Finally an update on my surgery 12/20/05
I had my surgery with Dr. Aguirre on December 20, 2005. Everything went well. Dr. A said there were no complications. He told me my gall bladder was fine and they didn't need to remove it. My stay in the hospital was just as everyone had described it. It's pretty much a blur to me, from the morphine, missing having water, etc. Everyone was great, my care was great and I have no complaints. My son & his wife drove me there from Phoenix and stayed with me the the 1st night in the hospital. We had a jr. suite at the Hotel Coral. It was awesome - everything about our stay there was top notch. It's well worth it to consider the cost of staying there as part of your cost of surgery. Nice, comfortable beds, sheets, it's so clean & so pampering.
I loved Dr. Aguirre and his staff. Rosella is a beautiful and caring person just as everyone describes. We stayed at the hotel until I could have all my staples removed before heading back home. We did have to make a trip to San Diego on Christmas Day - poor planning on my part. I've been incontinent for quite a few years, not so much during the day - but definetly at night. I just don't wake up having to go to the bathroom....sleep right through it. I've had bladder suspension surgery, etc., to no avail. I took so much as it was, but was afraid I wouldn't have enough clothing changes because of the incontinence. I should have packed more "esentials" & less clothes. I missed the part when people have described the hotel - that they have a laundry. Anyway - I ran out of adult diapers & we couldn't find any in Ensenada - so we drove to San Diego. When we got there - not even thinking - most everything was closed! We drove around for awhile - finally I suggested the next time my son saw a police officer to pull up behind them. Sure enough we ran across one and soon were on our way. Found one drug store - I think it was a Save-On or something like that, they had some very grumpy employees, but we got what we went for and headed back to Ensenda. I'd like to say I did a lot of walking around while we were there, but walking and standing have been real challenges for me. We did go downtown and Tom & Jen shopped & I stuck fairly close to the vehicle, going into a few shops at my own leisure.
I seemed to do fine following Dr. A's instructions while in Mexico. I tried to eat some from the restaurant, but the mashed potatoes just didn't cut it for me. I did have some soup broth. As a matter of fact I've been darn good at adhereing to Dr A - with a few exceptions 
The drive home went fine other than cramping in my legs, which was scary to me because otherwise I had been doing fine. We made it back to Phoenix and the following day I met with my PCP and he said everyting looked great, he just wanted to be sure I didn't have any clots, so he ordered testing for that, which came back negative.
I was feeling really pretty great, not losing a whole lot, but the scale was going down a little and I could already feel a change in my energy level, etc. The only thing was I was so cold all the time. Dr. A said not to take any pills for one month. In hind sight - I wish I would have questioned this more. I've been on thyroid medication since I was nine. Sometimes, I haven't been the greatest at compliance, but usually getting tired easily, etc. bumps me into action and I get back with a normal regimine. During this time, I'm trying to recouperate, but also get ready to produce the next issue of my newspaper and the real challenge was all the obstacles that entailed when I got home. Anything that could go wrong did! I had over 250 messages, but couldn't get them to download onto my computer. They were all blocked up at my server. I went online and used the web mail service which is slower than molasses. These emails were critical to my next issue, phone messages, ad copy, classifieds, you name it. Then I had no service at all. This went on for several days, finally found out my isdn line was out of service. Got that repaired, started downloading my messages into Outlook, when it started freezing up every time I went to use the program. So now I had the emails - but couldn't "see" them. I had a computer tech check out my computer and it's a conflict between Outlook and Winfax. More problems. We've tried to remove WinFax & it won't even completely uninstall.
I hired someone several months ago to take over many of the overwhelming responsibilities I have. She has been a Godsend. She has stepped into something - newspaper production - with no background and has gotten a pretty good grasp of things very quickly. She is organized to the nth degree. That's why I was using Outlook the program instead of Outlook Express - as I had been doing for the last year (now I remember why I stopped using it When we got back she had so much to go over, but I was struggling with recouperating. One thing I found out is - she went way past the line of duty for us, but she drove herself ragged, worked too many hours and generally cared too much. In order to accomodate her I went to her home to go over everything. This turned into what I call "Black Friday." She was not going to be satisfied until her task list was cleared...which is an impossible task in most businesses, but the newspaper - forget about it. She'd told me she struggles with depression, by the end of the day was becoming mani****pt trying to calm her and explain that people are just going to have to understand, I've just had major surgery, we're a small staffed paper that has proudly served our community for over nine years and that we'd be fine. By the time I left - I was so angry I couldn't speak all the way home. Then I started having food challenges. One morning I tried a scrambled egg...I know Dr. Aguirre says no eggs...but I read some posts where people are having scrambled eggs while still in Mexico...so I try one and it hits like a ton of bricks... nausea, chills, lethargy. So that would knock me out for a few hours. Then I'd get up and work some more, then try to eat something. Most of the time I've been fine, but I'm having a real struggle with "sweets." When we got back, even having hot cereal didn't taste good, because I like it sweetened with something, so used artifical sweetner & it just didn't sit well. Everything seems so sweet. One can only handle mashed potatoes and carrots for so long...so I'd try other things...more often than not getting the nausea & all that comes with it, plus diarreaha. A little over a week ago (thank God we got my mid-January issue out - it was a miracle in itself.) A couple weeks ago, it seemed no matter what I ate, it didn't set well. I'd had cottage cheese & been fine, now I'd get sick. This went on for several days. One night I tried eating I think it was a brussel sprout - I was at one month & thought that would be okay if I chewed well. It didn't sit right, and I got sick - this time feeling like I needed to actually throw up, which I didn't. So I went to bed. The next day I was sick all day - I couldn't concentrate, I couldn't hold my head up, I couldn't lay down, I couldn't get warm or sleep or escape from the agony. Finally at 2 a.m. on Thur 1/26, I had my husband take me to the ER. My white blood cell count was very high, I was running a fever and a cat scan showed I had gallstones and a "hot" gallbladder. I knew I would be facing sceptisicism from US Dr.'s for going to Mexico and sure enough - the first thing the dr. says to me is why didn't this dr. remove your gallbladder? I said he'd told me it was fine, he said if you'd had the surgery done here, they generally remove the gallbladder during the gastric surgery to avoid this very problem. He said I had some very large gallstones and that right now it was very dangerous to operate this close to my last major surgery. They could not do it laproscopically because I had the open incision from my surgery. They admitted me and put me on high doses of antibiotic trying to get my white blood count to go down and the inflamation to subside. Hoping we can buy a few weeks before need to have it removed. So much for my trying to keep my insurance from "knowing" I had gastric bypass surgery!!!
For about 8 hours or more my blood pressure hovered around 82 over 55...this got me pretty scared. My oxygen was at 82 also - the nurse would have me blow in the lung exerciser & it would be enough to get my count to 93 or so - acceptable enough that I didn't have to be put on oxygen. I was pretty sick though...no water for 2 days then back to ice, then liquid diet. Constant diarreaha - I was sure I must've dropped 10 lbs!!! I started at 314 pre-surgery was at 294 when I went in the hospital, so one night I asked the nurse to bring the scale in, boy did that floor me - 305 lbs! I was so discouraged. I know - I was on IV and being pumped full of fluids, but still for all that suffering - you'd think there would be some benefit! My TSH level for my thyroid was at 87 - which I remember correctly they like for it to be under 10 - so they said my thyroid was seriously out of wack and they had to get me back on my medicine right away. My other problem is - they said that there is no way that these gallstones "developed" since my surgery, which raises the other question? Did Dr. A "really" check my gall bladder? I'm not sorry I went to him, but I do need to talk to them to find out.
After five days I was released from the hospital. I have 3 weeks of antibiotic to take and I'm still having challenges with food. I know I need to eat, but every time I try something, I get diarreaha & the all the other stuff. I'm at 292 now, so I guess I've lost 22 lbs at 7 weeks out.
This is pretty long for a post - hopefully it will take it. I've just been either so busy or so sick I haven't felt like posting. One miracle did come out of this. My 21 yr old son has worked with me on the paper, doing errands and the last issue doing section 2 by himself. But we had an issue that was due out this week and he floored me completely. He took charge, got everying organized and produced his first newspaper all by himself without any help from me - I'd have been no use anyway! I can't begin to tell you how very proud I am of him.
Hope you all are doing well. Any suggestions for me would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Vicki P in AZ
The drive home went fine other than cramping in my legs, which was scary to me because otherwise I had been doing fine. We made it back to Phoenix and the following day I met with my PCP and he said everyting looked great, he just wanted to be sure I didn't have any clots, so he ordered testing for that, which came back negative.
I was feeling really pretty great, not losing a whole lot, but the scale was going down a little and I could already feel a change in my energy level, etc. The only thing was I was so cold all the time. Dr. A said not to take any pills for one month. In hind sight - I wish I would have questioned this more. I've been on thyroid medication since I was nine. Sometimes, I haven't been the greatest at compliance, but usually getting tired easily, etc. bumps me into action and I get back with a normal regimine. During this time, I'm trying to recouperate, but also get ready to produce the next issue of my newspaper and the real challenge was all the obstacles that entailed when I got home. Anything that could go wrong did! I had over 250 messages, but couldn't get them to download onto my computer. They were all blocked up at my server. I went online and used the web mail service which is slower than molasses. These emails were critical to my next issue, phone messages, ad copy, classifieds, you name it. Then I had no service at all. This went on for several days, finally found out my isdn line was out of service. Got that repaired, started downloading my messages into Outlook, when it started freezing up every time I went to use the program. So now I had the emails - but couldn't "see" them. I had a computer tech check out my computer and it's a conflict between Outlook and Winfax. More problems. We've tried to remove WinFax & it won't even completely uninstall.
I hired someone several months ago to take over many of the overwhelming responsibilities I have. She has been a Godsend. She has stepped into something - newspaper production - with no background and has gotten a pretty good grasp of things very quickly. She is organized to the nth degree. That's why I was using Outlook the program instead of Outlook Express - as I had been doing for the last year (now I remember why I stopped using it When we got back she had so much to go over, but I was struggling with recouperating. One thing I found out is - she went way past the line of duty for us, but she drove herself ragged, worked too many hours and generally cared too much. In order to accomodate her I went to her home to go over everything. This turned into what I call "Black Friday." She was not going to be satisfied until her task list was cleared...which is an impossible task in most businesses, but the newspaper - forget about it. She'd told me she struggles with depression, by the end of the day was becoming mani****pt trying to calm her and explain that people are just going to have to understand, I've just had major surgery, we're a small staffed paper that has proudly served our community for over nine years and that we'd be fine. By the time I left - I was so angry I couldn't speak all the way home. Then I started having food challenges. One morning I tried a scrambled egg...I know Dr. Aguirre says no eggs...but I read some posts where people are having scrambled eggs while still in Mexico...so I try one and it hits like a ton of bricks... nausea, chills, lethargy. So that would knock me out for a few hours. Then I'd get up and work some more, then try to eat something. Most of the time I've been fine, but I'm having a real struggle with "sweets." When we got back, even having hot cereal didn't taste good, because I like it sweetened with something, so used artifical sweetner & it just didn't sit well. Everything seems so sweet. One can only handle mashed potatoes and carrots for so long...so I'd try other things...more often than not getting the nausea & all that comes with it, plus diarreaha. A little over a week ago (thank God we got my mid-January issue out - it was a miracle in itself.) A couple weeks ago, it seemed no matter what I ate, it didn't set well. I'd had cottage cheese & been fine, now I'd get sick. This went on for several days. One night I tried eating I think it was a brussel sprout - I was at one month & thought that would be okay if I chewed well. It didn't sit right, and I got sick - this time feeling like I needed to actually throw up, which I didn't. So I went to bed. The next day I was sick all day - I couldn't concentrate, I couldn't hold my head up, I couldn't lay down, I couldn't get warm or sleep or escape from the agony. Finally at 2 a.m. on Thur 1/26, I had my husband take me to the ER. My white blood cell count was very high, I was running a fever and a cat scan showed I had gallstones and a "hot" gallbladder. I knew I would be facing sceptisicism from US Dr.'s for going to Mexico and sure enough - the first thing the dr. says to me is why didn't this dr. remove your gallbladder? I said he'd told me it was fine, he said if you'd had the surgery done here, they generally remove the gallbladder during the gastric surgery to avoid this very problem. He said I had some very large gallstones and that right now it was very dangerous to operate this close to my last major surgery. They could not do it laproscopically because I had the open incision from my surgery. They admitted me and put me on high doses of antibiotic trying to get my white blood count to go down and the inflamation to subside. Hoping we can buy a few weeks before need to have it removed. So much for my trying to keep my insurance from "knowing" I had gastric bypass surgery!!!
For about 8 hours or more my blood pressure hovered around 82 over 55...this got me pretty scared. My oxygen was at 82 also - the nurse would have me blow in the lung exerciser & it would be enough to get my count to 93 or so - acceptable enough that I didn't have to be put on oxygen. I was pretty sick though...no water for 2 days then back to ice, then liquid diet. Constant diarreaha - I was sure I must've dropped 10 lbs!!! I started at 314 pre-surgery was at 294 when I went in the hospital, so one night I asked the nurse to bring the scale in, boy did that floor me - 305 lbs! I was so discouraged. I know - I was on IV and being pumped full of fluids, but still for all that suffering - you'd think there would be some benefit! My TSH level for my thyroid was at 87 - which I remember correctly they like for it to be under 10 - so they said my thyroid was seriously out of wack and they had to get me back on my medicine right away. My other problem is - they said that there is no way that these gallstones "developed" since my surgery, which raises the other question? Did Dr. A "really" check my gall bladder? I'm not sorry I went to him, but I do need to talk to them to find out.
After five days I was released from the hospital. I have 3 weeks of antibiotic to take and I'm still having challenges with food. I know I need to eat, but every time I try something, I get diarreaha & the all the other stuff. I'm at 292 now, so I guess I've lost 22 lbs at 7 weeks out.
This is pretty long for a post - hopefully it will take it. I've just been either so busy or so sick I haven't felt like posting. One miracle did come out of this. My 21 yr old son has worked with me on the paper, doing errands and the last issue doing section 2 by himself. But we had an issue that was due out this week and he floored me completely. He took charge, got everying organized and produced his first newspaper all by himself without any help from me - I'd have been no use anyway! I can't begin to tell you how very proud I am of him.
Hope you all are doing well. Any suggestions for me would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Vicki P in AZ 
1) Understand how proud you are of your son... Must be wonderful.
2) Why do you have to eat? "I know I have to keep eating..." actually, I don't care what they say... don't push yourself to eat... EAT ONLY WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY!!! You would be amazed when you are actually not hungry.
3) I didn't lose must weight after surgery either... I swear I think I bloated up like a pig... When I came home after 9 days within virtually no food (and had fasted the night previous to surgery too - thus making 10 days) I was shocked to see the scale be only 3 pounds lighter. I was furious. I hit the gym and RAN! bits and pieces at first, but it did help. (If I could go back and change anything about my surgery --- it would be to eat less at first!) Protein shmoteen... seriously, you'll get in your protein when your body is hungry... lay off the potato and try grabing some black beans & rice instead... though the rice will probably cause you to dump. Find out as many different ways as you can to have protein. As for the oatmeal... splenda
4) Dr. Aguirre indicated he didn't see any stones... well the stones just didn't appear overnight either... but I trust Dr. Aguirre and if he says they didn't see any... I would ask if it was himself or his partner who did the actually checking.... hmmm doctors say "very large" ... prior to speaking with Dr. Aguirre attempt to find out the exact dimension of very large or ask them to equate it to something familiar.. golf ball, kidney bean, lima bean, pea... what is LARGE? ya know?
Probably Dr. Aguirre looked at liver color and basic condition. But let him know about this... it might help him in the future. Personally, I feel if Dr. Aguirre saw your gall bladder the color had to be fine and not enlarged... he's no johnny come lately or intern... so the probably had to be a little "disguised." ... Standard to take out gall bladder....??? no thank you. If mine is intact, I'll keep mine thank you. And as for the $700 drinking test to see your insides leak during the first 12 hours.... gee that's why Dr. Aguirre saves us that much money by simply asking "Do not DRINK for the first XX hours." If we feel pain during that time, or if something happens that is not right... He will recognize it. I don't feel that is backward medicine or Mexico riging a surgery... sounds simple enough to me.
Kinda like giving a cardio test and measuring with your watch rather than attached to a zillion machines to get an exact Vo reading...
Best of luck to you Vicky.
This too will pass, and Oh how you will long for the days of dumping and foamies once your stomach allows you to eat anything and everything again.
ps: Try some L-glutamine if your tummy is upset
http://www.healingdaily.com/liver-detoxification.htm
http://www.doctoryourself.com/liver_15_ways.html
http://www.projinf.org/fs/liver.html
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