![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Weight Loss Surgery and other fun stuff
4/2/05 12:43 pmOne of the things I did during my hiatus from Things Cyber was to have a gastric bypass operation in November 2004; specifically a proximal Roux-en-Y. For those who don't know, your stomach is stapled and divided so that you are left with a pouch about the size of your thumb, and your small intestines rearranged so that a portion is bypassed. The pouch is connected to the end of the unbypassed intestine, the duodenal limb on your ex-stomach is attached lower down (so you still get the digestive enzymes), and voila, you're done. Lucky people get to have it done laparoscopically. Unlucky folks (like me) get open, meaning they cut you down the middle and expose your inner workings to the world. This is mostly done on men with hugely fat abdomens; I had 2 previous hernia surgeries and lap didn't work.
Well, the surgeon decided whilst he was in there to cut out the old hernia repairs (done with mesh) and bring my abdominal wall together in a more natural manner. This resulted in mind-numbing agony when I woke up, since all those poor insulted muscles decided to spasm constantly. I ran through my morphine allotment so fast they took it away and replaced it with injections of some sort. I don't remember because my blood pressure bottomed out and my kidneys failed. I got better, but not until after a lot of pain, a lot of drugs, and being threatened with dialysis. Went home 6 days later.
About a week later I developed a wound infection which landed me in the hospital for the entire month of December. This is when I got the gentamicin that killed my balance. So anyone who says WLS is "the easy way out", come over here and let me box your ears. Easy my ass.
Several people have asked me if it was worth it, the weight loss surgery. On the whole, yes. For one thing, I've never been able to lose weight and keep it off before. For another, I consider the WLS and the wound infection to not really be related, in that you can get a wound infection from any surgery. In fact, when I had the Tumor That Ate Georgia out in 2000, I developed an abscess deep under the incision which had to be drained, and I spent some extra time in the hospital from that. Prior to the WLS I was diabetic, hypertensive, had high cholesterol, no energy, crippling hip pain, and just flat ass didn't feel good. Now I've lost 90 lbs, the diabetes, cholesterol and BP are under control, have more energy than I know what to do with, my hip and back DON'T HURT ANYMORE, and I feel pretty chipper most of the time. The only issue is that I've reached the point where I need to exercise a lot, and I can't because of the vestibulopathy.
Oh, I can walk and walk and walk, but I can't walk as much as I would like (a couple of miles daily) because it's so exhausting having to consciously keep my balance, and I can't do things like Curves or other types of aerobic exercise, since falling down isn't usually part of the routine. I do Pilates every other day, but that mostly increases flexibility and strengthens the core. So weight loss has slowed waaaaay down -- in fact it's stopped. I don't know what to do to get it started up again. I'm hoping that when we get this place sold we can move into town, and then I can walk all over the place. Out here it's dangerous to walk on the road (people drive like idiots). Maybe I'll start walking up and down the driveway as many times as makes a mile. The treadmill is fucking boring.
I'd love to be able to run, I feel good enough to do that, but that would be an adventure in falling. Hmmm maybe if I hang onto Mike's shoulder that would stabilize me enough... it's a thought anyway.
Seems my journal always returns to the vestibulopathy and how it's destroyed my previous life. Well, it has, that's for sure. I guess I'm still trying to find my way to a new way of living, I know I'm still mourning having to get rid of the horses. Too unstable to be safe around them, even the new baby can knock me off my feet just running into me. Four months isn't that long, I suppose, to still be in the adjustment phase of this.
But a loss of 90 lbs! That astounds me. And I'm not that limited in what I eat either. The only things I've found that I simply can't eat right now are hamburgers and rice. Go figure, because I can eat pasta and beef in a non-ground state, and I can eat sauces with ground meat in them. I can eat overcooked rice with no problem, just not the rice we make ourselves. Dammit, and I love basmati rice. I do have to watch how fast I eat, and I have to remember to cut everything up and chew it until it's mush. But Chinese food has done fine, so has pizza (one slice is my limit), fruits and vegetables, chicken, shrimp, ham, and our weekly ritual, a beautiful pot roast marinaded overnight in beer and worcestershire sauce. Mmmmmmm.....MEAT. Beef jerky is doing very well too, which makes it one helluva lot easier to get my protein in.
I now weigh less than I have since I was 22 years old. I've never weighed this little since I've been married to Mike. My ultimate goal is around 160 lbs or so, and yes, there's a way to go to reach that (I'm not quite brave enough to put in where I started and where I am now). I may or may not get there; in fact I may or may not lose another ounce. Even if I don't, I'm healthier than I was on November 17, 2004, which was the day before my surgery, and I'll never go back. Even staggering around, I'm happier.
So yah boo.
Lorri
Well, the surgeon decided whilst he was in there to cut out the old hernia repairs (done with mesh) and bring my abdominal wall together in a more natural manner. This resulted in mind-numbing agony when I woke up, since all those poor insulted muscles decided to spasm constantly. I ran through my morphine allotment so fast they took it away and replaced it with injections of some sort. I don't remember because my blood pressure bottomed out and my kidneys failed. I got better, but not until after a lot of pain, a lot of drugs, and being threatened with dialysis. Went home 6 days later.
About a week later I developed a wound infection which landed me in the hospital for the entire month of December. This is when I got the gentamicin that killed my balance. So anyone who says WLS is "the easy way out", come over here and let me box your ears. Easy my ass.
Several people have asked me if it was worth it, the weight loss surgery. On the whole, yes. For one thing, I've never been able to lose weight and keep it off before. For another, I consider the WLS and the wound infection to not really be related, in that you can get a wound infection from any surgery. In fact, when I had the Tumor That Ate Georgia out in 2000, I developed an abscess deep under the incision which had to be drained, and I spent some extra time in the hospital from that. Prior to the WLS I was diabetic, hypertensive, had high cholesterol, no energy, crippling hip pain, and just flat ass didn't feel good. Now I've lost 90 lbs, the diabetes, cholesterol and BP are under control, have more energy than I know what to do with, my hip and back DON'T HURT ANYMORE, and I feel pretty chipper most of the time. The only issue is that I've reached the point where I need to exercise a lot, and I can't because of the vestibulopathy.
Oh, I can walk and walk and walk, but I can't walk as much as I would like (a couple of miles daily) because it's so exhausting having to consciously keep my balance, and I can't do things like Curves or other types of aerobic exercise, since falling down isn't usually part of the routine. I do Pilates every other day, but that mostly increases flexibility and strengthens the core. So weight loss has slowed waaaaay down -- in fact it's stopped. I don't know what to do to get it started up again. I'm hoping that when we get this place sold we can move into town, and then I can walk all over the place. Out here it's dangerous to walk on the road (people drive like idiots). Maybe I'll start walking up and down the driveway as many times as makes a mile. The treadmill is fucking boring.
I'd love to be able to run, I feel good enough to do that, but that would be an adventure in falling. Hmmm maybe if I hang onto Mike's shoulder that would stabilize me enough... it's a thought anyway.
Seems my journal always returns to the vestibulopathy and how it's destroyed my previous life. Well, it has, that's for sure. I guess I'm still trying to find my way to a new way of living, I know I'm still mourning having to get rid of the horses. Too unstable to be safe around them, even the new baby can knock me off my feet just running into me. Four months isn't that long, I suppose, to still be in the adjustment phase of this.
But a loss of 90 lbs! That astounds me. And I'm not that limited in what I eat either. The only things I've found that I simply can't eat right now are hamburgers and rice. Go figure, because I can eat pasta and beef in a non-ground state, and I can eat sauces with ground meat in them. I can eat overcooked rice with no problem, just not the rice we make ourselves. Dammit, and I love basmati rice. I do have to watch how fast I eat, and I have to remember to cut everything up and chew it until it's mush. But Chinese food has done fine, so has pizza (one slice is my limit), fruits and vegetables, chicken, shrimp, ham, and our weekly ritual, a beautiful pot roast marinaded overnight in beer and worcestershire sauce. Mmmmmmm.....MEAT. Beef jerky is doing very well too, which makes it one helluva lot easier to get my protein in.
I now weigh less than I have since I was 22 years old. I've never weighed this little since I've been married to Mike. My ultimate goal is around 160 lbs or so, and yes, there's a way to go to reach that (I'm not quite brave enough to put in where I started and where I am now). I may or may not get there; in fact I may or may not lose another ounce. Even if I don't, I'm healthier than I was on November 17, 2004, which was the day before my surgery, and I'll never go back. Even staggering around, I'm happier.
So yah boo.
Lorri
