Do not pass go Do not collect $200 Back to the drawing board for me

[Hunzi 0]

Ok, I've come back to this board over and over for the past couple of weeks trying to think of what to say, so I guess I'll just babble thru this.

I was banded June 4th. I went into the surgery super healthy! I did everything my surgeon had told me and hadn't cheated on the pre-op diet. The surgery was a perfect according to Dr McB.

But I woke up with some pain, and had a lot of trouble with pain while drinking. I gave a pretty good accounting of my first week on the Post-op thread (first page).

I was trying to drink like crazy, but never could get in enough. I ended up seriously dehydrated. So on June 10, I was back in the ER. I thought it was just dehydration and that they'd be able to help get me back in balance and things would finally get better.

The upper GI showed a funky spot on my stomach (looked kind of like a leak, but didn't act like one), and again the next morning the 2nd one did too, and the CT scan. So my surgeon decided to do an exploratory surgery to see what was going on. Turns out, there probably was a tiny leak, that had already sealed itself, but that funky spot was infected. So out the band went! I had it for just one week. ;-(

I spent the next two weeks (June 10-22) in the hospital recovering from the infection. Not fun at all! (It's a long story, if you want to hear more, I'll post it)

I'm back to the Dr's tomorrow for my 2 week follow up. We'll chat then about what the options are for me now. I'm not opposed to trying again, although it's a bigger leap of faith the second time! No matter what, I'll spend a few months to a year getting better and stronger before another try.

What went wrong? We aren't sure. I think I just had swelling way beyond the norm and it popped the stitches (2 of them) and caused the leak which lead to the infection. Nothing anyone could anticipate or control.

So, I'll be here cheering on all you Jazzy Junies, but apparently I don't get to play along just yet.

Good news is I have lost 40lbs since I started the pre-op diet, (lost about 10+ in the hospital). I'm still eating like I had the band (actually I just can't eat much more than I would have with the band while things heal up), mostly I'm up to mushies, with the a few bites of very well chewed solid Proteins, but I can't eat much more than a cup of food.

Always

Hunzi

who got out of it all alive, with a few scars, and a lot of stories to tell!

[Mrs Sabre 1]

You sound like you still have a great attitude, and that's 1/2 the battle! You're in my thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery and continued success. :embaressed_smile:

[cathychatts 1]

Hunzi:

I am so sorry for all your pain! I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers! I hope you recover fully, perhaps they can do surgery later, if not I know you will succeed anyway!

Here is a BIG HUG!

CATHY

[gina s. 0]

I hope you feel better soon!

[Hunzi 0]

Thanks everyone!

I'm doing better today. I went in for my 2 week followup with Dr McB, and we had a chat about what probably went wrong. She said they'll never know for sure, but most likely she nicked me with the electric cautery when she removed the fat pad they take off before they sew the fold of the stomach over. Either the caudery gave me a tiny puncture, or a burn that ulcerated a few days later. Either way, I ended up with a tiny leak which lead to the infection.

I'll need to heal up for at least 6 months before we think about trying again. Even then, the concern is that there may be scaring which will be in the way of the band placement. Unfortunately, we won't know until she goes in and actually looks. If the scaring isn't bad, she can place the band as usual, or she may need to place it slightly lower, which would leave me with a larger pouch. If the scaring is bad, then she may not be able to place a band at all. In some ways, I think she'd like me to opt for another procedure when the time comes. She sounds pretty enthused about the gastric sleeve, which she feels is like the band without the foreign body. I doubt I'll go for that. I'm pretty opposed to changing my anatomy in any way (adding an adjustable and removeable device is one thing, actually cutting off parts is a whole other ball game.)

I'm not making any decisions for at least 6 months, and then we may have to duke it out with the insurance company again. I'm just hoping for not too much trouble.

So I'm in a holding pattern for a while. I'll keep trying to lose on my own in the meantime. Ironically though, I think I can only lose about another 10lbs before I fall below a 40BMI and will have troubles getting insurance to pay for the band. We'll all just have to pray about it.

I'm going to re-post my notes from the first week postop on this thread and add my notes from the 2 weeks that followed int the hospital just for everyone's info. Hopefully no one will ever need this info, but the less than good outcome stories are good to know too!

Next time, my story will have a happy ending!

Always

Hunzi

working on getting better, stronger and ready for round 2

[Hunzi 0]

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

[sil 0]

oh my goodness i honestly don,t know what to say, i,m so sorry for all you been through, wish you well, next time around, everything happens for a reason. god bless you you hamdle it well. i would have been mad. an upset, thank goodness they caught it in time, hope you feel better i,ll pray a special prayer for you. god bless .