Category: vsg

Misc cut-and-paste from an online group I post to. Kept here mainly for my benefit only…

I’m feeling fine now. I just have trouble getting enough water and am
trying to not eat from habbit.

sometimes I’m not entirely sure anything was changed like when I
forget what I’m doing and drink 200 or so mls of water in one go
without noticing.

Othertimes, I try to eat a little childrens custard container (140ml)
and can only at about 100mls worth before it gets painful

All the sensations like, hungry, full, needing to burp, about to throw
up are all different and take re-learning. The ‘about to throw up’ I
learnt fairly quickly though as when you try the ‘I wonder what that
means’ approach, it gets a little messy.

I was in the OR on monday afternoon (about 1pm) although I was ready
at 8am and on Thursday when I came home, I was a little tired. I
decided to go to work on Friday (only 3.5 days after operation) and
was planning to come home early. Anyway, as it turns out I spent over
10 hours at work (sooo much to be done) and we also went to the
basketball at night (we have season tickets).

I found the Hospital staff fantastic and had just the right amount of
support vs letting you do things yourself.

On tuesday morning, to get out of ed for a walk, I needed them to help
me get dressed (well, tie the gown up anyway). but after that, they
were happy to let me walk around by myself.

Misc cut-and-paste from an online group I post to. Kept here mainly for my benefit only…

This morning, I had a skim milk chai tea (about 200ml) for lunch there
was some ‘stuffed eggs’ and I had 2 halves and some small amount of
potato, then this afternoon I had some blueberry yoghurt. Now im
drinking about 100ml of water with the syprodyn multivitamin in it
that I was told to have every day. For dinner, Libby is planning on
chinese (its her last meal before optifast) and < ?xml:namespace prefix =”” st1 ns =”” “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Ill get a short soup,
blend it up, and it should last 2 or 3 meals.

Last night we had a party and I had water and some skim milk but then
the real foor turned up (fried chicken, pizza etc).

I got 2 chicken nuggets, placed them in the blender with a little
sweet chilla sauce and about 2tbsp skim milk and pressed go. It looked
terrible but tasted great :) Most of the people at the party were
interested in the surgery and the strange way I had to eat.

I downloaded a youtube VSG video from youtube, converted it for my
nokia phone, and can show it on demand when people ask about it. It
answers lots of questions (and also gets conversations going).

I wish I could understand these feelings, I’m finding it strange not
being able to tell between full, hungry, operation pain and just ‘im
bored, lets eat’

Still, even with the fried chicken I had, In such small amounts I
can’t see maintaining my weight (and im still losing about .8kg/day)

I even had a small piece (really small) of chocolate today and It
tasted really strange. Not really enjoyable at all. Maybe (I hope) I
will be not wanting bad stuff much more. The vsg makes it easier but I
find I still need willpower. Lets hope I can find some.

Well, heres the breakdown

So far its been

• Surgeon $4000 (deposit only, the don’t know the full amount before surgery in case something happens)
• Anethesist $500 deposit (same reason as above)
• Hospital $500 (excess for the health fund) other than that, the hospital should be covered by the private health insurance
• Pathology $311.30
• Surgeon pre op visit 1 $150
• Surgeon pre op visit 2 $80

I don’t yet know what medicare will cover but I’ve been told its very little. The health fund will probably match what medicare pays aparently but I will find out soon.

So, Total so far is $5543.30

I’m just waiting for all the final bills to come in so I can go and visit the medicare office and upset the people in line behind me.

Today, (day 5) I’m back at work doing normal things. It’s difficult to be in a familure enviroment, where I would normally be able to drink coffee and drink the ‘up and go’ drinks I normally have for breakfast but not be able to do that. I’ve spent all morning trying to drink a few hundred mills of water and its not easy. I had 1/2 of an ‘up and go’ for breakfast before. I got too full to continue (about 100ml of it) but they only have about 8.8g protein and I need more than that. I think the protein powder in skim milk will be a better option in the future.

Theres still some pain occasionally. It comes and goes in waves.

I have had some skim milk with protein power today but really don’t know the difference between hunger, thirst, fullness or operation pain. It seems that you just have to re-learn what everything feels like all over again.

Things I would have done different.

1. During optifast, had more water
2. Day before operation, had lots (really lots) of water. From midnight I couldn’t have anything and was very thirsty.
3. Pressed my pethadine button more in the first 24 hours
4. Asked for a private room (the person next to me was a grumpy guy) and between his and my IV machines (2 each) running out or needing attention, plus the 2 hour observations, I was woken every hour or so.

Other than that, I’m now down to 115kg and feel better every day. With the amount I can eat, I can’t see being able to not lose weight.

It’t now day3 and Life is much better. I went for a walk this morning without the drips in and had a shower. I now feel great and can manage to have some apple juice (about 60ml over about an hour) so its far better than yesterday or last night.

Im now sitting in the chair next to my bed typing and going through some work emails.

Its really strange that the 5 stab wounds (ecach about 3–5cm long) don’t hurt at all. Its only the internal pain thats an issue. Its sort of like really really bad indigestion.

Anyway, I didn’t go throuh the ‘what have I done’ phase so its not so bad.