WLS January 3, 2011 doctor appointment post

WOW! I had my one week after surgery follow up today. I will start off by saying I lost 15 pounds.

But I was excited when I got to the doctor's office because the patient & her husband that went through surgery with me were also there for their follow up! YAY! We connected and hopefully will stay in touch. B & C both had the sleeve procedure and I was asking them about the injections and such and they had no clue what I was talking about. They were doing wonderful and C looked very pretty in a black dress. I had on loose sweat pants and tshirt and tennis shoes! HAHA! What a slob I felt. Maybe soon I will feel like a little black dress. We did exchange information and I plan to keep in touch. They are also foster parents and live in Terrell so we have a lot in common.

I so enjoyed talking with C and found out that the day of our surgery when I was having a nervous breakdown because of the amount of time it was taking for us to go back to surgery, she was TOO! Misery loves company, right! Her mother in law was with her and she was wishing for her mom or husband, but her mother in law was a nurse and there was some comfort in that too. The funny thing was that C told me that the morning after our surgery, her mother in law had told her that my mom was at the nurse's desk telling my nurse for the day that I had gotten exceptional care the night before and today was, well, not so exceptional. That nurse was not my nurse but moved to another area of the hospital. I never knew why the switch occurred but it is nice to have your mommy in your corner. C said she had one nurse that I believe she called a witch or something evil. You know, we have all had those kinds! B & C also didn't get stapled shut, they were super glued at their request.

I have very little recollection of much from the time that I got some zanax in my IV in pre-op (when I was having my nervous breakdown) and the next mid-morning. I remember walking and drinking vaguely. Every two hours my mom and the nurse would wake me to walk to the bathroom and down the hall and every hour to drink water. It did really feel good although a bit wobbly to walk though. I requested a walker beforehand to walk with to steady myself due to my knee.

Now on to my writing about my appointment today. Like I said, I lost 15 pounds and was so stinking bummed out! 3 weeks on liquids, surgery and only 15 pounds?!?! I am ready to kill someone. HAHA! The nurse laughed at me and said "Sweetie, you still have a lot of swelling and fluid, be patient!" OK, yes ma;m, I will be patient! After weighing in the nurse removed my staples. Funny thing is she makes the bed to sit up to remove my staples and I told her I didn't want to watch her pull metal out of me! She told me to look at the ceiling! ARGHHH!!  I have 6 incisions and she said 22 staples. I now am the proud owner of steri-strips! HAHA! The staples didn't bother me though, I just didn't want to see them. I should tell you my aversion to this, it is funny!

My grandfather had abdominal surgery when I was a teenager and he had a large incision diagonally across his abdomen, and I just always thought people were SEWN shut and someone mentioned his staples, and I thought they were joking and he raised his shirt and showed me. I thought I was going to throw up! They stapled my grandpa shut! At seeing my reaction, my grandpa chuckled loudly about it and every time I would walk into the living room he would get my attention and raise his shirt! He laughed every time. I begged the doctor to NOT staple me shut when I had to have c-section with Zachary and he did not staple me but stitched me. I did have staples in my knee in July and it was not THAT bad.

Back to my appointment...Had my staples removed and waited all of 2 minutes for the doctor. Now let me explain, Dr. B did my surgery. I saw Doctor B the first visit and have not seen him since. His associate, Dr. T now oversees the after care but I can always request a one-on-one with Dr. B if I ever want to. But I really love Dr. T, he is so easy to ask questions and is very warm and sincere in his bedside manner. He told me that my sutures looked really good, really good. And then I asked him about the daily injections that I was taking and if I needed to continue them for the full 30 days. The injections are for Lovenox a blood thinner injection. Dr. T reviewed my surgical files and said that with all DS patients (Duodenal switch) Dr. B sends them home with orders to continue the injections once daily. During my stay in the hospital, the nurses were giving the injections every 8 hours. Dr. T also said it depends on what Dr. B saw during surgery. He also stated the they had just had their first patient die this week from blood clot because she refused to use the injections after leaving the hospital. Yes, this scared me, but why would you go through WLS and everything it entails, this is NOT the easy way out, and then refuse to follow the direction of the surgeon. The only thing I stopped taking was the pain meds when I got home because I didn't need them, or so I thought! HAHA!

Enough of the doom and gloom. Dr. T said to stay on liquids for  two more weeks.UGH! 3 weeks already, but if that is what he says, I will do it but it is time to break out some options. My sweet honey went by LaMadeline and bought all the cream soups that they had today, 3 different ones, Cream of Mushroom, Tomato Basil and Cream of Potato. The Cream of Mushroom was AWESOME! Dr. T said there are many options with the cream soups but it was the best option for healing. So that is where we are. A sweet friend from church, Susan, brought my boys dinner tonight and made Chicken Tortilla soup and strained it and brought me the broth. I thought that was so sweet of her to take the time to do that. I look forward to trying that tomorrow.

Dr. T also told me to pick up a chewable iron tablet at the Vitamin Shop. They really do taste like sweet tarts! So I have my vitamins and supplements all lined out and know what my plan of action will be. Setting my course for two more weeks! Have a great week!