Weight Loss Surgery
I'll be updating this entry with further information as I (or Elizabeth) recalls it. I am doing this so I can remember the details in the months and years to come
Nov 24th-Dec 1st:
I was on an all liquid diet. Mainly slim-fast, pudding, Jello, and grits. Unfortunately either the pudding or slim-fast, or both, irritated my lactose intolerance which I was able to get back under control with the daily lactose pills. I did cheat twice on the diet, once at the lantern with Kevin and Kristen where I ate a TON of shrimp, wings, and fries and then at Aunt Sue's house for Thanksgiving where I just had a little bit of food. At the time I was around 278ish in my pajamas.
Dec 1st:
Surgery was very early in the morning. Elizabeth drove me there and stayed while I was under. The surgery went well, no problems. When I first woke up in the ICU I was in a lot of pain. I remember the nurse, or doctor, or anesthesiologist (not sure but it was a woman) giving me morphine. I then fell asleep for a short time in pain again, needing more. This happened at least 3 or 4 times and I remember her telling me that they couldn't give me too much in the ICU, but I would be able to get more once I was in the normal room. The good news was that I did not have any sort of asthma attack while I was under general anesthesia. I fell back asleep and work up in my room. I was in a lot of pain and they gave me more morphine. As the afternoon\evening went on they kept increasing the amount of morphine they could give me. Eventually they gave me the max dose of morphine, but it had no effect at all. The nurse was willing to do anything else so I laid in severe pain. Finally, my godsend came, the night nurse. She immediately recognized the amount of pain I was in and called the doctor. Within 20 minutes she came back to the room with dilaudid which took away the pain immediately. That is when we realized that I had a morphine tolerance and that I was going to use dilaudid for the rest of my stay. As I recall I slept the rest of the night.
Dec 2nd:
The chest congestion\fluid\mucus starts building up in my lungs.
Dec 3rd:
I am released from the hospital in the late afternoon.
Dec 4th:
Sometime just before midnight I was sitting in my chair watching TV. At that point I was still numb in the new stomach, and not quite used to how it felt yet, so I didn't realize i was full, even though I hadn't really eaten in several hours. I had some red Jello and within 10 minutes I threw it up. It concerned me because it was red. Thinking...and hoping, it was red because of the red jello, I had some brown pudding. Shortly after I threw it up and it was again red. I called the doctor office who paiged the on call. When the on-call doctor called me (she clearly had just woke up) she told me to go to the ER immediately. Elizabeth woke up about that time (3am) and within 20 minutes we were on the way back to Emory downtown. At that time I wasn't in too much pain, but I was cold. When we got to the ER, Elizabeth helped me in to a chair. Within 2 minutes a very nice male nurse came with a wheel chair and took me to a room. Once I got up on the bed that is when I started to get VERY cold, to the point that I had the shivers. I also had a hard time breathing, I was coughing up a lot of muchus (i even coughed some into a cup so the doctor could see). The more I reclined the more my lungs filled up. I also started to be in a lot of pain at this point. We didnt see the doctor for several hours nor did they want to give me any pain medicine. I don't remember a lot, but I do remember them taking my temp at one point and saying it was 105.5 degrees. Since I was throwing up blood every hour or so, and coughing up mucus every few minutes, they gave me RX tylenol rectally to bring down the fever. We were having a lot of problems with the doctor, mainly that she wouldnt come and see us, she kept walking away, and she would not contact Dr. Lyn. Her boss came in who was very nice, we explained the situation to him and all he could say when we asked to be assigned a different doctor was that he had confidence in the doctor we currently had. Somewhere along the lines they decided to do a chest x-ray and a ctscan. Fortunately by that point they have given me the dilaudid so the pain was under control. The doctor said both the ct-scan of my abdomen and chest x-ray came back negative.
During this entire process we asked them to call Dr. Lyn but they wouldn't, at one point saying that i was an ER patient not his and this was under there jurisdiction. Finally, somehow, Dr. Lyn's resident\fellow saw the CT and said that I had a kink in my intestine that caused a blockage which caused everything to back up into my old stomach which had caused it to swell so large it was on the left side of my chest as well. WIthin the hour I was in the OR. I remember that before I went in I was in horrible pain, but nobody would give me anything. They wanted to take me to the OR but I was hysterical I was in so much pain that I declared I would not go to the OR until I had something for the pain. Then Dr. Lyn's resident lady bypassed the ER doctor and got me the dilaudid which took away all the pain. The took me in the OR and that is when I met Dr. Lyn's Fellow who did the surgery. I later found out that Dr. Lyn was in Colorodo, he flew back to ATL but it was too late so he had his fellow do the surgery. I told his fellow right before they put me under that if he didn't give me a big scar (i.e. do it surgically instead of endoscopically) that I would buy him a beer after ;-D
The exploratory endoscopy went well. They were able to find the kink and unkink it. They then sewed it so that it would not kink again and then drained my old stomach.
Dec 7th:
I came home with the help of the lead nurse who was very very nice.
More to come later
Nov 24th-Dec 1st:
I was on an all liquid diet. Mainly slim-fast, pudding, Jello, and grits. Unfortunately either the pudding or slim-fast, or both, irritated my lactose intolerance which I was able to get back under control with the daily lactose pills. I did cheat twice on the diet, once at the lantern with Kevin and Kristen where I ate a TON of shrimp, wings, and fries and then at Aunt Sue's house for Thanksgiving where I just had a little bit of food. At the time I was around 278ish in my pajamas.
Dec 1st:
Surgery was very early in the morning. Elizabeth drove me there and stayed while I was under. The surgery went well, no problems. When I first woke up in the ICU I was in a lot of pain. I remember the nurse, or doctor, or anesthesiologist (not sure but it was a woman) giving me morphine. I then fell asleep for a short time in pain again, needing more. This happened at least 3 or 4 times and I remember her telling me that they couldn't give me too much in the ICU, but I would be able to get more once I was in the normal room. The good news was that I did not have any sort of asthma attack while I was under general anesthesia. I fell back asleep and work up in my room. I was in a lot of pain and they gave me more morphine. As the afternoon\evening went on they kept increasing the amount of morphine they could give me. Eventually they gave me the max dose of morphine, but it had no effect at all. The nurse was willing to do anything else so I laid in severe pain. Finally, my godsend came, the night nurse. She immediately recognized the amount of pain I was in and called the doctor. Within 20 minutes she came back to the room with dilaudid which took away the pain immediately. That is when we realized that I had a morphine tolerance and that I was going to use dilaudid for the rest of my stay. As I recall I slept the rest of the night.
Dec 2nd:
The chest congestion\fluid\mucus starts building up in my lungs.
Dec 3rd:
I am released from the hospital in the late afternoon.
Dec 4th:
Sometime just before midnight I was sitting in my chair watching TV. At that point I was still numb in the new stomach, and not quite used to how it felt yet, so I didn't realize i was full, even though I hadn't really eaten in several hours. I had some red Jello and within 10 minutes I threw it up. It concerned me because it was red. Thinking...and hoping, it was red because of the red jello, I had some brown pudding. Shortly after I threw it up and it was again red. I called the doctor office who paiged the on call. When the on-call doctor called me (she clearly had just woke up) she told me to go to the ER immediately. Elizabeth woke up about that time (3am) and within 20 minutes we were on the way back to Emory downtown. At that time I wasn't in too much pain, but I was cold. When we got to the ER, Elizabeth helped me in to a chair. Within 2 minutes a very nice male nurse came with a wheel chair and took me to a room. Once I got up on the bed that is when I started to get VERY cold, to the point that I had the shivers. I also had a hard time breathing, I was coughing up a lot of muchus (i even coughed some into a cup so the doctor could see). The more I reclined the more my lungs filled up. I also started to be in a lot of pain at this point. We didnt see the doctor for several hours nor did they want to give me any pain medicine. I don't remember a lot, but I do remember them taking my temp at one point and saying it was 105.5 degrees. Since I was throwing up blood every hour or so, and coughing up mucus every few minutes, they gave me RX tylenol rectally to bring down the fever. We were having a lot of problems with the doctor, mainly that she wouldnt come and see us, she kept walking away, and she would not contact Dr. Lyn. Her boss came in who was very nice, we explained the situation to him and all he could say when we asked to be assigned a different doctor was that he had confidence in the doctor we currently had. Somewhere along the lines they decided to do a chest x-ray and a ctscan. Fortunately by that point they have given me the dilaudid so the pain was under control. The doctor said both the ct-scan of my abdomen and chest x-ray came back negative.
During this entire process we asked them to call Dr. Lyn but they wouldn't, at one point saying that i was an ER patient not his and this was under there jurisdiction. Finally, somehow, Dr. Lyn's resident\fellow saw the CT and said that I had a kink in my intestine that caused a blockage which caused everything to back up into my old stomach which had caused it to swell so large it was on the left side of my chest as well. WIthin the hour I was in the OR. I remember that before I went in I was in horrible pain, but nobody would give me anything. They wanted to take me to the OR but I was hysterical I was in so much pain that I declared I would not go to the OR until I had something for the pain. Then Dr. Lyn's resident lady bypassed the ER doctor and got me the dilaudid which took away all the pain. The took me in the OR and that is when I met Dr. Lyn's Fellow who did the surgery. I later found out that Dr. Lyn was in Colorodo, he flew back to ATL but it was too late so he had his fellow do the surgery. I told his fellow right before they put me under that if he didn't give me a big scar (i.e. do it surgically instead of endoscopically) that I would buy him a beer after ;-D
The exploratory endoscopy went well. They were able to find the kink and unkink it. They then sewed it so that it would not kink again and then drained my old stomach.
Dec 7th:
I came home with the help of the lead nurse who was very very nice.
More to come later