You read that correct and if you follow my facebook you know that I had my surgery! I am now the proud owner of a smaller gastric sleeve. Apparently the second surgeon that they wanted to have there just in case, wasn't needed and he just operated the video camera through the entire thing (I have not seen the video). The physician assistant who saw me in the hospital told me that everything went very well and seemed to go by the book. They repaired a hiatal hernia while they were in there and I was out pretty quickly.
This was my first real surgery. I don't really count my wisdom teeth being taken out or the little procedure on my toe as surgery. So this was an entirely new experience for me. I ended up going in bright and early and got there at 5 o'clock. They took me into the shot term stay area where they took my vitals and got me ready for the surgery and all of that fun stuff. I also got the most adorable red socks and it was awesome. I love my red socks. I then was taken into the surgery room and there were a lot of people in there and I remember getting put on the bed and then pretty much from there I was out.
The next thing I knew I was in my hospital room and they almost immediately had me drinking fluids. They also gave me this little cup of ice with a sponge on a stick to rub around in my mouth to moisten it. I called it my water popsicle stick. I was in and out a lot on the first day, but they had me sitting up fairly soon. I also ended up getting woken up all the time, but it all ended up being okay.
Next day I was on protein shakes and they gave me some tomato soup and by early afternoon I was on my way home. All in all I was in the hospital less than thirty six hours. Apparently I was a model patient and the surgery went through fine. I went into this expecting there to be a tone of complications, but so far, knock on wood, there are none. I ended up sleeping that afternoon when I got back and then woke up middle of the night. I went back to sleep and today I am back in the swing of things.
I am surprised at how well my pain is controlled, it isn't so bad. It flares up and I have a hard time moving, but i'm able to get up and walk around the house slowly and I am able to do most of my drinking okay. However, they want me to take in 195 grams of protein a day and I figured out in order to do it it will take 12 hours of just drinking protein shakes at a rate of 1 oz every 15 minutes (the rate they want me to drink). For those who are curious why they want me at 195 grams of protein a day, it comes from a calculation of my body weight x .3 and the result is the grams of protein I should have. As I lose weight this number will go down, but for now that is a massive number and I am not sure I can do it. I also need to get in liquids like water as well. I can get a lot of this from the protein shakes, but I need some on its own as well. It's going to take some work to balance out.
The other big thing that I am struggling with is my pills. I can't swallow any pills bigger than 5 millimeters in diameter. I tried to swallow my aspirin which is 7 mm in diameter and it hurt for the next hour or so. (in fact it still hurts, it's part of what prompted this retrospective). I'm going to have to cut up a lot of pills. In the hospital I tried eating a bit of this pudding of a flavor I don't know what it is with all of my meds chopped up and ground and mixed into it, but I couldn't tolerate it. The taste was really off. I think it was a vanilla or tapioca, which I can't tolerate anyway. We ended up picking up some sugar free chocolate pudding and those pills I can't just cut into a smaller size to take, we'll try grinding up in bits of that and see how it goes. Next step beyond this will be seeing if the doctor can find us liquid versions of any of these. Thankfully, in time my med needs will be going down and thus I won't have as big of an issue. But what was already 20-25 meds a day, when you consider more than half of them need to be cut in two (or more. my iron supplement is in quarters) that's a lot of pills I have to swallow.
In time my stomach size will grow until it is about the size of a tennis ball and when that happens, I'll be able to take in a bit more pills and things like that and my rates of eating will increase until i'm on a more normal schedule. But for right now, for the next 4-6 weeks, it's going to be a lot of careful balancing the whole way through. There are no regrets though. This was what we needed to do, this is what I needed to do. Perhaps it's just a trick of the imagination, but there are parts of my skin where already it seems like it is starting to shrivel up and become looser. I'm taking in next to know calories at the moment and that is going to pay dividends early. Just can't get too attached to this rate of weight loss.
photo credit: three day's in hospital with the not so little one... via photopin (license)
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