Post Op One Month and Doing Fine

Christmas Letter 2003 [email protected] Dear Family and Friends, I send this Christmas memo to those of you who might not know much about the very important, life changing decisions and actions I took this year. I'm not big on writing about it over and over again so let me summarize the experience once and for all. So please bear with me. After beginning my application process over a year ago, on 11/17/03 I finally underwent Gastric Bypass Surgery to put the brakes on my runaway weight gain and consequential failing health as the result. If you don't know what this surgery is by now you may have noticed the NBC weatherman, Al Roker, has trimmed down considerably, or Roseanne Barr has slimmed down a lot since her early days, or maybe that Carnie Wilson of the Wilson-Phillips musical group is a shadow of her former self. They all have had the surgery along with thousands of other everyday people. Through laparoscopy the surgeon basically staples your stomach down to the size of an egg from the traditional "Bota Bag" size, so you feel full sooner and less hungry. There is no more "packing it away" like the old days after this surgery just in case we should happen to have an unexpected famine or drought this winter! It's been very successful for weight loss and for those of you who know of Carnie Wilson, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boy's daughter, who did her surgery LIVE on the internet (no joke!), you can see just how life changing it is! It's been only one month and I've lost 25 pounds, (35 in all because I lost 10 additional pounds during the summer just worrying about it!), so I had the exhilarating experience of suddenly realizing that I had a lot of clothes in my closet that were once too tight on me last winter, now, were an array of "tents" and "clown pants" that I was swimming in! All I needed were a pair of big, floppy shoes to make the neighbors think the circus was in town! In a frenzy, I tried several on items and if they weren't worth saving by alteration, over the balcony and down the stairwell they went! I've made three trips to the Goodwill truck already. And among the many other added benefits is the fact that my aching back and knees don't feel even ½ as bad as they did before the surgery, not to mention many of my medications were eliminated by my doctor after the surgery. My blood pressure medicines have been cut in half and my B.P. was so low during my last doctor visit the other day that I had to ask the nurse to repeat it. When I was younger I took lots of vitamins every morning to stay healthy. But in recent years and now 53, Kaiser has had me on more and more scripts to stay healthy! Kaiser had me on so many drugs that my stash of pills would be the envy of any Haight Ashbury Hippie from the "Summer of Love"! The number of prescription medicines I was being prescribed was reaching an alarming amount, for me anyway, until I didn't want to see another pill in the morning ever again! I kept a typed list of my meds in my purse just to remember all of them for my doctors, (or maybe even the ER!). Now the list is cut to about a third of what it was and I'm feeling better and better every day. I was really getting worried there for a while before my surgery was approved because I was beginning to wonder if I was going to leave my job "feet first" before retirement because of all the meds I had to take and how lousy I felt everyday. Now there is hope and the noticeable improvement is keeping me going. Kaiser subcontracted the surgery out to Pacific Bariatric Medical Team at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego....an excellent combination. The pain was minimal and I don't even remember a thing thanks to the "Happy Button". I was off the Morphine in 2-3 days ( and maybe I would have been off sooner but I'd never had a "Happy Button" to play with before and it helped me get lots of sleep!). I stayed 4 days because I was having trouble with my asthma after the surgery, (the soot from the fires was still in the air everywhere), but other than that, Dr. Zorn did an excellent job! And all I have to show for it is what looks like five little "cat scratches" where they entered my stomach. The R.T.'s took care of the asthma once I became conscience of why I was coughing so much and hollered for help. I was wonderfully supported by family and friends. Family flew into the San Diego area to lend their support. A regular family reunion. We had a "Last Supper" at the Outback Saturday night prior to the surgery and then that Monday at noon I had the surgery. Gotta do that! I was released the following Friday at noon from the hospital, and they let me go home rather than tell me I had to stay in S.D. another week like everyone else usually does. I couldn't wait to go home by then! I'd never really had a true "hospital experience" before, but you veterans can appreciate why I wanted to go home! Initially, I thought the morphine would just help me "sleep through the whole experience" and they could just wake me up when I was ready to go home. Then I found out that the more "active" you were the sooner you would be considered well enough to be released. This required me to change my whole strategy!! So in order to accomplish this, it required getting out of bed, even at midnight if necessary, (no hospital floor traffic at that hour and I looked like hell anyway), and "jog" around the halls with I.V. in tow and a robe thrown over my backside so those "attractive little gowns" didn't fly open in the back. I found I could do this in half the time and look like "quite the performer" if I could do so while holding on to this rugged, steel tubed walker I nicknamed the "Iron Maiden". Then I was ready to roll! "Beep! Beep! Where's the I-5 please....!" My family drove me back home and then my long-time, good friend, Penny, flew in that night from Arlington, WA to pick up the slack. What a lucky person I am! I would have paid a limo driver to get me back and forth to the surgery and follow-up if I hadn't had so many wonderful people helping me. I wanted the surgery that bad. But fortunately I was blessed with a lot of wonderful "Angels" to help me along the way. I even met a friend named Ysabella on the net who had her surgery Oct. 2003, who volunteer to my "Angel" on the net and kept my "internet network" informed for me as to how things were going. She lives a few blocks from my work. And she would call me and read all the replies from family and friends and well-wishers and get the latest update from my sister on her cell. Those notes really helped and kept my spirits positive to help promote healing throughout the whole experience. Thanks to everyone, I never felt lonely or scared even once through it all. My first night home I came in, fed the cats, did a load of laundry and climbed the stairs several times (slowly!) To unpack and pick up around the house. No pain! What a great doctor! Thank you Dr. Zorn! The doctor emphasized that he wanted us to "be up and walking" so we wouldn't get blood clots during our recovery so my friend, Penny, took me out shopping every day she was here. That surprised everyone I think! The first time I was good for a couple of hours and then I'd take some sitting breaks while she shopped when I couldn't move anymore. By the time we got home I would pass out instantly on the couch and be dead to the world. Now I'm back at wor****il Christmas eve when we will close until January 5th. Not too bad to be back but I prefer to be home. I'll be taking Jet Blue to Vegas to see my family during the holidays and it looks like I'll be forced to go to all those new malls out there since I haven't hardly a thing to wear anymore. What a pity! Ha! Ha! But seriously, the hard road of diet and exercise is ahead of me this year. This is a "tool", not a "magic bullet". Or should I say it's not a "magic liposuction surgery" where you could just hook yourself up to a valve attached to a compressor of some kind that just vacuums the fat right out of you every night! But the surgery does make it easier to diet when your stomach isn't calling out to you 24/7 "Feed me...feed me NOW!" .......A lot easier! Hope your year was a good one and may you all have an even brighter and HEALTHIER one next year! Best wishes and a Healthy, Happy Christmas to All! Lloni