Surgery Posting, Part 7 ~ Finale

Surgery Posting, Part 1
Surgery Posting, Part 2
Surgery Posting, Part 3
Surgery Posting, Part 4
Surgery Posting, Part 5
Surgery Posting, Part 6
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By the end of my first week since surgery, I was doing pretty good at keeping to my schedule and taking my vitamins and medicine as directed. However, by Saturday, I began to have horrible cramping and diarrhea. The cramping was similar to my experience with food poisoning, so I thought I had eaten something wrong, but I was barely eating anything in the first place, so I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. The diarrhea was the worst, every hour on the hour. This kept up into Sunday, so I decided not to go to church with my grandparents, but they did stop by to take me with them to lunch. I thought I was better, so I had a cup of soup and some mashed potatoes and seemed to be doing good until we got home and it resumed. The cramping was so intense that I was crying and just praying to God to make it go away. It continues into Monday. This was the day I was going home to my own house, so it’d be my first time back in Rochester, so I called the doctor when I got to my house to see what I should do. I could not understand what would be going on as I was sticking to the plan. The resident called me back and asked a bunch of questions and wanted me to go in and get a bucket to do a stool sample. I guess the thought was I could have an infection or something and that would tell them what. Well, by the time I returned the bucket with my sample and got back home, I had my diagnosis without even hearing from the doctor. My period had arrived. It wasn’t time, so it didn’t even dawn on me that it could be the reason, and I think because of all the trauma in my abdomen, it just made the cramping worse than normal and of course, diarrhea is a symptom frequently, I think again, due to the trauma, I had a worse case than normal.
So, Tuesday I rested with a heating pad and pain pills. I then made a few calls because the contractor was scheduled to start working on the house, but I told him I was leaving town. I had made up my mind to go to my Mom’s for two weeks. I had my ten day followup appointment on Wednesday morning, so I left Wednesday afternoon to head in that direction. I stopped at my Uncle Bryan’s to break up the trip, he lives just outside of Chicago, and it is about six hours from my house to his. I did really well on the trip and my Grama and Grampa were down there again and she had homemade mashed potatoes waiting for me upon my arrival(along with meatloaf, which I couldn’t have). YUM! So Thursday morning, I left to go the rest of the way; it is about four hours to Princeton. I got to the house and noone was home because the kids had Co-Op that day and Mom and Mike were working, but, they had left the house unlocked for me, so I got all my things dragged in and settled in for a nap until everyone came home. I spent the next two weeks hanging out with the kids during the day and doing church stuff and just spending time with my family. Got to see Grama & Grampa Wood one day too.
I returned home on the 22nd of October, construction was due to start the next day. So much for that! They didn’t get started until the week I was due to return to work, November 7th was to be my first day back, they started the prior Monday, so very little was done while I was around. The whole point of scheduling things to happen during my surgical leave was so I could be present for questions and conflicts and what not. But that is another story.
At any rate, my remaining surgical leave was spent at my home, resting and progressing through my food/drink schedule. At three weeks(while I was still at my mom’s), I was able to progress from pureed to mechanical soft diet. This meant I could have hamburger, tuna, cheese, cereal, rice, pasta, and toast. Foods had to be soft and tender and moist. Chewing very thoroughly and eating over a period of 30 minutes. This lasted four weeks when I then moved on to the soft diet, meaning I could have small pieces of tender food like fruit and crackers and eggs. I was also progressing in how much I could eat at a time. I was now up to four ounces per meal 4-5 times a day. This lasted an additional four weeks and then I moved back to a regular diet, meaning anything and everything is game again, but I do need to be mindful of my fat and sugar intake as that can and will cause dumping if you eat too much. I am also slowly progressing to eating up to a cup of food at a time 3-4 times a day. What I missed the most, oddly enough, was salad and raw veggies! Not being able to have crunchy foods for eleven weeks was pure torture!

It has now been six months and I have had no real complications from surgery. My scars are healing quite nicely, I put Mederma on them twice a day in the hopes that they’ll fade and not be so red and raised. Only one scar is raised, the one where my drainage port was, which I find very odd since it was one of the smallest! I have only run into a few things I can’t have, Pizza Hut pizza is one. I can eat any other pizza, but not from there. And Triscuits and raw carrots get stuck. Not a pleasant feeling. I eat 8-12 ounces of food 3 times a day now, it really depends on the food and if I space it out over the 30 minutes like I am supposed to. It is sometimes hard to remember I can’t eat like everyone else, I have to pace my self and chew thoroughly. Probably my biggest complaint is not being able to eat and drink at the same time. Prior to surgery, I’d drink a couple of glasses of water, tea, soda, milk whenever I ate, can’t now. I do have about an ounce or two with meals to sip as it drives me nuts not to.
I had my six month checkup last week and they are pleased with my progress this far. I don’t go back again until one year postop. These next six months are crucial to getting the rest of the weight off as their evidence shows that after a year past surgery, success dwindles. I am pleased with my weight loss as well, but it is definitely not just falling off anymore. From this point on, I have to work for those pounds by going to the gym and being more active. I still have quite a bit of fatigue that the doctors can’t explain, but I am trying to be proactive anyway.
Thanks for following my story, I warned you it was long. I typed it all out in Word and posted separate stories to break it up, but I am half way through page 11 already, so you can get the general idea that it was a lot to type! Thank goodness I am good at that!
I hope to post a picture of my current self soon. For those of you closest to me, you have seen my transformation as I have so far lost 58 pounds. I went from a 26/28 sized shirt/dress to a 14 so far. My ultimate goal is an 8-10 in woman’s clothing. I don’t need to be a size 2 to be happy, in fact, I think I’d look funny at a size 2 since I am just not built small. I might be short, but I am built like a linebacker, big hips, broad shoulders. Not going to look good in a size 2. Everybody can see it in my face and other areas too, but I still have my double chin and until that is gone, I won’t be satisfied! I hope not to have to have plastic surgery, am trying to tone as I lose, but there may be a few areas of need as I get closer to my goal, we’ll see how it goes. I haven’t bought much in the way of new clothing, everything is really loose and baggy. I have to wear a belt with my pants/skirts/shorts or there would definitely be a serious problem with them falling off. It feels good to know I am making progress even though I don’t “see” it like everyone else does. I think it is that seeing yourself every day vs. someone who sees you once a month or whatever. Change is more subtle to them because of the length of time between visits.
At any rate, I am thankful that God has really blessed me throughout my recovery and hopefully, I’ll be saying goodbye to all my fat clothes soon!