I have worked out for years but weight just kept piling on me. I hit the gym 4 or 5 days a week and have seen no progress as far as losing weight. I gave up Chinese food, Mexican and just about all other foods that I really like.
I have been working on getting gastric surgery for about a year, actually for about 7 years but there was a long time there when the insurance wouldn’t cover it. So, now I was able to get it done last Friday at Good Samaritan Hospital by Doctors Rosen and Mikhail in Downers Grove. The office staff was great. They have everyone on staff except an office psychologist.
I met with them after being referred by another surgeon who wanted me to lose about 50 pounds before he would do the surgery. If I could lose that much on my own, I wouldn’t need the surgery. I met with them 3 times before the surgery, Mikhail before and Rosen the day of and the day after. Like I wrote, the staff was great and they were a fun couple of guys.
So the day of surgery I got to the hospital with my dad and sister about 5:00. The surgery was scheduled for 7 am. The hospital was great and got me into the OR on time. I’m not sure how long it lasted but they also fixed a hiatal hernia.
I came too about 11:30 or so but was mostly out of it for much of that day. I was on a morphine pump and that was awesome. Eventually I was sent down to the radiology department to check for leaks that took about 10 minutes. The rest of the day and much of the night was spent waling the hallways of the hospital. The nurses and staff were on top of everything and the hospital technology was top notch.
The pulled me off the pain pump that evening. I slept for about 5 hours and woke with a huge pain in my stomach. They said it was just he meds wearing off. “Let me be clear” this was not fun. Oral pain meds followed and took most of the pain away other than gas pains that somehow got into my left shoulder.
So, now I have 6 openings in the gut that are all glued together. They got me out of the hospital by about 13:00 on Saturday. I could walk pretty well, but of course, still did not feel well. I spent most of Saturday dozing in my chair. I discovered the “autism rock” on Saturday. I coined the term and mean simply sitting in a hard char and rocking back and forth. I did this for much of yesterday and today. Of course, they want me up and walking as much as I can and I have tried to walk the house at least once an hour.
Right now I am not feeling too bad. I have been able to drink 4 or 5 protein shakes a day along with 3 or 4 bottles of water and now I am working on sugar free Wal-Mart “Kool-Aid”. There have been a few occasions where I was in a lot of pain from drinking a bit too much but, in general everything seems to be going well. I am now down about 5 pounds from my Friday weight and have not been hungry at all yet.
The boys were able to come home after school today which was great. I miss them a lot. My dad will be taking me to get the dog from the kennel tomorrow. He will be happy to get home too.
I’ll post some pictures when I can.
