Recovery...

Quick disclaimer this post may be a little medically graphic in some areas.

I have to admit this has been a harder recovery than I expected.  I am feeling a lot better and especially  because of still being on an all liquid diet I am currently dropping weight like a rock I am only 10 days since surgery and I have lost 15 pounds.

I am still feeling quite a bit of pain, especially just to the left of my belly button when ever I try to move too much.  The surgeon said that is normal because they did quite a bit of rearranging in that area.

In general my recovery is going pretty much textbook, with one exception.  They put in what they call a Gastric feeding tube or g-tube in to the remnant part of my stomach.  In general they don't put these in for everyone, mostly just for those that use cpap at night for sleep apnea. At night the tube is hooked up to a collection bag and some fluid is drained off.  The neat thing about this g tube is that it goes to your remnant stomach which is technically for the time being still functioning and connected to the intestines.  So if you are running behind on water or protein intake .you can actually inject water or  liquid protein into the stomach thru the g-tube.

Well, Wednesday night we were trying to flush out the tube with water and it felt like it didn't go into the stomach. so Thursday morning we went back to the hospital and they clipped the stitch holding the tube in place saying this sometimes cleared it up.  I went home and we tried flushing the tube again it felt weird again and this time overnight all the watter leaked out thru the hole for the g tube and another hole that had a pain medication going into it.  And the tube for the g tube had come out by about a foot. so we went back to the surgeons office ( the visit the previous day had been to the emergency room).  They took a look at the g tube and decided to keep it in place where it was (a foot out) but we are not using it any more.  Since then we have just been taping it in place, cleaning around it, and otherwise leaving it alone.

While at the surgeons office the nurse did take out the tube that had been dripping pain meds in around the incisions. This took me down to 5 incisions healing and 2 tubes.

We also found out at the surgeons office that I am allergic to some medical adhesive.  We had been using a translucent plastic tape and that caused a really bad rash.  We have since tried a few others and I get a little bit of a reaction from them and my tummy is getting pretty raw just from repetitive changing of bandages and re-taping.

I came home still on oxygen and was on it for right at a week, the oxygen tube going into my nose just about drove me nuts, and even after I got rid of it I still felt like I still had it at times.

I have been going for frequent walks to get some exercise, sometimes it's out around the neighborhood other times when it is too cold it is just pacing back and forth in my living room and dining room.  My cats loved chasing the oxygen hose as I paced in the house.

I find I am not really liking sleeping at night.  I can't sleep on my side yet because it hurts the incisions so I end up on my back all night and my butt that had already been hurting from the hospital bed still hurts from laying on my back all night. On top of that I don't know if it is because I have lost some weight in my face or what the cause is but my cpap mask is not fitting well and is causing a sore spot on the bridge of my nose.

Yesterday was a big day for me. Everyone who had gastric bypass last week had a class about nutrition and the next phase of our diet (there were six of us) and an appointment with the nurse in the surgeons office where she removed one of my drains (JP 'suction' drain), this was one of the strangest things I have ever felt the end of the drain looked like some sort of cloth mesh that was used fur sucking up fluids this was about 8 inches long and then about a foot of hose. The mesh was laid along the incisions collecting fluid. The nurse had me breath in deep and exhale slowly and pulled out the drain I felt it snaking its way around my innards to the exit and then I felt nauseous and crampy for about 5-10 seconds then it was over. So now 6 incisions or holes healing and only one hose still in place.

The great thing about yesterday was that I hadn't had any thing solid to eat since the Saturday before surgery and yesterday we got to go to the next phase of the diet, this includes 5 soft foods that I can now eat, those 5 foods are re-fried beans, low calorie yogurt, Egg Beaters, Cottage Cheese (low fat, small curd), and sugar free pudding.  I can have one ounce every 2 hours along with my hourly ounce of protein and 4 ounces an hour of other liquids.

They want you to only try two new foods a day until you are sure you can tolerate them, then you can mix them as desired if you want.  My first food was the re-fried beans.

Believe me when I tell you that after not eating real food for a week and a half an ounce of re-fried beans never tasted so good, they were delicious.

I have now tried the re-fried beans, the egg beaters and some Greek yogurt (better for you, more protein) and so far so good, no reactions or issues although I did feel my pouch telling me I was full for the first time this morning.

So for the most part I am feeling pretty good now, I still have some pain on occasion (especially when I move too much) and coughing or sneezing is pretty excruciating and I still feel fatigued.

 I am thinking I will have another post or at least some pictures next week some time as I will probably hit my next 20 pound check-mark. Until then thanks for reading and of course thanks for the thoughts and prayers.