Leonor G.

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Well, a 2½ hour operation turned into a 4½ one.  When the doctor went in he found my small intestine to be fused to the outer lining of the stomach.  He still managed to do the operation without opening me up...I am very thankful for that.  I did have to stay in the hospital an extra day which was not a bad thing.  However, I did come home with a gastrostomy tube that has to stay in the old stomach for 6 weeks...well, it will be 7 weeks since I couldn't get the appointment for 6 weeks....ugh! 
Sooo, today is April 24, 2009 and I figured I best update this thing....
I am down 48 lbs after 9 weeks and 59 lbs since my initial weigh-in in November of '08.  They had to put me back in the hospital to do an endoscopy (in the operating room this first time) inspection of the gastric pouch with a dilation of the strictured anastomosis...in other words, they are trying to stretch the stoma a little.  I haven't been able to eat any solid foods without great pains.  The doctor said he will probably have to do it again 3 weeks later...today it has been two weeks, but again, I couldn't get an appointment for the follow up today and the 1st available was May 4th.  By that date the 3 weeks will be up, so I suppose he'll schedule it when I go.  He said the second one will be done in the clinic, which is good.   I get frustrated sometimes because I would like to be able to eat more than cream soups and pureed stuff, but I'm very patient and know that it will all come to pass.  I'm still amazed though at how little of everything fits in that pouch.
Well, I'll update this periodically...for now, I'll go read the blogs.

Well, tomorrow is THE day...2/17/2009.   Everyone keeps asking me if I'm scared...maybe I'm so happy with seeing the end results already that I don't have enough sense to be scared.  I'm excited, but not scared.  I am a practicing Catholic, so the thought of dying does not scare me at all.  If something were to go wrong, I would just beat everyone to Heaven, now wouldn't I?   I have the utmost confidence in the Bariatric Team at Womack Army Hospital in Ft Bragg.  They are really a team that works with each other and meet once a week to discuss us.  The team consists of a bariatric nurse, a nutritionist, a psychiatrist, 3 surgeons and their support people.  All of them are always there to answer any questions, no matter how trivial it may be.  We have the pre-op support group (3rd Tuesday of the month).  The educational group (2nd Wednesday of the month)...and the post-op group on the 1st Wednesday of the month.  All these are at the hospital's auditorium and there is always a doctor there and the nurse...The psychiatrist and nutritionist are at many of the meetings also.  Dr. St.Jean, my surgeon, met with my husband and me and went through everything and allowed us to ask questions.  We felt like we were the only appointment of the day...that's how relax he made us feel.  So, with such great care, why would I be afraid? 

I have been giving a lot of thought to how long I have been carrying this weight around and it's been about 13 years since I started on this gaining spirral that went out of control.  The many diets throughout the years have done nothing but put more and more weight on.  When I started this process,  in October 2008, I weighed 277 lbs (my highest weight has been 282 lbs - that was in '07 when I started WW and Curves).  I am now at 259 lbs.  They had told me I was going to have to go on a high protein, low carb diet two weeks pre-op, so I decided to start it back in December...couldn't hurt...I'm sure that is why my weight has gone down some. 

I am so glad I found this forum.  I know I'll be spending lots of time here...in between exercising that is!