I am officially six weeks out of surgery and down 24 lbs
since the day of the surgery and 43lbs in total since the start of the liquid
diet. If you have never had the surgery please don’t think this came easy,
there is nothing easy about it.
There are a lot of things they don’t tell you, to quote my
doctor, “It was have made you more nervous had I told you. Would you have still
gone through with it?” My response, “I don’t know because you took my right to
make an informative decision away.” They tell you about the potential nausea,
constipation, gas, reflux and hair falling out but they leave out other things.
For those with chronic back pain, only
after the fact did I find out it is common for you to have intense pain, worse
than your usual back pain after the surgery. I will come back to this.
On the day of the surgery I started having doubts. I cried
and when they put me on the table I was about to say I don’t want to do this
but by the time that happened I woke up in agony and it was all ready done. I
was so nauseous and the pain was so intense, my mouth felt like a cotton desert
and nobody would even give me an ice chip. They had no room available for me
and I had to stay in the recovery room until the late evening when they found
one for me. The doctors say before the surgery it is very important to bring
your medications with you as the hospital does not necessarily have them to
provide. I did, I brought my birth control and back medication, however, when I
was finally placed in a room I was told my belongings are locked up until the
next day. Despite my doctor’s warnings not to miss my pills especially my birth
control even if I had it with me, the nurses and doctors after the surgery were
not going to allow me to take it because they weren’t letting me swallow
anything. Even with the morphine drip, my back was in agony. I was experiencing
pain in my back I hadn’t previously experienced. Due to the pain I was out of
my very uncomfortable bed which was broken in less than the recommended six
hours. I spent my first night walking around and not sleeping. I couldn’t sleep
the pain in my back and stomach was too intense and instead of giving me the
medication I use for my back they insisted on giving me Vicodan which does nothing
for my nerve pain. I didn’t eat(drink broth/whatever that other liquid poison
was) anything the entire time I was in
the hospital, everything burned the back of my throat, I only drank water and
tea. Despite my back doctor’s warnings the hospital bariatric doctor’s took me
off my back meds causing a painful downward spiral in my lower back. By day
three of my hospital stay I was ready to get out of there, my back was in agony
and that trumped any stomach pain I had. Upon discharge they told me not to
take my back meds and sent me home with more damn Vicodan. I was unable to get
in touch with my back doctor until the following Monday and she was not happy
that I was taken off my meds and after a discussion with the bariatric doctors
(which I’m sure she yelled at them because she is all about the well-being of
her patients) she informed me to stop the Vicodan and continue the back
medication. I was walking on a cane and barely able to get out of bed things
were so bad. In addition to he surgery weakening your core (keep in mind you
cannot do any core activities for six weeks) it is common for the surgery to
pinch nerves in your back because you are on a table for many hours and then in
the hospital bed, then lying on your back when you are home. Had I known it was
going to make my back worse I might have made some different arrangements or at
least made my house a little more comfortable for my condition.
Another important thing to remember is to bring loose
fitting clothes and don’t plan on wearing a bra home. I was so swollen that I
could barely fit in my sneakers. Bring the most comfortable loose fitting
things you own.
At home, I had to make sure I was getting in my three protein
shakes a day which even up until the end of the four weeks of the post op
liquid diet was a struggle. I have to get up at five
to seven A.M. to have my first shake just so I can drink the other
two shakes throughout the day plus water. I also had pretty bad nausea starting
the second week, I have come to the conclusion that my body no longer wants
anything to do with high protein chocolate Boost (maybe it is the sugar) so I
just stuck to whey protein, One of the things I found helped me with nausea was
V8. I recommend asking your doctor before you try it, V8 is very acidic and my
doctors were afraid of reflux but it has not bothered me. I have been getting
additional protein by mixing K02 (A Special K drink mix similar to Crystal
Light except it has 5 grams of protein) in my whey protein, combined with half
water and half soy milk. Despite that, my hair is still falling out. The
doctors lied when they said if you get enough protein your hair won’t fall out.
Now they told me no matter what I will loose some hair, how much varies and it
won’t stop until my weight settles. As I keep losing pounds I will keep losing
hair.
Despite all of this, I am now on the pureed portion of the
diet. The diet doesn’t bother me, just fitting food in is what does. My daily
diet consist of an early morning shake for breakfast, less than a cup of Fage 0
greek yogurt for lunch and a puree I made for dinner. The first week was a broccoli
puree, the last week and a half has been an excellent bean puree.
So, this is where I am with everything. A little angry at
the doctors and little happy with my progress and excited that my six weeks
have passed and now I can go to physical therapy to do some core strengthening to
help make my back happy again.
I also want to thank my readers, I know you are out there I
see the blog hits. You are a quiet bunch but don’t be afraid to ask questions
or tell your story, You don’t have to come out of the fatty closet but you can
make your voice heard here. I will be back with updates as often as possible.
