Home after surgery

Maybe this will help some, maybe it won't but here is my story since Monday of this week. A word of caution. My surgery was not for morbid obesity. My BMI is 31 so the weight loss will put me back to normal. The reason I had surgery was I had a severe reflux problem coupled with an esphoegus that doesn't work properly. To prevent cancer of the esphoegus (I have Barrett's Esphoegus) I had a modified Roux En Y. Modified in that the opening is somewhat larger from the pouch downwards than the normal patient will receive with this operation. I am still limited to 2 - 3 ounces per meal but the liquid diet was only 2 days and now pureed for 2 weeks. Here is what happened: MONDAY 9/25. I arrived at Banner Good Sam in Phoenix at about 9am. I registered and was taken to pre op. My operation was scheduled for noon but was moved back to about 1:30 due to staff shortages. 1:30 pm I was in the OR. The next thing I remember is being in post op for a few hours. I was assigned to a private room. At 6:40 pm I got up and took a small walk. At 8:40 pm I took another walk and started working on chewing small pieces of ices. At this time I stopped my pain medicine. I had one of those automatic systems that you push a button to get morpine. My pain was nil so I guess I am one of the lucky ones. At 9:40 pm I take another walk. My throat is dry, parched and raspy. I am told this is normal. At 10:26 I try for sleep. I had sleep off and on since entering the room. I tried lying on my side and it was OK but it was more pressure on the stomach then when I was on my back. Tuesday at 2 am I awaken and walk some more. Throat raspy. At 5:29 am I again walk and the trhoat is still sore, parched and raspy. When I was getting up I accidently tore off an IV and blood spurted everywhere. I got a nurse in the room to fix the IV and she cleaned up the mess. Yucky! At 10:40 AM I had an upper GI to make sure there was no leaks from the surgery. My surgeon, Dr Villares came in and told me that during the operation he found a small tumor in my upper colon and removed same. It was about the size of the tip of your thumb. Wow, am I lucky of what. Had that not been caught I probably would had been dead within a few years or less! God works miracles in the most wonderful and unthought of places. At 1:07 pm I had my first meal in 40 hours (strange but I wasn't even hungry - Dr Villares says that is normal) I had a cup of beef broth, a few sips of iced tead and about 6 chunck of SF jello. Danged, I felt like I ate a complete turkey dinner! I was stuffed! The rest of Tuesday I slept and watched TV and took walks. No pain meds. I ate chicken broth, jello and a few sips of teas for dinner. Wednesday at 8am I have 1/4 cup of Cream of Wheat with fake sugar on it. There was a few sips of tea. I was full. At 10:10 Dr Villares comes in to discharge me. I have many questions which he answers. He is a top flight surgeon!. At 10:30 am I am discharged and arrived home at 11:30, just in time for a trip to the bathroom; 1st for #2 since Friday. Whew; did I feel better . At 1 pm I pureed white chicken, mayo, and pickle relish and ate about 3 ounces. I think that was to much as my stomach feel overfull the rest of the afternoon. About 2 pm I had a SF popsycle. Right now is is 6:40 pm and I still feel full but I must again eat soon. Eating now becomes a chore like paying the bills but I'll take this over what it might have been otherwise. Regards, Bob

Hey Bob! Glad you are on the healing side of surgery and that you are tumor free! That's amazing! Take care and go slow with that eating stuff! Hugggz, Joyce

Thanks for your nice comment Joyce. This having no appetite is hard to get used to! Bob

You surgery was a blessing and I am so thrilled for you. Enjoy life.

Wow that is great ! I am so glad that they found the tumor. This really was a life saving surgery for you. I had a good friend and neighbor die last year of esphoegus cancer at 48 years old. She had a long fight with it and went down to about 80 pounds. She could not keep anything down. Thank God they were able to do this surgery for you to prevent the cancer. You are right about it being a chore to eat and for about the first two months you won't be hungry. But remember to eat anyways and try to get in your protein. I hope you have a speedy recovery. Melissa