bluemanma
Date Weight waist size
08/19/04 290 53"
09/05/04 270 52.5"
11/26/04 245 46"
12/13/04 240 45"
05/02/05 218 42" (AT LAST I CAN SHOP FOR REGULAR SIZES!)
06/13/05 209 40"
03/17/06 190 38"
08/18/06 175 34"
04/24/07 175 34"
03/18/2007 - It's my first day home from the hospital. After shaving, I remove the dressing binders and take a look at the results. Both the chest incisions and the abdomen incisions are covered by tegamet, so I can safely shower so long as I am careful. The nipples are covered under gauze dressings under the tegamet so they aren't visible, but the other chest incisions and abdomen incision are visible. Of course they look kind of ugly - red and inflamed. Since so many nerves were cut by the skin moving around, the surgeon warned me to be very careful showering with hot water. Since the sense of touch is lost, if you aren't careful you can allow your skin to get burned by too much hot water. The day turns out fine. My parents show up again to help out with anything and my mother makes corned beef and cabbage in honor of St. Patricks day. I keep close track of how much fluid is draining into each of the drain bulbs.
03/17/2007 - It's the first day after surgery. Boy did it snow last night. There's about 8" of snow on the ground. My surgeon who lives on the north shore calls to say that it is so bad that he won't be able to come into Boston to see me at the hospital. Since every thing looks ok and the pain seems well under control, he makes an appointment to see me at his office in Boston Monday morning. After breakfast, the nurse drops in to instruct me on how to handle the drains. The bulb collecting the fluid at the bottom of the drain has to be opened to kill the vacuum. The tube that drains from the body into the bulb has to be squeezed to make sure that there are no clots preventing fluids draining. The fluid in the bulb has to be measured since the drains should come out if less than 20cc drain in a 24 hour period. Then the bulb has to be squeezed so all the air goes out and plugged to create a vacuum again to drain more fluid.
After lunch, despite the snow, my parents drop by the hospital to pick me up and take me home. Thankfully the condo complex plows my driveway leaving a narrow strip of about a foot wide that needs to be hand shoveled, so there is no problem having my parents park in my driveway and get me into my townhouse.
The Faulkner Hospital was pretty comfortable, but it is a relief to sink back into my own bed. After a small dinner, I take both the antibiotics and pain medication and slip off to sleep.
03/16/07 - It's surgery day, as with most surgery I haven't had anything to eat or drink since midnight actually more likely 8pm of 3/15. I make sure I'm shaved and washed with dial anti-bacterial soap and dressed in loose clothes. Then I get to the Faulkner Hospital at 6:00am. The incoming patient checking staff isn't there yet. My surgery is scheduled for 7:30, so I have plenty of time to sit and get nervous ;) Checkin goes smoothly, then I'm changed into a hospital gown, put into a hospital bed and wheeled to the pre-op waiting room by 7am. At 7:30, Dr Breuing and his team show up. The anesthesiologist starts a drip and Dr. Breuing marks me up. Sometime during the markup process, I must have gone under because I don't remember another thing until I woke up in the recovery room around 2pm.
The morphine drip is working and I don't feel a thing. A little bit later I'm moved into my hospital room. I'm still a little groggy, but started to take stock. I've got two flexible binders on, one is around my abdomen, the other covers my chest. There are 3 drains coming just under the tummy tuck incision to drain any fluids from the liposuction. What I didn't expect was a catheter. I must have dislodged it slightly when I moved because it stops draining. That's when the pain starts. Not even a morphine drip can take away the pain of a overly full bladder needing to be emptied. Since the catheter is not working, we put a call into my surgeon to ask if the catheter can be removed. Fortunately they catch up with him quickly and he gave his permission. Once the catheter is removed, it seems like I spend the rest of the afternoon eliminating what seems like gallons of fluid. The nurse says it was typical with liposuction because of the fluid injected while removing any fat.
At 5pm, I got ravenously hungry and finally thought to ask the staff when dinner was going to be served. They told me that I had to make my selections from a menu, call in my request and wait for delivery. By that time I was starving. I quickly found the menu, glanced through it only to discover that I had to have ordered dinner beforehand if I wanted a hot meal. The only thing I'm able to order this late in the evening is a sandwich. I got tuna salad and believe me, a tuna salad sandwich never tasted so good. I even ate the bread in small bites of course which I normally don't do because of the lapband. I make sure I order breakfast and lunch for tomorrow.
After dinner the nurse gets me up to walk a little bit around the floor. It's not too bad to get around. As the doctor warned me I would, I feel a little hunched over since the skin over my abdomen is pulled so tight. You just have to make sure the drains are carefully attached to your clothing so they don't pull. Later I relaxed into the evening, a predicted snow storm starts. I have no trouble at all falling asleep.
03/09/07 - Today was the pre-surgery check in at the Faulkner Hospital. It was quick and easy. I also got any prescriptions that I would need for pain or other things filled at my local pharmacy, so I wouldn't have to go rushing about after I got home to get prescriptions filled. Last time for lap-band, that's what I did and found out that the pharmacy didn't have some of my medications in stock. The surgeon gave me a prescription for percoset for pain and kflex as an antibiotic to take after surgery to lessen the chance of any infections. I also start washing daily with with dial antibackterial soap again to make sure my skin is free from bacteria.
02/16/07 - I decided to go ahead with the plastic surgery with a surgery date set for Friday 3/16/07. I figured the Friday surgery date would give me an extra weekend of recovery.
02/01/07 - With my weight stable for a six months at target, I decided to explore the possibility of plastic surgery to remove loose skin from my chest and stomach because I wasn't pleased with the look of all the loose skin. Based on the recommendations of my bariatric surgeon David Lautz, I went to see Dr. Karl Breuing at the Brigham and Women's Hospital Division of Plastic Surgery for a consultation to see what it would be possible to do and how much it would cost.
Dr Breuing and his assistant took several pictures from several angles and examining my skin with regard to elasticity and propensity to scar. Since the scars from the lap-band operation healed very nicely and were not very visible, Dr. Breuing thought I would be a good candidate for plastic surgery. Dr. Breuing recommended three procedures: an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), liposuction of the the love handle area where stubborn fat just would not go away, and reconstruction of chest/breasts to remove breast tissue, fat and excess skin and with a free nipple graft to move the nipple back to a normal location.
Dr. Breuing said that all procedures could be done safely under anesthesia at one time, which was important because separate hospital stays and anesthesia fees would have made all the work unaffordable. I received a written estimate with a description of proposed surgery and a cost for the surgeon's fee, the anestheiologist fee and the hospital fee. On the down side, I'd be out of work for at least a week, lose all sensation in my nipples, require drains for where liposuction was done, and have to wear an abdominal binder for several weeks to make sure fluid did not acumulate in the liposuctioned areas. Also of course I'd have to cut out the gym for a while.
08/18/06 - It's almost time for my 2 year anniversary, I thought I'd catch up here with what's been going on with me. December 2005 I purchased a full years memebership at the Fitcorp gym next to the office where I work. At lunch at least 3 times a week I've been going doing a combination of cardio and weights. I think that's really helped to bring down my weight and push me into smaller clothes. I can't believe that I'm wearing a size 34" waist and size 38-40 medium shirts.
06/13/05 - I went back to my surgeon last month to get a fill since I was losing some of that restricted feeling when I ate. I couldn't thank my surgeon and his staff enough at my last appointment for how much weight I've lost. Looks like the fill helped me, plus the fact that with the better weather, I've probably been more active. I've dropped yet another pants size. I think the next big step for me will be to finally step on a scale and see that I weigh less than 200 pounds. Meanwhile, I'll have to weed out all the clothes that are much to big now to make room for smaller sizes. I'm going to be very careful about purchasing only the smallest number of clothes I need until my weight finally settles down.
05/02/05 - I've been slowly losing weight over the first couple of months. I realized that my belt couldn't be tightened any longer and that my pants would fall off if without a belt at all. I went shopping for some work clothes which for pants is dockers for me. I had been wearing a size 46" waist pants and thought I'd only be able to fit into a size 44" pants. Low and behold! I fit comfortably into a size 42" pants. No more paying more money for "Big" sizes! There's a better chance that I'll find my size in stores too. I can't be more happy.
8/26-8/29/04 - Since then I've been doing fine at home. My incisions have waterproof bandages on them so I can shower. I'm on my lap band stage 2 diet which is liquid protein and non caloric beverages. I'm up and around and have walked around the condo complex. If the weather was a little less humid, I would have done some more walking. As it is, after 1/2 hour of sweating, I find I need to get back into the a/c and sip some cold water. I'm so thankful I have central a/c - I'll never buy another house without it.
8/25/04 - Wednesday morning in hospital - They started me on drinking water slowly every hour, that felt good. Even with the morphine drip keeping all other kinds of pain away, I still felt pain from bloating. I managed a small sponge bath and felt cleaner and more upbeat about that.
Without question, the worst part of my hospital stay was the liquid I had to drink for the flouroscope picture. Bleah! It was some kind of special iodine fluid that showed up on the screen. It tasted horrible and made me nauseous, which was bad since for the first couple of weeks until the band settles vomiting can move the band to a bad part of the stomach. They had to give me an anti-nausea drug to calm me down so it was just as well that I stayed another night. Also I passed some of the gas pumped into my stomach. I couldn't believe how relieved I felt. After that they switched me from the morphine drip to 20cc of a liquid morphine administered every couple of hours.
Dinner I was started the lap band stage 2 diet, protein drinks and non-caloric liquids. I got the expected sugar free Carnation Instant Breakfast, but also chicken broth and low-cal juice. There was sugar free jello too. I sipped the chicken broth slowly while it was hot. I waited a while and had the Carnation Instant Breakfast, and then yet again later some juice. I was too stuffed for the sugar-free jello. I hadn't thought about broth as something I could have - but realized it has very few calories and that there are low fat brands, I resolved to buy some when I got home.
8/26/04 - Thursday morning still in the hospital, I felt much better after a full shower and with prescriptions for liquid oxcodone and a nausea drug, my parents drove me home. Every bump that the car went over hurt though - and my father drives so slowly every feels twice as forceful as if you were going fast. I had some trouble getting the liquid oxycodone at the pharmacy, but once I took a dose, and got into bed I got the first real full nights sleep back home
8/24/04 - I went into the hospital Tuesday 8/24 for laproscopic lap band surgery. I arrived bright and early at the hospital at 5:30 am. By 7:30 am was on the operating table. Before I knew it, I had woken up in the recovery room. I glanced at the clock at it was 11:30 which was a little longer than the doctor said I'd be. My Dr said he had a little difficulty sliding the lap band around my stomach because of the way it was shaped, something they could only see through the laproscopic tools camera and not through xrays.
When I woke up in the recovery room two things hurt - my throat and my shoulder - not my stomach at all! They had the anesthesia breathing tube down my throut into my lungs, and another separate tube going to my stomach to pump in air which they needed when placing the lap band. It turns out that the nerves for your shoulder run near to where the stomach is so the surgery and gas they put in my stomach probably was pressing a nerve that made me feel pain in my shoulder. It made sense because the pain moved around, first it was near the shoulder and then the neck.
By Tuesday afternoon I was in my hospital room. I had a morphine drip hooked up and could give myself a shot every 10 minutes. As long as I did that I wasn't feeling any pain at all in fact I felt pretty good. Unfortunately, the morphine machine broke at 6pm. They didn't get me a replacement machine until 9pm and by that time I was feeling pain from bloating in my stomach and my throat was feeling very abused too from the tubes. I had nothing to drink except a few ice chips plus the saline drip.
8/19/04 - Pre-surgery meeting with Dr Lautz. I come prepared with a list of questions like, what kind of pain can I expect? How long will it take me to recover? Will I feel hungry?
Then it's off to the anesthesiologist to review my health history, get more blood samples, and answer questions. Dr Lautz secretary tells me that my health plan hasn't come through with the final approval for surgery - so I call them myself, but can't get the right person online but they do tell me that I should be 100% covered. I feel relieved but start to get anxious over the quickly upcoming surgery and potential health plan approval problems.
8/16/04 - I have my appointment with the Brigham and Women's psychiatrist to determine if I am good candidate for weight loss surgery. Lots of questions about what is my mental state, what have I done in the past for weight loss, and finally the "sound mind tests" ie who were the last current and two previous presidents, and recite the months in a year backwards.
8/3/04 - Dr Lautz's office calls and tentatively schedules surgery for 8/24/04. I tell my manager I'll need time off. He suggests I apply for short term disability in case the time needed to recover exceeds my vacation time. Human resources says that I will only need to take 5 days vacation and that all other time will be covered by short term disability.
7/28/04 - After a week of using my cpap machine and mask, I beg the sleep health center to let me try a different mask. The one they gave me makes is hurting the bridge of my nose to the point of causing a sore. I reseached onlien and found a mask that I think will work better - the resmed mirage vista. The vista mask only covers the nostrils and tip of the nose, the brige of the nose is left free. The strap system doesn't have any strap running down the center of the forhead, only two multi-angle adjustable side straps. Thankfully the sleep health center has one of those type of masks in stock. Once I try the mirage vista mask, my whole experience with cpap becomes much more comfortable. While it's not the same as sleeping without a cpap machine, it's about as comfortable as you can get with one on.
7/23/04 - Early in the morning, I head to Brigham and Women's for my upper GI imaging series. Ugh! First there's the carbonated crystals to cause your stomach to inflate and then there's the chalky liquid to better show up the stomach and intestine details. After that it's 30 minutes of posing on back, stomach and side on imaging table. It's kind of neat to be looking at the television monitor and seeing what's going on though.
Afterwards, there's my appointment with the Brigham and Womens weight loss surger nutritionist for the specific diet they recommend for lap band surgery.
7/22/04 - Another sleep health center appointment to get a mask and a cpap machine. Thank God the respironics remplus cpap machine is compact, includes a built in humidifier, and is QUIET. I have trouble being fitted with a mask though.
7/19/04 - I have my appointment with my sleep health specialist to learn the results of my sleep study. He said that sleep apnea is diagnosed if a person wakes up slightly 6-12 times an hour to keep air passages open. Bad sleep apnea is when patient wakes up 40 times an hour. I was diagnosed as waking up 88 times an hour. No wonder I feel so tired all the time. Of course it's the news I was dreading, I'll need a cpap machine which I did not like at all after using one for 1/2 the night during the sleep study.
7/1/04 - First meeting with Brigham and Women's Hospital surgeon, Dr. David Lautz to discuss risks and benefits of lapband, my personal health history, and determine if I am a surgery candidate. One of the requirements is a sleep study. I tell him that I have had one already and that I will have the results faxed to his office when I get them. Dr Lautz tells me that if I am prescribed a cpap machine that I will have to be using the machine for a full month before surgery will be scheduled. Apparently, patients with sleep apnea MUST be using a cpap machine after anesthesia since the anesthesia would worsen any problem with throat muscles sagging and blocking airways. I also have my first series of blood tests.
6/29/04 - I attended the weight loss surgery introductory seminar at Brigham and Women's Hospital. After learning more about gastric banding, I decide to choose lapband over gastric bypass because of decreased risk, reversability and absence of mineral absorbtion problems with lapband.
6/21/04 - I went to the sleep health center to be monitored overnight. Halfway through the night, they wake me up and put me on a cpap machine to take more measurements of quality of sleep. I can't believe how loud the cpap machine is and how uncomfortable the mask is. Unfortunately, the test results have to be studied and with July 4th holiday, the results won't be ready to give to me until third week in July.
6/15/04 - My first appointment with a nutritionist associated with my primary care physicians network to describe what the type of diet I would have to adhere to for gastric bypass.
5/25/04 - I discussed possibility of weight loss surgery with my primary care physician. I was surprised that he said I was eligible. I learned I would have to have a series of tests done including a sleep apnea test. In preparation, I had blood work done and a chest xray. Primary care physician gives me the name of two hospitals associated with my health plan that perform weight loss surgery. I pick the one closest to work - Brigham and Women's hospital.
