crossmy_h3art

Hi buffalonians! Thought I'd check in too.. I am 5 weeks post op today and down 33lbs. I was just cleared for all food and exercise and also told to get my cals up to 1200 a day. No idea how ill be able to take that much in though. I haven't had any nausea or any negative symptoms since I was released from the hospital. I feel totally normal aside from never being hungry which is crazy!

I'm 5 weeks out today and they just told me they need me to up my cals to 1200 as soon as possible. I have no idea how to take in that much!

I'm allergic to most metal (had braces for 18 months and my gums stayed swollen the entire time ugh) and that was the first thing I asked my surgeon about. He said he's never had a patient have an issue with the internal staples. They're titanium, non-ferrous and super tiny. While I may have had a reaction if I got the staples on my outer skin because of the contact point, he said its really unlikely when used internally. For my incisions, he did internal stitches to seal them and at 4.5 weeks out my scars are practically invisible.

They didn't care about toe polish but I had to have bare nails for my surgery.

I actually just opened my first bottle of bio-oil today! Can I ask how you apply it? I attempted a qtip and then switched to my fingers but it didn't seem like much oil was coming out. What's the ideal way to apply this stuff? I'm using it on my face and incisions.

Well my 10-day pre-op diet plus 2 weeks post-op loss is 24lbs already so I'm pretty pumped about that (: he was super down to earth and cool about getting me a bunch of foods to try while I was still in the hospital. What I didn't realize is we never get to see him again lol. Starting with the 1st post op appt we see the PAs. They also seem pretty lax about the food progression. I am incredibly thankful for his blessing on the mashed potatoes but I think I'm gunna try to be patient on experimenting too much more

I am still covered in lovenox bruises and I did my last shot a week ago lol. Some hurt, some didn't and some bled, some didn't. It was definitely frustrating. I agree with the recommendation to wait a minute after you use the alcohol wipe to avoid stinging. Also, I think that the harder/long you pinch before injecting the less pain/chance of bleeding there is. That seemed to help me atleast.

Hey Bekka!! You are a Caruana patient too right? Yay! I was sleeved 2 weeks ago tomorrow. I'm on here right now with food progression curiosity as well lol. I am sick of liquids and he didn't seem to follow his own stages very strictly either. In the hospital I was having issues getting water or ice pops down so he personally brought me saltine crackers and mashed potatoes. So I think I've unofficially combined full liquids and puréed already.. Wondering if I could/should start experimenting with soft food soon.

I think I must have the world's strongest steri strips on my incisions and I'm getting pretty nervous because I was told that if they don't fall off before my first post-op appointment (only a day away!), they'll be removed at that time. I have 5 incisions with 2-3 pieces of tape on each and not a single corner has lifted or started to curl up or anything. I tried to pick one if the edges tonight to gauge how sticky they are and I couldn't even PEEL a corner up. I've showered several times with them with no effect either. So my question is how bad are these going to hurt if my doc removes them on Thursday?? Is there something I can do to loosen them or encourage them to peel up? I don't have much if any tenderness in any of my incisions anymore, but I'm pretty terrified of how ripping these suckers off will feel! Thanks for any insight (:

Close up

So they definitely did remove the strips at my appointment yesterday. The PA giggled and said she had never seen the strips stay so tight on anyone's skin before. Even so it was more of a pull than a rip.. Stung for a moment but overall not a horrifying experience. I wanted to share this pic though! After the strips came off and I wiped away the tape residue, I was SHOCKED to see that my incisions are barely visible at only 9 days post op.. Is this the norm?! Wow I spy... 5 incisions.. Somewhere? Lol

Kati I was sleeved the same day as you and I woke up to my first major bout of nausea too! I'm laying on the couch barely able to sip water bc my stomach feels so weird right now. I didn't get any prescriptions for nausea but I did get little blue pills for stomach spasms so I took one of those to see if it'd help.

I had my surgery on feb 6

Had to stay in the hospital an extra day bc I couldn't get enough water down but my surgeon just came to check on me and cleared me to go home!! I can't wait to get out of this tent-size gown and put some pajama pants on!! Ahhh, priorities

Mozzy, I think we were sleeved the same day bc Im having the same pain as you. Even the smallest sip of water.. I feel it go down my throat and as soon as it hits my stomach I cramp. I'm on the anti-spasm meds so I don't know why I'm hurting like this. I was supposed to be discharged today but they figured if I can't drink, ill end up right back in the er for dehydration. I'm trying much harder tonight and Im having better luck getting apple juice down

Funny enough my surgeon just came to visit and yelled at everyone for overreacting and stressing me out. He looked at all my scans and said literally everything looks perfect. Just because water is causing some pain I shouldn't panic. He's gunna get me some yogurt, saltine crackers to melt in my mouth, and some Popsicles to see if I tolerate other stuff. I'm so torn now. All the nurses are telling me if I can't drink atleast 36oz of water by the time of discharge ill just end up back in the er for dehydration which I obvi don't want to happen but the surgeon said all the imaging shows everything is working fine. Do I stay to be safe or do I go home and hope that getting a full nights sleeps and a better assortment of liquids will get me moving in the right direction?

You're not the only one struggling! I was sleeved on the 6th and am def not gunna be able to go home today at noon like I was scheduled to. I've had 2 leak tests but still can't drink much at all. And I'm on anti-spasm meds. Since surgery I've had 2 sips of apple juice and maybe 10 sips of water total? I take a sip and I can feel it slide down and almost like cramp my stomach? So frustrating. And I started bleeding out of my iv so they had to re-do that. The girl next was sleeved 2 hrs after me and she's practically dancing down the hall she feels so great lol.

Yeah, for laparoscopic surgeries they kinda pump your belly up with gas so they can see what they're doing and after surgery some is trapped in there. It can def hurt, so to relieve it you have to walk, fart, burp, or use a heating pad. My nurses keep asking me if I've farted or burped yet LOL it's so strange to hear that so frequently

PM'd you girl!

Yeah for some reason I'm getting my dilaudid through shots in the arm. I would SO rather have a pump to control myself. I have to call the nurse in every 2 hours or so for my next dose so sleep is pretty much nonexistent lol. I fall asleep for an hour and then wake up realizing my tummy is about hurt. Atleast it's working though. I'm sad bc they just took away my ice chips until I do the upper gi leak test tomorrow. Do you have those mouthwash foam lollipop thingys too?

I can't believe my surgery is over! Funny enough it didn't hit me until a few hours after that whoa, my entire life is changed. There's no changing my mind or giving up, etc. Im ready to get everything healed so I can starting kicking some ass! The surgery itself was pretty standard. Doc was pleased I lost 13lbs in the 10 day pre-op diet. I wiggled myself out of the bed and onto the operating table.. Felt like 3 seconds later and I'm waking up in recovery! Pain meds are a godsend right now but no gas discomfort surprisingly. It gets better every hour!

I was sleeved today 2/6 too! Quite a bit of trial and error to get me to a comfy place (they had to double my dose of pain meds and increase the frequency to every 2 hours). I don't really have any gas pains though so that's cool. One weird problem I'm having though is my throat is swollen?! Didn't expect that. They may bring in an ENT doc to take a look tomorrow. I've been assured they won't try and take out my tonsils right now but I'm still a little worried. All in all I feel pretty good for someone who just got their stomach chopped off haha (: