Lisa's Story - Page 53 - ThinnerTimes

LisaM · 06-04-2007, 11:14 AM

Thinking about you, Lisa... (you, too, Carrie...)

Princess · 06-04-2007, 02:01 PM

I just phoned the hospital, Lisa made it through and she is in recovery! WAHOO!!!!

MiladyB · 06-04-2007, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Princess

I just phoned the hospital, Lisa made it through and she is in recovery! WAHOO!!!!

Samm, thank you for letting us know that all went well for Lisa today! I've been thinking about her a lot.

JenBear7 · 06-04-2007, 08:07 PM

Yay Lisa!! Glad it went ok.. Cant wait til you are home.. and feeling like yourself again.. all healed.. and even more gorgeous if possible..

sdgrrl · 06-04-2007, 10:27 PM

I'm soooo glad you're doing well, Lisa! I sent a whole buncha healing energy up north today, hoping it would find its way to you. I wish you a speedy, easy recovery. I know how it feels to look down and see totally flat, killer abs, and grrlie, it's really worth it!

rivercanyon · 06-04-2007, 11:02 PM

Samm glad you phoned and checked on Lisa. Had been thinking about her today but didn't think to call.

Can't wait until you're home Lisa and we get all the details on that flat, buttonless belly.

Healing thoughts coming your way.

chilmoe · 06-05-2007, 07:15 AM

thanks for posting samm, nohr never called me

lisa dear thinking about you and wishing you a quick recovery

thanks for the wonderful day, something i will always remember and we have to do it again!

love ya.

sdgrrl · 06-05-2007, 07:46 PM

Carrie--does this Dr. Nohr know you are gunning for him or something? He always seems to duck out the back door when you are around....I hope he gives you better care than his bedside manner! WTF, forget Michelle, she's busy...You want ME to come up there and let him know what "my expectations" are?

(family joke. I'm always disciplining the kids by telling them "my expectation is that you will ------X------ by" tonight, tomorrow, whenever. The fam teases me alot about it..

)

chilmoe · 06-08-2007, 07:59 AM

lisa, thinking about you as you venture home today, hope you get home quickly with no delays and painlessly as possible

love you chickie, cant wait to know you are okay

LisaBoston · 06-14-2007, 11:19 AM

Most of this was posted on another thread, but I wanted to include it in my story.

Had anchor tummy tuck surgery on the Monday. The doctor removed approx. 4 pounds of skin and tissue. I decided not to keep the belly button and so far happy about that.

Monday
Stayed in bed most of the day and on good drugs. Had a little peek at the incision and it looks good. Off to the bathroom in the middle of the night and didn’t make it back to bed. The nurse caught me dropping to the floor. Blood Pressure was down. They called in a few nurses to help me back to bed. Apparently I called the nice male nurse cute – the things we say and do on good drugs and lack of oxygen. I was really good at focusing and breathing through the pain. This pain is comparable to labor, only worse. Never felt this kind of pain before in my lifetime.

Tuesday
Nurse wanted me to get up for a shower…didn’t feel that good and declined for now.
For breakfast they brought me rubber eggs that made me gag, cream of wheat, full strength fruit juice and coffee. I had the coffee. I asked the nurse to get my bag and help me get out some of my cocoa powder mix and protein bars. They didn’t want me to eat my own food. Not happy. At 1:30pm they decided to change my bandages and wash me down in the shower – sitting on the bench. Passed out on them…back to bed. Brought me white bread cheese sandwich and dessert for lunch. I cried and finally a really nice nurse came and listened to me about my GBP food needs. She found me a egg salad sandwich. Ate ½ of a sandwich with only one part of the bread. Drank water and tea.

Stayed on the good drugs most of the day for pain management. Kept my binder on and it was tight. No bleeding at the incision site. IV causing pain issues, tried to start 3 other IV’s, but my veins collapsed. Decided to keep the one vein they had.

One of Nohr’s patients (Laurie) is now working for the health region and is making visits to patients in the hospital. Apparently she “googled” Dr Nohr and found my story on Thinner Times. We had a good visit, exchanged cards and talked a lot about aftercare and how to support patients after gastric bypass. We of course talked a lot about food and the hospital choices.

Wednesday
They wanted me in bed today to keep my blood pressure up. It was mostly 80/60 give or take a few. Another suger filled, carbohydrate lunch – not happy. Basically had liquids and a piece of fruit. By the afternoon, I was taking Demerol every 4 hours, so slept most of the day. Was doing really good. They removed my one drain that I had in and were going to stop the IV later in the day. On the mend…or so I thought. Doctor said I would be released on Thursday, talked about me traveling on my own on the plane on Friday.

The TV was there but the movement made me really dizzy. Around 4pm I was so dizzy and feeling sick, I called the nurse. She came in and took vitals and talked with me. Apparently I kept saying I felt sick. Laurie came in to see me again and I remember her saying that I was not having a good day. She seemed quite concerned about me.
Its all a little foggy for me at this point, but later my roommate, nurses and doctor filled me in.

At one point I just felt so awful…hard to describe, but I didn’t feel like I had control of my actions. I pushed the button and asked for help. The nurse came in and as she did, I passed out in bed. I had 6-10 of these episodes from 4pm to 8pm that night, about every 30 minutes I would pass out for up to a minute or so each time – usually less. My blood pressure would go up to 110/70 or so right after the episode and then drop really, really low after that. They gave me so drugs to help – not sure what. They called the doctor at 7pm and he came from home quite quick. They took blood, and chest x-ray while in bed. I remember seeing the doctor standing there for a long time.

My hemoglobin was 105 when admitted to the hospital, dropped to 83 on Wednesday. They could not detect a pulse manually – the machine they hooked up to me was able to detect one. My oxygen levels on my own were 88, 98 with supplemental oxygen. BP was up and down, but mostly in the 80/50 range. Low of 59/50 and high of 115/80.

When the tests came back, Dr. Nohr ordered a blood transfusion. 3 units of blood (which seems to be about 3-4 cups total). They started the transfusion and basically watched me all night, vitals every 15 minutes, so no sleep for me. Stopped the Demerol and they feel this contributes to the low blood pressure.

The doctor suggested that my husband be called. I was supposed to fly home on Friday on my own, but he doesn’t want me traveling alone. My husband is coming and driving down the next day (he drove it all in one day and arrived late on Thursday night).

Thursday
Took almost 12 hours to get in all of the blood. Feeling a little better and no passing out. Had a hissy fit over the food again. Today the swelling started real bad. My hips, legs and waistline are increasing big time. Doctor came in to see and decided to drain under my incision. In reality, there was not much there to drain. Hurt like no tomorrow. By the afternoon, my hemoglobin was down again, so ordered another transfusion of 3 units. Swelling is pretty bad. My mental state is much clearer now and they are giving me Percaset (sp) instead of demerol. The new drug is wonderful and makes me really happy. Still being transfused when my husband and daughter arrive that night. They were even able to bring my dog up to my room (Laurie had made arrangements to have him visit). Had a quick visit with them all and they went off to find a hotel. I gave husband strict instructions to bring me real food for the next day.

Friday
Pretty much a resting day today. They let me out of bed to get on the camode to go pee. No walking, so the swelling is unreal. My pajama bottoms that I wore at Christmas time (size XL) I brought with me to wear in the hospital - I could not get them on!!!! Freaked out about this and talked with every nurse that came in if this was normal. OMG…..good drugs (Ativan) kept me calm. Sleeping in bed day and night with compression (blow-up pants) on, a fan blowing on me all the time to keep me cool and the sweat still pouring off me. Lots of linen changes. Kept an ice pack with me 24 hours a day. Actual temperature of my body never changed the entire time.
Oh, food……..real food! My husband is my lifesaver. Not only did he get me some protein, but was able to get my food out of my suitcase. I chatted with the doctor about needing protein to get through this and fluids. I told him about how strict I am through this all and he did say that not having my regular food and vitamins for a few days, won’t make a difference.

Saturday
Tried to drain the incision area again with little success. Doctor feels I am doing much better and that I really scared him on Wednesday. No Kidding! My BP is up much higher since the second transfusion and the hemoglobin is up too. Started to walk a little………..finally able to see outside my hospital room. Had a real shower and it felt so good. Doc feels that I can go home on Monday if all goes well from here on out and blood levels stay up.

Had a chat with the doctor about what caused these issues. He states that because he took a “more than average” amount of skin and tissue, that because I was MO before, there are a great deal of vessels supplying blood to my skin (an organ). They cauterize throughout the surgery to minimize bleeding and I had some bleeding, but nothing "abnormal". That my swelling is mostly due to the fact that I have been in bed since the surgery. Some swelling is normal. Talked about the binder and I have mixed feelings on whether is helped or hindered me.

Sunday
Emotional Day fill with regrets. Can’t go back now, but knowing what I know now – would love to go back in time a week. Its reality now, so I have to live with it. On the positive side, the incision looks good and the tummy is flat. Still have lots of swelling, but they assure me that this will go away. Did a lot of laps in the hospital today – husband thinks I overdid it, but I want this swelling to go down. The swelling causes some extra pain and pushing against the incision site.

Monday
Monday morning doctor came in and said that my hemogloben was up to 118 and wanted to know how I felt. I felt great. Asked if I wanted to go home or stay (my choice). I told him I would take it really easy and only travel 5 hrs a day in the van. So off we went.

Had a ½ hour conversation with him (along with my roommate) about surgery, GBP and Alberta regulations on referrals (my goal was to get Carrie’s name in the conversation). Its quite a political process getting referred to a specialist. He stated that he does NOT recall a referral letter about Carries’ issues. I learned quite a bit about the system.

So on the road we go. Out of the hospital in a wheelchair (husbands idea). Decided to stay in Leduc (still 9 hrs from home) on Monday night. Did maybe 5 loops of the hallway to try and take the swelling down in my belly and legs. I went into the hospital wearing small pj bottoms and my XL ones that I used to wear were really, really snug (up 20 pounds on the scale on the Sunday). Felt good, kept my binder on and tucking into bed.....

Only to wake at 6am in a pool of blood. I had a large abdominal pad on, my binder and PJ's - all fully soaked with blood- you could ring out my clothes. Freaked my husband out - he almost passed out himself. Called the hospital, talked to the nurse and she called the doctor. Talked to them. At this point the bleeding has stopped. (this was yesterday morning). He suggested I lay in bed for at least 12 hours and preferred 24. He asked that I go to the ER in Leduc, but I really didn't want to go.
Anyway the blood kept coming out of my incision throughout the day, but slowed down. Stayed laying down all day except for bathroom visits. Talked with Carrie briefly on the phone – she is an angel.

Tuesday
Decided to travel home today in the van. Not much bleeding unless I stood up and walked...had to pee every so often. Husband made up a bed for me, but hard to lay in the van with all the road bumps. Took Tylenol #3 all the way home. Got home at 2pm in the afternoon. Stood up to come in the house and the blood just poured down my leg. Called the doctor...waiting for him to call back (my pcp). I have an appointment tomorrow morning to see him. For now - I am on the couch taking it very, very easy. Jumped on the TT board to post a quick message and check in.

Wednesday
You can tell I am bed bound with my laptop!!!! Just waiting to go into the doctors for my appointment, so thought I would update my story.

A little bleeding this morning out of the incision – its fine if I don’t walk or stand too much…..

Stay tuned………..