Oscar has been evicted (surgery update)

Wednesday the 25th , I had semi-emergency surgery. Semi, because we knew it would happen eventually, we just didn’t know it was going to happen then.

Many of you know that I had weight loss surgery, a lap-band named Oscar (the grouch) placed way back in 2008. It was a last ditch effort to get the weight off that I had battled for my entire life. The first 18 months were wonderful. I lost 70+ pounds, was 6 pounds from goal, had only very minor issues twice, was running races and loved life.

Fast forward to our move here when all heck broke loose. I have had issue after issue, days and days of not being able to eat real food, pain that surpasses passing a gallstone, crying on the floor begging Bryan to get it out and ultimately gaining all my weight back, because slider foods are the only things that went down. I wrote a blog post about a particularly bad day back in November. My band had been completely empty for MONTHS and even though an upper GI said everything was a-okay, it was not.

Tuesday the 24th, was the last straw.  I talked my surgeon and asked what to do. He was super concerned with the pain I was still having, the intensity and how much damage it might be doing, so he told me to go to the ER, it needed to come out.

Okay. Can we wait till Bryan gets back in April?

No.

Umm…..

So, I went to the ER and eventually got a time slot for the OR. In and out of surgery and then home with a pain pump. The doctor told Bryan that the band was sitting really high on my esophagus which could be the result of a slip but he wasn’t 100% sure. Regardless, it was not where it should have been.

My surgeon used the same incisions as my original surgery, so no new scars and my nursing staff at the hospital was absolutely fabulous. All in all, it was okay.

This is my 5th surgery since July 2008 and my 3rd in the last 11 months though. I am done. Done. Tired of being a medical pin cushion.

I ate soup that first night to take it easy on my stomach. I had chicken and broccoli the next night (thanks to a fabulous neighbor and friend) and almost cried because it actually went down. Good for me foods went down with no issues and no pain.

You don’t realize how much that matters until you have dealt with 18 months of not being able to eat meat or veggies.

I’m now a week post-op and I have eaten chicken, broccoli, asparagus, broccolini, cauliflower, rice and a real sandwich with no problems. A real sandwich with real bread…that is something I haven’t had since July 2008.

I have my 2 week post-op check up next week, but so far healing is going great. We pulled the pain pump out Saturday, a day early because I could no longer stand being attached to tubes and I am done with all oral painkillers. My biggest incision is still a bit tender but I don’t feel any of the others. My stomach muscles where my port was removed do pull and tug a bit but I am already able to sleep on my stomach, so all is right in the world again. I drove today and no problems there. I was a little worried about the fact that Bryan TDY’s this weekend but that shouldn’t be an issue with the way recovery is going.

I had a few “band” friends ask me if I planned to do a revision (another surgery) and I can wholeheartedly say no. I never wanted anything permanent to begin with and can’t risk more possible complications on top of already being a cancer patient. I KNOW I can get the weight back off, now that I can eat healthy foods again. With the band, I always said it was 75% me and 25% the band (because I always kept it super loose)…now it just has to be 100% me.