Lynn Byard

Meggie, I hiccup twice - every single solitary time!

My goodness, just realized that this thread got moved.

I sure wish they had a "like" button here! Welcome and good luck on this new chapter in your life! Lynn

I find it interesting that this is supposed to be a place where people can come to get information, yet it appears that people only want to have 'glowing' reviews that fit your opinions. Never once has it been said that Dr. Aceves is anything but a superior surgeon, because he is. What we were trying to do was inform other people that have fibro/cfs or other chronic conditions to make sure that the right questions are asked ahead of time. We thought that we had asked all the right questions. We were assured that pain management was NOT going to be an issue, but it was. So just because "the majority of us" do not share Renee's medical dx we shouldn't share our story here? Just saying...

Meggie, it's not all of Mexico, because others have posted that they have received narcotics at other facilities. It was our experience in Mexicali at a private hospital. So I don't know if it is hospital policy or the Doctor's policy. Lynn

It needed to be told Meggie, even if it meant possibly being banned from here. Not everyone has wonderful experiences. If, by posting this experience, it helps just one person to ask the right questions it will have been worth it to have them benefit from Renee's experience. Big hugs to you!! Lynn

I'd like to whack whoever said "you didn't need them." Have THEY had the surgery? Did THEY morph inside your body to determine that you weren't in enough pain to justify pain meds? This really aggravates me. I can't imagine having gone through your surgery or mine and not have anything to relieve the pain. Sheesh!

Because we were focused on how the surgery would affect the fibro and whether or not she would come out of it in a full blown flare, it really hit us hard coming out of left field realizing that the issue was her pain levels were not adequately controlled because she had such a high tolerance to pain medications. It never even crossed our minds that she would go into withdrawals because we assured beforehand that pain management would not be a problem.

Meggie, By no means did I mean to infer that this was Renee's fault/problem. Nor did I mean to infer that US hospitals were superior. In fact, the hospital in Mexicali was far superior in cleanliness, etc. than any hospital I have ever been admitted to, and that includes US, European and Asian hospitals. Renee's medications were fully disclosed prior to her surgery, as was her full medical history. I am truly not faulting anyone. I just wanted to describe what happened in case someone else with fibromyalgia undergoes this surgery. I appreciate you comments! :-)

Disney, yes it was Dr. Campos that was there and got down on the floor with her. She took the last Lyrica and Effexor the morning of surgery. The last Loritab the night before. Because she could not have any ice chips or Water the day of surgery it was the following morning before we were able to put the Lyrica and Effexor into juice to dissolve them so she could sip them down. She did not get any of the Loritab until we got her home. We didn't think about giving her the Loritab because she was getting pain meds in the hospital. We didn't realize that Mexico does not use narcotics like they do in the US. Dr. Aceves and Campos tried to explain it to us, but I am still confused about it. So she had gone 3 1/2 days without it. That was where the problem was as she was actually going through the withdrawal symptoms.

Ok, I am going to post this since it has been quite the trip being here with Renee. As is with most surgery patients, Renee doesn't remember the first day and a half of her hospital stay, which is probably a good thing. We said that we would tell the good, the bad, and the ugly. Renee and I have talked at great length about this post and she is aware of everything that will be posted and is in full agreement with what will be put out here. When she is feeling better and can get around better she plans on expounding on things. Renee had a really rough time with the surgery for a couple of reasons. 1) She has a hard time with anesthesia and 2) because of the fibro/cfs she had developed a very high tolerance to narcotics and lastly 3) anxiety. Our biggest concern going into the surgery was how was Renee's body going to respond to the surgery with the fibro. Was she going to come out of surgery in a full-fledged flare and be in uncontrollable pain? Fortunately for everyone, the fibro did not play a part other than her high tolerance to pain meds; which ended up being a detriment, but I will go into detail about this later. Renee came back from the recovery room in pain, but it was normal surgery pain, nothing more. Renee gets very emotional coming out from under anesthesia, and this time was no different. There were a lot of tears; she didn't want to stay in the bed. As a matter of fact she hadn't been back from the recovery room much more than 10 minutes when she sat straight up in bed - on her own, with no assistance, put her feet on the ground and announced to God and country that she was hot and then "FLASH!" She took both edges of her hospital gown and whipped them up as high as she could and started flapping! Fortunately, her son Logan wasn't in the room. It was at this point that I decided it was probably a good idea to put her shorts on her. This was something she was absolutely convinced she could do on her own...NOT! We got her shorts on her and got her back into the bed. If any of you own a dog, you know how they will circle, circle, circle trying to find a comfortable spot? Well, that is what it was like watching Renee after surgery, and it started right after Renee returned from the recovery room – around 5:45 pm. She was in a lot of pain and we had to ask for pain meds every couple of hours. She’d be able to sleep for 45 minutes to an hour at a time and we’d start the process all over again. At around midnight, Renee started dry heaving. Nothing was helping. When I went out the last time and the nurse said there were no more meds to give Renee, I said to call the doctor. The doctor made it in quite quickly, I was very impressed. After looking over everything, he came in and gave Renee a strong dose of nausea medication and then stated that part of the problem was that Renee had a very high tolerance for narcotics and that in fact he had only known of one other person that had as high a tolerance as she had in the 8 years he had been in bariatrics. I asked him at the time if we could be dealing with an addiction and could she be going through withdrawals. He said it was very possible. At that point I was actually more concerned about the Lyrica and Effexor. He then gave her a healthy dose of something and said it would make her sleep for 3-4 hours. Remember that circling dog thing? Well, I had walked out to talk to the doctor in the hallway. In a split second Renee managed to do a face plant on the floor, she had fallen out of the bed. It only took me a few seconds to get in the room with the doctor on my heels. Renee had managed to end up halfway under the hospital bed. She must have hit the IV pole full on and had a pretty good cut on her ear. I don’t know how he managed it, but the doctor was down on the floor and had gotten Renee pulled up on his lap and was cradling her head on his shoulder. I have never seen a more caring physician in my life. They finally managed to get Renee back in the bed and she was down for the count, but only for about an hour. It was when she woke up dry heaving again that the doctor explained the difference between dry heaving and nausea/throwing up. Dry heaving is a reflex action that can be controlled by deep breathing, the new stomach flexing its muscle if you will. Nausea/throwing up are mechanical, the stomach contracting, the contents coming up, etc. It was at that point that Renee made a turnaround and started getting better. From my standpoint, we were worried about how the surgery was going to affect the fibro/cfs, more from a flare perspective. In the end, it was her high tolerance to narcotics that was the actual problem and that came out of left field, something that wasn’t even considered. Withdrawal symptoms of all three medications she takes for the fibro/cfs – Lyrica, Effexor and Loritab have the same withdrawal symptoms – nausea, vomiting, high anxiety. All these things combined made for the ‘perfect storm,’ if you will. This had nothing to do with Dr. Aceves’ surgical abilities; I have the highest respect for the man as a surgeon and still feel he was the best surgeon for Renee. This is about things to be aware of, nothing more. The hospital staff, Dr. Acevas and Dr. Campos, and even the hotel staff were fantastic! So if anyone out there has the fibro/cfs issues please keep this in mind so that this same situation can be averted. The withdrawal symptoms combined with anxiety attack = the pain not being able to be controlled and ensuing dry heaving/nausea. Just my opinion.

Hi Meggie, Lynn here. No, it wasn't nausea but dry heaving. The fibro only played a part in it insofar as Renee having a very high tolerance for pain meds. Once they figured that part out things started turning around pretty quickly. She has been up walking around and has been sipping, sipping, sipping. She got through her first leak test with flying colors, or rather no color at all! Lynn

WTG Sara! I'll come in and visit you this morning after YB is taken back for surgery! I am SO glad you are doing so well. Hugs to you and your mom! <3