Judi....

Has anyone heard how Judi's surgery went?  I was writing the date yesterday and kept thinking...06/26?  06/26?  there's something about this day??? lol  Then I 'membered, Judi was in having her surgery....yay  Judi!!!  I hope it all went well, I said  a special prayer for her last night that her healing would go smoothly!!  I can't wait to hear from her!!

Judi has been a sweetheart. My prayers and blessings for quick and pain free recovery are added to yours. Robin

Hi Judi, I hope your surgery went well, and you are on the road to recovery.  I have been thinking about you and wishing for an uneventful surgery and speedy recovery.

i'll be thinking of you next week lori, im sure it will go great! hope the liquid diet isn't getting you down!! judi

hi guys: im still in the hospital but everything went great, get out tomorrow, who's up next??! judi

How are you posting this if you are still in the hospital?  Can't wait to hear all about your surgery!  The liquid diet is going great .  I have 2 1/2 days left of it before surgery.  I haven't been too hungry, so that is good.

I'm soooo glad your surgery went well.  Hopefully your healing time at home will pass comfortably and you will be losing your weight with your new "tool".  I met Dr. Howell and really liked him.  My husband likes his hands on approach, must be the mechanic in him...lol  Of course once he said, I understand what he's talking about I told him to get lost.  You never know these types that think they can do anything, I'll wake up in the middle of the night and he'll say..."see, I told you I could do it."  He often compares people to animals...like the time I was pregnant and he said if we didn't make it into the hospital in time he could probably deliver our daughter since he's delivered cow's before....sigh...amazingly enough, yes, we are still married!! lol  So what did they have you eating in the hospital?  I was thinking, they said we eat those trepuree foods the first week but then we are in the hospital the first week, soooo....that doesn't quite make sense?  My worries about the vagotomy were taken care of as he doesn't think I'm a good candidate for it...worried for nuthin...lol  Hope your feeling good and the hubby is taking care of you.. Danni

hey there kiddo, and you have a date! in july! yay!! i like doc howell. he chit chats more with me than his nurse but he is straight on.  good job keeping that hubby in place! im glad you don't have to stress about the vagotomy. things work out don't they? here is the deal: surgery day:  no water, no ice, they have glycerine swabs you can coat your mouth with and you can use chapstick. one nurse brought me a frozen glycerine swab.  keep hitting the morphine pump, you won't care. 1 day after:  very small amount of water allowed, no food but i didn't care. lots of morphine. 2 days after: more water and sugar free candy. still limited the amount of water. my hubby liked the sugar free candy and he kept eating the good flavors so i made him go to the pharmacy and buy more! it helped 3 days after: liquid diet. not a big deal i was seriously not hungry. all the water you want. (tomato soup, cream of wheat, cream of chicken soup, sf choc pudding).  4 days after: they take away the morphine but give you darvon. works just as well and no iv pole anymore! still the liquid diet. no catheter - that i remember. apparently part of the surgery is a memory blocking drug which works. i remember being in the surgical room chatting with the people there then nothing.

DO NOT HESITATE TO PUSH YOUR MORPHINE PUMP. i was always advised to stay ahead of the pain and i did. getting in and out of bed wasn't great joy the first two days but wasn't awful. the pump is time monitored it won't let you od.  if i woke up and my tummy twitched i hit it. pain was not awful but I STAYED ON DRUGS.

when they switched me to darvon it is every 4 hours i think. i asked for it every 4 hours even tho i didn't hurt yet cause i didn't want to hurt!  (one nurse told me no as it is a narcotic and my pain level was 0. I know I won't be addicted to prescription drugs and I wanted to stay ahead of the darn pain so she went off duty at 11:00 and i got my pills at 11:15 lol) she was being a good nurse. i seriously worried that i was overdoing the pain drugs and being a wimp and they often commented that i wasn't using that much morphine. doc howell did tell me that fatter people's tummies don't have as much muscle (most of my fat is in my tummy) so that maybe my pain wasn't as bad as my husband's was the year before.

my surgery was tuesday morning by friday night, saturday, moving was easier and getting in and out of bed was easier.

i wished i'd had the tongs, i am now an acrobat but didn't have em.

you will do great! sorry for the long answer again.  99.9% of the nurses were wonderful, if you get a young gal named Paula, she is the best tell her i said hi! (all the surgery rooms are singles -very nice)

judi eta: yes, tres puree for the 1st week home, with protein drinks, sf yogurt, popsicles, look at the list. i've had one so far, i added margerine and salt and butter and had to focus on 1 bite per minute ugh

wow...I'm soooo lucky I "met" you.  This post came at a perfect time as I was able to send it to my best friend(she lives in Hallock, way too far away :(  to give her some kind of idea as to what I will be going through.  I will also be able to have things on hand now.  It seems soooo real now that I know I have a date and I have read your "journal".  This is very helpful to me as I like to be as prepared as I can be.  I have never heard of a glycerine swab??  I can only imagine with a name like that how tasty they are..lol  I'm guessing a person isn't thinking much of food with everything going on after surgery.  I'm very glad about the catheter...I HATE catheters, hmmm... not that there are probably many people out there that "like" them...hahaha  I'm really getting psyched now and I still have 22 days, I have a feeling time will go pretty fast though.... I hope you have a fast recovery and things just keep getting better and better!!  I'll keep you in my prayers... Danni