the next morning as I was not mentally prepared at that point. Funny later that night as the nerves, second thoughts, what ifs, set in, I kinda wished I had just gotten it done and over with. Tuesday- I was up and waiting at 0700hrs. Anxious yes but feeling confident with my decision. Dr Kelly came by and talked with me and answered my questions. I gave Dr Kelly my camera for a picture of my stomach that was removed. I did not have a lot of questions, I am typical type A personality and control freak. I researched the hell out of this and knew what was going to happen. Went to the OR at about 0900hrs and was back in my room about 1030hrs. All done. Slept for most of the day. That afternoon tried to get out of bed to go pee and start my recovery process but I was in too much pain and was given pain/nausea meds and rested for a while again. Late that afternoon early evening got out of bed to pee and went back to bed. I was on pain meds thru night but was able to get out of bed to pee on my own. Vomited during the night and cleared blood? from stomach. Felt so much better. Wednesday- Felt great. Up in morning and started walking the hallways. I was given ice chips but I sipped water in tiny amounts. No real pain at all. Was still on IV fluids with nausea meds and antibiotics. Had a lovely shower. I felt so human again. I put on my PJ's and continued to walk and rest the remainder of the day. Dr Kelly checked on me multiple times during the day and was pleased with my progress. Had a good nights sleep. Thursday- Woke in the morning feeling even better than the day before. Dr Kelly came by and removed my drain. Wow what a difference. I felt even better. I showered and remained at the hopsital walking and sipping for a couple of hours. Then off to another hospital for my leak test. I had no problems with the barium drink stuff. Leak test was good so off to the hotel. At the Lucerna (very nice indeed) I rested walked about and ordered some chicken broth. My coordinator Trish left me a pack of goodies, gatorade, SF jello, water, and extra dressings for me incisions. Dr Kelly and the coordinator came by again that evening to check on me. I had an ache in shoulder and neck that was due to the gas from surgery, I knew to expect this and brought my heating pad, it helped alot. I had a wonderful sleep that night. Friday- Feeling really good. Haven't had any pain meds since night of surgery or needed any. I was feeling a bit cooped up. Dr Kelly came by to check on me in morning and again very pleased I was doing so well. Trish came by after lunch and brought me out to see a bit of Tijuana. It felt great to be out and about. Yes I did a little shopping. Back to the hotel for rest and some more yummy soup broth. Went to Starbucks across the street for green tea that evening with Trish. Saturday- Feeling superb. Dr Kelly came by to check on me again as I was leaving that evening for home. All is good. I left hotel with Trish my coordinator and went back to hospital to visit a lovely lady Stephanie(sorry if I misspelled your name). She had her surgery on the friday and looked great. Wasted loads of time until I was picked up by my driver and brought back to San Diego Airport. Going over the border to the States was a simple process. The van went in a special lane for buses and commercial vehicles. We stopped at the customs agent. I got out of van with my bags and went into special line and was processed and then bags were xrayed. Met the van and driver at the parking lot on just after exciting the customs building. Easy Peasy. At San Diego Airport checked in a waited for my overnight flight to Newark. Slept the whole flight. Met my next flight to Halifax. Slept the whole fligt again. Sunday- Got into Halifax Airport at about noon and hubby drove me home the 1.5 hrs to Kingston NS. I am now 2 weeks Post op and doing great. Getting in my protein drinks and liquids. Be vigilant at measuring how much liquid you ingest as I was feeling weak yesterday and realised too late that I hadn't drunk enough the day before. I have talked to Trish multiple times as she calls to check on my progress. I was 284lbs when I was weighed prior to surgery. I was 289lbs when discharged (water weight gain from IV fluids). I am now at 2 weeks post ov 272.6 lbs. So actual lose from preop weight is 12lbs so far. Lessons Learnt- I went on my own and that was a good thing for me. I didn`t have to worry about a companion. I didn`t have to keep answering questions like: how are you feeling, how are you doing, are you nervous, can I do anything for you. That would have driven me insane. My heating pad was a great thing for me to bring along. My Kindle was great, My Ipod was nice to have. My smart phone allowed me to send messages and updates back home with wirelss connection but I did not have any cellular service. I was happy with having a pair of PJs, they allowed for the checking of incisions without having to pull up a nightie or keep my hospital gown on. I had t shirts and yoga capris for day where in hotel. I wore same clothes home that I wore flying to Mexico. Gas X helped. If you have acid reflux issues they will give you meds to helpl I think that is all. I wasn`t scared at all in Mexico. I had faith in Dr Kelly. Trish was fantastic and really took care of me.
  3. 1 point
    Matt Z

    Post Op Follow Up

    Thanks for all the pre-op support all, I'm still feeling kinda icky, but I'm home and I wanted to provide a proper update. Friday the 18th of 2011 at 6:30 am I was admitted into the Rhode Island Hospital Outpatient Surgery Center. The staff was nice for how early it was. I checked in and around 7:00 am I was taken back to the prep room. I geared down and johnny'd up, complete with the fantastic johnny socks compression socks and a fabulous blue hair net. I voided, and I will tell you this, if I had known that this was going to be my last easy void in the next few days, I would have taken the time to enjoy it a bit more. I was then paraded past other weary surgical travelers enduring what I was soon to as well, the slew of questions from the prep nurses, anesthesiologist, head anesthesiologist, attending nurses, supporting nurses, and finally my surgeon. Everyone was fantastic. My doctor signed off on my belly and at 8:10 I was wheeled into the OR. The OR was super bright, bustling with prep work, beeps and boops, motors pumping away at this and that, the whole time the surgery staff was light hearted and up beat, The slide me from my gurney onto the operating table, propped up my arms with arm boards, pluged in me and put the gas mask on. Within a few moments my ears started ringing, my vison got distorted and everthing stopped. I had a bit of a dream, about my dogs I think, but I don't fully recall. With me out, the surgeon and her team started preping me and the equipment for use, I found out later that the laprascope was mis-behaving and not outputting video, so I waited in some undisclosed state of prep for 30 mins while they got it fixed or replaced. I opened my eyes around 11 am, coughing, which I guess is a good thing. I was woozy and had a hard time focusing on what was going on around me, the place was simalar to the pre-op room, but was clearly not. Other post-op patients beeped, buzzed, whooshed and groaned around me. Again the staff here was very pleasent. I was checked and rechecked, told to sleep, but once I'm up, I'm up, and with all the noise and lights, going back to sleep again wasn't going to happen, even if I was as tried as I have ever been. I overheard several comments about me not having a bed to go to. I've got sleep apnea, so I was being admitted for overnight observation. I saw in the recovery room for several hours, I was visited by my lovely wife, my parents and my oldest son, who notedly did not want to be there, but that was ok, I understand why. I was in moderate amounts of pain, more discomfort than pain, slight burning pressure under my left clavicle, but nothing major. My incisions were tender, but I wasn't putting any strain on the abdominal muscles so the pain meds I was given control of did the trick at keeping everything to a decent ache. 5 pm came around I my doctor came back in to check in on me. I was upgraded from swabs to wet my mouth to ice chips and small sips of water, this was fantastic news! After 6 hours of narcotic added dry mouth, some cold water and ice was heavenly. I was sat up, walked around and allowed to void again, but this time with great amounts of trouble. The muscle groups just wouldn't work with me, it was all about the relax and let go, which is a LOT harder than it sounds. 6pm I had my room. A step down ICR shared room. But I had a bed now, not the 2 inch thick gurney pad that had be causing me tailbone pain for 6+ hours. I walked around a bit, attempted to void again, and watched some tv with the wife. All while enjoying this fantastic new discovery, ice water! I was cleared for an amazing 60ml per hour, so 2 of those little meds cups per hour, this was fine with me. We watched TV for a bit, talking with doctors and nurses that came in and out checking in on me. Tried to stay up to watch Fringe, but by then I just couldn't hang it. So I made my way to the bed. After some tweeking, a few extra pillows, a fan (it was VERY hot for some reason) I put my cpap on, grabbed my pain button, slid down my blindfold and drifted off. Most important thing to bring with you to a hospital if you are going to be there overnight, a good pair of blindfolds! Saved my night! The night was oft interupted by the snoring of the woman that was my roomate, by nurses checking temps, iv amounts, my vitals, etc etc, understandable interuptions. These folks were taking care of me, so I was being extra nice back. Nothing can make their already stressful jobs worse than a pissy patient! 4am I was up again, the void at this point was much less stressful, and much more welcome. I stopped using my pain pump at this point. I guess that while I was sleeping, I pretty much just kept pressing the button, oops. At least it was set to lock out, so I got the max amount of meds. I fell back a sleep for a while. 6am rounding time for the doctors, I was visited, told that I was stable enough to go home once the orders were drafted, which take a while I guess. I amlessly watched tv for a few hours. At around 8 am a tray was brought in with apple juice, a bottle of water and a cup of broth, lol I'm on 60ml of fluids an hour and they bring a liters worth of liquid. The apple juice was FANTASTIC! The wife showed up at around 9:30 am, she helped clean up and pack things together to make it easier on everyone. I was then slowly removed from iv's and monitors, provided with my liquid pain meds, and started getting word of a potential release. I hurt, moreso now because of the lack of constant pain meds, but nothing super horrible. Just very uncomfortable to move certain ways, like sitting up, spinning around, leaning over, picking stuff up at arms length, putting my head over my head etc etc etc. All slow and deliberate movements from here on out I guess. Shortly before Noon I was signed out, wheeled down and driven home. Ouch, bumps SUCK. I putted around a bit outside, working out some of this interesting pain which can only be described as a combination between gas pain and hunger, without the growling. It comes and goes. Gas-X doesn't seem to be doing much of anything, but I've been trying just in case. I slept a bit, had a bit of a fever spike 100.5 (still below what they said to come/call in with) fever is down into 99.0 right now, took some liquid tylenol to help with some slight pains and the fever. Still on clears until tomorrow, so once the Jello is done setting up, I'm going to break into some of that, the Isopure Zero Carb RTD's have been yummy, just enough flavor, and it's clear and full of protein! So that is all for now bandsters/bandits and those starting out where I did. I'm offically banded with the realize band. The worst pain is behind me, now to just tough it out through the next few days of pain and discomfort. Thanks for reading! Stay Strong!
  4. 1 point
    Ciara Patrice

    7 month Post Op!!

    I know I’m almost a week late! But I’m officially 7 months post op! Yay! I went on a cruise last week (November 6-13th) to San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and the Grand Turk. I managed to NOT gain any weight while I indulged in EVERY thing that looked delicious; though I wish I had worked out more than just two days while on this trip, I probably would’ve lost more weight… At my last check up with Dr DiCicco, I weighed 253lb, I think… well I’m down to 241lb, so I lost 12. He was upset last time that I had lost so little, but he was pleased with my progress; I’m basically 50lbs down and that’s halfway in his mind, so I’m on track! He was especially happy I managed to still lose weight while on a cruise. Like I said before I was doing a no carb/low carb diet… and I completely forgot what carbs were on this cruise. Of course I had plenty of empty calories as well with the alcoholic drinks and what not, but they served bread/dinner rolls EVERY day… and I indulged cause I LOVE my bread and butter, but towards the 4th day I had to start telling them no, because I was afraid it was going to RUIN me, LoL! I didn’t get a fill, as I still feel I have restriction, though I also feel I’m able to eat a little more than I could when I first started out with the 6.3cc; I’m thinking I’ll probably get a fill come next month; it should be a little looser by then. But I’m currently in a good spot at the moment. I had no PBs or stuck episodes while on my trip, which was a blessing! So we’ll see how things are looking come December. I don’t really have any NSVs this time around. I wasn’t down to the weight that I wanted to be come November (220lbs), but October’s NSVs made up for that. This month though I’m kinda upset. I’ve been tossing clothes out left and right because they don’t fit anymore. A lot of tops that I had to buy large because of my then extra large boobies look like they’re swallowing me now. Just recently I had to attend a funeral and I had a black suit that I had worn before but couldn’t even button the jacket (so I wore a nice blouse underneath). I put it on for this funeral at the end of October, and what do you know I can button the jacket and it looks ridiculously big on me, so I had to toss it!... I ended up wearing a dress that had been given to me by a friend (18/20); thank goodness for that. So, while on my cruise they have a Captain’s Ball, where everyone dresses up really nice (ball gowns and tuxes) … so I wore this pink strapless dress that I hadn’t worn since either 2008 or 2009, I can’t remember…. But long story short… I was pretty sure that when I tried the dress on prior to going on my cruise that it fit… it was loose but it fit. Well, I get on the cruise … it’s Ball night and I get my make up done and I pull the dress on, no girdle or nothing and it’s super loose! My strapless bra is showing in the back and I cant fill out the boob area anymore… I was so disgusted and upset. Mind you I got plenty of compliments because it’s a pretty dress. But I had to rig it and I wasn’t happy about that. I had to pinch one side under my arms to tighten it a little. And I also had to pin the front of the dress to my bra so the dress wouldn’t fall down. Again everyone thought I was flipping out for no reason because the dress came with a shawl and no one could see how I had pinned everything together, but I just wanted something to FIT! Everything is either too loose or still just a little too tight. But I won’t complain… I’ll take this as a blessing! At least its not like I brought a dress and it needed to be taken OUT in order for me to wear it!... Trying to look on the bright side of things! Even my bathing suit bottoms were kind of loose. Mind you it’s a maternity two piece swim suit… the top still fits pretty good, especially in the boob area, but the bottoms are getting loose…. Does that mean I’m LOSING my caboose?! J Anyway, I guess I thought of two NSVs… for Halloween, I was a “Modern Vampire” … meaning I put on regular clothes and bought some fake teeth and popped them in m mouth… it was fun… well, anyway, I wanted to be a sexy vampire of course, so I had my boobs out and drizzled with blood, and I had on some ripped fishnet stockings and heels and …. Drum roll please….. my sister gave me an old jean skirt size 16! Mind you it’s NOT a stretch jean material, so I was amazed when I could button it and everything. Again I say, it’s still tight, and I wouldn’t wear it out just yet, but it was Halloween, so it’s okay to look a little out of place… J Next, NSV is kinda of stupid I guess but I’m really weird about wearing my arms out… I NEVER under ANY circumstances wear my arms out unless I have something to cover them with… a shawl, a small jacket, sweater, half jacket; anything BUT bare! So while on my cruise, the last day, we docked in the Grand Turks right on the beach… so I wore my bathing suit and a really pretty sun dress of course it was sleeveless otherwise there wouldn’t be a point to this story! LoL! Anyway of course I wasn’t gonna wear a sweater on the beach, so I proudly stepped off the boat with my arms BARE! I even took a picture and to my surprise I didn’t throw the picture aside like I normally would because to me my arms just look fat and disgusting and if I don’t like how my arms look then I don’t like the picture… but this one… I liked and I was surprised at myself… for being more confident! Which brings me to my last paragraph I promise! LoL! I feel like I’ve gained confidence with my weight loss. Granted I’m still disgusted by the loose skin and flab hanging, but in clothes I can really see a difference and I see my self being more outgoing. For instance on the boat there was a 70s Dance Class…it was just for fun, but normally I wouldn’t have participated because I would’ve been thinking about how I looked dancing around like a fool, but I just let loose and I had a good time. And NEVER would I wear a bathing suit in public without shorts or a shirt on, well, while on this cruise I wore my bathing suit without a shirt or shorts while on the ship and off… I even laid out and tanned a little bit… LoL! I wish my weight loss was where I wanted it to be, but it seems I’m right on target… Losing weight…Dropping sizes.. And building up my self confidence! I’m IN LOVE with my BAND!

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