4ALongerLife

My name is Stephanie but my screen name says it all.... 4ALongerLife. That's why I did this surgery.

I weighed 254 lbs on 2/9, when I first went to see the gastric surgeon that my gynecologist recommended. My gyno has been my dr. for over 12 years, he birthed my son (now 8) and I trust him. So for him to have told me in December, girl you are killing yourself, I knew it was time to be drastic. In the 9 months of my pregnancy, my gyno/obg never said a word. So I took this seriously.

I had gastric sleeve on 3/5. On my hospital intake, I indicated that in my last surgery (my csection for my son), they had to give me more anesthesia than the norm as my body wouldn't go to sleep. I believe, based on that, the bariatric anesthesiologist gave me too much medication. I never remember waking up in recovery from the surgery on 3/5. And I couldn't wake up the first day, mostly.

I was discharged from the hospital on 3/7. On 3/9, I was readmitted with aspiration pneumonia. I stayed in the hospital until 3/14. Went home and was ok, but a few days later, I was in extreme pain and very very shallow breathing. I could no longer sleep in the bed, so I went to a recliner, waiting for the dr's office to open the next day. They opened at 9, but at 845 I could no longer wait and paged my bariatric dr. I had shooting pain in my left side and couldn't breathe very deep, it hurt. He said go to the ER and that's when I was readmitted with a leak/abscess in my diaphragm (remember I just got over pneumonia? so can you say PAIN? yup...).

Readmitted for leak on 3/19. Had revision surgery on 3/20 (as the lights went out the night before and they were concerned it would happen during my surgery, we waited until first thing the next morning). To say I was scared was an understatement. I made this choice to have sleeve, but revision, he had to see where the tear was and there was a possiblity my dr. would have to reroute my tummy more like a bypass based on where the tear was. Many tears and prayers later, I was revised as a sleeve only on 3/20. I stayed in the hospital for 9 days..... I had to have the radiologist drill a hole into my diaphragm, guided through a CAT scan in order to attach what I called an accordian drain into my left side. I had that thing in me for a few weeks, getting rid of what had leaked in my body.

Thought I was fine. Then I got pneumonia in July. Again in August. My bariatric dr. would prescribe me antibiotics and thought I was fine as I'd feel better soon after. But in August, I developed a pain in my left shoulder/left side. I went to see my regular PCP and she sent me for an MRI as she thought maybe it was beginning arthritis (yeah, if it wasn't already "bad" enough, NOW you are gonna tell me I'm getting old.. sigh). MRI didn't show anything (another yeah, that MRI was fun... NOT). My PCP also referred me to a pulmonologist as I wanted to get rid of the possibility of my pneumonia recurring as I had just accepted a new job. When I saw the pulmonologist at the end of August, he thoroughly went through my recent medical history and told me "I don't think you ever had pneumonia. I think you have a leak." So he sent me for an upper CAT scan (of the lungs) and contacted my bariatric dr. who also wrote for me to have a CAT scan of the abdomen. It was in lying down, drinking the die that they saw it, a minute leak. That leak had built up fluid in my body over the past several months and the pocket of escaped contents, my body attempted to isolate it but it ended up right next to my left lung.

Since my insurance was not great and since I was changing jobs, my dr. thought of putting me on a high protein liquid diet, to attempt to get my body to heal itself. I began that liquid diet 9/4 and continued it until my next two surgeries... I had one in November as the leak progressively didn't heal and got worse. The Nov surgery still didn't fix the leak, so a few weeks later, they went back in and resected my bowel to cover the hole in my tummy. They also took a foot of colon out of my body as the pus had eaten a hole in my colon. Luckily, they found that the pus had also wrapped around my spleen but there wasn't a hole eaten away there (yet).

So yes, I've been through alot. But as of May 15th, 2013, I am now "fine." After 4 & 1/2 months on a liquid diet, I ended up losing all of my weight and then some and had to gain a little back. I am now "stable" at my ideal weight which I have decided for me is 145.

Through all of this though, I have had my lowest of the low moments. And in all brutal honesty, I had a moment there where I wanted to die in December. The reason? I just got tired of the dr's, IV's, scheduling my liquid diet, hospitals, tests, people telling me what I had done wrong to have caused this, what my dr. had done wrong etc. I now KNOW that once you get a leak, it's not an easy thing to get under control, no matter who your dr. is or is not. I know this for a fact as I had seen 3 other physicians for input in Nov/Dec and each of them have experienced their own horror storied patients. My dr. may not be "perfect" but he managed well under a lot of pressure and was very caring during the whole ordeal - which is commendable as I have read and seen horror stories of dr.'s not following through whenever something like this occurs or becoming real jacka&&es.

As for me, I am happy now. And I can say that I am glad that I had the surgery as my life has changed.

Now... to just conquer maintanence. There is no finish line....