Finally had surgery...

keithf · July 1, 2009

Woke up at 3:30 am for a 5:20 checkin. By 7:30 I was mid-prep and shortly thereafter wheeled into OR. I awoke at 10, listening to the techs comment to each other on how amazingly well things were going with me. Not a bad thing to hear.

- I really hate not being able to swallow. Between a painfully dry mouth and throat, it was difficult to breathe for a few hours. My CPAP only made it worse, so I went without and forced myself to remain awake (itself somewhat painful). My oxygen levels were sufficient that this wasn't an issue.

- I really hate IV.. The IV site was never comfortable, and it didn't get removed until about 7pm, when I was being discharged.

- Yes, the port is sore. I had expected this. Thankfully, only one of the incisions are tender. I expect to remove the bandaids sometime today per the nurse's instructions.

- I'm slowly able to eat more in a sitting. It took me about 6 hours to do 8oz of Water and maybe a total of 4oz of Soup yesterday at the hospital. Tasted good, and went far toward helping my dry throat.

- I gained about 4# at the hospital. Considering the circumstances, there's no small amount of irony there.

- Gravity is a harsh mistress. I'm now convinced that it's gravity pulling on my belly -- not liver size -- that is the true motivation for losing 40# pre-op.

- In walking around the ward, I could see there were other people who needed this more immediately than me. This matches my surgeon's observation: I'm in the lower end of the population among his patients. That both concerned and relieved me, and I'm glad the others were able to get this surgery.

- I'm hungry. Time to finish that Protein Shake from last night.

rcruz · July 1, 2009

Keith Welcome to our new world, you will do great I just know it, form the sounds of your willpowered attitude you will go far. These next few days well, you already know will be somewhat difficult but in the long run well worth it! Take care, Good luck and keep us posted!!!

keithf · July 1, 2009

Take care, Good luck and keep us posted!!!

I hate hiccups.

rcruz · July 1, 2009

Right now your going to hate everything! I get hiccups when I am full or stuck. Also when I have crossed the line my nose start to get runny on me. ALL signs of the band doing it's job I guess.

keithf · July 3, 2009

Right now your going to hate everything! I get hiccups when I am full or stuck. Also when I have crossed the line my nose start to get runny on me. ALL signs of the band doing it's job I guess.

Uh.. So I admit, I've been watching for that crossover to the under-300# realm:

Weight at start (mid-April): 345

Weight going into surgery (30 Jun): 306

Weight @ 1 day: 310

Weight @ 2 days: 304 (dropping about 0.5# every couple hours)

Weight @ 3 days: 301 (just measured), 299.8 (lunch)

I seem to be losing roughly 2-3# per DAY. At this rate, I'll cross the 300# mark by the time I finish Breakfast. [### EDIT: I went back to sleep, so the best I can say is that I crossed it before lunch...###] This is not an exaggeration: I dropped half a pound yesterday over the course of *consuming* 16oz of Water.

Obviously I had 4# of Fluid pumped into me at surgery. I've obviously lost that.. but I didn't expect initial weight loss in the 3#/day range. Honestly, I feel fine overall.. just hungry, not weak. I'm able to consume (water, yogurt, Soup .. overall about 300 calories, with plenty of Vitamin supplementation) without difficulty, as long as I don't gulp things down. This, too, seems normal.

Am I just lucky, or is this rate of weight loss actually not unusual? I cannot account for it on a simple calories in/calories out model -- it's as if the surgery has told my body to shed a lot of fat up front. I suppose it could be extra energy requirements during healing, but still -- a factor of 3x seems extraordinary.

No complaints, of course. I just haven't seen this magnitude of response reported here before.

Edited July 3, 2009 by keithf
I'm melting! Oh, what a world, what a world!