Hunzi

Lucy,

Just love your clients and give them rock star customer service! Make it fun! I have customers all over the country.

This is an awesome time for my business, I hope it is for yours too!

Always

Hunzi

Well phoooey!

I guess I picked up a stomach bug this weekend at my career conference, and I woke up to the joys of tossing my Cookies this morning. So my surgery date is bumping a week til next Tuesday, the 31st. Better safe than sorry.

Waaaa! Is someone trying to tell me something????

Always

Hunzi

ok, pity party over

Rats! I woke up this morning with a stomach bug! Tossed my Cookies about 6 times over 3 hours and then the other half kicked in. Ick. So my surgery date has been bumped back to March 31st.

I'll think happy thoughts for y'all on Wednesday! And you can be my big sisters a week later.

I'm beginning to think some one is trying to tell me something!

Always

Hunzi

off to practice her sip sip sip since I can only drink Water tonight

Hey Twins and other Marchies!

Well I'm about 48hours away from Round 2! I'm in to the hospital on Wednesday morning for rebanding. I'm trying not to be nervous.

I've been keeping super busy with Mary Kay to keep my mind off it all. I just got back from our career conference, which is so much fun. Now I just want to get all this surgery and recovery over with as quickly as I can so I can get back on track with my business. I'm working on being the #1 consultant in my national area for the 2nd year in a row!

Last June with all the disaster of the post op infection I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be #1, but I was, but the recovery really took me a long time, so I wasn't back to work until about October, and now I'm a bit behind! I think I'm still in the top 10, and there's still plenty of time before June 30th for me to catch up!

With Career Conference, etc, I'm only just now starting the liquid diet. I've been eating fairly sensibly up until now, and working on picking lower carb choices, but now it's liquids until midnight Tuesday. Bah humbug, I'm already hungry.

I'll probably be here chattering nervously until the anesthesiologist knocks me out! Prayers and happy thoughts are most welcome!

Always

Hunzi

Hey Junies!

Well I'm about 48hours away from Round 2! I'm in to the hospital on Wednesday morning for rebanding. I'm trying not to be nervous.

I've been keeping super busy with Mary Kay to keep my mind off it all. I just got back from our career conference, which is so much fun. Now I just want to get all this surgery and recovery over with as quickly as I can so I can get back on track with my business. I'm working on being the #1 consultant in my national area for the 2nd year in a row!

Last June with all the disaster of the post op infection I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be #1, but I was, but the recovery really took me a long time, so I wasn't back to work until about October, and now I'm a bit behind! I think I'm still in the top 10, and there's still plenty of time before June 30th for me to catch up!

With Career Conference, etc, I'm only just now starting the liquid diet. I've been eating fairly sensibly up until now, and working on picking lower carb choices, but now it's liquids until midnight Tuesday. Bah humbug, I'm already hungry.

I'll probably be here chattering nervously until the anesthesiologist knocks me out! Prayers and happy thoughts are most welcome!

Always

Hunzi

That would be me!

I'm getting banded March 25th too. This is round two for me, first try ended with removal about a week later because of a surgical complication. This time I'm keeping it! I'm really looking forward to a no drama surgery!

Always

Hunzi

Well no March 4th for me. ;-(

It looks like I'm getting rescheduled for March 25th. I could have chosen March 11th, or March 20th, but I have a conference on March 19th-21st, and I don't want to worry about not being quite recovered, so I'm looking at dates afterwards now.

I hate waiting more, but that's the breaks!

Always

Hunzi

March 4th for me too! At least I hope so....my surgeon may have a personal situation that requires her to push back a few dates. So far we haven't rescheduled! I'm planning on the 4th unless I'm told otherwise.

Always

Hunzi

Hey there March Melties!

I'm scheduled for surgery on March 4th! This is round 2 for me. I ran into a bit of a complication on my first try and we had to take the band out a week later and give me time to recover from a post op infection. But now it's 9 months later and it's time to try again!

Always

Hunzi

ready to Melt in March!

Hey Junies!

Ok, I saw the surgeon today, and we chatted about what she has planned for me. I'm scheduled for surgery in 2 weeks and the plan is to put in a lap band, and if she can't get one to fit properly or doesn't feel it is the safest option depending on how much scar tissue she finds, then she'll do a VSG.

So 2 weeks to getting-skinny me!

Always

Hunzi

Not be so self conscious in a swim suit

Be able to go on long walks

Do fun things with DD, horseback riding, amusement parks etc with no worries about being too big

1st thing I'd do if DH loses weight? - (Close your eyes Mouseketeers)

....well use your imagination

I think I had several things that got me here. First, I was always overweight, even as a kid, not a lot, but some, but I felt huge, because I was always the fat girl in school and my mom was petite and skinny when I was little. (Althought looking back, I wasn't nearly as fat as I thought I was!) I weighed about 160-170ish in high school, dropped to 140-150 in college/early marriage but always thought I had to be 120ish to no be "fat" (I'm 5-7). When we had kid#1 I weight 180, and gained 20lbs, 200 with Kid#2, and gained 30ish, then gained maybe 5lbs/year afterwards.

But what really got me started was my DH who had struggled his whole career in the USAF to keep his weight down retired from the AF in 2000 looking totally hot and fit and completely lost control. He gained nearly 200lbs in about 2 yrs and it freaked me out. He was already having some health/stress related problems before his weight gain but the extra weight made everything worse very quickly. I soon realized I had better start taking care of myself because he was putting me on the road to widowhood. (Our kids were just 11 and 6 when he retired, now 20 and 15)

I decided I had to lose weight so there was at least one healthy parent! I also hoped if I lead the way, DH would follow, if not, I still needed to do this for me.

So I tried dieting on my own for a couple of years, but just couldn't seem to lose anything. I finally went into see my doctor for an annual exam and told her my problems and she figured out I had PCOS. Put me on Metforin, BCPs, and Xenical and I dropped 40lbs with diet and exercise over the next year but couldn't seem to get any farther and in researching the PCOS I started reading about people who were having lapbands. So I started researching the surgery. I knew I'd never consider RNY but this looked like it had potential.

So I tried to get approved for surgery and my insurance came back with an approval for RNY but not Lapband. I opted to wait. In the 2 years afterwards I gained back the 40lbs.

Meanwhile my DH's health has continued to worsen, HBP, lots of pains, can't even climb the stairs to bed without being out of breath.

One day last year I got an newletter from Tricare saying they were now paying for Lapband procedures, and I called for an appointment that same week.

While DH would never consider surgery for himself, he was supportive of me (not that I gave him much choice). Got approved, had the surgery, ran into post op complications (the surgeon accidentally perforated or burned my stomach leading to an infection), so she removed the band the next week and I spent 2 weeks in the hospital on antibiotics. DH was terrified he could lose me and I was probably about 24 hrs from being dead when I was admitted to the hospital although we didn't realize it at the time.

I've now spent 6 months recovering and my surgeon thinks I'm ready for another try. I'm scheduled for surgery March 4th. I'm going in to talk to her next week and discuss if she thinks a lapband or a VSG is the best option for me.

Either way, starting next month I'm taking control of my personal health.

On a happy note, my DH who has been super supportive of me even while he lived in denial himself, has finally come to the decision that he has to lose weight. We're going to the educational class for him on Monday to start the process for him to get surgery too. This is a huge step for him because he was always against having surgery, and when mine didn't go smoothly, I though he'd never consider it.

Always

Hunzi

I'm a wife and mom. My son is 20 and off to college, and my daughter is 15 and a freshman in high school.

I have degrees in Psychology and Agency Counseling, but I've spent the past 20yrs owning my own business as a Mary Kay consultant. It gave me the ability to be a 6 figure stay at home mom! I love my life!

Always

Hunzi

Hi Junies!

Well it looks like I'm gonna Melt-Away in March!

I have a tentative date for March 4th!

I'm calling it tentative for now, because I'm meeting with my surgeon again on Feb 16th, because I have a few questions. When I saw her last October, she talked about doing the VSG, (the sleeve) instead this time, and I was saying, "no, no, no! no altering the anatomy!". But I went home and did my research so I could make an informed decision just in case. (Her concern is that there might be scaring and she'd have problems rebanding me, but we just won't know until she opens me up!) So I've spent a lot of time working out the pros and cons of both procedures. Now I'm approved for the band again (plus RNY and VBG). Her Nurse Coordinator told me that she plans to use the biggest band and we'll just take more time doing the fills.

So, I asked for an appointment to chat with the surgeon so we can go over the choices one more time. I really want the least invasive surgery, but I also don't want to risk even more surgeries if slips/erosions/other problems pop up. Ack! Why can't this just be simple?

So, March 4th. For now. Band. For now.

Either way, I'm gonna get skinny!

Always

Hunzi

I have a tentative date for March 4th! (I might try to move it up if there's a cancelation.)

How about calling us the March Melt-Aways!

Always

Hunzi

Here comes the June Bug that got left behind!

Hey Junies!

I opened my mail today and found an approval for my surgeon to reband me (plus any of several other procedures), so now I need to get my head back into the game and decide if and when I want to do this again.

I definitely want to get rebanded, but the timing is a little uncertain. My DH lost his job a few weeks ago, so he's seriously under-employed, which could be good because he'd be here to help the first few days, but also sucks, if he gets a new job right before and can't take off.

Hmmm. I'm off to pick him up from his pt job now, and plan to tell him about the approval.

So yeah! and hmmmm.

Always

Hunzi

ready to get skinny

hi choosichick

no i dont mind you asking :thumbup: i have no port so i cant have my first fill done, they had to remove it because my body could not tell the difference between the port and infection, so the port came out and the tubing was pushed to an 'infection free zone' to be retrieved in 3 months time (HA) and connected to a new port, hen i assume i will have to wait a few weeks more before i get my first fill......frustrating.

Perhaps it's because of a difference in locale for the infection, but I had an infection due to the surgeon accidentally puncturing or burning my stomach while installing the band, and she insisted that ALL banding equipment be removed until the infection was cleared up and all inflammation was resolved. So I was disbanded a week after my first surgery, then was kept in the hospital on broad spectrum antibiotics and anti-fungals for 10 days (total stay was 2 weeks). She said that once there's an infection that the bacteria can use the band equipment as a lattice work and that antibiotics aren't effective against that since it isn't part of your body, so she removes EVERYTHING, waits until the infection has resolved, and then waits at least 6 months for your body to end any inflammatory processes before re-banding.

For me, it's been 6 months, and I'll probably chat with her soon about a 2nd band.

Good luck, but I think given your pain and history, you might want to discuss removing the band and really working to knock out any residual infections (which can be anywhere in your body).

All the best,

Hunzi

Thanks Apple & Long2BeThin!

My appointment is for Tuesday (upper GI) and Thursday (to see the Dr).

The hair thing was weird! I'll check into the Biotin.

You both are doing amazing! 75 and 104lbs! I hope I can do half as well!

I'll report back in next week.

Always

Hunzi

Hi Junies!

I called the surgeon's office today and got an appointment to follow up on the last surgeries (band in and out a week later) and talk to her about getting the ball rolling on the re-band!

I'm ready. I've been sort of in a funk lately and I really need a change for the better. I think getting back to losing weight will definitely help.

I lost about 30lbs on my own pre-op, then about 12 more afterwards (being NPO and on IV antibiotics for 2 weeks is a evil weight loss system!) But now I've had about 10lbs creep back on, so I'm back to my just before surgery weight. I don't want to backslide further.

I must have changed something eating wise once I slipped away from daily tracking of every bite and sip that went into my mouth, because around mid-Sept, my hair started falling out by the handful! Ekkk! Back to counting protein! It fell out for about 2 weeks then went back to normal. Maybe it was just a weird post-op hair cycle. My hair is about half as thick as it was before, but I'm lucky to have lots of hair, so I still probably have more than most.

I do need to get back to daily exercise, I pretty much stopped when I was recovering, then school started and I'm busy every morning driving DH and DD around (we car pool) and I just haven't gotten back into the habit. I'll work on that!

I've been good to myself since June. I've revamped my wardrobe, and got a new hair cut and color. I was the #1 consultant in my Mary Kay National area. I look good. Now I'm ready to feel good too!

Always

Hunzi

I'm back!

Hi Junies! I just popped in to to see how everyone is doing.

I'm feeling pretty good. I'd say I'm at about 90% of what I was before surgery in June. So I'm thinking about Round 2!

I'm going to have to ponder the timing, but I'm determined I'm not going to lose all the weight I lost pre-op. I'm up about 5-8ish pounds from my lowest weight which was about a week after I got out of the hospital after the infection. Not bad for 3 months of nothing! Of course if I binge much more like I did yesterday (TOM), it won't be long before I'm back to square one!

So, life is good. I got out of the hospital, took a couple of weeks to get back on my feet, was the #1 CONSULTANT IN MY MARY KAY NATIONAL AREA (serious woohoo!), and I treated myself to a bunch of new, really good looking clothes (in sizes 20-22 instead of 24-28!). Progress is being made!

Round 2 - I'm going to contact the surgeon soon, she's back to work after having the baby, and I'm brave enough to try again! I know she wants me to come in for an upper GI to check if there's any obvious damage from the infection. I don't think so, because I don't have any trouble eating or swallowing now that the swelling is gone. Of course we won't know if I can be re-banded until she actually goes in and sees everything with her own two eyes. The concern is scaring. As long as there aren't any serious scars that would interfere with placing the band, everything will be hunky dory!

You never know when I'll pop up!

Always

Hunzi

I seriously love The Daily Plate. I think I heard about it from someone at LBT.

Now that I'm back to working by myself for weight loss (or lately, just holding steady!), I find that it really helps me to see how much I'm eating and how I'm doing!

I tracked every day pre-op and post-op until I went into the hospital with the infection, and got back to tracking as soon as I got out. I even tracked the 2 days in the hospital at the end when they finally took me off NPO (yummy ice chips for 8 days!) and let me eat! (Started with Clear liquids and too rapidly moved to solids ouch!)

I dropped about 10lbs in the hospital for a total of 43 down from pre-op, but since coming home I've gained back 4.5lbs then I've held steady (up and down .5lbs) for over a week.

I think I was on a super low calorie diet for long enough that my body thinks I'm living in a serious famine! I've been gradually and not entirely intentionally, adding in more calories and haven't gained any more weight. Now I'm trying to step up the activity too. I managed to get on the treadmill twice last week. Not today, I spent the whole day running errands.

Always

Hunzi

yesindeed! -

You are a Junie! Hang with us! We are here for you sista! Hang and heal, baby, hang and heal. HUGS!!

Long2bThin -

Hunzi,

I hope you hang with us, once a Jun-ie always a Jun-ie!!

cathychatts -

Hunzi: Once I catch a June Bug I never, never, never let them go! Hang around! You are a bandster! They will be able to fix you up soon! This is a great place to get support and you know that!

Ok, When I read your replies yesterday I officially cried! Thanks so much for the support! I think it's just starting to hit me that I've been through all this and I still don't have a band. It's so ironic. Now I'm just focused on getting better and not gaining any weight back. I got on the scale this morning and I'm up almost 5lbs. So I've got to get serious. I did drag my fanny onto the treadmill and did a mile. I'm going to have to be consistant with that!

I'm still having trouble eating much. I eat pretty lightly for breakfast/lunch, and then have a larger dinner, but my eyes are bigger than my stomach - I tend to take too much (which is less than I'd eat before) and even though I don't eat all of it usually, I'm stuffed to uncomfortable for the rest of the evening! I told DH to remind me to take about half of what I usually serve back off my plate! (I am getting in my 60g of Protein - usually by adding some Protein powder to my Soup.)

And how's this for not fair? I had a PB! I was in Sams Club last Saturday, and I'm never there on the weekends when they have samples. I had been out early (got a wax and pampered myself!) and hadn't eaten Breakfast, so by noonish I was hungry. So I figured a couple of tiny samples wouldn't hurt! I had about an ounce of margarita mix (virgin), 6 tostito scoops with about 2Tbsp of dip, a 2 bite brownie, (all this over about an hour), then I met the wrong thing! They were sampling a hamburger recipe and giving away tiny bite sized quarter hamburgers. It was honestly 1 bite! And it went down and I knew I was in trouble! Got the golf ball feeling, mouth watering like crazy, nausea....I just stood there not knowing what to do, because I knew if I ran for the bathroom (200 yards away) I'd never make it. So I just stood there in the aisle (out of the way from most people) and tried to breathe and hoped the feeling would go away! But in the end, up it came! Luckily, I had grabbed a handful of napkins, so I just PBed into them and prayed no one noticed (I don't think so). It was awful! And then I still had to wait around because I was waiting for some deli meats to be sliced. I felt like a limp rag by the time I got home! No fun at all! And no fair getting all the bad side effects of the band and still not having one! LOL. At least if any of you ever have a PB, I'll be able to relate (but I hope you never do!)

I've been a lot more careful this week. No more incidents, but I'm avoiding burgers and more solid stuff for a bit longer!

Always

Hunzi

who stopped and bought herself flowers to console herself!

Well, I was inspired to phone a local spa and as soon as I was home from the hospital (post op infection and dis-banding), I went in and had laser hair removal on my chin and upper lip, lasered a couple of sun spots, and booked a waxing. So yesterday I got my wax. I did arms, underarms, and legs. My incisions aren't quite healed yet so I'm doing a standard bikini wax in a couple of weeks.

I feel so much better! It didn't hurt at all and was worth every penny!

I'll never go back to shaving.

Always

Hunzi

I'm not sure if I should count myself in with the Jazzy Junes or not, since I had to have my band removed after 1 week due to a post op infection. What do you all think?

I lost 29lbs on the pre-op diet and about 11 more post-op (mostly while I was in the hospital for 2 weeks living on ice chips and iv nutrition), so I'm down 40lb since late April.

My weight has finally stabilized the past few days, I'm down to 266, and I've only seen a variation up and down of about half a pound for nearly a week, so I think I've hit bottom until I start doing something again.

My incisions are nearly healed from the dis-banding, and I'm starting to try to get back into normal routines, so I'll jump on the treadmill starting Monday. I'm still tiring out really quickly, so I'll probably only get in a half mile or so. Eventually I'll get back to my 3 miles/day.

So what do you all think? Should I hang out here and get support until I'm well enough to get a new band? Or is having a failed bandster around a bummer and I should go find someplace else while I'm in a holding pattern? I don't want to be the "poor girl that lost her band" nor do I want to annoy or discourage anyone by posting to the group if they don't think I fit in anymore.

Always

Hunzi

Read this only if you have a lot of time!!!

I just grabbed part of this from the post-op check in thread and added everything that came after.

Hey everyone! I thought I'd check in. (Warning! I'm babbling alot - Blame it on the Lortab and I have a lot to tell! Some of this is from my diary but I thought it might help someone.)

I was banded on June 4th. I was super nervous! Almost to the point of backing out nervous. I joked to myself that the anesthesiologist should lurk in the hospital lobby and put me out as soon as I crossed the threshold!

So after dealing with my little voices arguing for and against surgery for the two days before, THE DAY finally arrived. I had tried switched to Clear liquids the last two day pre-op, and really tried to push Water as much as I could, because I felt a little dehydrated. So I drank and drank before midnight on the 3rd, but the morning of the 4th I was still peeing pretty dark. I figured I'd make it up with the IV.

So I needed to be at the hospital at 7am and my surgery was scheduled for 8:30am (Dr McBride's 1st of the day) on the 4th. Got to bed around midnight the night before and work up at 6am. Got ready and it was just a 10 minute drive over to the hospital for us. Checked in at registration, waited a little, signed some paperwork, got my oh so fashionable bracelets, then back to the waiting room for another 15 or 20 minutes. Then a tech called my name and someone else's and both of us went upstairs with our families (I just had DH). Tech Jacquelyn showed me to my little pre-op area, and I met Nurse Geri. She gave me my lovely gown and told me to strip down and put it on. Then they took all my stuff and put it in a locker. Nurse Geri got me situated on the bed and put on the little booties, (and I hated that my legs were like hairy gorilla's because I'm getting them waxed next week! - so embarrassing!) Of course she didn't mind at all. Then she put a Scopolamine patch behind my ear, and started my IV and gave me a shot of Lovenox in the thigh. The Anesthesiologist's resident Dr Lowell, stopped by and talked to me for a couple of minutes about what to expect, and later my surgeon's fellow stopped by and said hello, double checked all my info and signed off on my procedure (initialed my tummy!). The pre-op area of UNMC was very nice, it's was all just built a couple of years ago with very soothing lighting and cool fiber-optic stars in the ceiling.

I think it was almost 8:30 and I still hadn't seen Dr McBride, but I didn't worry. After another 15 minutes or so, Dr Lowell was back, and said he was going to give me some Versed. Then we wheeled off down a couple of corridors to the OR. I was surprised by how big and very white the room was! They moved me to the other bed, and I remember meeting Dr Margalles, and thinking as she introduced herself, "you're the anesthesiologist" and "I think I might have met you once before about 10yrs ago for some care for my DD" but I was too sleepy to say anything and that's all I remember until Dr Lowell woke me up in recovery!

I got to recovery around 10:30am and my nurse there took great care of me, I had oxygen, and she gave me another shot of Lovenox in my tummy. We chatted about Mary Kay (my job) and I had brought goodie bags of samples for everyone.

About 12:30, they moved me over to the Extended Stay area where I was going to spend the night. I wasn't in any pain until I switched to the bed, and it wasn't too bad sort of "too many sit-ups", with a bit of burning when I pulled at the incisions. I wasn't expecting too much because I have a pretty high pain tolerance. I was in a nice private room, and my DH came in and stayed until around 2:30pm or so, then I sent him home because he hadn't had anything to eat yet.

I was on bedrest for 2 hours, and fell asleep for a while. I was only allowed a few ice chips for a few hours, and I was sooo thirsty! Around 6pm, my nurse (the 2nd one) brought me a cup of ice chips and just told me to limit them to a few at a time. Lots of pain. OMG. LOTS of PAIN. Apparently I was super swollen. I only was able to drink about 100cc of Water all day long. Got up and walked around at 6pm and 11pm. Was able to pee after my 6pm walk (but it was still pretty dark urine). I think they hung 3 or 4 bags of IV fluids during my stay and I only went pee about 3 times!

June 5 - The next morning, the hospital's surgical staff did general rounds, then the surgeon's Fellow, Dr Varnell, came in and saw me, and about 1pm I saw Dr McBride! I teased her that she must have been in the OR because she had left her marks on me! She's 8 months preggers, and apparently fell down after my surgery so they made her stay in Labor and Delivery for a few hours which is why I didn't see her yesterday post-op.

I got to go home around 2pm. Got home and settled in and got a phone call from my DH's office - They knew I had surgery, but not what kind, and they called to see if I'd rather have flowers delivered or pizza. LOL! Since I already had 3 flower arrangements, I told them to send pizza for the family. That was a special kind of torture, because she asked me about a dozen questions about what we'd like. Irony at it's best! I can't fault them, I could have picked the flowers! And it was nice not to have the family fussing around in the kitchen and coming up to ask me a zillion questions about food. The pizza arrived around 6pm, they ate downstairs, and I stayed up in my flower scented bedroom! (Which is my major coping mechanism for the next 2 weeks!) Home from the hospital. I was pretty sore. I'm also having trouble getting down liquids. I'm still a bit bloated from surgery. I hope the swelling goes down soon because I'm starting to get dehydrated. I took one dose (10ml) of pain meds when I got home and one dose at bedtime (20ml). Took a colace gel cap - had a very hard time getting it down it got stuck and I had major pain and nausea until it went down. I'll skip those until the swelling goes down a lot more. Slept with a heating pad. Slept pretty well.

June 6 - Actually I'm just feeling pretty dry and in a little pain. More muscle soreness today, and now (6am) I've got a lot of gas rumbling around in my stomach. I'm going to take more pain meds and see if I can stay ahead of the pain today.

4pm: I've managed to get down nearly all the rest of my Isopure. So that's 10oz Fluid and 20g Protein. I've also had my chewable Vitamins and Calcium. Still have a lot of gas pain with every little sip, but not as much in between.

8pm yay me! I had a whole Protein bullet and it went down well - still took a couple of hours, but it's progress!

Got a shower for the 1st time since surgery. Removed the bandages. Looks sort of icky. Had a fruit bar. Feel pretty bad, thirsty. I'm going to take some Lortab and got to bed.

June 7 - Ok, still having trouble with drinking without pain. I worked all morning to get in 8oz of water. Took lots of gas-x. Still working on the Vitamins.

12:30 took more Lortab. Mixed up a shake of 8oz labrada lean body banana & cream and 1 scoop of chocolate Protein powder plus a splash of divinci SF caramel. Much better than the banana plain. I'm going to try to get it all in while the pain meds are working then grab a nap.

7pm: I think Ive had a break through! I've felt awful all afternoon, hot, low grade fever, gassy, dehydrated. Just miserable. Finally I decided to take a 20ml dose of Lortab, lie down and wait for it to work, and then try to get in some fluids. It worked! I've had about .75 liters so far. I'm going to try to drink some more.

TMI alert! - I finally had a BM today. (Ok, it's totally a liquids in/liquids out situation, but at least something is happening!

June 8 - Well that was exciting! At 2:30am we were roused out of bed by the tornado sirens. (It turned out to be an EF2 tornado in the SW part of the city. The damage missed our area by a few blocks) Had to hustle down two flights of stairs into the basement. Major pain. Got the all clear and went back upstairs around 3:30, took another dose of lortab and got back to sleep around 4am. Good news is even though my stomach was just roiling with gas, I was able to pass a lot of it, so I feel a little less bloated today.

11am: I've been able to drink about 16oz of water! Yay! Did take one swig too big and paid for it dearly. Pain, nausea, saliva glands in overdrive - but I was able to stand up and walk it off, so I didn't puke. I'll take it easy for a little bit, then get back to the water.

I think I have a big gas bubble sitting up under my diaphragm, because I'm feeling a little short of breath this morning, like I can't quite draw a deep enough one. Some shoulder pain too.

3pm- I took a nap for about 2 hours. I'm feeling better now, except for the shoulder pain. Oh and joy...TOM started. At least it's still on schedule.

After my nap, I took some more Lortab, and about 4pm I started on a protein bullet. I finished it around 5pm. Yay! Now back to water.

7pm starting to have more pain and getting short of breath again. It's the pain - I start breathing more shallow and just cant draw a deep breath. Took more lortab. Got my water and vitamins in after my 7pm lortab. Feel much better. Also had another Protein Drink.

11pm Ok I've had my Protein Drink. I feel good. Clearly the key is to keep the pain under control. I'm sure in a couple of days I have recovered enough not to need the pain meds.

June 9 Today, I feel better. I'm still having a lot of pain when I swallow and I had one incident where I took a sip too large and felt like I was going to hurl (I still need to keep the sips in the teaspoon range), and I'm still having to work pretty hard to get in enough fluids and protein, but now that I've figured out I HAVE to take the Lortab first then wait, then drink, I'm at least making progress.

Feeling less muscular/incision pain today. Actually got out of the house (had to go to the pharmacy for a refill on the Lortab.

I'm actually really surprised by how much I've needed the Lortab! I hardly ever need pain relievers. But I'm not fighting it. I know it's just for this week or so and things will be back to normal.

I had to take off one of my steri-strips today. One of my incisions was bleeding a little in the hospital, but it eventually stopped. When I took off the bandage on Friday, and showered, that steri-strip looked like it was a bit puffier than the others. Pain was similar to the others, no redness or excessive warmth (they all felt warm). I've been running a low grade fever -mostly 99ish, since coming home. It went up to 100, then briefly to 101 (like an hour) when I was at the worst of the dehydration, but hit normal once I finally got that first liter of water in. So today the steri-strip oozed out a tiny bit of gunk - like less than a drop. I pulled off the strip, checked the wound, no redness or streaks, no other drainage. So I cleaned the area, put some peroxide on it, let it dry a bit, then covered it with a band-aid. I'll shower tonight, then pull off the bandage and let it dry out again. It's not open much. I think it just leaked and stayed more moist than the others right after surgery. I'll keep an eye on it!. Temp is 99 which is consistent with how much water I've been able to drink. I don't think it's infected.

That is all I wrote before I went to the ER on the 10th with a 101+ fever and serious dehydration. Here's what I wrote afterwards - I was emailing a friend and journaled each day in the hospital.

So I had the lapband surgery on Wed June 4, and everything seemed successful, except I was a bit dehydrated going in. At the hospital I was still pretty dehydrated even after all the IV stuff, but I figured I'd make it up in a couple of days. Problem was, I had a LOT of pain while drinking, and was only managing to get in about a liter or more a day even with constant sipping. So everyday, it was one baby step forward, one bigger step back, and the next maybe two baby steps forward, and one baby step back. Adding to the fun was that at 2:30am on June 8th, the tornado sirens went off, and it was for real, so we had to get out of bed, wake up Em, and rush down to the basement.

By Tuesday the 10th, I knew I was getting in trouble. Late afternoon my temp finally hit the "call if over..." range. So I called, and got an on-call guy who hemmed and hawed a little. I wasn't ok with that, so I hung up and tried to reach one of my surgeon's team, (patient coordinator, or nurse, or case manager) before they closed up shop for the day. I got the patient coordinator. She was great. Told me to head to the ER. I was convinced that a few bags of IV fluids and I'd be on my way. So DH and I got to the ER around 6pm. They caught my surgeon before she headed home for the day I saw her around 8pm,she said she was on her way home but would monitor all the test results from there (she's 36+ weeks pregnant), and her surgical fellow came in after he picked up his kid from daycare and got his family situation settled. They gave me the Upper GI from Hell. I could barely swallow, and the contrast Fluid was horrid. Possibly the worst tasting stuff ever. And they made me drink it in coffee cup proportions. There was a point where I just couldn't swallow another drop. There was just this one tiny spot that didn't look quite like a leak or quite normal either. So they decided to admit me while they pondered it all and I was sent upstairs around midnight. I was a LOT of pain by then, but they gave me a shot of morphine and that smoothed it out. I didn't sleep very well, but they had hooked me up to an IV down in the ER, so I figured I was moving in the right direction. (TMI - I was peeing the color of strong coffee and running a fairly high fever).

Next day (Wed), they drew a bunch of blood (no small feat when my blood was about as thick as pancake syrup) and sent me down for another upper GI and later for a CT scan. Both showed the same mystery spot - not quite a leak, not quite normal. My surgeon offered up all the options and said at this point, she wasn't sure which one was better than the others - wait and see, run more tests, or go back in and have a look with her own eyes. In the end we decided to do the exploratory surgery and off she went in search of an OR (this was about 10am). So we waited and waited and waited. Each time the nurses checked, nothing was on the schedule. That evening was the second round of tornadoes (the one where the Boy Scouts were killed). So the nurses rounded us all up and out into the halls which were beastly hot. When I walked out, I saw my surgeon's Case Manager who was also a patient. She grabbed DH and I and took us to a private waiting room which was nice and cool, and had couches and a TV so we could keep up on the weather. Given all the excitement, the lateness of the hours, and the Boy Scout traumas, we assumed that they'd just do my surgery the next day. DD was downtown for dance lessons. DH stayed with me until shortly before he was due to pick her up, and ventured out into the storms to get her. He got there, and they were all fine, but the sub-basement to the theater had begun to flood and the streets were flooding badly, so they stayed put there for a while. They called when they got home around 10pm. We finally got the all clear from the storms about 10:30, and I was debating hanging out in the waiting room a bit more where it was cooler, when my nurse came and found me and said I was due in the OR.

I gave DH a quick call, and told him, and they swept me off to surgery. On the other end, there were the usual missing paperwork snafus, so I spent about 45 minutes sitting in the pre-op cube yakking with the two surgeons (which was fun). Then since there wasn't much in the way of staff on duty, they pushed me down to the OR themselves. We joked about that. The plan was if she opened me up and things looked good, I'd only be under for about 15 minutes.

I knew things hadn't gone well when they woke me up and it was really hard to wake up. She had had me under for about an hour and a half. Had an NG tube up my nose, and my throat was killing me. She told me that it looked like there had been a tiny leak that had attempted to repair itself, and that spot was infected. So the surgeon took everything out - all the band stuff she put in the week before, went over my stomach with a fine tooth comb trying to find the leak, did an endoscopy so she could see the same places from the insides. She couldn't make it leak. So they stapled me back up (so they could get in easier if I developed a wound infection) and put in the NG tube to suck up anything on the inside of the spot and a drain that ran out my tummy to catch anything on the outside of the spot. In the recovery room for a while, then back to my room. Overall I didn't feel too bad, but my throat was screaming. I told the nurses I felt like I was gagging on the tube. They sort of patted me on the head, and I think they wrote it off to whining. Meanwhile I spent all the night using my pain killer button (I can self administer just no more frequently than every 8 minutes) more for my throat than for my incisions.

Next morning (Thurs) I was miserable and I couldn't talk. I had run a fever all night again (been running one continuously since I arrived) My day nurse went off to hunt down some throat numbing spray. Meanwhile the surgical fellow dropped by and decided to take a look. He tugged at the NG tube a bit then pulled out about 10in of hose, which hurt like hell. Turns out, the NG tube had looped and kinked (think like an old corded phone). Once he pulled out the part that was double thick and poking me all over the place, I felt 100% better! I still wanted the whole tube out, but at least it was tolerable. The doc said they might take the whole tube out the next day. The rest of the day went pretty well. I was still getting too much blood drawn, and running out of veins and fingertips to use. Still running fevers. Still peeing dark brown. Still some pain.

Friday the 13th. That really did turn out to be my unlucky day. The docs ordered a Foley catheter since I wasn't peeing much, which took 4 nurses to put in instead of the usual one. I was being hunted by the blood sucking vampires every few hours. The doctor decided to order a PICC line (it's like a permanent IV port) so they could draw blood without all the pain. Good plan. Had trouble with the execution. The nurse that tried to put it in was great. I was just too darned dehydrated still. She tried 5 times. Ouch times five. She finally declared she couldn't torture me anymore, and wrote a report suggesting I go to Interventive Radiology. There they'd use better ultrasound and xray to guide in the catheter. The vampires continued to stalk me the rest of the day. And the doctors decided to keep the NG tube in my nose for a least one more day. It made me miserable. It was getting harder to keep a good sense of humor about it all. And Friday night DD called asking if I could braid her hair before she left for summer camp and I was so tired and my fingers were so sore from the blood draws that I just wasn't sure I'd be up to it. She couldn't understand. (She just doesn't realize how seriously ill I've been.) I tried to problem solve it with her, but she was frustrated and I just broke down and cried and prayed and cried and prayed some more.

Saturday, things started to get better. My surgeon took the weekend off to put up her very pregnant feet, so her partner (hereby known as "The Russian") was going to handle my care, but my surgeon had assured me that she was still running the show from her home, and that if anything went wrong over the weekend, she'd come back in to handle the surgery. That was nice to know. So I waited all morning for the Russian to show up, because I was pretty sure they were going to take out the NG tube. And the blood sucking mosquitoes came in at 4am, 6am, and 8am. By the 3rd time, I told the nurse to hang garlic over the door, and tell them not one more drop until the Picc line was in. so we waited for Interventive Radiology to call so I could get the Picc line in. Got to be later in the day, and IR finally called and we went down stairs. They were great. A lot like the OR experiences you see on TV, right down to the rock music. So I got the picc line in and life was good. They took out my old IV, drew some blood, and also started me on some IV nutrition since I've been living on nothing but a few ice chips for 5 days.

Sunday, still had the fever. They've hung enough antibiotics to knock off half the microbes on the planet. The Russian came by and again said no to removing the NG tube. It was making me miserable. Nothing came out of it under suction ( which was its intent), it hurt, and to top it all off, it was irritating my nasal passages so badly my nose started running and I was getting congested which made it even harder to breathe. I began to hate the Russian LOL. So I set my hopes on Dr V, the surgical fellow, who has the best bedside manners of the bunch. He came to see me later in the day, when I was getting an ultrasound on my legs so that they could be sure I wasn't getting any blood clots. We chatted for a while, and he said to wait one more day on the NG tube. Bah Humbug! It had been one more day for 4 days! LOL. So he left and I thought a few less than kind thoughts, but I did understand. My nurse however was livid! I think she wanted it out more than I did because she knew how miserable I was. She was ranting a bit about surgeons, and doctors in general, and we were sharing the joke about how the difference between surgeons and God, is that God doesn't think He's a surgeon, when Dr V, came back in and told me that the ultrasound was clean as a whistle. I laughed and told him that it was true, he does think he's God, but I still loved him anyway even if he wouldn't take out my NG tube. Then about an hour later, in a moment of irony, the tube just fell out of my nose. It worked itself out on its own. Too funny. Rest of the day went pretty well.

Monday - Officially a day of rest. Nothing major scheduled. My kidneys decided to come back online. A very good thing since I had gained about 15lbs from the IV fluids my body was stashing all over the place. Of course it meant that I spent my whole day and night in the bathroom. I seriously peed about 5 liters before the day was done. Felt better though! Still a fever. Blah!

Tuesday - second day of rest. Felt funky, sort of out of sorts, tired from the long night getting up to go pee etc. Good news of the day was the digestive tract woke up. I'll spare you the details.

Wed (still officially today so I'm finally caught up!) - I'm not not having a fever about as much of the day as I spend having one! Ok today we skip all the rest and heal stuff. Back for another cat scan. This one finds what the other tests couldn't find. The golf ball sized abscess that's causing all the trouble stuck right where that funky spot has been, between my stomach and spleen. Which is why my surgeon was in wait and see mode - she wanted it to have time to develop so they can finally treat the darn thing! Problem is an encapsulated abcess doesn't have a blood supply so the antibotics can't get in to it to kill the buggaboos.

So the plan was at I'd go off to Interventive Radiology once again, and they'll do their magic, and place a drain right in that stupid cyst. They'll suck it all out, then leave the drain in place so they'll know if it is still producing more gunk because they will drain out and culture what they suck out so that they can be sure that the antibiotics we're using are the right ones. Once all that looks good, they'll check for a leak one more time - I'll get to eat blue jello! Trust me, you can get excited about stuff like this when you've only been allowed a few ice chips for 10 days straight. (except for when they gave me the cat scans when I was allowed 2 Diet Sprites each time, because they have to mix in the contrast dye for me to drink. (It's very sad when you realize "whoohoo! Im going to get a something with a little flavor! I think I like CT Scans!) So I get to eat blue Jello, and if nothing blue shows up in any of the drains, then we'll assume the leak is sealed. Then they'll give me a day or so to transition to Clear Liquids, then on to real food for the first time in nearly a month. LOL this is not the weight loss program I signed up for! Long term outlook, I should get out of here Sunday or Monday.

Thursday - IR was too busy to see me Wed or Thursday! I just hung out in holding mode.

Friday - I finally got the call from IR in late afternoon. They took me down, gave me another CT scan, and found that the abcess had shrunk on its own down to only about 1cm! Yay! So the radiologist said no drain. That made me very happy because the radiologist had told me that the abcess was in a tough place to reach and she thought she'd have to stick a needle through my spleen to get to it. I wasn't too happy with the thought of damaging even in a small way, an organ that wasn't giving me troubles when I was already under the weather! So hurray for good immune systems!

Since I was finally not having fevers and there was no new drain in place to use for the blue Jello test, I got to skip the blue jello. The doc ordered up a tray of clear liquids for supper. It was heaven! I had the whole bowl of chicken broth and thought it was the best thing ever. I also had a little cranberry juice. Skipped the rest of the tray - jello, and 2 popcicles. I was stuffed. No new pain or fevers.

Saturday, I was in "learn to eat" mode. They ordered up another clear liquids tray for Breakfast. The chicken broth wasn't quite as good the second time - really - it was watery and flavorless - I think the Soup just hadn't cooked long enough yet. So I ate the jello and drank the grape juice. Skipped the popcicles.

Later they came and told me I could order off the menu. Just to keep it to the low fat stuff. So I asked which ones and was told to just order stuff with the hearts. Hmmm not too much soft stuff with hearts after them.

So I kind of went crazy - ordered a cup of Tomato Soup and a yogurt, fruit cup, and cranberry juice, and a grilled chicken sandwich. Had a couple of spoons of the Soup, then took one small bite of the sandwich. HUGE PAIN!!!!! OMG. I didn't know what I had been thinking! So that was the end of that meal! I couldn't eat another bite and I was in a lot of pain. To make it worse, they had taken away my dulaudid pump earlier that day. So I sat there feeling miserable and sorry for myself. I actually went into the bathroom and cried my eyes out for a while. I was really sleep deprived by this time, (I keep having roommates that needed lots of care, so I never got more than 2-3 hours sleep a day.) A couple of hours later I finally asked the nurse for some Lortab, which they had Rxd when they took the pump away. That made a huge difference! I also "ran away from home for a while" - I took my book and went down to a garden they have and just got out of the whole hospital thing for a couple of hours and that did me a world of good. Later that night I ordered a cup of soup and a yogurt. That went down ok. I felt a lot better.

Sunday, the doctors popped in on rounds - first my favorite - Dr Larson - really nice guy - good doctor, then the whole surgical staff showed up. They said I could go home! Yay! I told them I'd only go home if they took out the PICC and the JP drain I still had! So later that day they pulled out the PICC and took out the JP (very weird feeling). Then I did the usual paperwork and GOT TO GO HOME!

Went home, crashed on the sofa on my front porch for most of the afternoon then later we went to Whole Foods and I got some good Soups and some chicken salad from the deli, and I had dinner - soup with Protein Powder and a bite of DH's hamburger (very well chewwed!) Followed by Lortab and bed.

Monday and Tuesday I mostly napped. I had a couple of Protein shakes, and I had a few bites of some soft protein each day - chicken salad mostly - I could manage a couple of Tablespoons if I chewed them to mush.

Wed - I finally got out of the house. I did a girly thing to help me feel better about me - I went to the dematologist and had a little laser hair removal done and treated a couple of sun spots, and booked an appt to get waxed. It's nice to feel like a human again instead of a hairy gorilla woman! The Demmie also looked at my scars and gave me some scar gel to use on them.

Thursday - I had my 2 week follow up with Dr McBride. We talked about what went wrong, and she said it was probably a small error- that she might have nicked me with the electric caudery when she was removing the fat pad they take off when they fold and sew over the stomach. It either punctured the stomach or caused a small burn that ulcerated in a day or two. It probably wasn't excessive swelling (except in responce to the injury) or caused by me hurrying down the stairs after the tornado. An unfortunate incident. She said she's never had a complication like this with a Lapband before. I forgive her. We all want our surgeons to be perfect all the time, but the truth is, they're still human and imperfect. It was a small mistake. I landed in the hospital for two weeks. But as soon as she knew I wasn't doing well, she did everything in her powers to make me better and she did.

Now I'm in wait and see mode. We'll need to wait at least 3 months then do another upper GI to see how things look on the inside, and we won't know how badly the stomach is scared on the outside until the next time someone goes in and looks. With luck, I'll have minimal scaring and it won't interfere with a new band. Dr McBride said if the scaring is bad, she'd either have to place the band lower than is optimal or we'd have to opt for another method. She did say next time she'll use the largest band on me, even if it means a few more fills before we reach the sweet spot, so there's less worries about swelling and damage right after surgery. So we'll just have to let me heal, then cross our fingers that I can get a second chance.

We may also have to fight the insurance company for round 2. If I lose another 10lbs I'll drop below a 40BMI which is my insurance's criterea for someone with no co-morbidities. When I mentioned this to Dr McBride, she wasn't concerned because she thinks without the band, I'll regain some of what I've lost. I don't think she understands my determination not to let that happen! I'm planning to stick to the low carb/low fat plan that has worked well for me in the pre-op diet phase and get serious with my exercise. So at minimum I plan to maintain, and hope to lose. I just may have to show up next time to be weighed with lead plates in my pockets

Last night, I started getting my life back to normal. DH and I went out to an annual Shakesphere on the Green show. Took a picnic dinner (soup for me, and I was able to eat half a panini sandwich) and enjoyed the show. I didn't eat too much, and got very full and a little uncomfortable, but it was fun. I was very tired walking back up the hill and I crashed as soon as we got home. Slept in this morning til 9am. That was nice.

Today, I'm taking it easy, and tomorrow, I'm trying to get back to normal. Off to get a wax (driving myself for the first time in 3 weeks), shop for an evening gown and some cute shoes, (I'm going to be crowned queen at my Mary Kay event coming up because I'm the #1 consultant in my National Area so I need a cute dress!), and run a couple of errands.

Life as usual and after the past 3 weeks, that's a very good thing!

Always

Hunzi