I should have listened to my husband and started this 3 ½ weeks ago. I had my gastric bypass surgery on 19 Oct. I had been looking into it for a few years. I followed my insurance policy of attending six pre-operative classes. Of course, my insurance changed, as did my job, in the middle of it, so the six months dragged out to ten. Which added to my anxiety.
I got to the ten day pre-operative diet and the skepticism kicked in on me. I was going to do the ten day pre-op, and I was going to get a phone call from the insurance company, saying I needed to start all over again. Of course, that call never came. I went into the hospital at 5 am on Wed. for my surgery. The surgery itself, went as smoothly as scrambling ones insides could go. The nine hours in recovery really sucked a lot, because I was only supposed to be in recovery for one hour. I was very lucky to have the Love of My Life there. Typically, they don’t let anyone in recovery, but I was crying for him, so they let him come in to be with me. He was scared enough for the both of us, so once he was securely planted next to me, I very happily passed in and out of consciousness.
I left the hospital Thursday evening, as promised. I had a tube sticking out of my side as a drain and I was incredibly uncomfortable, scared, and higher than a kite. I was also very lucky to have my sister drive eight hours down from upstate New York to help get me back on my feet.
I had six punctures in my abdomen. Five were stitched up, and the sixth had the drain. The drain was something I knew was going to be a psychological issue as soon as I heard about it. It was almost a deal breaker for me. As psyched out as I had made myself, I also managed to convince myself it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought. It turns out I was right. It was WAY worse!! I couldn’t even bring myself to look at the drain, let alone empty the bulb twice a day like I was supposed to do. This is where the incredibly competent, caring, and careful sister really stepped up and helped. We laugh in our family about our CDO (it’s OCD, but alphabetical!) personalities. We all enjoy order, because it really simplifies how things get done. Anyway, the sister from NY changed out bandages and recreated the surgeon’s check sheet. It didn’t make any sense to write down the time and amount I drank every time I drank. If I was supposed to drink every 15 minutes, then a chart was created with times written down for every 15 minutes. I was poured 1 oz of protein water to sip through the 15 minutes. As I started each ounce, I would cross off the time. If a time was not crossed off, there was a written reason why-sleeping, walking, showering, etc. I had to take my medications, so those were added to the chart, too, and then crossed off as they were taken. The amount of fluid in the drain bulb was recorded on the chart. Sister from NY is VERY thorough!! The surgeon’s office was impressed when I showed the sheets of charts to them.
One of the hardest things for Sister from NY to do was my bandages. The only one that needed regular attention was the one around the drain. The tube, itself, was stitched to me. This was still an open wound, though, and any time I moved, it did leak. SO. Imagine having to peel off sticky bandage tape from an open wound, ripping layer after layer of new skin off the area only to reapply a new bandage. Changing out this bandage took about fifteen minutes. Add in the possibility of me passing out or throwing up and crying through it and Sister from NY really deserves some kind of medal! Competent older sisters are the BEST!!
Sister from NY made sure that Love of My Life watched and learned how to change out the bandages and empty the drain. She was going to be leaving soon and heading back to her own crazy, hectic, wonderful life. Love of My Life did his best. Personally, I think he was upset that my skin was being torn off and he was the one doing it. I know he was upset that I cried so much. Sister from NY also made sure I was fully trained in following her charts. They really made things much easier.
The Meds were the worst. I had a bad reaction to oxy. I didn’t have to be hospitalized. No, poor Sister from NY and Love of My Life were submitted to complete freak outs. I’m talking full on wackadoodle freak outs. Sister from NY finally said that she wasn’t going to give me any more of the oxy, so we headed to the pharmacy to find something I could take. With a stomach now the size of a golf ball, I have to be sure that what goes in really will help immediately. I can’t take anything but a fast release or chewable tablet. At the time, I was also on Coumadin. That meant I had to stay away from certain types of pain reliever, too. We found an acceptable alternative, and the freak outs stopped.
Sister from NY waited until I was asleep, and headed home. She had expected me to sleep the entire time she was there, and had brought work with her. I think one of the unexpected side effects of the oxy was I was ragingly awake all the time. I think the freak outs were me expressing how much pain I was in and how tired I was but I couldn’t relax enough to sleep. Once the oxy was gone, I was sleeping.
I started eating Greek yogurt and baby food six days after surgery. I was fine with the Greek yogurt with a little Stage 1 baby applesauce mixed into it. Once I realized that the baby meats had additional protein in them, I was determined to add them to the yogurt. I need to have 60 proteins per day. Any way that I can get them into me is a good thing. After hitting a point where I was starting to gag on the baby beef, I contacted my bariatric nutritionist. She suggested that I throw a little taco mix powder into the cup. It worked for a while. My daily food intake consisted of a protein water bottle (it takes all day to drink), one container of Greek yogurt split into three cups, one jar of meat baby food split into two of those yogurt cups, and half a jar of baby applesauce in the third jar. In addition, I also put 2 tsp. of egg whites powder into each of the containers of yogurt for an additional 2 proteins.
I get 20 minutes to eat. If there is food leftover, oh well. I am following the recommendation of getting a word find book. Remember those? I sure do. Every teacher who ever gave me one to do for homework or extra credit always ripped on me because I didn’t think to do it with a ruler. Find a word, circle it. How hard is that??? Well, the teachers never bothered to tell me that I wasn’t going to get credit due to being sloppy until after it was submitted. NOT FAIR. Anyway….I digress. Teachers are another issue I have to work on. Back to the word find. I set my timer on my phone for 20 minutes. I take a baby spoon bite of food. I find three words. I take a bite. This slows the process of eating down considerably. I was not one of those food breathers. I grew up in a house where eating was a race. Once I had kids, I knew that I didn’t want that. So, meals became a long drawn out thing. Now, I have to focus on the food, take my bites, and stop after 20 minutes.
There is more to catch up with on the changes I’m seeing and feeling. That will be for the next time.
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