Ready4success

I've seen it in surgery. It's not uncommon. An easy way to explain it is that when we are awake, we can control how deep of a breath we take. (unless you're an asthmatic, COPDer, chronic emphysema, etc) While under anesthesia, the anesthesia personnel decides how big of a breath the mechanical ventilator will give, how many breaths given in a minute, how much of the breath is oxygenated, how much gas is in the breath, and so on and so forth. Needless to say, there area many factors involved when mechanically ventilating a person. It is basically an estimate of what the body needs while under anesthesia, and if the patient isn't tolerating it well, they may change a thing or two. For example, your sister may pull a volume of 650 while she is awake ( her breathing), well anesthesia can't set the ventilator to 650, because that could cause lung trauma (the lungs are negative pressure, ventilators produce positive pressure). So, you see that you can't be too aggressive. When you're not aggressive enough, or if the surgery is long in length, fluid can collect. When we are awake, we cough and take deep breaths to protect ourselves from that same fluid collecting. We're also given the incentive spirometer to clear the secretions. Sorry for the long book and I'm sorry your sister isn't feeling well, I hope she gets well soon.

Awake intubations aren't that uncommon. It's usually due to the person's size and body type. For people with short necks, and lots of adipose tissue around their face and chest, it's the only safe way to go. Think of it this way, if you are unsuccessful intubating a patient after you've knocked them out, you now have to mask them until the meds wear off, which is not fun, and can be dangerous if you can't secure a decent airway. Before the awake intubation, the patient is given a little versed to help them relax, and the anesthesia personnel takes a look down their throat with a scope to help guide the tube into the trachea. As soon as they visualize the cords and can guide the tube down, the patient is quickly put under. Although it sounds barbaric, the only other alternative is not having the surgery, because safety always comes first. There have been instances where they couldn't achieve an awake intubation, and anesthesia had to cancel the surgery.

I had single incision, and I have to say that the SILS VSG surgery was more painful than my other laparoscopic procedures, which were traditional in nature. Of course the least painful was robotic surgery, but next was my lap gallbladder removal, and last and most painful was VSG. I honestly think my pain had more to do with my anatomy, because I have a defined roll at my belly button. The surgeon said it would hurt more, because they had no other option to place the incision. Good Luck!

That's great! I came home minus the diabetes meds, but was given something new for my blood pressure, because it was high the entire time I was in the hospital, even after they treated it.

I'm 3 days out and had been just battling gas, but I heeded the advice to never trust a fart, and boy am I glad I did. My first bm since surgery has been diarrhea. Anyone had this happen to them before? I had 1/2 an Atkins shake mixed with 1/2 skim milk, about an hour ago. Now, explosions. Sorry, if it's TMI. It feels good to not be so stopped up, but now I'm worried about my hydration status? Anyone?

Congrats on onederland! I know that's an amazing feeling.

It's weird because I put skim milk into my cream of broccoli and blended it. I had no problems with it, but I'll be careful. I'm enjoying the full liquids stage, but getting the Protein in is hard. Thanks

Ok, cool. Today is day 3 for me, so I'll start getting my stroll on.

Absolutely love the skinny vanilla latte. It's the only thing I buy from Starbuck's. I then go to Panera Bread for cinnamon crunch bagel with plain cream cheese. Of course, this was all pre-sleeve, but it sure tastes good.

G2 is the low calorie version of Gatorade. Tropical Blend is my fave.

Contact your doctor, and if you can't get in touch with them, call your NUT. I also think you should go back to a full liquid diet, and do it the way you're supposed to. I know no one is perfect, and we all make mistakes, but remember you can seriously hurt yourself by doing these things. I also think you need to examine why you did it. My family cooks huge meals everyday, and I just go to my room during dinner. Once I can start exercising again, I'll use the dinner time period to go for a walk. You did this to make yourself healthy and happy, don't let them sabotage it. Good Luck, and I hope you get back on track, safely.

My legs are a little sore too, but I've heard DVTs are an intense, consistent pain and swelling. I was sleeved on Tuesday too, so I'm curious about what your dr will tell you. Keep us posted, and I hope you feel better.

Mmmmm, yum. Louisiana hot sauce and jalapeños on popcorn. That is so delish. I'm only 3 days post-op, but man that sure does sound good.

I found the pain to be much worse than my last 2 lap surgeries. The incision where they pull the stomach out of was a like a burning, fiery pain. I had never felt that before. Also, the nausea and vomiting caused me to be very sore in my neck, shoulders, and back. The gas pain has been minimal. I was given IV Tylenol every 8 hrs, so I never touched the dilaudid pump. I'm somewhat of a minimalist, so I just dealt with the pain. There's no real way to get any rest in the hospital, so once I slept off the anesthesia, I used that time for walking the floor. Hope you feel better.

If you have an EGD, they'll see it then. If you don't have to get one done, it'll be a pleasant surprise, and they'll repair it during surgery.

Wow, that weight loss is really noticeable. Way to go.