Cleared Final Office Visit

tlrnnp67
on 5/19/07 4:03 pm

Hi Guys, I had my final office visit Friday. The surgeon was very pleased with the weight loss to date and said I should fly through without problems. He did say that he was planning on keeping me for 4 days in the hospital since I am so far away from home - he said it was better to keep a watchful eye rather than have an emergency visit in some outlying area with someone who wouldn't know the surgery history. So looks like I need to pick up a bunch of movies and books to occupy my time while I'm in the hospital. He said that in addition to the PCA for pain control, he would use a pain ball for the incisional pain. It's a ball full of lidocaine-type med that is connected to small IV tubing and then small needles in the subcutaneous areas around the incisions. No incisional pain is OK in my book, even if I do only have laparoscopic incisions

! However, he did say that I may have hyperparathyroidism, incidentally discovered on my preop labs. He said we could work it up while I was in the hospital and go from there. Here's hoping I won't need surgery in the future for that! The good news is that since I pre-paid the hospital (I'm self-pay), they will be reimbursing me 35% of the bill at discharge. So I will be scooting under the $16000 mark counting the hospital, surgeon, anesthesia, etc. Monday is fast approaching. I'm NPO after midnight tomorrow, so I had a small steak for supper today. Pretty tasty and the last I wil have for a LONG time, I'm sure.

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Best Regards,

Tim

HerbR
on 5/19/07 4:16 pm, edited 5/19/07 4:17 pm - Upstate, SC

RNY on 10/18/06

Tim, Good luck buddy, I wish you a speedy trip to the losing side. I had a four day stay as well, the first two days I was not really in the mood for reading, but the last two I was so board I was reading the tooth paste tube for entertainment. A new pair of slippers were my best investment during my stay, and the time off from work. Best wishes, Herb