My Story - ThinnerTimes - Gastric Bypass Forum, Lap Band Forum, and Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Forum

poet_kelly · 09-01-2009, 07:51 AM

I thought I would finally start a thread here and tell my story.

Unlike some people who end up getting WLS, I have not always been heavy. I was never really skinny, but I wasn't fat, either. However, I have struggled with depression all my life. I have been on literally dozens of medications. I have been suicidal. I have been hospitalized many times. About ten years, I started on a medication called Effexor. It was the first one that ever really seemed to work. However, it has weight gain as a side effect. And gain I did.

I tried to watch what I ate and I tried to exercise. But it didn't seem to help. I just kept getting bigger and bigger. At one point my psychiatrist tried to switch me to a different medication, both because of the weight gain and because my blood pressure was dangerously high, but the depression immediately got much worse again. The Effexor was literally saving my life, I believed, but it could end up killing me, too.

For the last year or so before I had WLS, I didn't gain much. But I didn't lose, either. It was all I could do just to maintain. My blood pressure was high. My blood sugar was high, though I wasn't yet diabetic. I had arthritis in my knees, bad enough that I needed regular cortizone shots. I felt like I had to do something.

So I started thinking about WLS. My psychiatrist told me I might not lose as much as some people would even with surgery, because of my meds. But he still thought it would help me. And my PCP was in favor of it. So I made an appointment for a consultation with a surgeon.

The surgeon thought I could benefit from WLS even though I had to be on the meds that caused the weight gain. The process went pretty smoothly. I did not have to do a six month diet. It took about four months, though, to get from that first consultation to the operating table. During that time, I learned everything I could about gastric bypass. I wish I had found TT during that time, but I didn't not, not until several months after my surgery.

The surgery itself went well. Surgery was at 8:00 in the morning. By 1:00 in the afternoon, I was walking the halls. They served me protein drinks in the hospital. Cytosport- yuk! But I drank them. I was only in the hospital one night. I was in some pain when I came home, but not too bad. They discharged me on full liquids, and I moved to pureed foods one week later.

My surgeon stressed the important of exercising after surgery, so about a week after my surgery, I started walking at the mall. It was November, too cold to walk outside. I was tired all the time. I could only walk for a few minutes before I got out of breath. I thought I was just really out of shape. That wasn't it, though.

I also had a fair amount of nausea. My surgeon said it was probably due to not getting enough protein. I couldn't find a protein drink that I liked. So I skipped them as often as not. I think that is part of why I was so weak and tired, too. I encourage everyone who is going to be having surgery to visit Vitalady.com - Protein Supplements, Vitamins & Minerals, and Safe Snacks! and order samples of a number of different protein drinks. You'll find something you can at least tolerate. Also, visit theworldaccordingtoeggface and check out all her recipes for protein shakes. You'll find something you like. Getting enough protein is so, so important. I don't know why I just didn't get that. In addition to the weakness, fatigue, and nausea, I lost a LOT of hair from not getting enough protein.

About three weeks after my surgery, I finally went to the ER one night because I couldn't stop throwing up. I figured I needed IV's to get rehydrated. Well, I did, but they also discovered that I had pneumonia. No wonder I was getting out of breath so easily! I think I probably actually caught the pneumonia when I was in the hospital having my RNY. Hospitals are so full of nasty germs, you know. They rehydrated me, gave me a prescription for antibiotics, and sent me home.

A week later, I was throwing up uncontrollably again. So I went back to the ER. I was not aware of the pneumonia getting worse, but apparently it had, even though I was taking antibiotics. They admitted me. I could tell the doctor was really concerned, and I couldn't figure out why. I didn't feel that sick. He said they might have to put in a chest tube to drain away the infected fluid that was accummulated around my left lung. He said, if my breathing didn't get better soon, they might have to put me on a ventilator. I was thinking, no way. I'm not that bad.

I was in the hospital for one night, then they moved me up to ICU. I remember them moving me. But that's the last thing I remember for several days. Apparently they tried putting in a chest tube to drain off the infected fluid but it wouldn't drain out. It was too thick and congealed. They ended up having to do lung surgery to clean it out. I didn't even realize they'd done surgery until a week or so later when I was alert again. My partner said something about it, and I said, "Surgery? What surgery?"

They did put me on a ventilator for about four days. I barely remember that, and I'm glad, because I don't imagine it was too pleasant. All in all, I was in the hospital for 19 days. I had an open wound where they had put the chest tube in, and of course the incision where they did the lung surgery. Those were not healing properly. I think it may have been at least partly due to not getting enough protein. You need protein to heal. So when they discharged me, I had a big draining wound in my side. It had to be packed with gauze and have a special dessing put over it. I had a home care nurse that came to the house several times a week to change the dressing.

I was really, really weak when I came home from the hospital. I guess lying in bed for three weeks will do that to you. They did get me up to walk a little while I was in the hospital, but not much. I could hardly walk when I came home. It took a good month to recover. During that time, I started increasing my protein, and I think that helped a lot. A whole lot. The nausea went away and I had more energy and just felt a hundred times better.

Well, there is more I want to say, but I'm going to shut up for now. I'll write more later.

Kelly

mistymee · 09-01-2009, 08:02 AM

WOW Kelly. I knew you'd had some issues post-op with pneumonia and not getting your protein, but I guess I never realized just how sick you were!

Understanding the signals between regular postop issues and serious, call your doctor issues can be so difficult!

I'm so glad you're doing well now.. that had to be scary as all hell!

poet_kelly · 09-01-2009, 08:09 AM

I didn't even realize how sick I was. Something scary is, two days before I was admitted for the pneumonia, just a couple days before I ended up on a ventilator, I saw my surgeon for a follow up appointment. Either I wasn't that sick then and got that much sicker that fast, or he really dopped the ball. Anyway, had I not been vomiting so much that night, I would not have gone back to the hospital. I didn't realize the pneumonia was worse. I just thought I needed IV fluids so I could stop throwing up. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't gone back to the ER when I did?

My partner thinks I must have caught some particularly nasty strain of pneumonia when I was in the hospital having my RNY. Something antibiotic resistant. I probably did. He said even after they put me on the ventilator, for a couple days I was getting sicker, not better. He thought I was going to die. And at that point they were pumping all kinds of drugs into me. I think it was scarier for him than it was for me. I was too out of it to be scared, for the most part.

Kelly

BrandnewMe · 09-01-2009, 09:03 AM

Wow Kelly, that's quite an ordeal! But I'm glad to see you are better now. Thank you for sharing your story! You are always so helpful with your posts, I appreciate it!

katzz87 · 09-01-2009, 09:55 AM

Yikes! That had to be such a scary time for your significant other! Glad that everything has gotten better...

Chrissie23 · 09-01-2009, 10:50 AM

Oh my gosh, Kelly

you have been through so much. Did your lungs have any permanent damage after everything it's been through? That is scary...you're a tough woman.

scrappinlaurie · 09-01-2009, 11:47 AM

Kelly I am so sorry you had to go through all that. I had heard you say before that you had some complications...but boy you really had your share.

I am glad you are better now and I really appreciate all your help and wisdom when any of us have questions. You are always there and always helpful.

Thanks so much!

poet_kelly · 09-01-2009, 12:44 PM

I don't have any lasting damage to my lungs from the pneumonia, no. I have two nasty scars, one from the chest tube and one from the lung surgery, but that's it.

I wanted to say more about the protein thing. I didn't eat that much protein before my surgery. I am a vegetarian, but you can get plenty of protein without eating meat. I do now. But I didn't eat that protein before the surgery and I guess I just didn't really get it that it was going to be very important to get a lot of it afterwards. My surgeon told me and my dietician told me, but I guess for some reason I didn't really believe it.

I had to do a five day liquid diet before my surgery. Just five days, not two weeks like a lot of people do. I did Atkins shakes for that. My surgeon gave me a long list of acceptable protein drinks, and that was one of them. They probably aren't the best. They only have 15 grams of protein, I think, which isn't that much. But they were easy to find and cheap enough and I liked the way they tasted. Well, after my surgery, they tasted sickenly sweet. I couldn't stand them. Made me feel nauseous.

When I was in the hospital, they gave me these Cytosport drinks. You can get them at GNC. They taste sort of like Gatorade, I think, which isn't too bad. But then they have this horrible metalic aftertaste. I hated them. I bought some after my surgery and drank some of them, but ended up throwing most of them out.

I went to the Vitamin Shoppe and bought some unflavored protein powder. I can't remember which brand it was. I tried mixing it with crystal lite lemonade. Well, it didn't dissolve completely. There were these little lumps in my drink. It was disgusting. So I didn't drink much of that.

I might have been getting about 40 grams of protein most days. Some days more, but some days maybe less. I was just exhausted all the time. I felt really weak. Maybe I would have recovered from the pneumonia faster if I hadn't been protein deficient. Don't you need protein for a healthy immune system? And I think my wounds from the chest tube and the lung surgery would have healed faster if I'd been getting enough protein. And I was nauseous a lot. Of course, that just made it harder to get the protein in.

I also lost a LOT of hair. It really started freaking me out at about three months post-op. It was falling out in clumps. I actually had a bald spot in back. Once I started getting my protein in, it still took a few months before it even started to grow back.

I finally decided I was going to have to get more protein in. I was just going to have to do it.

I bought some vanilla protein powder. Nutribiotic is the brand. I found some recipes for protein shakes online. I make them in the blender, and the powder dissolves completely.

The first shake I started making was an orange julius. You use 8 ounces of skim milk, one packet of orange crystal lite (the single serving packet), one packet of sugar free vanilla instant breakfast, and one scoop of vanilla protein powder. Blend it up, add a few ice cubes, and blend those up. It was pretty good. Not great, I wouldn't say great, but pretty good.

Then I found these general foods international individual serving packets of vanilla latte mix. I made a shake with one of those, 8 ounces of skim milk, and one scoop of vanilla protein powder. A few ice cubes, and mix it all up in the blender. That's my favorite protein shake still today. I actually enjoy it.

I found vitalady.com and ordered samples of a bunch of different protein drinks. Syntrax Nectar has a roadside lemonade that is pretty good. I did not like their lemon tea at all, though. Lean Dessert Protein is good. They have a chocolate fudge and a banana cream that are great. You mix it with water, not milk, but it's rich and creamy. They also have a chocolate coconut that sounded good but I couldn't taste any coconut in it. It tasted pretty much like chocolate milk to me. Which is not bad at all, but I was disappointed because I thought the coconut sounded so good.

Mostly I just buy vanilla protein powder, though, and mix stuff with it. Like the vanilla latte mix. General foods international makes a cafe mocha mix that makes a good protein shake, too. Sometimes I add frozen fruit, instead. I made a pina colada shake a couple of times with coconut milk (use lite coconut milk) and frozen pineapple. Mixed berries are good. Banana is good. I've made a caramel banana shake with a single serving size dulce de leche pudding snack, a little skim milk, half a banana, and some vanilla protein powder. But my favorite is still the vanilla latte shake.

I found eggface's blog at theworldaccordingtoeggface. She makes protein ice cream. It's basically just a frozen protein shake. You use skim milk, protein powder, and whatever you want for flavor, and throw it in the ice cream maker. I thought it sounded wonderful. Ice cream has always been one of my favorite foods, but I couldn't eat it after my surgery because I dump on sugar. Besides, even if you don't dump on it, how much weight are you going to lose if you're eating ice cream? But this ice cream is fat free or very low in fat. It's sugar free or very low in sugar. And it's high in protein. Like I said, it's basically a frozen protein shake. It's good for you. So I bought an ice cream maker. My partner doesn't like the ice cream. It's not real rich like the kind of ice cream you are used to buying at the store. That's because it's made with skim milk instead of whole milk and cream. But I like it. It has a soft serve consistency. My vanilla latte protein shake makes a great ice cream. Sometimes I put a few sugar free chocolate chips in it.

I started really paying attention to the protein grams in the meals I cooked, too. I started making a lot of vegetarian chili. I have several chili recipes that I like. One is an Atkins recipe. I used Morning Star soy crumbles, which is like fake ground beef. It's pretty high in protein. Another chili recipe I like I found here on TT. It's Sherry's white chicken chili. Look it up. It's great. I use Morning Star Chik'n strips, which is fake chicken made from soy. Also high in protein. I add a little unflavored protein powder to my chili to boost the protein even more. I add unflavored protein powder to practically everything these days. You can't add too much or the food takes on a gritty texture that is just gross. But you can add a little to just about everything, and it all adds up.

Just a couple weeks after upping my protein, I started feeling much, much better. The nausea went away. I mean, once in a while something would hit the pouch the wrong way and I would get sick, but it was nothing like it was for the first couple months. I started having more energy. I started exercising. I felt good.

I don't know why it took me so long to get with the program on the protein thing. I'm always bugging people now to make sure they get their protein. People are probably tired of hearing about it. But it's just so important. And it's not really that hard. I mean, it takes some effort, yeah. But it's not that hard. And yes, it can be hard to find a protein drink that you like. I know that, I went through that. But there are just so many to choose from. There has to be at least one you can at least tolerate. I wish I had found vitalady sooner than I did. I was hesitant to buy whole tubs of stuff to try, because what if I didn't like it? Protein drinks can be kind of expensive. But you can buy samples cheap. And you can experiment with different ways of making shakes. I just don't buy it when someone says they don't like anything. I think they just need to try some more.

Kelly

poet_kelly · 09-01-2009, 01:29 PM

After I recovered from the pneumonia and started getting enough protein, I felt really good for a while. For several months. I was exercising almost every day, sometimes twice a day. I was losing weight. I was eating healthy. I was happy.

Then my back started bothering me. My lower back. I read somewhere that losing a lot of weight can cause back problems. You would think that losing weight would actually be good for your back, and it is, but the thing is that losing a lot of weight affects your posture. So it can kind of throw your back out of alignment.

So I went to a chiropractor. He agreed that the weight loss could be the cause of my problem and adjusted my back. After the first adjustment, I felt a lot better. I went back the next week for another one.

Well, that time, as soon as he adjusted me, my back went into a horrible muscle spasm. I could hardly get off the table. Actually, at first I couldn't get off the table. I had to lie there for a while. He put some ice on my back. Finally it eased up a little and I was able to get out to my car and drive home.

But then I couldn't get out of my car. It's like the muscles all locked up and I couldn't move. Every time I tried to move, the pain was excruciating. I ended up having to call my partner at work to come home and help me. I had to sit in my car until he got there. He went in the house and got some Vicodin he had left over from having a root canal and I took that. We waited about half an hour for it to kick in, and then I was able to make it into the house. But it hurt something awful.

Over the next week, the pain gradually got better, but it was still bad. I made an appointment with a back specialist. He had a x-ray taken. He said he didn't think we needed an MRI at that point. He said it was a compressed disc and asked if I'd been in any sort of accident lately. I hadn't. Hadn't done a thing to my back that I knew of. I have no idea what happened to the disc.

The back specialist gave me some steroids, but they didn't help at all. A few days after I saw him, I woke up one morning and couldn't walk. My muscles were all locked up and it hurt to move at all. Really, it hurt just to breath. My partner ended up calling an ambulance and we went to the ER. They gave me four different pain medications by injection and a muscle relaxer, but nothing helped. I was crying, it hurt so bad. They finally admitted me over night so they could give me pain meds by IV.

By the next morning, I was still in pain, but I could walk. They did an MRI, but all it showed was the compressed disc. They discharged me with pain meds and told me to follow up with the back specialist.

The back specialist wanted to prescribed NSAIDS for me, so I had to explain that I couldn't take those because of the gastric bypass. Actually, the doctor in the hospital tried to give me NSAIDS, too. Apparently you really have to watch for that after a gastric bypass. The back specialist said he could try epidural injections, but he couldn't guarantee those would help. He said they help about half the time. He recommended I try physical therapy and we go from there. I agreed.

So I went to physical therapy. I only went three times. They showed me some exercises, and I figured I could do them at home as well as I could do them at their office. Plus, the therapist would be working with three patients at once. I spent a lot of time sitting there just waiting for him to get around to me. But I did do the exercises, and I guess it helped, because the pain gradually got better and better. I haven't had any back pain at all in a couple of months now.

When my back was bothering me so much, I cut way back on my exercise. I still walked when I felt up to it. Actually, sometimes walking made it feel better. But before the back problems started, I was doing water aerobics several times a week. And I quit doing that. I was signed up to take a belly dancing class, which I was really looking forward to. But I ended up not doing that. I was afraid of aggrevating my back. And sometimes it just hurt too much to do much of anything.

By now you are probably thinking I am one of the unluckiest people alive. But there's more. About the time my back got better, I started getting nauseous again. This time I knew it wasn't about the protein, because I was getting plenty. So I made an appointment with my doctor.

The surgeon who did my RNY had just closed his practice, but I found another surgeon to do my follow up with. I had an appointment scheduled later on just for follow up, but I called to make an earlier appointment about the nausea.

I was not at all impressed with him. No one asked me about my diet or my vitamins or my exercise or anything like that. They always asked about that at my old surgeon's office.

He told me that modifying my diet would probably help the nausea. I thought that was kind of a strange thing to say, since he did not first ask me what I was eating. I asked, modify it how? He said I should eat a low fat diet. I said, I am eating a low fat diet!

I asked if the nausea could be caused by my gall bladder. He said no, because I wasn't having any pain, just the nausea. He said it might be a kink in my small intestine, caused by the way they reattached the intestine during my RNY. He said they could do a CT scan to check for that. But what he recommended was waiting a while to see if it just got better on its own. He said it probably would. I didn't quite understand that. What, my intestine would just unkink itself? But I said OK.

Well, a couple weeks later, I was still nauseous. Not constantly, but almost constantly. I called his office back and said I wanted them to go ahead and order the CT scan.

I got the results of the CT scan from his nurse over the phone. She said it was normal, so no kink. I asked, what was the next step? She said, there was no next step. The CT scan was normal, so that meant there was no physical problem. I said, well, there was a problem, because I was nauseous all the time!

The nurse said the nausea was probably caused by something in my diet. I told her I was sure that was not the case. For one thing, the nausea came on suddenly about six weeks ago. I did not change my diet at all at that time. For another thing, I didn't only get nauseous when I ate. I often woke up nauseous first thing in the morning, when I hadn't eaten for hours. But she kept insisting it was my diet. She said I should keep a food diary. I said, I do keep a food diary!

I asked her if it could be my gall bladder. She said no, because I was not having pain. Well, I'd done some research, and what I read said that you don't always have pain with gall stones. Pain is the most common symptom, but you don't always have pain. You might just have nausea. I told her that. She said, well, you usually have pain.

I asked if it could be an ulcer. She said no, again because I was not having pain. But again, I did some research, and what I read said you don't always have pain.

I told her, it had to be something. And I did not intend to just go on feeling sick all the time.

She put me on hold, then came back and said the doctor agreed to write an order for an ultrasound of my gall bladder. Well, what do you know, I had gall stones! When the doctor told me that, it was all I could do not to call him an idiot and say "I told you so!" I was really angry about it. I am still really angry about it. He let it go on for about six weeks, when he could have just ordered the ultrasound the first time I went to see him. And what if I had not known it might be my gall bladder and kept asking about that? What if I had not been so persistent? I would still be nauseous today.

And I was so, so nauseous. I didn't throw up too often, though I did a few times. But I was having trouble getting my protein in. I was having trouble getting my vitamins in. They made the nausea worse. It was awful.

So I had to have my gall bladder removed. It came out last Thursday. I'm recovering well. I felt pretty good that day, had some more pain the day after, then it started getting better. Now I'm just tired.

The moral of the story is that you have to be really pro-active about your health. Insist that the doctors take you seriously if you are having a problem, or find a new doctor who will. And be informed about what problems you are likely to experience, so you can advocate for the right tests for yourself.

Some surgeons actually take the gall bladder out when they do a gastric bypass, because gall stones are so common afterward. I think I read somewhere that something like 30% of people who have a gastric bypass will later have to have their gall bladders removed. I wish I had asked my surgeon about taking mine out when he did my RNY, but I wasn't aware of the extent of the problem at the time.

There is also a medication called Actigall that some surgeons prescribe after a gastric byass. It prevents gall stones. You take it for the first six to twelve months after your gastric bypass. It's supposed to be very effective. I don't know why some surgeons use it and some don't. Mine didn't. I hadn't heard about it at the time of my surgery, or I would have asked about it. If you haven't had your surgery yet, ask.

Kelly

poet_kelly · 09-01-2009, 02:00 PM

Now that I've talked about all the problems that I've had, I want to make sure I say loud and clear that I am so glad I had this surgery. I would do it again in a heartbeat. My quality of life is so much better.

In three days, I will be ten months post-op. I have lost 101 pounds to date. My surgeon has said he is impressed I've been able to lose so much so quickly, considering the medications I am on (I am still on Effexor, and also on something called Zyprexa, which also causes weight gain).

I have a lot more energy. I think some of that is probably due to losing some excess weight. I think some of it is probably because I'm just eating better. Healthier stuff. More protein, less carbs, less fat, less sugar. And I'm cooking more, eating less processed stuff.

My arthritis in my knees is better. My knees haven't hurt since my surgery.

My depression is better. I know RNY is not a cure for depression. In fact, some people get depressed for a while after surgery. But my depression is in fact better. I don't mean that it's cured or anything. I've dealt with depression for my whole life. I'd be surprised if it never reared its ugly head again. But for now, it's better.

I feel really good about myself. I feel empowered. I finally took charge. I had a problem, a serious problem, and I did something about it. I took control of my health. That feels really good.

It has been hard. Some think surgery is the easy way out, and it's not! Not at all. But it's a tool, and if you use it right, it helps. There's no way I could have ever lost this weight without surgery.

Kelly