What the hell is wrong (and sometimes right)

Telling everyone what the hell is wrong and sometimes what is right.

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This is where you stick random tidbits of information about yourself.

5/15/2003
I'm blessed to have so many loving and caring people in my life. Please feel
free to share any of this with your friends and families. I have come
to recognize that obesity is a debilitating diseases and I refuse to be
shy about it! :)

First off what has happened so far. I've been on a 1200 high protein
diet. The doctors wanted me to lose 40 lbs before surgery, the reason
for this is two fold: 1) It will show that I have to ability to do what
the doctors tell me to do, how they tell me to do it. 2) The loose
skin will make it easier and safer to do the surgery. The diet was not
easy, I was hungry much of the time, I was not faithful every day. I
was, however, faithful 90% of the time and I lost 39 lbs. I also had
to go to case management groups, an orientation, and pre- surgery
meeting. These were great at dispensing loads of information and
letting me hear from people who had already had the surgery. Most of
the people I met that had the surgery were successes and had lost
hundreds of pounds, but I also got to meet 2 people who initially lost
weight after surgery but then found ways to restrech their stomachs and
had either stop losing weight or even gained some back. One of the
things that they really talked about was that surgery is only a tool, if
you haven't dealt with some of the underlying reasons for being fat then
it is bound not to help.

What is going on right now. I went to see the surgeon and the
anastiogist yesterday. The surgeon felt that I would do best with the
open surgery instead of the laproscopic. This will mean a longer
recovery time but I feel that he will be able to perform a better/safer
surgery this way. Yes this means I will have a nasty looking scar on my
belly, but lets face it I wasn't ever going to wear a two piece bathing
suit no matter how good I looked. What this surgery will do is make my
stomach very small by stapling across the lower portion, then they will
take the small intestine and rehook it up so that food will only stay
there a very short time. This surgeon says he has never had a death due
to this type of surgery and has only had to reoperate on one patient.
He has been doing this surgery for 3 years, he seemed nice.

I'm very busy trying to buy all the new type of food that I will be
eating for the first 6 weeks after surgery. It will be what's called a
modified liquid diet. I basically means that I have to put it all in a
blender and make it very soft and in the very beginning I will have to
strain everything and just eat the liquid. I have to buy a bunch of
different vitamins too as my body will not absorb nutrition in the same
way. I'm also trying to get my house cleaned and straightened up so
that I don't come home and have to feel like there is a bunch of chores
waiting to get done. The cats are pretty disturbed by all this.

What is going to happen. On Tuesday I will call the admissions office
and find out what time my surgery is for. It will be one of three times
6:30am, 8:00am ,10:30am. I will go in and they will put me on an I.V.
soon after that I will not have much of a memory of what happens, but
they will spray my throat with some thing and may try and intubate me
and put me to sleep. I will wake up in ICU, I may still be intubated or
I may not, after they get the tub out then I will have to do breathing
and coughing exercise. Soon after I will be up walking. Yes walking,
within the first 2 or 3 hours. They say this will help me not form
blood clots. I will hopefully be out of ICU in less the 24 hrs and into
a hospital bed. I will then be in the hospital for 3 days. Coming home
on Sat.

I will probably stay with my mom from Sat. tell Tues. because John needs
to work and I may need a little extra care the first few days. Then I
will come home.

Yes I'm scared and excited all at the same time. J has been
wonderful and supportive thru' all of this and I'm very lucky to have
such a wonderful husband.
Thursday, May 15, 2003