It's done

Well, the surgery was last week. It went well. The surgeon said there were no surprises, there was hole in my stomach about the size of a quarter as well as a a lot of scar tissue. He sewed the hole and cleaned up as much scar tissue as he could. They had me on heavy duty pain killers and one of those self administration buttons. I pushed it a lot.

They kept me on antibiotics all night and the doctor said I may be abe to go home the next day. I started getting really dizzy and nauseous from the pain meds I backed off on pushing the button. The second day they put me on a bariatric clear diet. That really sucked. How cruel... someone loses their band and you bring them 2 swallows of chicken bouillon and 3 small squares of diet jello????

Anyway, the next day they did not let me go because I was not drinking enough. They let me go home the next day, Ron picked me up around 9:30 AM.

Got home and went to bed. Within a couple hours I started feeling like I might be running a fever. I had to send Ron out to buy a new thermometer since our dog ate my new $12.00 thermometer. Wouldn't ya know, 102.5. Shit.

Called the surgeon and left a message. He didn't call right back. Called Kaiser, and spoke to the answering service, they said someone would call back. They didn't. Called the surgeon again. In the mean time I was talking to one of my friends, knowing it is 8:00 at night and I need to do something with Kayleigh. Called the surgeon again. Decided we were just going to go to the E.R. Then the surgeon called. Asking me about when I took my pain meds. He told me to just take my pain meds and come to the hospital the next day of I was still running a temp. I told him I didn't think I should wait, so he suggested that I go in then. Took Kayleigh to my friends for the night and headed for a different hospital.

Had to wait awhile to be seen. They started an I.V. and gave me some nasty contrast to drink so I could go for a CT scan. When for the scanned, of course, I had a seroma )a pocket of fluid) around the drain. I did expect this, though it is usually after 3-4 weeks, not 3 days!!!!

They admitted me and put me on I.V. antibiotics. I got to my room around 1:30 AM. A house doctor came in and woke me up around 3:30. I was so dizzy and nauseous. I started getting scared. I started thinking "maybe this is it" it was quite disturbing and scary. I was in there for 3 more days. I was kept "comfortable" on I.V. dilaudid. The surgeon thought I might have a leak, so they sent me down for a swallow test. Luckily I did not. I was so miserable in there, and wanted so to go home. When the staff doctor came in on Sunday and asked if I was ready to go I was like "Hell, yeah!"

So.... Now I am on home with a drainage tube, 2 antibiotics and 2 pain killers.

The surgeon told me that my stomach may be "deformed" from all the scar tissue and if that is the case he can go in in about 6 months or so and open up the stricture in there. My though was "Heck, if it is acting like a band, why the heck would I want to get it stretched?"

I am on liquids for the next 2-3 weeks still, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see...