Pookeyism

I wish I had a lifting buddy here! grrrr. I miss it so much more after reading this!

•I’ve never had any kind of surgery before, so this will be a first. How am I going to feel immediately following the surgery and for the first few days? It depends on how you do under the anesthesia, and how well you can control yourself when you wake in a fog. You may remember nothing. A lot of people do not remember much. My anesthesia experiences have been varied and only the last two went well as far as anesthesia was concerned. Now they have drugs that will allow you to forget the discomfort as you are experiencing it. You will be thirsty, and you will probably hurt. It varies. No one brought out of anesthesia on pain meds, although many think they did – the anesthesia I spoke of. You will be thirsty and depending on doctors – this varies A LOT – you will begin ice chips or such or they will want to wait to do a barium swallow. Get some “fake spit” – it’s called Biotin. You find it in the oral hygiene isle. It will keep your mouth moist. For pain I recommend you talk to your surgeon, and ask does he prescribe the pain meds, or does he hand you off to another doctor to be visited in the hospital, and he prescribe your meds. I have an ongoing issue with my doctor because I thought he would be the one to follow up and write my meds. We had had a long talk about what I did and did not want to take, and what did and did not work for me. So he had all the info, but another doc saw me. I sat in bed in pain for a whole 24 hours. They would give me shots of something that starts with a "D" in my IV, which knocked me out, until I woke up or was awakened by staff. About 45 minutes at best, and I would already be back in pain – with hours left before the next shot. Finally a nurse just in on her shift said “I’ll fix this”. She went and found my doc and made him issue hydrocodone instead, liquid. Point is I suggest the hydrocodone liquid. You have to sip it anyway, so I never needed the whole dose, lol. Sipping it helped me regulate it to just what I needed. I was alert, generally comfy – able to communicate. •The surgery is on a Wednesday. I tentatively scheduled vacation thru Tuesday, but I’d like to go back to work on Monday and Tuesday, then take Wednesday off for my 1 week follow-up. I have a desk job that isn’t physically demanding, so I’m thinking I should be OK. Is returning to work that soon a pipe dream? If you have a job that they really need to know how long you will be, or else the office will suffer for not making arrangements in your absence, I would really suggest you give them a 2 week minimum as a guess. I took a month and would never have guessed I would need that. The fatigue is the issue. It is a deeper tired than you are probably used to. It isn’t just a “so tired I don’t want to do this”. It is an “I cannot physically do this”. It makes you slow to respond, slow to react. Difficult to fix mistakes if you catch them, DANGEROUS to drive home after a day like that. I know of a situation that a girl fell into this daze and almost passed a school bus. She just missed a child. •What is the first few months going to be like? What is the energy level going to be like? The body will be taking in A LOT fewer calories and I suspect I’ll have no energy. You will feel on top of the world one moment, and then your body will remind you that you are recovering. I hope you have took the counseling seriously. You will deal with elation, depression, happiness, possibly guilt or grief. You will have head hunger – many report issues with ongoing relationships or members of the family. It is a really good idea to have an understanding of who is committed to helping you or at least not hindering you. I frown when I hear people go “I will stop bringing fast food around after the surgery”. The time for them is to stop pre-op, while you are going through your pre-op diet. Have your head hunger under check, or be working on it. •I will have a 3 ½ hour drive back home following the surgery. Will there be much nausea on the drive ride home? You may not be able to drive. You should probably arrange to not drive for the first few days, and of course you can’t be on pain meds while you drive. Are you going to Mexico? One of the very, very, very, dear god very things you do not want to do is be in a car accident in Mexico and they find you are on narcotics. Would it be possible to take a bus or fly? Flying is really inexpensive compared to the price of gas anymore. •Is nausea something many of us deal with for the rest of our lives following the sleeve? I have not had a real bout of nausea. •Nobody other than my immediate family knows I’m having the surgery. My health insurance won’t cover the procedure, so therefore I don’t intend on telling them anything. This extends to my employer as well. My gut feeling is that if I were to suffer a broken leg and needed medical attention, they would try to link the bariatric surgery and broken leg, and then deny coverage. This is why they will be kept in the dark. Yes, if you guessed it, I am bitter about my lack of real world health insurance. Anyone see a problem with this? You do not have to disclose anything to anyone except HR and then only if you are applying for FMLA. You do not have to turn over your FMLA to your boss under any circumstances. Check the FMLA guidelines for your company – most hire third party to cover their butts on the privacy rules. However, once you disclose your surgery to a coworker, etc. you fall on a very fine line. All your work has to know is that you had a surgery based on medical need. •Is it difficult to get enough fluids in when active in hot weather? I was sleeved on 1//4/12 so I have not had that to worry about, mostly. Get your fluids in ahead of time, and you generally need about 8 oz. for every half hour – or that is what I would do. I am going to get a smaller camel so I can hydrate as often as possible while I am biking and walking and hiking. •What does everyone miss the most after having surgery? Holiday’s with my family are very important. I believe not having a normal dinner with my loved one will be the hardest for me. I will be there, but it will never be the same again. I think you are making a bit much of that scenario. But we all have things we can’t do just the same anymore. Let’s take a look at it. No, you will never wake up on a holiday day again, fit into an outfit bought in a plus size shop or section. You will never sit down to eating too much that you knew you didn’t need, putting excessive fuel in an oversized body. You will wake up – exercise maybe? Get dressed feeling good about you will still be with your family, you will still eat food, no one is going to suffer if you do not gain three pounds that day. You will be free to talk in between bites, and you will be surprised at how much more enjoyable a dinner can be when young aren’t constantly shoveling the food in. When people are sluggish and setting around you go for a walk. Don’t sound too bad.

I have a suggestion. Lets have some threads about experiences we have had with local restaraunts, or ones we know to be WLS friendly, whether they mean to or not. Open a new topic for each city, so they can be referenced easily. And for instance, dont list next-to-big-city separately, so we can keep them local. Vacation spots, too! Truck drivers chime in too, someone create one for on the road. In Houston my top choice at this time Jason's Deli. When I go with a friend they work with me, every time. I am most often charged nothing if a friend is ordering if I goto the salad bar and get an egg or hummus, etc. The black currant tea is good enough to not eat at all and just have tea (which you can't do both anyway, lol). Cafe Lili is a good restaraunt. It is family owned my a Lebanese family (Maronite Christian). disclaimer: Hubby is friends with the owner. the three veggie plate and one srving of the shwarma with egg is easily split, we did it before surgery too. Tenshi and another disclaimer we know the owner Nina. Let her know what is up and she will work with you. Central Market - just go and you will see what I mean. If you go on a saturday you could stuff yourself on samples, but you could also go with a friend or date and get a plate from the deli side (delish Soups too) and share. I am married to a foodie so I could literally go on and on...but I want other people to contribute too. The Blue Nile - sorry, lol = save this one for when ur tummy can handle it. It is Ethiopian. Get the special. it is seved as a communal plate so make sure ur hands are clean, lol.

I got a juicer for xmas.I should juice more, I haven't juiced much. Well, to drink. My skin is krazy soft, however, lol. In my defense, I had no idea you couldnt juice a banana. (sorry hubby )

Please let us know what they are telling you. You are in my prayers.

With your hair color it sounds like you ROCKED that suit. If I get to a size 10 I am going to flip o-u-t, lol. I have two vintage chanel suits I kept from the early 90's when i found them in a consignment shop (a much different experience than the consignment boutiques of today). I couldn't imagine them fitting. You are at a crazy good size to have a fabulous wardrobe with just a little bit of patience. You already sound like you know how to put it together!

Ok, I have a question that may only apply to a few, but within the numbers on here some will be able to answer this. A ketogenic diet is a diet with minimum carbs, moderate protien and the rest of your intake (a majority of your intake) is fats. This happens to be what alot of us are doing. It has long been known to prevent seizures in children. My question is have any of you seen a reduction of seizures, or narcoleptic tendencies, twitches, ADD, or even improvement in high functioning autism? Curious and again if you can contribute please do.

Walking around now.

Love the Mongolian Hot Pot just up from the Galleria. If you want sushi goto Tenshi and ask Nina to make it low on rice and mention the WLS. She hooks me up because I am a friend but Nina is super awesome to everyone. They also have great udons and fried tofu. If the unagi is available try that. Hmmm this sounds like the beginning of some threads...

I am hesitant due to the carbs but also the acidity...george (my sleeve) hates acidity.

Yay for 2-20 sleevers!

Good luck Sweetie.

I hope it is too. It has eased off but I cant really get off the heating pad. I had to call into work. How long till it passed, when it was gas?

...for a week, and right about the same time my tummy seems to be able to have solid foods! Poo! My Hubby had to leave for some refresher survival exercises and I am alone for the first time since the surgery and my Mom passing away. I have tons to do but I find myself kinda sad - more sad than I should be. I don't normally care if I am alone. I think this might be the first time I have felt real head hunger.

Similar to Holly but my sleeve begins to talk a little..."burp, gurgle". BUT I am full before the feeling, so I am focusing on measuring my choices and eating very slowly. Bite, chew about 30-40x till liquid and count to 60 and do it over again...

May I ask why you think you gained it back? Have you worked through that? For me I have had little of either head or real hunger. I actually think some of my real hunger is an odd resction to needing an antiacid. If I can't quite tell if it is hunger, about hlf the time antiacids have actually cancelled out the hunger.

Say it with me, people! "plastics". lol

http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/aboutepilepsy/treatment/ketogenicdiet/index.cfm?gclid=CLmm9ri5q64CFQhgTAodLz7_SA http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/summary/107/6/593 http://www.listaippocrate.it/files/epilessia_dieta_chetogenica.pdf Here are a few, one of them would have to be "purchased" in order to view in it's entirety - but your doc may already have a subscription. Good luck and pretty please keep me posted!

I will see what I can do

Absolutely one of the best blog posts! Thank you for sharing with us - the pics of you able to goof off in the rain are awesome!

Absolutely! Eight miles in a day is great. I Don't think I have been able to do that yet.

Off topic but I have wondered the same, but I suppose it is to get in there, get it done and get back out. I would love to see the difference in what the surgery is like on a fatty liver and a firm liver - that liver was FIRM, and an excellent argument for the pre-op diet.

Okay, I have an odd question. I am going to a dinner in a few months with a friend and the featured foods will be arthropods - the buggy kind - I have done this before (I actually think many insects are very good). But I wonder if anyone had had any dishes with their sleeve that included insects and if it was too much - some of the exoskeletons give me concern, not the protien-packed insides.

lol, thanks guys!

I keep meaning to post this and I forget. Biotene is a spray that will keep your mouth moist. It isn't going to be easily swalloed - it coats rather than runs. It will help when your mouth is dry and you can't drink. That includes before surgery and the barium drink, when you can't have liquids.