Surgery Stories

[julie.ann 1]

I had my surgery on10/21/08 and everything went well. I WAS SORE AND FULL OF GAS AFTER THE SURGERY OF COURSE, BUT WITH THE PAIN MEDS AND THE ICE chips IT WAS JUST FINE. I HAVE BEEN HOME FOR 5 DAYS WITHOUT MUCH TO COMPLAIN ABOUT. I AM SORE IN MY LEFT SIDE, I CAN TELL THAT I GET FULL FASTER WITH LASTING EFFECTS AND I AM 12 POUNDS LIGHTER AS I WRITE THIS REPLY. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO SUCCESSFUL WEIGHT LOST AND A NEW ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE. I KNOW I HAVE MADE THE RIGHT DECISION FOR ME AND MY FAMILY.

Lap, that's great! Good for you. I'm glad things are going well for you and for all the other bandsters too!

[Sunwyse 1]

I had mine done yesterday, only been back home a couple of hours. For me, the pain is in both shoulder blades, spine and top of right shoulder. The actual cuts themselves are just sore.

Otherwise all went well. Didn't lose as much on the Optifast as the surgeon would have liked, but I put that down a bit to the pcos and a lot to my eating other foods (including bread!) because my job was so physically demanding, I almost passed out a few times. I'm now waiting for day 5, when all the pain stops and it all settles down, then I will enjoy myself

[julie.ann 1]

Well I guess it's my turn to tell my surgery story.

I met Dr. Kirshenbaum for the face to face for the first time at my appt the day before surgery. We had done a phone pre-op and I also had a phone consult with a nutritionist.

I went to do doctors and the medial assistant took down my height and weight and took my vitals. Dr. K came in and we talked about the surgery. He didn't ask much about my pre-op diet. He just wanted to know if lost weight and how much. (14#!) We signed the consents, went over my allergies, he wrote the admission orders. We had time to ask him questions. He is very nice. We filled my scripts for liquid lortab, zofran and a dulcolax supposity. Insurance paid $10 (the only thing they will be covering) and all together it cost me $30 for my scripts. Not bad.

The evening before surgery he had me take a supposity to help my bowls move. I forgot my stool softener. Don't forget to start that after surgery if you have firm stool. The narcs they give you will slow down you GI too. You don't want to become constipated.

The morning of surgery I didn't have to be at the hospital until 9:30am, but I woke at about 7. When we got to the surgery center we sat in a waiting room that looked like a doctor's office until they called my back to a bay area. They were not very busy and everyone was THE BEST!!!!! Jan was my pre-op nurse, Caroline my OR nurse and Dr. Johnson was my anesteseologist.

They wanted a urine sample, I got dress....or maybe I should say undressed :redface:in my gown. Scopolamine patch behind the ear, a pepcid pill, a zofran pill, an IV, levaquin hung since I am allergic to Keflex, decadron in my IV and one other IV med I don't remember. After all the questions Dr. Johnson was such a dear and pushed some versed IV. I love that drug of amnesia! I think I was in preop another few minutes, but I don’t remember it. I woke up in the Recovery Room. Renee was my nurse. She didn't have quite the sweet disposition that the others had, but she was nice. I was out of it in recovery. My surgery started about 11 and my hubby was called by Dr. K at about 12 and he said he could go back in about 20 min to see me. It was 1:30 when he called back about me and found out I had just woke up. Dr K and Dr. Johnson both came by to see how I was. Dr. K said that he had to repair a small hiatal hernia. (I wonder By 2:30 I had gone to the rest room and was ready to be dismissed from the Recovery Room. I am doing pretty well. So far I haven't had a lot of shoulder pain and my incisions are uncomfortable. I don’t' like narcs, but I will take my lortab for my 7 hour drive home today.

No nausea so far. I have found if I eat my Jello too fast I get a little chest pain so I will nibble slowly. I haven't named my band yet. We have barely been introduced. I see how it goes.

I love being a member of the band!

Edited October 30, 2008 by julie.ann