fletcherette

I couldn't agree mor Amanda! Feeling like you'll be taken care of is a big deal. There was one nurse at MiDoctor who said he'd only been working for 3 days and every time he came into my room He looked wide eye, confused and scared which only made me feel scared lol. It came to the point where I'd ask for the other nurse to come in instead of the new guy.

Mostly Staff issues, but they dont have the best technology which made it more difficult and there were holes in the ceiling on rooms on my floor which made it super cold at night. I posted a week or so ago about my experience. I'd link to it here but don't know how

I am almost 2 weeks post op and take a dose of maalox before bed to help with discomfort from gas pains and gurgling. I currently am not taking a PPI but am wondering if I should switch from the maalox to a PPI? Does anyone know how long it is safe to regularly take maalox? Does a PPI provide the same relief?

You look awesome! Thanks for the post it's an inspiration

Yeah I'd still give melatonin a go

Just wondering how everyone has taken care of their drain site? My dr said to keep it covered for 7 days. I'm coming up on that 7 day mark and don't feel comfortable leaving it uncovered. My bandage has some blood and clear liquid on it daily so I don't really want to leave it uncovered. How did you all care for yours?

Hey all, Got a nice little nap in and decided to just type this up and post it. Sorry if its a little long winded Hey all just wanted to post my sleeve experience. I was sleeved March 11th with Dr. Garcia at MiDoctor through Ready 4 a Change. I have lost 13lbs in the first week I know a great deal have had wonderful experiences and mine for the most part was ok, but far from wonderful. The majority of my issues with the experience were with the coordinators and the nurses on staff at MiDoctor, and well the hospital building itself. Instead of going into a play by play of things I will just organize things into subjects. Coordinators: The coordinators at r4ac started out being wonderful but as surgery day approached and I needed more concrete information it was hard to get. I was told I would receive a call from the driver prior to driving into San Diego, but never did and called him myself (no biggy, BUT when I am told I can expect a call I kind of expect it LOL) I was under the assumption that the day prior to surgery I was to do the liquid fast because I would be going to the hospital that day for pre op testing (as I have seen many other sleevers do) Once I made it to the Marriott I was told another coordinator would come to my room to explain things to me. I waited in my room for several hours with nothing, I saw I had a blinking message light on my phone, asked a hotel attendant how to receive messages and was told that messages are not a service the hotel provides. After asking several other hotel staff I figured out I had a message and a folder downstairs for me. The folder had a note about who to contact and when to be picked up and said “no, nothing after 10pm” I then tried contacting the coordinator to see why I wasn’t doing pre-op testing that day. With no success for a few hours I emailed another coordinator my same question-who’s email response was less then polite and basically said had I read the info packet I was emailed 3 months prior I would have known that pre op testing is ALWAYS done the day of surgery. Well this seemed inconsistent with what I had heard from other sleevers but oh well and while I was in the hospital saw a couple of patients come in the day prior to surgery for testing…. I’m not a big fan of inconsistency so this was irksome. Anywho, when I read the packet again I saw it said: You may have nothing to eat or drink after the midnight preceding surgery or 8 hours prior to your surgery. If you are a Same Day Surgery arrive with an empty stomach. If you are coming in a day prior you may have dinner but nothing after midnight. That along with the “no, nothing after 10pm” letter I ordered myself some room service around 4pm. When I finally did hear from the onsite coordinator that night, she informed me it was her day off and that I wasn’t supposed to eat at all. Oops! A little too late, thanks! Thankfully another VST (lexysdad) was in the hotel and kindly gave me a bottle of magnesium citrate to clear my system. At this point I’m beginning to realize communication between coordinators and I wasn’t very clear and was inconsistent. Aside from this day I had no issues with the coordinators and contacting them the rest of my stay. Day of surgery was fine, met the doctors no biggy, nurse got the IV in one try. A few things I hadn’t been expecting: Something I’ve never seen mentioned is peeing oneself in the recovery room. LOL embarrassing? Yes. But truth. I woke up in a puddle of my own pee and I’ve heard others say the hospital doesn’t have washrags which may be true because when I asked for one I didn’t get one and when I had my first shower they gave me a big gauze pad to wash with. Another thing I hadn’t known was they make you crawl from the recovery bed back into your own after surgery. A little odd to me considering I just had stomach surgery and lifting a patient with a blanket is fairly simple…but ok. When they asked me to crawl from one bed to the other right I asked them “seriously?” LOL And I’m not sure if it was due to the gas or the IV fluids but for several days after surgery my breast felt huge and numb. Not painful just really odd heh. Nurses and hospital: Being in the hospital IN MY OPINION was horrible. The nurses, though nice, weren’t as on things as I had hoped. The first night the nurse spoke very little English when I gestured to her that I was going to vomit she said “ok, medicine” and never came back. I ended up going to pee and while sitting on the toilet vomited some black stuff on the bathroom floor. Once I got her to follow me back to my room and showed her the throw up she threw toilet paper on it, I later ended up swiping it up with my foot so I could use the toilet. She did eventually give me nausea meds. I know someone said there’s a paper in the rooms that helps translate but I didn’t have one in my room. The majority of the hospital stay I was in excruciating pain, which made getting up and walking unbearable (which really the halls were so small I could never really get walking before I had to make a turn, and with 3 of us up walking at a time it was even harder to walk the pain out). The pain meds they gave work but they weren’t giving them often enough. Bottom line, my pain was not managed AT ALL. In the two days there I maybe had a handful of hours of pain relief and spent the rest of the time miserable. Getting a nurse was difficult, when I was in pain rolling myself out of bed to go waddling out to talk to a nurse was difficult. They have no nurse call buttons and I yelled NURSE a lot but that never worked. (NOTE: I did go with my mom but she stayed at the Marriott at night so I was on my own at nights) I ran out of IV fluids more times than I could count, my blood would often flow back into the IV and my hand and arm were very swollen and numb. The hospital was freezing the entire time. I was on the 4th floor and two rooms away from mine was a room under construction that had no ceiling. Construction workers would work until midnight and one morning I was up around 5 to walk and could smell cigarette smoke on the floor-yuck. In the end: This may all seem minor, but while I was in pain the little things did make me feel worse. I don’t have any major issues with the doctors other then I saw Dr. Garcia for less than 10 minutes my entire stay (briefly before surgery and even more briefly the day after) I’m guessing he was really busy but it would’ve been nice to have more time to discuss things with him. Also the other doctors on staff saw me more often but would often say they would go get something (pain meds, spirometer) and be right back and then never come back. That kinda sucked. And asking to see a doctor was useless, I did ask to see a doctor about my pain meds but never did. I have asthma and actually never got a spirometer until I was being discharged. AND they made me do some breathing treatments for my asthma, and I noticed after the 2nd one that my lungs were raspy; I was coughing and could feel mucus in my lungs. I am a week out, still coughing and can feel the mucus Anyone taking a support person and worrying about their comfort? Don’t my mom was so nervous about her safety/comfort but ended up having a blast and lovvveeeeddd it. LOL, Wish I could share her sentiment. She wants to go back and well I’d like to visit TJ again, this time without the surgery Would I recommend this doctor and coordinator? Yes BECAUSE I think my experience was the exception to the rule, and the things I found unpleasant may not be a big deal to another. Would I recommend this hospital? That’s a resounding no, while it is better than a strip mall or some other places I’ve heard about in MX it really, in my honest opinion, is not good enough. While I wouldn’t recommend it I would say to anyone going, you can tough it out for a few days because once you’re out of the hospital you will feel a 100x better. Would I do this again? Now that’s hard to answer, because to say yes would mean I would be willing to go back through the two days of hospital stay and I am not far enough out to say I’d do that again LOL. BUT now that I am home and can rely on myself for care I feel COMPLETELY better. I’m sure as I progress along and lose the weight and feel more and more better I will come to a point where I can whole heartedly say I would do this again. But at this moment, truthfully, I’m not so sure And finally, please remember, this was MY experience. MY feelings and MY opinion on things. What was horrible for me might be a breeze to another if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

I don't think my experience should concern anyone going. I've read more positive experiences then negative, I feel my hospital stay was just the exception to the rule. And as soon as I walked out of the hospital and had my own care solidly in my hands things quickly improved. The meds they sent me home with have worked wonderfully. Even if the hospital stay isn't that pleasant you can endure two days of anything and come out on the other side alright. I just kept telling myself it may suck now but it wouldn't last forever

Thanks, yeah the day i met you in the lobby was great I was so happy to be getting out of the hospital lol. I'll tell my mom hi, she made friends with everyone there. When I was in recovery I opened my eyes and saw her hugging dr Luna, I thought "why is she hugging the cute dr?" Lol

Oh yes that was us

I sleep for about 5hrs before I wake up sore and have to get up and move

I am one week post op today the routine I am building is this Sip Vitamin Water upon waking Drink a Protein shake for breakfast Take Vitamins about 30 mins after finishing shake For lunch chicken broth with unflavored protein Around 5pm take my first dose of Calcium dinner either more broth or Protein Shake After dinner the last of my calcium In between the 3 "meals" I sip on sf drinks, have a Jello, a little nonfat milk, or have a sf Popsicle. Somewhere in there I take my b12 and prescription meds I walk for atleast 7 minutes 3x a day I will build the time up over the weeks I'm down 13lbs this first week and this routine works for me. I haven't been really measuring how much of liquid I get in but I estimate I get about 30g of protein a day. The trick is finding what works for you. Best of luck!

No I went through ready for a change with dr Garcia. I'll begin typing up my story and post it within the week

Glad to hear your surgery went well. You had a better experience then I did. I'm still debating whether to post my story or not and how truthful to be. how are you doing at home?

Wow your incision sites look good I had surgery march 11th and am still all bruised up

I know some of us had pre op dreams/nightmares. Anyone have any post op? I dreamt last night that I gulped water-oh the horror! Lol

Ick had another dream last night that things were poking out of my stomach, and I could see ripples under my skin. Must've been cause my belly was gurgling when I went to sleep lol