I am Home

I returned home from NY on Friday, October 24th. The flight home was wonderful. Northwest airlines were so accommodating. They had my oxygen ready and loaded us first on the plane. We did fly first class which was well worth it. Things have been going pretty well. I have lost 23 pounds at the two week mark. I have only vomited three times. Two of the times was because I took my medication too close to eating my breakfast and there just wasn't room. Yesterday was probably the worst day I have had. I vomited my morning medication to start the day off. After that I just felt dumpy. I took a three hour nap, which was the first nap since being home, and just couldn't get into the swing of things. Hopefully today will be better. You can tell by the time, 2:55 am, that I am not sleeping. I did take a morphine around 10:30 and now I am having severe stomach upset. Having the surgery in NY was wonderful. It was the best care I have ever received. My surgeons were the best I have ever dealt with. The nursing care was unbelievable. I have been hospitalized many times here in Des Moines, and there is no comparison. The surgery went very well, but post-op did not. I had a tremendous amount of blood in my lungs after the surgery probably from the awake intubation. Areas of both of my lungs collapsed. My wonderful husband hired a private duty nurse for me the second and third day. She was an angel sent from God. I would not have made it without her. The pain medication made me sick and I was vomiting a lot until they figured it out. On the third day I asked them to let me die. It was not from the surgery, but from the other heart and lung issues that I have. I will be having a telephone conference with my dietitian from NY on Tuesday next week. I have already talked to her on the telephone and my endocrinologist from NY several times. I feel that I get better care from them then I ever did from the ones here. I am going to look into a support group here in Iowa. I think it is important to have others to help you through this. My angel has been fantastic and has given me some really good information. People ask now if I would do it again. After two weeks, I would say yes. I see the weight coming off and I am feeling so much better. I am only taking morphine once in a while and using a lighter pain medication now. This is not for the surgery pain, but for the pain I had before surgery. Over all, I am starting to feel like a new person. If anyone is turned down by the local physicians, I would highly recommend gong to New York. I haven't seen any bills comes in yet, but it will be interesting to see the cost difference.

Glad to hear you had a good turnout happy healing ....Tiffany

Glad to hear you are back home. Seems like procedures like this are more accepted on the coasts rather in our conservative midwest. In that respect it is good to hear that care is so much better out there where we usually stereo-type everyone as uncaring and cold. Hope your complications turn around. Your tummy will be "woozy" as my daughter calls it for a while longer until you get more used to the routine and foods you are able to tolerate. I am 3 months out and still experimenting. Hope to hear more about you losing in months to come! Welcome back!