My 7 year anniversary was yesterday. Do I celebrate it?

 

Hello Everyone,  I don't post often other than to post the monthly meeting reminder for Hamilton/Burlington support meetings.  Today I thought I would talk about my anniversary.  Hope no ones minds this post reader jumping in every year or so.  Guess I don't post much as I sometimes feel when you have nothing positive to say it is best to say nothing at all.  Don't get me wrong, I support WLS and all it contributes to the lives of so many.  Let's face it, so many people have had such amazing positive life changing outcomes from this surgery.  I am just not one of them.

Seven years ago yesterday I had DS surgery in Rochester, NY.  Back then they were still approving surgeries in the US due to the long wait times in Canada.  Initially my surgery seemed to go well.  I came out of the operation fine, was up and moving until something was apparently wrong.  I had multiple leaks that they had to go in and do surgery to fix right away. That's when things went wrong.  I ended up on life support for about 12 days.  It was very touch and go.  My family and friends were devastated.  They were only able to repair 4 of the 5 leaks.  The last leak was further up in the esophagus.  When I finally did come to, for some reason I had severe pain EVERYWHERE!  Doctors, nurses, family could not touch me without causing me pain.  They could not determine why.  To this day, no one has been able to diagnose what happened.  Stroke? Neurological? Everything they looked at was ruled out.  It took time but the right ****tail was eventually found to help control most (not all) of the pain. 

I spent almost a full year in hospital.  Six months in the US and the rest back home in Ontario.  Once I was released from hospital I had a long time of home care for open wounds that needed nurse attention daily. Seven years later I am still on multiple pain relievers, walk with a cane, (better than not walking which took a long time to relearn while in hospital) and have not been able to resume my life as I once knew  it.

Do I blame weight loss surgery? It took me a long time to answer this question.  In reality, any surgery we undergo has it's risks.  I could have had the same outcome from gallbladder surgery.  Were their cir****tances unique to the DS procedure?  Possibly.  It is a very aggressive approach to WLS. Did WLS itself cause my chronic pain issues.  Probably not.  This is just something that went wrong that could have gone wrong with any surgery. 

Needless to say, my life is not what I expected to have after weight loss surgery.  Yes, I have lost a significant amount of weight.  To date I am down 175lbs.  I am no longer diabetic either which is a big plus in my life.  But am I celebrating this anniversary?  Not really.  It is just another day on the calendar that will pass each year without being recognized and warranting celebration.

 

Wow Linda. You've been through so much. So many of us have easy peasy recoveries that it is easy to forget that some for whatever reason do not. I wish you well and hope that life will get better for you in whatever way it can. I wish you all the best, Dawn

Thank you Dawn for your well wishes.  Very much appreciated!

Linda

Thank you for sharing your story Linda 

You're welcome Jane!

Linda

I enjoyed reading your post and applaud your determination.

 

And yes you should always celebrate your new life~!!  Just simply considering the fact that despite the obstacles you have faced and continue to face..morbidity kills...and you challenged that and WON

 

so do celebrate~!!