Day Three Post Surgery

I woke at 9:00am and I felt much better. I hadn't puked since yesterday at 1:00pm. I decided to take all my meds(blood pressure, lexapro, ADD, anti-spam, and reflux) at once with a glass of tea. Well lets just say that did'nt work well. I puked and pooped within 30 minutes. I think it was just the meds. Since then I've drank 10oz glass of tea and have been ok. I'm thinking I might eat a popsicle this afternoon. It's really weird I have no desire to eat anything. I think because I'm so scared I'll puke. Whatever works. Today is better than yesterday and hopefully tomorrow will be better than today. Of course Jane feels wonderful, but my sweet friend Karen is still throwing-up, so Jane is taking her to receive IV fluids. Please continue to pray for all of us, but especially for Karen to stop throwing-up. Oh yeah I'm down 2lbs today. I promise I'm going to post pictures soon. I took my camera to the hospital to get our picture together but the battery was bad.

Steph

Day Two After Surgery

I woke up this morning to the usually throw-up but was also having diaherra. I know that's more than you may want to know but I'm just being honest. I'm having severe stomach cramps because I can't keep the anti-spasm medicine down and the nausea medicine is the same. Of course my dear friend Jane is still doing great. I could really hate her if I did'nt love her so much. Karen is doing about the same as me. We have to go the doctor at 2:00pm and Jane is picking me up , I do manage to take a shower and get ready, but I throw-up when I brushed my teeth. At this point I have a good cry, and pity party for myself. Jane gets here to pick me up looking like a million bucks, and I can hardly walk without throwing-up. I head to the car with my puke bucket, and Jane thinks it just hilarious. I make it to the doctor, and see Dr. Woodman. He proceeds to tell me I might feel better if I would go walk a mile or two. He's lucky I didn't puke on him right there. He wouldn't give me a phenagren suppository to help with nausea, he just said none of this was a surprise and just deal with it, it will get better in the next couple of days. I couldn't get out of there soon enough. I took matters in my own hands and got hold of some phenagren pills. I got home and drank some sweet tea and took my anti-spasm med and a phenagren and sleep to about 8:30pm. I then got up and ate a popsicle and drank some more tea and took another phenagren and sleep all night without throwing up. Oh yeah, we weighed and I had lost 7lbs since last week. I guess so since I've either puked or pooped everything I've ever put in my mouth.

Steph

SURGERY DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all arrived bright and early 5:30am at the hospital. We were all very excited and anxious. I keep asking who's bright ideas was this anyway. It was way to late to turn back now. Ryan came and prayed for all of us. That was sooo sweet. Jane was called back first, then me, then Karen. Karen and I had rooms beside each other with a shared bathroom. Jane was across the hall. Once we were in our gowns, Karen and I was going to go across the hall a see Jane but as we started out the door, we saw Dr. Woodman in the hall and we ran back to our beds. Next they came in and gave us our IV's. The nurse was very good and got it on the first stick. Next thing I know they came in to get me, off I went. Once in the surgery room they sprayed my throat with this gross numbing medicine. Oh yeah, Dr. Woodman asked me what I had to eat last and I said a hot dog. He almost had a heart attack. Dory came to my rescue and said it was fat free on a wheat bun. Yeah right I don't even know what wheat taste like. Next I had to bite on this green thing that kept my mouth open, and the next thing I remember is waking up and telling Dr. Woodman to take good care of my friend Karen that was coming in next. As I was being rolled into recovery the first thing I saw was Jane and she was awake and looked good. I thought yeah we are actually going to live thru this. My mouth was very dry, so I got to eat some ice chips. I was feeling pretty good and my stomach didn't feel any different. I thought this is not bad, was I sooooooo wrong. About a hour later the nausea set in, and the stomach cramps started. I was released around 11:30 and was home at 12:00.

I came home and the first thing I did was throw-up, I tried to drink some tea but that also came right back up. I changed into my pj's and tried to go asleep. It was hard to get comfortable because you could feel the balloon moving around, it was really weird. I continued to throw-up all day and night. My stomach was having spasms probably every few minutes. I really wanted to yank the balloon out with my bare hands. Of course it didn't help to know that my friend Jane was feeling fine and had only had the dry heaves once, and was having no stomach cramps. I wanted to go over and make her throw-up. I did seem to sleep most of the night, only getting up to throw-up 3 or 4 times. Karen also was throwing up. Jane was just fine.

Steph

The night before surgery

Where do I begin, we started today off on a clear liquid diet. This was a new one for me, I actually heard my stomach growl for the first time in a long time. After church I went to get me a Route 44 sweet tea, I was in a hurry to take Kaylee to practice so I waited to take my first drink after I dropped her off and quess what, it was unsweet tea. I thought I would gag. So I drove back to Sonic and I wanted to tell them don't you know this is all I can have today so get it right, but I did'nt. Next, we had a halloween party at my mom's and there was food everywhere. There was chips,dip,chili,hotdogs,brownies,cotton candy,cokes, etc , needless to say it was very hard. I stayed inside away from the food for about an hour. I then started thinking maybe I could just chew the food and spit it out and it would be ok. Thanks to Keri my friend she talked me out of it. As the day progressed it got a little easier. I've gone this long without eating before, I think but I always know I can just go to Wendy's the next day. After today, the is no sight to the next time I can eat normal, or what I thought was normal. Hopefully I'll never see that normal again. I then went to the store to get me some food for the next three days ( juice, popsicles, and jello). I'm a little nervous about the surgery, but more nervous about not getting to eat. I'll post tomorrow after I get back from the hospital. Please pray for Karen, Jane and me as we begin this journey. Please pray for the doctors doing the surgery.

Steph

Another Test

Well I went for my last test ( I think) on Wednesday. It was called a gastric emptying, isn't as bad as it sounds. My appointment was at 11:00am and of course I was NPO since midnight, so I was starving and really wanted a diet coke bad. When I arrived I was told I would be laying on a table for two hours and they would take a picture of my stomach every 15 minutes. They said I could watch tv or listen to my ipod. I thought I'm going to take a nap. YEAH The nurse then brought me a microwaved scramble egg, but it was the best egg ever since I was soooo hungry. Inside the egg was radioactive dye, they were going to watch it digest. Who knows, I don't understand, but all I could think about was a 2 hour nap. It only got better, after lying on the table the nurse put a pillow under my knees, a warm blanket and a pillow for my head. I put on my ipod and off to sleep I went. The 2 hours went way to fast. After the test was done, I had to meet with the doctor at 4:00pm to get all the details about the surgery. That went well, we actually got to see the balloon with saline in it. It is much bigger than I thought. We got our list of foods, or may I say liquids and the time we need to be at the hospital. The schedule is as follows:

Jane 5:30am
Steph 6:30am
Karen 7:30am

They are doing us back to back. We asked for one recovery room, but they said no. Oh well our husbands can run back and forth with messages. I can just picture our husbands in the waiting room together. It is so hilarious. We all three are very excited, but a little nervous. I'll keep posting everyday if I can.

Steph

Video of Surgery

Here is a link to go to if your interested in watching how the surgery is done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ-7HLiQJeY


Steph

What a Day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where do I begin... first thing this morning at 6:30 I got up and headed to the hospital for my Upper GI and EKG. If you know me I don't function well that early, but believe it or not I was on time. When I got into the x-ray room they had me drink this stuff that fizzes in your throat and you can't burp, then you have to drink this really thick milky, chalky stuff and then they rolled you around so it would coat your stomach. I thought I would throw up, just when I thought I couldn't take anymore I had to drink lying down. Somehow I managed to finish the test and everything was normal. They then walked me to the nursing room, obviously the nurse that took me there forgot I was getting tested for a weight loss procedure because she walked in a very fast pace, needless to say I barely kept up. Once there they hooked to the machine and everything was normal. I headed home and started the waiting game. I called Dory and told her I had finished my test. She said she would enter my info and let me know something today.

About an hour later the phone rang and it was Dory. I was scared to answer, but I did and ...........

I GOT THE SURGERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Could you say I'm excited, I screamed and cried and then screamed some more and then when I came to my senses I thought what am I doing? I'm scared and excited. The first thing I did after getting off the phone I called Jane and Karen. Neither of them had heard if they were getting the surgery or not. They were very excited for me.

A few hours later Karen called and yes, believe it she is getting the surgery too. We both screamed and said what have we gotten ourselves into. At this point Jane had not heard from Dory. Just a few minutes later, Jane called Karen. I hung up with Karen and waited what seemed like forever and then Jane called me and Karen was also on the line, Jane told us that she didn't get the surgery, but she was ok. I really felt horrible, and I couldn't believe it, we always knew the odds of us all getting it were slim to none, but the finality of it was awful. Karen and I were telling her how sorry we were when Karen said " I just feel bad because Stephanie and I are going to lose all this weight and your not" I wanted to crawl under the table when both of them screamed were kidding, she is getting the surgery too. We all started screaming and laughing. What are the odds of us all getting the surgery. I like to think God was looking out for me because he knows I can't do this without them. There are no two other people in this world I would want to do this with.

After digesting what had happened, all I could do was sit around and think about the surgery. I got nothing done in the house and now I have a list a mile long of things I want to get done before surgery. Oh yeah, we are all having surgery Monday morning. At least our husbands can sit and chat in the waiting room. Maybe we can all be in the same hospital room. Ha Ha, how fun.

Anyway, we are having a meeting Wednesday afternoon to get all the details, I'll post them and a before picture of me and my friends sometime this week.

Steph