phatmomma
New Member
Okay i'm on day 4 post op and as i actually feel like being on my computer thought i'd share with you all..
For those of you who are pre op i hope you find it helpful...
So i didn't sleep much the night before (as to be expected i guess) and got at the hospital at 7pm, thanks to my good friend Jenny
. Trevor wasn't allowed to stop he literally walked me in kissed me goodbye and walked out again, which was good because i could see the tears starting to come which i'd warned him not to do as it was the last thing i needed to cope with. So i waited a couple of hours and they did my pre op checks, gave me the clexane and some meds and then i waited again. I was 3rd on the list! Met the anaesthetist, who incidentally wasn't Mr Yousef, but had an even longer more foreign name i cant pronounce or even remember, but he was lovely and i did think i'd enjoy him wiping my brow Then i met the main man himself, Mr Khan, he had a little chat with me and said i was a 'small one' which made me laugh and get quite big headed, almost 300lb and i'm small lol... Asked if i'd rather have a band but i wasn't having it, no way! ''Bypass please''! So went and sat and waited again, during this time i was absolutely amazed, i was so chillaxed it was awesome! I thought i was gonna be like a thunderbird on acid as usually i'm very excitable (luckily for trev ). Next thing i know the nurse is telling me time to get dressed for theatre, and i'm still CALM. So we headed down to theatre where i had a nice chat with a chap called Steve who was assisting and had the op last year. Then time to go in and get on the table, and still no bubbling over... wow them blood pressure tablets must really work! So i'm getting up on the bed and wondering why they haven't asked me to take me knickers off yet! So they get me to put me arms on these attachments to the table which i can only describe as looking like aeroplane wings, which when i do i get tied up! Whooooaaaaaaaaaa, nobody told me they were gonna get kinky! Put me feet in some of those vibrating stockings and next thing i know some lovely man in recovery is talking to me. So off down to the ward i go, i have no memory of this as i was having a senior nap. Next thing i know i'm on the ward and a nurse is telling me Trev's on the phone enquiring after me, i told her ''tell him i'll be at gymnastics tomorrow'' and promptly go back to sleep, still clicking on my morphine and trying to take the flipping oxygen mask off which is very claustrophobic. Trev and Jen came to visit but to be honest i was in and out of it, but Jen had a good chat to the lady in the next bed (Jen is 16 months out with her surgery so was very inspirational to the ladies). Next morning (Friday - day one) the doctors came round asked how i felt how much i was drinking and said they thought i could go home! Whoo hooo result! When Trev rang they told him and he was pleased, he had been worried bless him. So they had me out of bed, took my catheter and the lines out but left the cannula in and took me to the shower where i sat and hosed myself down and got dressed! Finally when Trev came we sat for an hour before i started nagging the nurses about discharging me, one of them wasn't happy about it but i told her i'd be better off at home (they must have woken me 20 times in the night for blood sugar/ blood pressure/sats readings i was knackered. Eventually they discharged me and i crawled as fast as i could out of there. The journey home was painful at times as i hadnt been able to advise Trev to bring a cushion and i was glad to get into my own home! I had thought i'd sleep upright on the sofa for a couple of nights till i was more errr flexible but the wind pain makes sitting uncomfortable so i decided even if i had to sleep on my back i'd be in my bed, lying flat might shift some wind. God it killed me to lie in bed, all you could hear was me swearing and puffing and panting, lord knows what the neighbours thought lol. But eventually i was down and gathering myself together wondering why the hell i'd put myself through this pain. After waking Trev once so i could be pulled up into a sitting position i decided to do it myself next time and i did! My mother always said i was stubborn and pig headed and after the last couple of days i've decided she's right!
One word of warning i'd say to anyone having a 'open' gastric bypass is that when people say expect pain they are not joking. I've felt nothing like it before, including childbirth. I thought someone had run me over and then given me a good kicking for good measure. The wind pain is awful, if you sit in a chair try and lean forward to shift it (thanks Wendy xx).
But i will tell you this, every day is better than the day before. Each day doing things gets easier and less painful. Up till yesterday my whole front from my lowest bit of my belly to right underneath my breasts felt bruised and horrible. Today i have sore ribs as if i've had a couple of days of a vomiting bug but nothing unbearable. I stopped having the morphine Thursday evening as i didn't like the spaced out feeling, i stopped the soluble paracetamol on Sunday as i feel the discomfort i have now is discomfort and not pain. Expect to be weak, having a shower the first couple of days was hard work like jogging pre op but with more heavy breathing.
But as i say each day is a new day and each day i set myself a new challenge. Last nights was to sleep on my side, which i achieved without too much discomfort. Today i've had a walk down the doctors with my discharge letter (and Trev of course) which is about 700 yds which isn't massive walk usually but felt like it today. I've yet to decide on tomorrows challenge, but whatever it is i'll embrace it warmly as each achievement is a step to a recovered me!
Get up and move as much as you can and just remember, it gets easier and the end result will be worth it!
Oh yes and finally, everyone talks about being constipated? Saturday night i had to go and it felt like half my stomach dropped out, since then i've been very loose (tmi i know but you need to know) going a couple of times a day. I was going to raise it with my gp but my friend Jen says its normal, you either go one way or the other...
So thats it, i survived!
Oh and finally, as some of you know my Trevor was going for wls but after the worries he had about me and anaesthetics he has decided to give diet n exercise a good go to see if he can loose his excess weight. After feeling the pain i had i'm going to encourage him to do it...
Good luck to anyone waiting for surgery, prepare mentally and physically if you can xx
For those of you who are pre op i hope you find it helpful...
So i didn't sleep much the night before (as to be expected i guess) and got at the hospital at 7pm, thanks to my good friend Jenny
. Trevor wasn't allowed to stop he literally walked me in kissed me goodbye and walked out again, which was good because i could see the tears starting to come which i'd warned him not to do as it was the last thing i needed to cope with. So i waited a couple of hours and they did my pre op checks, gave me the clexane and some meds and then i waited again. I was 3rd on the list! Met the anaesthetist, who incidentally wasn't Mr Yousef, but had an even longer more foreign name i cant pronounce or even remember, but he was lovely and i did think i'd enjoy him wiping my brow Then i met the main man himself, Mr Khan, he had a little chat with me and said i was a 'small one' which made me laugh and get quite big headed, almost 300lb and i'm small lol... Asked if i'd rather have a band but i wasn't having it, no way! ''Bypass please''! So went and sat and waited again, during this time i was absolutely amazed, i was so chillaxed it was awesome! I thought i was gonna be like a thunderbird on acid as usually i'm very excitable (luckily for trev ). Next thing i know the nurse is telling me time to get dressed for theatre, and i'm still CALM. So we headed down to theatre where i had a nice chat with a chap called Steve who was assisting and had the op last year. Then time to go in and get on the table, and still no bubbling over... wow them blood pressure tablets must really work! So i'm getting up on the bed and wondering why they haven't asked me to take me knickers off yet! So they get me to put me arms on these attachments to the table which i can only describe as looking like aeroplane wings, which when i do i get tied up! Whooooaaaaaaaaaa, nobody told me they were gonna get kinky! Put me feet in some of those vibrating stockings and next thing i know some lovely man in recovery is talking to me. So off down to the ward i go, i have no memory of this as i was having a senior nap. Next thing i know i'm on the ward and a nurse is telling me Trev's on the phone enquiring after me, i told her ''tell him i'll be at gymnastics tomorrow'' and promptly go back to sleep, still clicking on my morphine and trying to take the flipping oxygen mask off which is very claustrophobic. Trev and Jen came to visit but to be honest i was in and out of it, but Jen had a good chat to the lady in the next bed (Jen is 16 months out with her surgery so was very inspirational to the ladies). Next morning (Friday - day one) the doctors came round asked how i felt how much i was drinking and said they thought i could go home! Whoo hooo result! When Trev rang they told him and he was pleased, he had been worried bless him. So they had me out of bed, took my catheter and the lines out but left the cannula in and took me to the shower where i sat and hosed myself down and got dressed! Finally when Trev came we sat for an hour before i started nagging the nurses about discharging me, one of them wasn't happy about it but i told her i'd be better off at home (they must have woken me 20 times in the night for blood sugar/ blood pressure/sats readings i was knackered. Eventually they discharged me and i crawled as fast as i could out of there. The journey home was painful at times as i hadnt been able to advise Trev to bring a cushion and i was glad to get into my own home! I had thought i'd sleep upright on the sofa for a couple of nights till i was more errr flexible but the wind pain makes sitting uncomfortable so i decided even if i had to sleep on my back i'd be in my bed, lying flat might shift some wind. God it killed me to lie in bed, all you could hear was me swearing and puffing and panting, lord knows what the neighbours thought lol. But eventually i was down and gathering myself together wondering why the hell i'd put myself through this pain. After waking Trev once so i could be pulled up into a sitting position i decided to do it myself next time and i did! My mother always said i was stubborn and pig headed and after the last couple of days i've decided she's right! One word of warning i'd say to anyone having a 'open' gastric bypass is that when people say expect pain they are not joking. I've felt nothing like it before, including childbirth. I thought someone had run me over and then given me a good kicking for good measure. The wind pain is awful, if you sit in a chair try and lean forward to shift it (thanks Wendy xx).
But i will tell you this, every day is better than the day before. Each day doing things gets easier and less painful. Up till yesterday my whole front from my lowest bit of my belly to right underneath my breasts felt bruised and horrible. Today i have sore ribs as if i've had a couple of days of a vomiting bug but nothing unbearable. I stopped having the morphine Thursday evening as i didn't like the spaced out feeling, i stopped the soluble paracetamol on Sunday as i feel the discomfort i have now is discomfort and not pain. Expect to be weak, having a shower the first couple of days was hard work like jogging pre op but with more heavy breathing.
But as i say each day is a new day and each day i set myself a new challenge. Last nights was to sleep on my side, which i achieved without too much discomfort. Today i've had a walk down the doctors with my discharge letter (and Trev of course) which is about 700 yds which isn't massive walk usually but felt like it today. I've yet to decide on tomorrows challenge, but whatever it is i'll embrace it warmly as each achievement is a step to a recovered me!
Get up and move as much as you can and just remember, it gets easier and the end result will be worth it!
Oh yes and finally, everyone talks about being constipated? Saturday night i had to go and it felt like half my stomach dropped out, since then i've been very loose (tmi i know but you need to know) going a couple of times a day. I was going to raise it with my gp but my friend Jen says its normal, you either go one way or the other...
So thats it, i survived!
Oh and finally, as some of you know my Trevor was going for wls but after the worries he had about me and anaesthetics he has decided to give diet n exercise a good go to see if he can loose his excess weight. After feeling the pain i had i'm going to encourage him to do it...
Good luck to anyone waiting for surgery, prepare mentally and physically if you can xx
