Now the episodes: I have been blessed with a tolerant pouch however my first episode occured Friday a week ago after eating talipia with a seafood rub. I have never been a puker and the thought of puking causes me great anxiety. Well an “issue” means something is not sitting well in my pouch and the pre vomit watery mouth syndrome starts also known as the “spitting”. I spent about 30 min. over the toilet spitting and torn between wanting to vomit and not. I also had a lot of pain right under my breasts which is were the pouch is located. Luckily I was at home during this first episode and not in a public area. That brings me to the second issue that occured last night. We has dinner at TGI Friday and I thought I made a good choice of ordering salmon. I ate about 3 oz. and knew something was brewing in my pouch. At this point I stop eating and am looking for the where the bathroom is in case the spitting begins. I was able to hold it together until we got to the parking lot and then the pain and spitting began. I spent about 20 min pacing the parking lot praying that I would or could vomit. I rode home with my head in the take out bag spitting and wretching the whole way home. By the time we get home I found myself on the pot with big D and my head in the trash can spitting, Still unable to allow myself to vomit. After about an hour of misery I had 2 big burps and I was completely fine like nothing ever happened. Hope you’re not eating while reading this. I am speculating that one of two things have caused these episodes, either the rub/spices or I’ve eated too much.

 During weeks 3 and 4 I was experiencing constant pain in my left calf. I finally saw my primary care doctor and she was concerned I had a blood clot. She ordered an ultrasound for that same day. Luckily the test was negative. The pain continued so the next step was blood work to test for low calcium, potassium, and magnesium. I just got the test results today and the levels were fine. The leg pain has gone now but it was pretty bad for two weeks keeping me awake at night.

This coming Thursday May 15th I see my surgeon for my six week check up. I’m hoping my weight loss will be 30 pounds by Thursday.

So to close I would say everything is going great and I’ve been blessed to have few minor complications .

Until next…….

Posted 03-24-2008 at 12:40 PM by ladychief231 <!– | Permalink–>

Good Morning All,

I had my pre-admission testing this past Thursday and everything went well. I have a B12 deficiency but other than that no problems. My surgery is scheduled for April 3rd. Today I started the 10 day clear liquid diet. So far so good except that I tried to mix protein powder with boullion. That didn’t work, it was a pasty mess.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) will also be a challenge as I am going to NY to see a show with my 13 year old god daughter. I have planned ahead and bought some premixed shakes to take along. My challenge will be drinking shakes while she feasts on pizza. I’m pretty confident I’ll be ok.

Last night Marianne took some “before” photos and we took my measurements. For those of you who may be curious but won’t ask, my starting weight at pre-admission testing was 267 lbs.

Oh I forgot to mention that I met with my primary doctor on Friday to ask her to be a part of my care team. She was very supportive and will certainly be a part of this journey.

That’s all for now. I’ll post again after NY.

Posted 03-16-2008 at 10:38 AM by ladychief231 <!– | Permalink–>

On Monday this past week I called the clinic to ask what I should expect at PAT because I couldn’t remember and after reading all the posts on this site I needed to emotionally prepare myself for the possibility of an endoscopy or colonoscopy. Turns out there will be no oral or anal probes for me…woo hoo. My PAT is this Thursday 3/20/08 they will do blood work, chest x-ray, gallbladder ultrasound, EKG, and a pulmonary function test. I’ll meet with an internist (not the surgeon) he is the one who will clear me for surgery. I asked if I will meet with Dr. Boe the surgeon and they said typically not until the day of surgery. That troubles me a bit as I only met him for a few minutes at the informational session. Lastly I’ll meet with the dietitian. The process typically takes about 3 hours.

As I mentioned in a previous post my good friend Pam had WLS surgery a year ago and is doing great. I am including her response to my email to her expressing concern about not having quality time with my surgeon. I will add our correspondance from time to time because I think her experience will help others on this forum.

To end my thoughts…..Thursday is fast approaching and I am so excited to start this journey!

Pam wrote: I saw my surgeon only for a consultation, and then not again until the day of surgery, and all was fine. The surgeon, in my case, is just the surgeon. Following the procedure, he wanted to see me in a week, then every month for 3 months. After that, it was 6 months. Essentially what he did was check the incisions, ask if I was following the diet, having any problems, etc. If I did mention any gastric problems, high sugar readings, or eating problems, he referred me to the specialist in that area (gastroenterologist, endocrinologist, dietician, metabolic doc, etc). I came to realize that he (my surgeon) is a wonderful cutter and sewer-back-upper, and he is extremely knowledgeable about the benefits of the surgery. He is also very proud of his successes, not only for his own ego, but he is genuinely happy for the people he has helped to start living again and being healthy. But he may never be the go-to guy with questions or concerns about the “complications” or issues you might experience in the aftermath. Just as a for-instance, when I had such terrible diarrhea, he sent me to the gastro guy, who fixed me up.I should note, however, that when I landed in the ER with such horrid stomach pain, they called him first, and he came right away and did exploratory to check the pouch because the pain extended from below my sternum (which is where the pouch sits) clear to my crotch. He also had a gynecological surgeon in the OR with him because they thought they saw something on my ovary. In addition, I called him the first time I had back pain on the right side and he knew right away it was the gall bladder. He also took my gallbladder out because he is licensed in general surgery as well, and he considered it a complication of the surgery.

Posted 03-07-2008 at 10:15 PM by ladychief231 <!– | Permalink–>

Today 3/7/08, I went to the bank to get the cashiers checks for the surgery. All went well. I continue to read everything I can about the surgery and the new lifestyle. I’ve been conscious about eating slowing, chewing chewing chewing, and I have greatly reduced my caffine intake.

Just trying to wait patiently for my PAT day (March 20th) and looking forward to meeting with the surgeon and dietitian.

Posted Yesterday at 09:38 AM by ladychief231 <!– | Permalink–>

Yesterday I had my two-week post-op visit with Dr. Boe. The first thing I did was weigh in and I have lost 8 pounds since the surgery and 17 pounds total from my pre-admission testing date. Dr. Boe was very pleased with the weight loss, said I’m right on track, and he said I was recovering very well. I told him about feeling fatigued in the afternoons and he said that was normal and should now start getting better. He asked the typical questions such as how is your pain? (I have none) Any vomiting? (No) Are you pooping? (yes) Passing gas? (yes) Exercising? (some) He checked my incisions which by the way are all healing nicely and are scabbed over. Then he gave me the good news! He moved up my eating schedule and is allowing me to transition into pureed foods, woo hoo. I’ll be on Pureed foods this week, next week soft foods, and the following week, May 8th, REAL food.Soooo last night Marianne and I went shopping for some foods that can be pureed. For dinner I had ½ cup of mashed potatoes. OMG were they good. I ate them very very slowly and teeny tiny bites. Now it is very important for me to chew everything very well, eat slow, and not to drink while eating. I have a phobia about vomiting so I’ll be very compliant on the eating rules to avoid it. Today I’ll be having ½ c. refried bean with a little cheese and ½ c. of pureed chicken salad, yum. Oh… this morning I had 1 packet of oatmeal and could not finish it all.

Posted 04-07-2008 at 07:07 PM by ladychief231 <!– | Permalink–>

Marianne and I went to Lanhorne the night before and stayed at the Red Roof Inn. I arrived at the hospital at my 5:45AM appoinment time. The admitting nurse went over paper work with me and about 15 minutes later they took me into the pre-op area, I weighed in at 259lbs. down 9 pounds on the liquid diet.

op-prep consisted of undressing of course, then the nurse started an IV. Luckly she had no problem finding a vein. I had a lot of anxiety about the IV because in the past they have had a hard time finding a vein. Then she drew some blood. The OR staff was busy preparing and the OR nurse came out to introduce herself. I asked her to take good care of me and she said she would. Dr. Boe soon arived and came to chat a few minutes. The anestiologist spoke to me and said he was going to give me medicine to relax. It was 7:30AM. I remember asking him if it acted quickly becasue my legs were tingly. That’s the last memory I have until waking up.

Most of Thursday I was recovering from the anesthesia. My two days in the hospital were very difficult. I’m not going to go into to much detail becasue I’m afraid I will scare other people who are having or considering the surgery. Anyway, I made it through and came home on Saturday. All I wanted to do was sleep and I did.

to be continued.

Posted 03-28-2008 at 07:03 PM by ladychief231 <!– | Permalink–>

I’m back from NY. Today is day five of the diet and I’m hanging in there. I have to say that day 3 was the hardest so far. Everyday has been hard…this sucks but I’m keeping my eye on the prize. Six days until surgery and I’m very excited and anxious to have the surgery part over with. I have periods of complete excitement and periods of apprehension. I’m sure that is standard for most.

I’m realizing that I am a bit disappointed with the Barix clinic.First, my experience with the dietitian last week was not great. I felt like she was spewing information verses speaking to me. I would have thought that maybe someone from the clinic would have called me this week to check in on how I’m doing with the diet since it is very hard to do. I’m going to call on Monday to see if that is part of their process or not. I feel like I am paying a lot of money and not getting the attention that I want. No one from the clinic has mentioned an sort of support group or follow up care. I feel like I’m winging it here. This forum has been the best source of informaton and support for me.

I am probably sounding whiny….probably am cos I’m starving. Anyway, I’ll press on. Oh almost forgot…with the “cleansing” that is occuring I’ve noticed a remarkable improvement in my joint pain.

Signing off. Until next…..

Posted 03-16-2008 at 10:51 AM by ladychief231 <!– | Permalink–>

I had a scare. I had a voice mail message from the clinic on Thursday asking me to call right away about my surgery date. Of course I got this message after their office closed so it was agonizing waiting until the next day to call. I was thinking the worst….they are pushing the date back.

I called first thing Friday morning and I was asked if I could move the date forward! yea! It turns out that my surgeon had a surgery of his own (hopefully not brain or hand surgery) and is returning back to work the week of April 1st. They are trying to limit his schedule to 2 surgeries a day to ease him back into work. My surgery was origionally scheduled for April 9th and now it will be done on April 3rd. Anyway, it was explained to me that the woman who was scheduled on the 3rd will be a more complicated surgery so they are moving her to my slot on the 9th and that will be Dr. Boe’s only surgery for that day and he will do two of us “easier” surgeries on the 3rd. This is good news for me but I feel bad for the woman who was pushed back as I can imagine she is probably disappointed…. I would have been. I do appreciate the clinic’s attempts to keep ours and Dr. Boe’s best interest a priority.

I will post again after Thursday’s pre-admission testing day.

Hope you are enjoying the blog.

Posted 03-10-2008 at 08:06 PM by ladychief231 <!– | Permalink–>

My good friend Pam had WLS in May 07 and has lost over 100 pounds. She has been advocating this surgery for me since she has had it done. She was/is diabetic and was resistant to insulin and she had severe sleep apnea. Since the surgery she takes only one insulin injection and no longer uses a cpap.

Everytime we speak I ask her a million questions about her experience and about what she eats on a daily basis. This past weekend we spoke a long time about what to expect at the pre-admission testing and the first month following the surgery. I wish she would have journaled her experience as I am because she already forgets some details that I would find helpful. Anyway, we laughed and laughed at her description of her first poop following the surgery. She described her poop looking like minature hershey kisses. Can you imagine?

Pam is coming to spend the weekend following my surgery to help my partner and I with our three dogs and to offer support to both of us. She is also saving tons of clothing for me in all sizes as she has gone from a size 24 to a size 10. Have I mentioned that she looks and feels great? She says she feels like she has a second chance at life. We are so looking forward to resuming our long distant bike riding that we used to do many many years ago.

Thank you Pam for your support and patience with me as I take the steps to my new life.

Posted 02-29-2008 at 09:24 PM by ladychief231 <!– | Permalink–>

My surgery date is scheduled for April 9th. Pre-admission testing is March 20th. I find myself preoccupied at work thinking about the surgery and how my life is going to change. I have been reading everything I can find about WLS and I think maybe I’m reading too much because I am now a little worried about complications and such. Aside from my weight I am healthy so I am thinking positive that I will come through this with no problems.

I am paying for the surgery because my insurance plan excludes WLS. All of the checks are ready and I’m just waiting for the day to come. I have some anxiety around the financials…I’m concerned that any complications could be more money than I have already committed.

I have only told a few people that I am having the surgery. One reason I am with holding is because I don’t want to hear any horror stories. My best friend had the surgery 9 months ago and is doing great. She is my cheerleader and has been encouraging me to do this. My partner is very supportive and hopes to have the surgery one day. I am writing this blog primarily for her so she will have an idea of what to expect when it’s her time.