Post-Surgery Check-In

 o much to talk about, and I've been way too lax about posting!  

First, my surgery went so well, and there was absolutely zero pain! Yes....I didn't even need to take pain pills after I got home, and there was no pain in the hospital either.  It's the craziest thing I've ever experienced, for sure, but I have 5 tiny laparoscopic holes across my belly midline, left to right, and before he closed me up, he packed my belly with pain meds, so there was literally no pain from the moment I woke from the anesthesia. It was like I never had any surgery at all!  I went home the next morning, walked out of the hospital under my own steam, and never looked back.

How's it been since then?

In a word, wonderful.  No complications at all, and the only 'issue' (if you want to call it that) was figuring out the new signals my stomach uses now to communicate with me. It's taken a while to decode, because I no longer have hunger pangs (thank God!) like I used to, but I can now tell when I need to eat, when I'm full, and when something I eat isn't sitting well (it feels like a rock).  If I eat something like that, then I know to not try that food again for another week or two.  At this stage, I'm pretty much eating anything, but tough/thick cuts of meat, alcohol, caffeine, fizzy drinks, and most bread.

How much have I lost?  About 55 lbs, so far, total. It's coming off much slower than I had anticipated, and I'm glad. I thought I'd drop it like a rock, but I haven't, and the slower speed is giving me time to adjust as I go, which I very much need.  So, all in all, I couldn't be happier with my progress!

I had a two week checkup after surgery, which went very well. I was ahead of schedule at that point, and I was out of town when my 6 week checkup was scheduled, so I had to cancel.  I may or may not rebook that one, and just wait until my 6 month checkup to go back, since we're currently having transportation challenges (my car is in the shop, having the engine replaced).

I'm down several sizes now, and I wore a dress this weekend for the first time in years, literally. I'd say that's a definite win!

In the exercise department, and I think I'm the most excited about this of all, I'm getting ready to start a program this afternoon to get me back into running! Stay tuned for more progress on that, very soon!

All Systems Go!

oly cow! After two weeks of thinking that my packet had been submitted to the insurance company, come to find out that my GP was actually waiting on the results of my stress test to send her clearance back in!  Well, I NAILED that test (not too bad for a 60 year old), and she sent my clearance the next day.  Packet in...one week later....APPROVED! 

My surgery date is scheduled for February 26th.  I'm super excited! Yesterday, I met with my Dr. for the final time before surgery, and it was a great experience. He really listens to me and was very patient to answer all my questions....even agreed to take a picture of the part of my stomach he takes out for me before he sends it out to pathology.  That request made Keith's eyes roll all the way back in his head, but I figure it's been an unseen part of me for all these years, I have a right to see what it looks like!

I may or may not post a picture of it later, for those who may be curious....just sayin'.

Anyway, I have a pre-admission meeting with the hospital next week, and I've already started my pre-op prep, which includes a specialized diet...very small amounts of soft stuff this week, and all liquids next week.  This helps to shrink my liver so it's easier to get out of the way during surgery.  

So far, so good.  I'm just seriously over the moon excited about this right now!

Time to Play Catch-Up!

I really am gonna have to do better at this blog updating thang. I guess with everything that's going on, I'm happy to be remembering at all.

So much has been happening since the last time I posted! On the first of December, I had my endoscopy and colonoscopy done, and my gastroenterologist said everything looked good and cleared me for surgery.  On the 18th, I had my second nutrition and PT appointments. My walk test during my PT appointment was greatly improved, and she also gave me a couple of great exercises to do to improve my knee strength.  

The next day, I saw my pulmonary doctor again for the results of my sleep test (that contraption worked very well, apparently). I do have moderate sleep apnea, and he wanted to put me on a CPAP machine, but my experience has been that when I've lost weight in the past, I stopped snoring completely, so Keith helped me find a couple of oral devices to try instead that I can use until I've lost enough weight to stop the snoring. My sleep apnea is very, very light....if it was higher, I would definitely get the CPAP, so please don't think I have anything against the machine. I just know that I have a huge issue with things covering my face, even though it doesn't restrict my breathing, so if I can avoid that, I feel like I'm one up on the process.

A couple of days later, I had my second support group meeting, which was awesome. We had some great conversation, tried some protein drink samples, and played Bariatric Jeopardy, and I won second place!  My prize was a new set of resistance bands that I can use while working out, which is awesome. I was also supposed to have my mid-program appointment with my bariatric doctor, but the office called me and told me they were so impressed with my progress, I didn't need the appointment, so I didn't have to go. I do get to talk to him at the support group meetings, though. He and his team are at every one.

On January 12th, I had my appointment with my regular GP to get clearance from her. She had to run an EKG and do some required lab work...and this is where I ran into a couple of snags. I knew they were bound to show up somewhere, the sailing had been way too smooth up until now.  My EKG showed some abnormalities, which got me referred to a cardiologist, and my blood panel showed elevated liver enzymes, which meant a liver ultrasound and some more specialized bloodwork.

The following week, I met with the cardiologist who told me that he does want to do a stress test on me, but that he didn't see anything alarming, and since I didn't appear to have any symptoms at all and no history of heart issues in my family, he cleared me for surgery. One hurdle down, one to go.  

In the meantime, I attended my third and final support group meeting, in which we learned some great exercises to do with resistance bands, and I had my third and final appointments with my nutritionist and physical therapist, during which we discussed the pre- and post-surgical diets that I must follow.  

Yesterday, I had my liver ultrasound, and it basically showed what I already knew...that my borderline fatty liver had made the commitment to come down off the fence and be fatty for real. This is something that fortunately is completely reversible with weight loss, so that's just all the more reason to get the surgery.  My GP sent my clearance in.

So....what's next? I've got a call in to my surgeon's office to verify that they have all the paperwork they need to submit to my insurance company. They will assemble that packet and send it in, and then we wait for the insurance company to approve the surgery. This can be very quick or take a couple of weeks, depending on the person that works the case, but once that approval is received, we can schedule a date for my surgery!

Looks like all systems are go. Now....we wait.