blackfalls

I work 12 hour hospital shifts and being an RRT, I have no scheduled breaks. I am on my feet for a lot of the time. I am scheduled for surgery on September 10 and have taken 6 shifts of vacation for the recovery period. I am scheduled to work a night shift September 23 but I might call in sick (I did not tell my work about the surgery so my coworkers will be alarmed at me taking a sick day after 2 weeks vacation...). In that case my next shift will be September 29. That's 19 days of recovery. Do you think this is enough time? What kind of work do you do and how soon did you go back to work after your surgery? Did you think you needed more time to recover than you allowed yourself?

I am 27 years old with no previous health problems except being diagnosed with hypothyroidism 2 weeks prior to surgery which I had on September 10. I was doing great post-op. I was ready to go back to work after two weeks. I was very excited for September 25th. That was the day I got to start pureed foods. I had been so sick of protein shakes. Life was great. Then came September 25th. I woke up with back, abdominal, and chest pain. I thought it would go away so I ignored it and started pureed foods. The next morning I woke up around 2am in horrible pain. My back hurt so much that I could not lie flat. I spent the entire rest of the morning sitting in a chair rocking back and forth. And it happened again the following morning. I was so tired. I went to a walk-in clinic. The doctor worrie about sepsis although I did not have a fever. He ordered bloodwork an abdominal and chest x-rays. I went home after the testing and threw up the protein shake I had been trying to get down all morning. Everything came back normal. I continued the sleep deprivation routine until the 28th. Then I decided to go to the ER. Spent several hours in the hospital for tests and morphine but ended up being misdiagnosed with constipation despite my D-Dimer and Lipase being high. They did a CT of my chest to rule out pulmonary embolism (which was negative) but did not do a CT of my abdomen which they really should have because of the combination of D-Dimer and Lipase. I was sent home with Tylenol 3s (which cause constipation) and a nightly oral laxative and told I would be called for an abdominal ultrasound in a day or two. The Tylenol 3s did not work very well. My pain was horrible. I dutifully took the nightly laxative. Two days later I went in for the ultrasound. They found nothing. The ER doctor followed up with me to give me the results and then gave me an enema kit to take home. The constipation diagnosis stood. I went home and used it. It did not do anything. That week I began to have horrible 10 out of 10 painful abdominal attacks followed by diarrhea. I was in so much pain that death was preferable. I wanted to go back to the ER but I felt I would not get anywhere. They would just give me morphine. I decided to go to my family doctor instead and try to get referred to a GI specialist but she brushed off my concerns and said there was nothing wrong with me (I live in Canada where the health system is such that you cannot just go see a specialist. You must be referred. And your family doctor, walk-in clinic doctor, or ER doctor are the gatekeepers). She took me off the Tylenol 3s (which were not working anyway) and off the oral laxative which she said was causing my abdominal cramping. I followed her instructions. The abdominal attacks subsided in the following days but the constant abdominal pain remained. During the whole ordeal of 2 weeks I had not been eating and had been barely drinking. I would get at most 4-5 cups of water a day. It was difficult. I was worried I would just cause more constipation. But I decided I needed to push through and start eating. I began with a protein shake. After having half of it I had to stop. An hour later I dryheaved several times. Later that day I tried a tablespoon of hummus. I had pain almost immediately after eating slowly. I was fed up. I was in pain, I could not eat, I could barely drink. Despite all these doctors telling me I was fine, I was most assuredly NOT fine. I decided it was time to get a second opinion. I ended up driving 1.5 hours to a newer hospital in a large city where I used to live. That was 5 days ago. They took me seriously in the ER and did the test (CT abdomen) that the previous hospital failed spectacularly to do (I am very upset about this still because of what could have happened if I hadn't sought a second opinion). Turns out I have many clots in my portal vein, splenic vein, and mesenteric vein. Finally, FINALLY, I got a surgical consult. So now I am in hospital attached to a heparin drip. Today is my 5th day in hospital. If they had not found out my real diagnosis, my bowel could have infarcted meaning parts of my bowel could have died. I would have had to have surgery to remove the dead bowel. I may have ended up with a colostomy bag to collect feces on the outside of my body. I could have stroked. I could have had a brain aneurysm. I could have thrown a pulmonary embolism. I could have had a heart attack. I COULD HAVE DIED. All these possibilities had I not listened to my gut feeling and fought for myself. These clots are a very rare complication of any laparoscopic surgery. I was just lucky enough to get it. I did some research about my condition. I may be only the 3rd person to get these type of clots following uneventful laparoscopic sleeve surgery. I will be in the hospital for another couple of days. Never been hospitalized before (excluding the sleeve surgery). Q6H bloodwork is cruel and unusual punishment and should be outlawed. My poor elbow is a mess from all the pokes.

I have her personal email address and that's how I've been in contact with her. I hope she will respond to my email. I'll let you all know if she does.

My surgeon is in Mexico. I emailed her the day after my symptoms started and never got a reply back. (I had emailed her previously for something else and gotten a response within a day.) I emailed her parts of this post today as a courtesy. Not holding my breath to hear back.

I was feeling almost completely back to normal for about a week up until Wednesday morning. Some short-lived fatigue after doing things like taking a shower (but that's normal when you're only getting 500 calories a day, right?). When I woke up yesterday morning my back and torso felt weird. Not really pain, just discomfort like pressure there. I couldn't get confortable in bed, sitting, or standing. My breathing had been perfectly fine the evening before but with the discomfort I have to think about taking deep breaths and it causes more pressure in my back and belly. I thought it would go away overnight but it was a little worse today. Anyone else go through this? What did you do?

I got it figured out. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/96842-my-rare-complication

Great question! The answer is none. Just the way the cookie crumbles in Canada.

I went out of country because of the length of waiting lists. Getting the surgery in Alberta is like winning the lottery. I didn't want to spend years waiting (possibly getting bigger and bigger) when I could have it done in Mexico for peanuts. However, I was denied aftercare by the bariatric clinic in Alberta due to the fact I had my surgery out of the country. If this is a concern for you then I would advise you to stay on the waiting list (if you can get on it in the first place, that is.)

http://www.health.al...ing-claims.html Click on Claim Form for Out-of-Country Health Services Form AHC0934 You may need to use a different browser. Chrome wouldn't let me open it so I had to use Internet Explorer.

Thanks dd! The abdominal ultrasound turned out to show nothing out of the ordinary. The follow up with the ER doctor who ordered it gave me an enema kit and I asked for buscopan. The going diagnosis is still constipation. But I used the enema kit and nothing happened except for liquid in liquid out. I just don't know. I really want a bariatric surgeon's second opinion. My own surgeon was in Mexico and hasn't been much help. The ER doctor referred to me the bariatric clinic. I am hoping they will contact me soon. My family doctor referred me to them awhile ago and I've heard nothing. I can't just continue taking painkillers forever. (Tylenol 3s) Unless I want to f**k up my liver. And I can't work while taking T3s because of the codeine. I work in a hospital and it would be unsafe for my patients. I need real answers.

Thanks for all the advice Daydra! Ended up spending 9 hours in the hospital today after using ex-lax, metamucil and a suppository which all got things moving but the pain remained. And got worse. Had a ton of testing done - bloodwork, xrays, contrast CT. My D-dimer was really high so they thought it was a pulmonary embolism but the CT was clear. I'm going for an ultrasound tomorrow. Thinking maybe it's my gallbladder or maybe acute pancreatitis.

I just don't think it's gas pain. I had gas pain and never had it in my back. And I had been gas painfree for about a week until this. It feels a little different. like that drain is back in my abdoment touching my phrenic nerve or something.

I am 27 and 16 days post-op. Now that I'm on the losers' bench there is no way in hell I would have waited another second to sign up for the surgery. I didn't feel too young to get the surgery. I felt too old. I wish I had had the surgery when I was 20. I'm sure my skin would have bounced back better than it will 7 years from then. As well, I wouldn't be starting from 285 lbs. I would have been starting from 220 lbs. I like to link people to my post about my yo-yo dieting: 100% of people with a BMI of >30 who lose weight with diet and exercise will gain it back in 3 years.

The wifi in my room at Mi Doctor (303) cut in and out and I had to ask them to reset the router twice. The nurses did not know how; I only got results when I asked a doctor (Valenzuela's assistant). The 4th floor was great though so I would visit my friend who was in 408 to use the internet reliably.

dk, you just had to ask for more wifi passwords. They asked me how many devices I had.

I think it is important, even pre-op. I read up on all the horror stories before my surgery as well as after because I wanted to know the signs and symptoms of them and be on constant vigilance. I'm 2 weeks out now but you never know, I could still have a leak in the next couple of weeks. I need to be informed. No burying my head in the sand over here.

Pimping out my blog post: http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/blog/2630/entry-6709-100-of-people-with-bmi-30-who-lose-weight-with-diet-and-exercise-gain-it-back-and-more-within-3-years/ After I read those quotes I stopped feeling sorry for myself and thinking I should be able to do it with dieting and exercise. I feel no guilt over taking the surgical way. And I will never let anyone guilt or shame me either. I'm only 13 days post-op but this has already changed my life so much. I am so grateful I had the money to self-pay in Mexico. I had a serious, out of control weight management problem and I chose to do a drastic surgery to fix the problem. Screw those who think they know better than yourself. They have NO idea and never will.

I'll add you! Wednesday I start pureed foods as well. Surgery was September 10.

Not sure why you can't press enter! Maybe try a different browser.

I'm 8 days post-op so I have no experience with this but I am going to following this poster's advice as closely as possible: http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/79304-for-those-wanting-to-keep-their-hair-after-surgery/

Oh honey. Do not listen to your friends about this. They mean well but they cannot understand. I am 2 years older than you. I weighed 200 lbs when I graduated from high school. After hundreds of pounds lost and gained and $5000+ spent, I ended up at 285 lbs 10 years after graduation. I wish I had known of WLS when I was 200 lbs. I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it but at least I would have known about the option. I recently learned I have hypothyroidism (2 weeks before surgery!) and that's probably why it's been difficult for me to lose weight but oh so easy for me to put it back on. Read about my yo-yo dieting here and whether it's possible to lose weight permanently if you have a BMI of >30: 100% of people with a BMI>30... Good luck!

Thank you so much Bea!

I thought I'd be giving up the pleasure of Indian food post-sleeve, in fact, it was my last food funeral meal before my pre-op diet. Glad to see that isn't true! Are you able to handle spicy (hot) food still? It's my faaaaave!