Three Months Post-Op

Sep 06, 2009

Well, I thought I had an earlier post, but I guess not. 

I developed a leak immediately after surgery and ended up spending 10 days in ICU and another 4 days on the regular hospital floor.  I think my surgeon wanted to keep me there longer but I was desperate to go home to my daughter and hubby.  The hospital was two hours away so I felt terrible that people had to travel so far.  My mom come every single day and when I was out of the ICU she brought my daughter with her (Ajalyn was six months old at the time).  My hubby came every chance he had and would stay for hours.  My family was so good to me!  

My doctor was really amazing.  He's a good surgeon but I was really high risk going in to the surgery because of the massive amounts of scar tissue I already had from two previous gastric banding surgeries and really bad acid reflux I'd had for awhile.  The leak happened at the point where the stomach and esophagus come together.  Dr Pleatman, my surgeon, said it just plain wouldn't hold a stitch or staple and he didn't want to cause the leak to get any bigger.  It was decided the best route was to let it heal on its own.  Not fun, let me tell you.  I had to have two drains put in and a feeding tube that goes directly to the small intestine.  It can take any where from 4 to 8 weeks for a leak to heal.  Before I was sent home they removed one of the drains, but I had to rely on the feeding tube to eat.  Nothing by mouth for weeks.

Once I was out of the hospital I was basically stuck at home around the clock.  Not that I felt good enough to leave the house anyway.  For some reason I was in a lot of pain so I had to take a lot of pain medication and that made me very drowsy.  The pain never let up either.  If I moved around much at all my entire torso would ache so badly.  Dr Pleatman said that usually the pain goes away after a week or two but mine never did.  I had CT scans, I had x-rays, I had endoscopy's and they couldn't find anything that would suggest the reason I was in so much pain all the time.

Turns out the other drain tube was somehow causing me pain, even though that is very unusual.  During an endoscopy they pulled out the old drain and put in a new one and that awful pain went away!  It was wonderful.  I still had some site pain where the tubes would enter the skin, but it was very tolerable.  I felt MUCH better once that was done.  I also had a lot more energy because I could sleep deeper now that I wasn't in pain all the time.

The leak healed up the end of July, but when I went to eat soft solids I couldn't keep anything down.  Unfortunately the stomach had developed a stricture that would allow liquids, but not solids, to go through.  That caused the leak to open BACK UP again.  *sigh*  It was very depressing because it had already been 8 weeks post-op.  The liquid supplement I was given had a ridiculous amount of carbs in it and it prevented me from losing much weight even though I was hardly eating anything.  So it was very frustrating when I had to go back to liquids again.

It has been five more weeks since the leak healed and then re-opened.  I believe the leak is now once again healed since absolutely nothing I eat is showing up in the drain (hurray! that's the sign we look for).  So I am slowly taking in solid foods and hoping for the best.  So far so good.  Hopefully in another two weeks I'll finally be rid of these blasted tubes!!  Then I can get back to life as normal. 

Taking more than three months to heal from this surgery definitely wasn't what I had in mind.  Usually I recover from surgeries very fast and don't ever even need to bother with pain medicine.  This was so completely different than any other experience I've had.  I'm not quite to the point that I'd say I'm  willing to go through it all again, but hopefully I'll get there!

Over the last three months I've only lost 20 pounds.  Quite disappointing, though I don't have a ton to lose.  I know it would have been more if the formula I put through the feeding tube didn't have such an outrageously high amount of carbs.  Plus, once I could start taking liquids by mouth one of the few things I could take that didn't have any bad side effects was coke slushees.  Yum!  But talk about high in sugar and calories.  So that didn't help.  But when you can hardly eat anything at all, its amazing what you'll allow yourself.

I've stop having the slushies over the last two weeks now that I'm having better luck with the food I'm taking by mouth.  I've been having one or two low-carb, high-protein Slim Fast shakes a day.  Then I'll also have some soft foods like yogurt, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes.  Yesterday I was able to have a can of Dinty Moore beef stew.  It took me, like, an hour to eat it but it was SOOO good.  LOL  It also kept me full for a LONG time.  Today I'm going to try some very steamed veggies and see how it goes.  I can't wait until I can eat salads again!  I love salads, they are one of my favorite things to eat. 

I will admit that 165 does feel a whole heck of a lot better than 185.  I was maintaining 150 pretty well but when I got pregnant with my daughter I gained 60 pounds!  I had to eat carbs non-stop to keep from getting nauseous and I am so carb sensitive, it was awful.  I've had a lot of trouble getting the weight off which is one of the reasons I decided to convert from the band to the VSG. Plus, the band was giving me lots of problems. 

The first band I had (July 2000) I did so well with.  The first 6 months I hardly lost any weight.  But once I had a good level of fill over the following 18 months I went from a size 18-20 to a size 2-4.  I lived in CA for awhile and it made it easy to stay slim.  In August 2006 I had to have the band replaced because my original band slipped.  I didn't know at the time that replacement bands rarely worked as well as the first one.  I would have switched to a VSG at that time had I known.  But I definitely did not regret my first band.  I wouldn't have ever lost the weight on my own and something severe, like RNY was just out of the question for me.  I wasn't willing to sacrifice my health to that degree.  Despite being obese, I was very healthy in every respect. 

When I moved back to Michigan I gained about 20 pounds.  Partly because I was more sedentary, partly because all people do here is go out to eat!  Haha.  Plus, I lived with my parents for a bit when I moved back and they're the worst people to live with if you're trying to eat healthy!  So I got up to about 145, but I carried it well.  I was a size 6-8 at 145.

After I got married I put on another 5-7 pounds over the winter (which is always been the toughest time of year for me and the biggest reason why maintaining in southern CA was so easy).  But my hubby and I are decently active in the summer with bike riding and working in our yard.  However, I got pregnant in March (very unexpected!) so I ended up gaining weight over the summer instead of losing it like I normally would.  That just led to a terrible downward spiral.  After Ajalyn was born in mid-November I weighed 185.  I didn't gain any more weight, but I also didn't lose any weight.

I had the VSG done the beginning of June and was looking forward to an active summer once I healed from the surgery (usually 2 to 4 weeks and I could get back to normal).  But it didn't turn out as planned at all!  Thankfully I have lost 20 pounds and some of my "fat" clothes fit again.  I am hoping to get back down to 135.  I feel awesome at that weight.  But I would settle for 145 if that's the lowest I get.  I do not want to stay at 165 where I currently am at, I still feel very fat at this weight.  I'm not too tall, just under 5'4" and I get really bad cellulite on my legs at this weight.  At 135 - 145 I look much better.  I have a medium sized frame so at 125 I look a little too thin.  Though I certainly wouldn't mind going back to that!  Hehe. 

I am hoping by this time next year to be much thinner and then my husband and I will start trying for kiddo number two.  :)  Because of complications I had during my last pregnancy its advised that I gain as little weight as possible (I had a very weak spot in the uterus that came very close to tearing open during delivery and I ended up with a c-section).  I believe having the VSG will make it much easier for me to maintain a more appropriate weight during pregnancy.  Plus, the next time around I'm just going to be better about the food I eat. 

Overall, I don't regret the surgery, though had I known before hand what I would go through I am not sure I would do it again.  It was really hard at first.  I am normally a very cheerful and upbeat person and it really got me down because of all the pain and difficulties I had.  But the more life returns to normal the better I feel! 

I will admit I am looking forward to how the VSG will help me shed the excess pounds from pregnancy.  I am excited knowing that I have a real hope of getting back into my size 6 or size 8 clothes.  My weight has such an impact on my self-image, just having the hope of getting back to were I feel comfortable has really made me happy. 

Next time I post hopefully I'll be down another 5 or 10 pounds.  :)  Thanks for reading.

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