Dr Kelly made a nice sleeve for me 8 days ago. When does the excitement start? (LONG)

desperateforchange · February 12, 2011

I am 8 days post-op and have had a very uneventful time. Except for the 5 small incisions on my stomach, and a copy of my leak test x-ray, I feel so darn good, I can't believe my body went thru all that it has.

February 3rd: After arriving at the Florence Hospital after a nice ride from the airport with a friendly driver named Carlos I met Trish and Dr Kelly. I immediately felt at ease meeting these two. No time was wasted in prepping me for surgery. I had blood work, IV port inserted, blood pressure, temp taken, medical history. Then the cardiologist came in to ask a few questions and give me an ECG. Shortly after, around 5:30, I was wheeled down to the OR, where I saw Dr Kelly, the anesthesiologist, and the scrub nurse. Dr Kelly came over, held my hand and asked me if I was ready. I said "I am so ready for this". He warned me of the anesthetic going in and that is all I remember until I woke up in my room trying to pull the oxygen mask off my face. My mom was with me and I am so thankful. She had a full size bed to sleep in in my room and we had a private bath with shower. Also a TV on the wall with about 4 english speaking channels. She was able to eat 3 meals a day in the Oasis of Hope dining room. It is for the alternative cancer patients and their families and everything there was very healthy. No sugar, lots of veggies and fruit, very little meat and a couple of fruit/veggie juices available per day. The surgery went well with no complications. I was up walking around @ about 4 am Friday morning. The worst part for me was the IV pole and the nurses coming in several times in the night. I was nauseous a couple of times but only threw up once.

Feb 4th: Spent the next day and evening sipping on ice and Water, walking around, napping, getting regular doses of pain meds, anti nausea meds and antibiotics and chatting with my family on Skype and Facebook. Feb 5th: The morning of my discharge, before I got discharged, my mom and I went for a walk down to the beach. It is only about 3 blocks from the florence hospital. We put our feet in the ocean and it was awesome. They removed my drainage tube (weird feeling and little painful) and IV port just before they took me for my leak test Saturday around 11 am at the Angeles Hospital. The taste is gross. Have gum or breath strips handy and a water to pop in your mouth after you are done. That will help tremendously. Then we got checked in to the Lucerna. My mom and I walked down to the Rio del Plaza and shopped for about 3 hours. I bought some bandaids @ the Gusher Farmacia @ the Plaza. They are Nexcare in a green and white box. They are 50mm x 101 mm and there are 10 in a box. You will want to change your dressing and these are a good size but they gave me a horrible irritation. They are adhesive all around. You may want to get some Mepore dressings (available at our Walmart behind the pharmacy counter) and bring them with you. I purchased them before I went but never thought to bring them with me and really wish I would have had them. They are a nice soft gauze with adhesive all around but not irritation. Anyway, we had to take a cab back to our hotel because we had too many packages. LOL! Met up with Trish the moment we got out of the cab at the hotel, and she had my discharge package for me. She introduced me to some yummy chicken broth powder available at the costco here. Try to get a hold of some. It is called MAGGI and it is sort of like OXO but has way more flavour. It is very tasty. So I asked if she could pick some up for me and I would pay her. She said she would just take us there, so we went to Costco Mexico. Very cool. Just like our Costco but the cafeteria is outside.

She then took us to Revolucion and we shopped a little over there. Got a smokin' good deal on some silver jewelry from a vendor that Trish knows. I was ready to walk away, when I told them I couldn't afford what they were offering and then they called me back in to give me a better deal. 2 earrings and a set of bracelets (bangle style) for $60. Originally wanted $180. This is a gift for my girls who wouldn't have appreciated the price, so I was tickled with that offer. My mom got a Jimmy Choo knockoff purse for $75. He originally was offering it to her at his best price of $145, haha. So fun!

We walked lots and I felt so good. Not tired or sore or anything. Amazing!!

I had such an awesome sleep in the hotel room our first night out of the hospital. Lucerna is a top notch hotel and the beds are really comfy. My mom woke me up @ 4:30 to tell me to roll over, that my snoring was keeping her awake, so it must've been a deep sleep.

Feb 6th: Dr Kelly and Trish came by our room early on to check up on me and my incisions. Had a little visit then they left and mom and I walked to the mall again. We had missed alot of stores and had a few more gifts to buy. Again, I felt great. Mom and I had lunch at a nice restaurant in the mall. It was called California something or other and had a menu more familiar to us. You could have a fajita or cheeseburger. My mom had the buffet. I had Soup. We walked around and shopped for a few hours, then walked back to our hotel. We had supper that evening with Trish and Dr Kelly and his little boy Richie. We had a nice visit and a good talk about some of the goings on with a certain patient coordinator.

Feb 7th: Woke up at a decent time, showered, repacked and got ready to go home. We were able to sit out in the sun for about a half hour before our driver was there to pick us up. It was beautiful out. We were heading back to -30 C so we really enjoyed the heat of 25 C. AHHHHH! Very nice driver, had a nice visit while waiting to cross the border. His name was Jonaton. Got us to the airport and we had enough time to have a relaxing lunch @ Chili's before we had to board our plane. ADIOS Amigos!

Like everyone else has said, walk, walk, walk. Try to get down to see the ocean if you can get someone to go with you. I was up in the middle of the night walking and I've had very little gas pain. Just a little in my chest that feels like a burp caught sideways. Nothing like people talk about with the pain in the shoulders etc...

Eight days later and I'm still having a liquid diet except for yogurt. Getting bored with it and can't wait to move on to solids. I have had Constipation and have been taking Benefibre and just picked up some Metamucil. Other than that I have nothing else exciting to tell you. It has been wonderful so far. I can't wait to start seeing some results.

educationrulz · February 12, 2011

That sounds like a great surgical and travel experience. My hospital stay was soooo boring, and painful unfortunately. :blink: But, the floor and staff were great, so I can't hold my pain experiences against anyone. But, I did walk alot like you and I think that contributed to my overall fast healing. Congratulations on getting your sleeve!

BTW, can you explain your ticker? It says 233 lbs gained. Is that how much you're wanting to lose?

Babygurl · February 12, 2011

I am 8 days post-op and have had a very uneventful time. Except for the 5 small incisions on my stomach, and a copy of my leak test x-ray, I feel so darn good, I can't believe my body went thru all that it has.

February 3rd: After arriving at the florence Hospital after a nice ride from the airport with a friendly driver named Carlos I met Trish and Dr Kelly. I immediately felt at ease meeting these two. No time was wasted in prepping me for surgery. I had blood work, IV port inserted, blood pressure, temp taken, medical history. Then the cardiologist came in to ask a few questions and give me an ECG. Shortly after, around 5:30, I was wheeled down to the OR, where I saw Dr Kelly, the anesthesiologist, and the scrub nurse. Dr Kelly came over, held my hand and asked me if I was ready. I said "I am so ready for this". He warned me of the anesthetic going in and that is all I remember until I woke up in my room trying to pull the oxygen mask off my face. My mom was with me and I am so thankful. She had a full size bed to sleep in in my room and we had a private bath with shower. Also a TV on the wall with about 4 english speaking channels. She was able to eat 3 meals a day in the Oasis of Hope dining room. It is for the alternative cancer patients and their families and everything there was very healthy. No sugar, lots of veggies and fruit, very little meat and a couple of fruit/veggie juices available per day. The surgery went well with no complications. I was up walking around @ about 4 am Friday morning. The worst part for me was the IV pole and the nurses coming in several times in the night. I was nauseous a couple of times but only threw up once.

Feb 4th: Spent the next day and evening sipping on ice and Water, walking around, napping, getting regular doses of pain meds, anti nausea meds and antibiotics and chatting with my family on Skype and Facebook. Feb 5th: The morning of my discharge, before I got discharged, my mom and I went for a walk down to the beach. It is only about 3 blocks from the Florence Hospital. We put our feet in the ocean and it was awesome. They removed my drainage tube (weird feeling and little painful) and IV port just before they took me for my leak test Saturday around 11 am at the Angeles Hospital. The taste is gross. Have gum or breath strips handy and a Water to pop in your mouth after you are done. That will help tremendously. Then we got checked in to the Lucerna. My mom and I walked down to the Rio del Plaza and shopped for about 3 hours. I bought some bandaids @ the Gusher Farmacia @ the Plaza. They are Nexcare in a green and white box. They are 50mm x 101 mm and there are 10 in a box. You will want to change your dressing and these are a good size but they gave me a horrible irritation. They are adhesive all around. You may want to get some Mepore dressings (available at our Walmart behind the pharmacy counter) and bring them with you. I purchased them before I went but never thought to bring them with me and really wish I would have had them. They are a nice soft gauze with adhesive all around but not irritation. Anyway, we had to take a cab back to our hotel because we had too many packages. LOL! Met up with Trish the moment we got out of the cab at the hotel, and she had my discharge package for me. She introduced me to some yummy chicken broth powder available at the costco here. Try to get a hold of some. It is called MAGGI and it is sort of like OXO but has way more flavour. It is very tasty. So I asked if she could pick some up for me and I would pay her. She said she would just take us there, so we went to costco Mexico. Very cool. Just like our Costco but the cafeteria is outside.

 She then took us to Revolucion and we shopped a little over there. Got a smokin' good deal on some silver jewelry from a vendor that Trish knows. I was ready to walk away, when I told them I couldn't afford what they were offering and then they called me back in to give me a better deal. 2 earrings and a set of bracelets (bangle style) for $60. Originally wanted $180. This is a gift for my girls who wouldn't have appreciated the price, so I was tickled with that offer. My mom got a Jimmy Choo knockoff purse for $75. He originally was offering it to her at his best price of $145, haha. So fun!

We walked lots and I felt so good. Not tired or sore or anything. Amazing!!

I had such an awesome sleep in the hotel room our first night out of the hospital. Lucerna is a top notch hotel and the beds are really comfy. My mom woke me up @ 4:30 to tell me to roll over, that my snoring was keeping her awake, so it must've been a deep sleep.

Feb 6th: Dr Kelly and Trish came by our room early on to check up on me and my incisions. Had a little visit then they left and mom and I walked to the mall again. We had missed alot of stores and had a few more gifts to buy. Again, I felt great. Mom and I had lunch at a nice restaurant in the mall. It was called California something or other and had a menu more familiar to us. You could have a fajita or cheeseburger. My mom had the buffet. I had Soup. We walked around and shopped for a few hours, then walked back to our hotel. We had supper that evening with Trish and Dr Kelly and his little boy Richie. We had a nice visit and a good talk about some of the goings on with a certain patient coordinator.

Feb 7th: Woke up at a decent time, showered, repacked and got ready to go home. We were able to sit out in the sun for about a half hour before our driver was there to pick us up. It was beautiful out. We were heading back to -30 C so we really enjoyed the heat of 25 C. AHHHHH! Very nice driver, had a nice visit while waiting to cross the border. His name was Jonaton. Got us to the airport and we had enough time to have a relaxing lunch @ Chili's before we had to board our plane. ADIOS Amigos!

Like everyone else has said, walk, walk, walk. Try to get down to see the ocean if you can get someone to go with you. I was up in the middle of the night walking and I've had very little gas pain. Just a little in my chest that feels like a burp caught sideways. Nothing like people talk about with the pain in the shoulders etc...

Eight days later and I'm still having a liquid diet except for yogurt. Getting bored with it and can't wait to move on to solids. I have had Constipation and have been taking Benefibre and just picked up some Metamucil. Other than that I have nothing else exciting to tell you. It has been wonderful so far. I can't wait to start seeing some results.

wow that's amazing I hope my surgery goes half as well Congrats on getting your sleeve, i can't wait to get mine

desperateforchange · February 12, 2011

Thanks! What kind of pain did you have. At your incision site or internally or was it gas pains? That is unfortunate but to be expected I guess.

I don't think I have my ticker set up properly. My highest weight was 233 before starting my journey, before my 1 week pre-op liquids, etc. I went in to change it and I've forgotten my pin now. lol. I am down to 221 today. Yay!! My goal is 140, but how does one know what their goal actually is. It is just a number and I think my body will tell me when it is at goal?? I don't really know. If I go down to 135 I would be happy with that too but I don't want to be too skinny .

That sounds like a great surgical and travel experience. My hospital stay was soooo boring, and painful unfortunately. But, the floor and staff were great, so I can't hold my pain experiences against anyone. But, I did walk alot like you and I think that contributed to my overall fast healing. Congratulations on getting your sleeve!

BTW, can you explain your ticker? It says 233 lbs gained. Is that how much you're wanting to lose?