Home- sorry to have you all worried

Hi all, sorry i've had you guys worried. Here's the scoop.... Had my rny oct 25th (Monday), felt not bad afterward & Tuesday...then my pain started getting worse rather than better over  the next few days. My heart rate also started to go up. Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up having a leak. Now this is kinda ironic because one reason i picked the rny over the vsg was that the risks of a leak are far greater in the vsg then the rny as there are alot less staples with the rny. Anyway, these things do happen occasionally. So Dr. Vergi, along with Dr. Andrews and Dr. Hardy operated on Thursday evening to fix the leak. Which they did. Now the reason i was in the hospital so long is not that i was in alot of pain or having alot of problems it was just that dr vergis wanted to be super precautionary. This meant he didn't want me to eat or drink anything for a week. Only ice chips. So they had to hook me up withTPN which is basically getting all my nutrition intravenously. I was getting protein, vits, minerals, lipids everything intravenously. So basically i was just there to be fed. haha Then he wanted to do a leak test which was this past friday. It involves swallowing a bit of contrast stuff while they look at it with a ct scan. The results were excellent. No more leak, perfect. But now he wanted to take it really slow to introduce liquids. So i slowly started on clear fluids over the weekend and monday. I felt fine and all went well.The plan was to send me home somewhere this week between tuesday and thursday. He did a regular ct scan yesterday, Tuesday and there is a bit of an abcess from the second surgery. so the plan was this morning to have the radiologist remove that using the ct scanner and aspirating it with a needle, then i was to stay a couple of hours and go home today. As my luck would be...the ct machine broke down today and being a holiday tomorrow then won't have it fixed until Friday am. So they decided, god bless there souls, to let me come home on a pass until Friday am. I go back friday, have the aspiration done and  wait a few hours to make sure everything is ok then i'll be official discharged home. hee haw!! I do have a drain that was put in during the second surgery just to make sure and it will stay in for another week or so, but it's not a big deal. Anyway, don't be all freaked out about my experience, it hasn't been a painful time, just slow, long time staying at the hospital but I understand dr vergis wanting to be super cautious with everything. The worse part of everything has just been staying in the hospital that long, not sleeping well, and being cooped up. I was getting a little down and emotional but as my wonderful husband has reminded me...sleep deprivation will do that to you. You do not get much rest in hospital, there are always buzzers ringing all night, other patient's noise and the nurses in and out all the time. I never slept more than a 3 hour stretch at a time. The staff at the vic are awesome and dr vergis has been amazing. A very caring man. Like Dean said, my worse pain was gas pain the first week. Once that gets better it's not bad. I'm really behind where i should be though as far as the diet goes just because of not taking in anything for a full week. But I've been tolerate liquids great now and will probably be doing full fluids by the weekend or monday. For those of you having the rny, don't worry, this is not common, actually more of a risk with the vsg...just crap happens some times.
My tips-
Bring your own costco shakes to the hospital- they will label them and put in fridge for you- so much better
Buy a pill crusher before you go in the hospital so you have it as soon as you get home. They work great.and are cheap
They had me on the morphine pump the whole week i couldn't have fluids and I actually felt better after i got off that and on T3s. I think the morphine messes up your head a little,,..even though mine was messed up before haha.
Anyway, now that i've rattled on forever i'll sign off with saying sorry i couldn't make the first get together,,,,i'll be there next time.
sue b

Sue I am so glad you are back at  home ( at least for a day!!) You were missed.  I must say that I was very concerned about your length of stay in the hospital.  I am glad to hear how well and quickly you were cared for. I am making my way to the city on the 15 for my appointment at the Vic, and then i have surgery the next day. I am scared has heck so any other info you could give me would be helpful.  In the mean time I do have some questions:

Can you bring a extra pillow/blanket?
Did you bring in p.j or a robe?
what do you wish you would have had to make yourself more comfortable?
How long after the surgery did it take you to get up and walk around?
this one is about the pre-op diet........................................
did you have body aches? and massive head aches?   I had really bad issues for the first 4 days they went away then on day # 8 they started again. I must say that today was a bad one.

Once again so glad to hear from you

Bren

Bren I was thinking of you the past few days. I thought your surgery was yesterday or today, so I was keeping an I out for you at the hosp.
It's so natural to be scared...everyone i talked has had the exact same feeling, including me. The surgery itself wasn't as bad as i thought, just the leak ended up messing thinkgs up for me. anyway to answer your question
yes you can bring an extra pillow / blanket
Don't bother with pj's, i brought some put didn't wear them as i had an iv and could put the sleeve on. However, things might be different for you so maybe bring one just in case. Also, they give you a blood thinner shot everyday and it left a blood spot on my gown, so not sure if you want that on your pj's. housecoat would be good...i didn't own one, wish i did.
I was up walking later the same day as surgery. Not as bad as you think it will be. It feels good to get up and get the gas pains moving. I walked alot.
The preop diet was a killer, worse than post op. I did have body aches, especially my back, and serveral days with bad headaches. i did the same as you, bad at the beginning then better than back again. I was starving the whole 2 weeks....NOT anymore...it's weird. I can't think of anythink else you might want to bring.
Where are you coming from?? obviously out of town?
oh, bring comfy slip on slippers
feel free to pester me with as many question you want, i know it helps. I check in throughout the day tomorrow
sue b

Hey Sue! I am from Winnipegosis which is about 35 minutes north of Dauphin. Where I live with my 3 kids (boys) and my husband who lives with us but works out of The Pas. I am very lucky that he was able to get time of for this. We are also lucky that the boys are staying with family members( i don't think that I will be able to see them for at least a week or so).
Thank-you for all the info. I hope everything continues to go well for you all the best!!

Bren!!

yay Sue, glad to hear your sort of home. you should finally catch up on some much needed sleep tonight, and tomorrow. even though you have to go back on Friday, the worst is over and your journey begins. Thanks for keeping us all posted.
Hayley

Hooray my girl is home!!!!! I am so glad your home and that sucks that you have to go back....what the heck???? But soon....home for good! I tried phoning your room this morning but you might have been out walking. So glad your home and doing better.

Take care and we'll talk soon! I will be thinking of you Friday. Let us know how it went!

I am very glad we got to spend a few days talking in the hospital, just sorry it was because all you went through.

Dean

Yah, for the day pass, I am soooo happy that you are coming around and things are looking better for you.  I am glad that you posted the events of your story for the forum ladies to read.  It was very hard to update the ladies after our visit.

Glad you are home for the day,

Michelle

Glad to see you are home ! I am sorry about the complication, the important thing is you are ok now and healing!