mrs-adams

#1 Hi everyone,

I am 4 days post-op from having a Gastric Sleeve. The decision to go for the sleeve was a very easy one, "the band was completely awful"! I was originally banded in May 2012, the band slipped & adhered itself to my liver in around March 2013. I persisted with it for a few months (where I couldn't eat or drink anything without vomiting it back up) & eventually had it replaced in June 2013. There was no improvement in the pain I was experiencing or the reflux either, two weeks later, I had it removed completely. Although the weight loss was amazing - 40kg in 13 months, the constant battle with 'right amount of fluid' was a nightmare for me.

So I was flying solo for 10 months & it was so hard to keep the weight off. If I wasn't literally starving myself & exercising 14hrs a day, I was gaining weight. Then my gallbladder packed it in! I had been passing gallstones for a couples of years & they never bothered me until now. I was kept heavily sedated in hospital on Morphine, Ondansetron & diazepam for 11 days (due to long wait lists & surgeons being on holidays!). Finally got a ERCP & they perforated the Common Bile Duct , which lead to Peritonitis & then waited a further 2 days to have the gall bladder removed. After this saga, my poor body was hurting & just grabbed out at everything I ate & stored it as fat (in case it got starved again).

A trip back to my surgeon was booked & I was excited! It turns out that in the 11 months that I had no band, I gained all of my weight back & a bit extra (this was not good). Total weight gained: 43.8kg. My surgeon wanted me to get another band put in & I refused (there was no way I was going to re-live that painful reflux nightmare)! So a Bariatric Sleeve was booked.

Pre-surgery, and in particular, the week before my surgery date, I did not sleep, at all. I constantly had all the risk factors (that were discussed with my surgeon) running through my head 24hrs a day. Three days before my surgery, I actually thought that I was going to die in theatre, I proceeded to make a will!!

When surgery day finally arrived, I was still terrified of dying & leaving my husband & young daughter behind. When I was wheeled in to the Operating Room, my surgeon turned around & asked "how you doing?", all I could say was " please don't kill me", to which he replied "I'll make you a deal, if you don't die, I won't kill you". A few seconds later I was out.

To my relief, I actually woke up!! I am day 4 post-op now (only 1day at home from discharge), 4kg down & I haven't had any of the horrible pains associated with the laparoscopic surgery that I had in the past, even with having a lot of adhesions severed from my liver (due to lap band damage). My tummy is constantly grumbling & have some diarrhoea, but that is pretty much it. Compared to the band where I experienced port site pain, shoulder tip pain, immense pressure in my chest, migraines & incision sites busting open, this last surgery/recovery has been a breeze so far I am able to drink a descent amount of water (finally) & feeling pretty great! I do get tired & require an afternoon sleep, but it's early days.

That's my story so far :)