I had heard that it wasn't uncommon for the surgeon to take your gall bladder out when he did your bypass, and it's been over the past couple of months that I have seriously wished that my surgeon (ha) had taken out mine.
I'd been having some problems for a long time, like my spontaneous barfing syndrome, where I suddenly puke violently for no reason and then go on, but it progressed into some pretty serious stomach pain about five or six weeks ago. The short story is that my family doc sent me for an ultrasound, and guess what!?! Gall stones - lots of them. I met my surgeon and had it taken out in a lap surgery last Tuesday. In by six and out by eleven. Yep, day surgery.
I was pretty sore - and definitely cranky that doc hadn't given me anything but 7.5mg Lortabs. Take one every four hours, the directions said, and I did that, but they reallly didn't cut it. We called the doctor's office and complained, and his nurse said that I could go ahead and take one and half every four hours, and that helped a little, but not nearly enough. We called again Wednesday morning and he insisted that I come in before he would give me anything stronger.
We got there and he kindly explained to me that the surgery I had was just a routine little procedure and not a big deal, or it wouldn't even be a day surgery. He did give in a give me a script for something else, telling my husband with a grin that if the 2mg dilaudid didn't tale care of it, then he should just take me out back and shoot me as there was nothing else that he would or could do.
By Saturday morning, I was pretty cheerful as nothing actually hurt but my incisions, and I was actually thinking that I was about over it. Maybe I'd even go back to work on Wednesday, if my sub didn't mind me cutting her time short. By Saturday afternoon, I thought that I was going to die, and I was off to the emergency room with A GALL BLADDER ATTACK?
It was horrible - my stomach was screaming worse than it had so far and I kept puking. I spent three hours sitting in the local emergency room lobby, waiting for someone to see me, before I gave up and left. We went to the next town over and spent maybe an hour waiting to see the doc. He did some x-rays and some blood work, gave me some demerol, then explained to me that I had a stone left in my bile ducts, and that was causing all of the problems. I was going to have to go back to my surgeon and he could either arrange to have me scoped or he might even have to go back in and remove it like he did my gall bladder. Since Monday was a holiday, he said that my surgeon (whom he called) said to call him first thing Tuesday morning and see when to come in.
I did that, and Tuesday afternoon I sat on a table in my doctor's office, listening as he removed my staples and told me that I had confused the pain of my incisions with gall-bladder like pain. He said that he hadn't seen the lab results or XRays from the hospital, but he didn't need to see 'em and wouldn't look at them if he had them. I wasn't yellow, and if I had a stone left, I'd be jaundiced. I just expected to get well too soon; after all, I had experienced a major surgery and I couldn't expect to feel better and be able to do everything like normal so soon. I'd been stabbed four times, he said. What I did expect except to have a lot of pain?
Husband and I just looked at each other as this was exactly the opposite of what he had said the week before when I was complaining about hurting. Then it was all about how it was a minor procedure, blah blah.
We left from the surgeon's office and stopped by my faily doctor's office and asked if he could call us. When he did later, I explained about hving to go to the ER, how bad it hurt, what the ER doc said had happened, and how the surgeon said he didn't need to even see the lab work to know that nothing was wrong with me. Doc J. asked if I had wanted him to make the determination between them, then, and I said yes. That's when Doc J. said that he sided with my surgeon, and that if he said I was fine then I was fine. Does this mean that I don't even need to have the X-rays or lab work sent for you to look at? That's right, Doc J says. Don't even need to see them.
Um, wow. Okay. I was imagining things, and the ER doc was, too.
What in the hell do I do now?
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Ups and Downs
Now isn't *that* funny? Ups and downs - get it? I bet that anyone who has been dedicated to serious weight loss for more than a year gets that one.
It's August, 2009, and I have finally wandered back to my little forgotten blog. I am at 200 pounds now, and I am hoping that I don't go any higher. I joined a gym with the family right before Christmas last year in an effort to fight off moderate depression (another funny, and I'll explain that one in a minute, too).
We were dedicated - four or five days a week, three days some weeks when we had a lot going on - for at least an hour and a half. Some weights combined with an hour on the treadmill. I made my goal in calories instead of distance, working all the way up to a goal of 800 calories per session according to the machine I always used. Over the course of five months, I lost a grand total of (get this - it's the funny part) FIVE POUNDS.
Did I mention anywhere that I've had a gastric bypass, so it's not like I can pig out or anything? LOL.
I did feel better, and I would still be going except that my gym was moved and completely remodeled at the end of May or so, and now, since it has no dressing room, no fans, and fewer nachines, we just don't go. It sucks to go to the gym for three hours and spend half of that waiting in line for a squeaky treadmill.
There are two other gyms in town: one is painted dark gray and red with minimal lighting (????????) and the other is National Fitness - which we just can't afford.I've gained a grand total of two pounds of it back. I know that I am going to have to look at it from the "Wow, but I was so fit!" point of view rather than the "I worked how hard for how long to lose how much??" or I'll never join another one.
Right now, I am on the gall-bladder-weight-loss-plan. For those of you have never had the good fortune to try this effortless approach to weightloss, all you have to do is cultivate a couple of gall-stones, and then not only can you eat very little of anything, a portion of what you DO eat just makes its reappearance within about twenty minutes. I've heard that it's very common for people to develop gallstones after a bypass - so common that many surgeons just take out the gall bladder when they perform an RNY. Not my doc! Maybe he hopes that we'll come back so he leaves it for job security, or maybe he just doesn't see having another surgery as a big deal. For me, though, it is, and I am astounded at how my apparently poor choice of a surgeon is the gift that just keeps on giving.
As far as the depression goes, it seems to be over. I feel like a normal person now, and the best part is that sometime over the summer, cigarrettes stopped bothering me like they did. They don't set off my I-wanna-SMOKE reflex any more. They just STINK, and it's wonderful. All those years I smoked and had no idea that they smelled like something that blew out of the devil's ass. Ha.
I haven't read my old posts, so I don't know how much I have mentioned fertility issues - or even if I have at all. A little over a year ago, at age 38, I started seeing a fertility doctor in Johnson City for IUI. It took about three cycles to realize just what a total quack he was, and we moved across the street to see another one. I've had a total of six or seven rounds of IUI, one chemical pregnancy, and spent a small fortune. Husband and I figure we are good for about two or three more runs at it before we count the blessings that we have and move on. Finally, for the first time in YEARS, I can feel at peace with that idea, too. We still want another child, but at least now I can look at other people's babies and not cry.
I think that this year is going to be a good school year, especially compared to last year (a total CF). Half the people on our team were new last year, and out of those, most of them have already gone into something else for a living as they realized how unsuitable (or unemployable) they were for education. One is now on disability, one is working the desk at a local tourist trap for minimum wage... Another is still with us, but at least that one is now located right beside someone else - who happens to report straight to Central Office. I suspect that person's days of ignoring the children to chat with an S.O. is over. I just don't think that person's lack of activity is going to be a problem anymore. YAY!
Some people look at teaching as a job, and for others, it's personal.
I have lesson plans to do and groceries to get, so I am going to blow right on out of here and into the Sunday sales papers for some serious stick-it-to-Walmart ad-matching.
Catch you later!
PS - I thought that I'd take a look at my weight loss tracker, and look - I weigh exactly the same thing that I did in '07 on my first post. That goal weight is looking farther and farther away. How ironic.
It's August, 2009, and I have finally wandered back to my little forgotten blog. I am at 200 pounds now, and I am hoping that I don't go any higher. I joined a gym with the family right before Christmas last year in an effort to fight off moderate depression (another funny, and I'll explain that one in a minute, too).
We were dedicated - four or five days a week, three days some weeks when we had a lot going on - for at least an hour and a half. Some weights combined with an hour on the treadmill. I made my goal in calories instead of distance, working all the way up to a goal of 800 calories per session according to the machine I always used. Over the course of five months, I lost a grand total of (get this - it's the funny part) FIVE POUNDS.
Did I mention anywhere that I've had a gastric bypass, so it's not like I can pig out or anything? LOL.
I did feel better, and I would still be going except that my gym was moved and completely remodeled at the end of May or so, and now, since it has no dressing room, no fans, and fewer nachines, we just don't go. It sucks to go to the gym for three hours and spend half of that waiting in line for a squeaky treadmill.
There are two other gyms in town: one is painted dark gray and red with minimal lighting (????????) and the other is National Fitness - which we just can't afford.I've gained a grand total of two pounds of it back. I know that I am going to have to look at it from the "Wow, but I was so fit!" point of view rather than the "I worked how hard for how long to lose how much??" or I'll never join another one.
Right now, I am on the gall-bladder-weight-loss-plan. For those of you have never had the good fortune to try this effortless approach to weightloss, all you have to do is cultivate a couple of gall-stones, and then not only can you eat very little of anything, a portion of what you DO eat just makes its reappearance within about twenty minutes. I've heard that it's very common for people to develop gallstones after a bypass - so common that many surgeons just take out the gall bladder when they perform an RNY. Not my doc! Maybe he hopes that we'll come back so he leaves it for job security, or maybe he just doesn't see having another surgery as a big deal. For me, though, it is, and I am astounded at how my apparently poor choice of a surgeon is the gift that just keeps on giving.
As far as the depression goes, it seems to be over. I feel like a normal person now, and the best part is that sometime over the summer, cigarrettes stopped bothering me like they did. They don't set off my I-wanna-SMOKE reflex any more. They just STINK, and it's wonderful. All those years I smoked and had no idea that they smelled like something that blew out of the devil's ass. Ha.
I haven't read my old posts, so I don't know how much I have mentioned fertility issues - or even if I have at all. A little over a year ago, at age 38, I started seeing a fertility doctor in Johnson City for IUI. It took about three cycles to realize just what a total quack he was, and we moved across the street to see another one. I've had a total of six or seven rounds of IUI, one chemical pregnancy, and spent a small fortune. Husband and I figure we are good for about two or three more runs at it before we count the blessings that we have and move on. Finally, for the first time in YEARS, I can feel at peace with that idea, too. We still want another child, but at least now I can look at other people's babies and not cry.
I think that this year is going to be a good school year, especially compared to last year (a total CF). Half the people on our team were new last year, and out of those, most of them have already gone into something else for a living as they realized how unsuitable (or unemployable) they were for education. One is now on disability, one is working the desk at a local tourist trap for minimum wage... Another is still with us, but at least that one is now located right beside someone else - who happens to report straight to Central Office. I suspect that person's days of ignoring the children to chat with an S.O. is over. I just don't think that person's lack of activity is going to be a problem anymore. YAY!
Some people look at teaching as a job, and for others, it's personal.
I have lesson plans to do and groceries to get, so I am going to blow right on out of here and into the Sunday sales papers for some serious stick-it-to-Walmart ad-matching.
Catch you later!
PS - I thought that I'd take a look at my weight loss tracker, and look - I weigh exactly the same thing that I did in '07 on my first post. That goal weight is looking farther and farther away. How ironic.
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