Recovery and Reward: What a Year!

My surgery was a success now I have to recover.  It was easier in most ways from the last one.  Again, I feel much better, so I believe that my body is just better able to handle something like recovery from a surgery.  My only exception is the nemesis that is my belly button.  That wound still gave me the most trouble.  Luckily the port is no longer there.  My new port was placed much higher on my abdomen and on the opposite side and that incision seems perfect; thanks Dr. Jessee!  The couple side incisions used for the arthroscopic tools, were a bit itchy and seemed to develop a bit of a rash.  The rash was very red and started in the area around those incisions.  Later that was explained as a probable allergic reaction to the dermabond used to seal the wounds.  On my subsequent post-op visit, Dr. Ache removed the remaining dermabond and suggested some benadryl cream.  That seemed to help, but it still took a couple weeks or more before the rash completely disappeared.  The bigger issue was the belly button incision where they took out the old port.  It was leaking again, luckily no where near like previously with my earlier seromas, but it was still very concerning after what I had already gone through in that area.  For fear of an infection developing we moved my post-op appointment earlier and Dr. Ache was able to see me.  She is fantastic by the way.  She is very good at what she does and is very patient with her patients.  She cleaned out the area and said it was infection free.  I was pretty close to completing my antibiotic regimen, but she was confident that I wouldn't need any more.  Instead she treated the wound with silver nitrate I believe it was called.  It was pretty much some medicine on a stick.  She fished it around inside my belly button wound to make sure she treated all the affected tissue.  It wasn't horrible, but it burned, probably something like putting alcohol on a wound only the burning didn't go away for quite a while.  I believe these issues were mainly a result of the scar tissue and previous problems I had in that area.  It took a while for it to heal up, but that stuff did the trick.  And I'm happy to say that I no longer have any more issues in that area; thanks Dr. Ache!  A warning about this silver nitrate stuff besides the burning feeling that lasts most of a day, it isn't pretty.  The wound will kind of ooze black for a while until it completely closes.  It's perfectly normal and I believe it's just a sign of healing.  It's great stuff and am glad I had it, because I think it's what finally did the trick to get that area healed up; it's just not pretty while it's doing it's thing.  In fact it worked so well, that I have hardly any noticeable scarring after two surgeries in the area!  On a subsequent follow up I also had an adjustment done using my brand new port and it was a breeze.  What a difference it makes to have it secure.  The needle went in with no problem.  It was so not a big deal, that I nearly forgot to mention it here.

Now that I've recovered from my second surgery and I've hit a year from when my banded life began, I almost feel like I'm starting a new.  I'm emerging from halftime ready to dig in for the rest of my journey as I still have a long way to go to reach all of my goals, but I know armed with my Lap Band, it's just a matter of time.  It's true the start of my Lap Band journey had some more complications, that are certainly not typical, but if asked would I do it all again?  The answer would certainly be HELL YEAH!!!  Before surgery my body was run down succumbing to diabetes; I couldn't sleep, hardly walk, and barely breath.  Let's face it I was on a collision course to an early grave.  Now after a year banded, what do I have?  I've lost 60 pounds!  I can sleep through the night; I'm able to move and exercise including completing two 5K races!  Recently, I even had my yearly physical and instead of getting the usual lecture about my weight and health, the doctor was very impressed with my progress, especially by the numbers.  My glucose levels were cut in half to under 100 and my A1C is down to 5.7.  Has the Lap Band conquered my diabetes?  My doctor felt I was doing well enough to at least temporarily take me off my medication and re-evaluate later this year.  And best of all I feel so much better about myself.  I'd go through a lot more complications than I even went through to get this kind of reward, my life back; hands down one of the best decisions I've ever made.  Goes up there with moving to Florida, marrying my wonderful wife, and having my beautiful daughter.  Now with the help of the Lap Band, I will be here for them; I will be around to watch my daughter grow up; I can participate in this wonderful life.

Thank you so much to Dr. Jessee, Dr Ache, Susan Kay, Allergan(for supplying the Lap Band itself) and the wonderful staffs at both Suncoast Bariatrics and the Palms of Pasadena Hospital for this wonderful gift called the Lap Band and giving me my life back.  Thanks again to all of my friends and family for their incredible support without which I couldn't have done this, especially to my wife Heather and my friend and inspiration Paul.  You guys are the best!

God bless!  :-)

Before                                                                                Today

Surgery Part Deux

I'd like to clarify that I've been updating the blog a bit historically, as in this update made in July is referring to events back in April.  I hope to eventually catch up and be current with my posts, so I apologize for my tardiness.  I know there was some confusion on my last couple of posts, and wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.  This post refers to my second surgery, that took place on April 21st.

It was an early day.  I had to be there at 6:00AM and it's over an hour drive, but I was pretty glad to get it out of the way.  I had a mixed feel towards the day.  On the one side, I felt pretty relaxed in that I had my previous surgery and this should be similar and even a less intrusive one as the band itself shouldn't need to be touched.  On the other hand, this was a different surgery, and I wasn't 100% sure on the result; could they relocate the port in one surgery or would they find lots of signs of infection forcing them to do two?  The unknown can be a bit scary, but I knew I was in the skilled hands of Dr. Jessee and the wonderful care of the staff at Palms of Pasadena Hospital.  The registration process was very straight forward and then I was led down to the pre-op area.  I will say the nursing staff there are very friendly and comforting.  It seemed like things went smoother than the last time, but I think that was more about knowing what to expect having gone through it before.  I also had the extraordinary support of my lovely wife, who was over seven months pregnant at the time.  She's the best!

Before long it was time to go to surgery, so I was wheeled down the hall and told my wife not to leave town.  ;-)  The poor thing was to have to wait it out in the waiting area.  I was wheeled to the runway area near the operating rooms.  There they go through their final protocols including meeting the anesthesiologist.  Again they were all very nice and all went smooth.  Then I was taken into the OR and before long some of the night night juice had me out.  I woke up in the recovery room feeling pretty out of it, but not nearly as much as I remember being the first time.  I actually am starting to feel that the reason some of this is easier is because I'm in better shape than I was before the first surgery.  Since I had already lost so much weight, I believe I'm just in better health, and my body is much better at tolerating a surgery.  That realization gave me a nice reminder of why I started this whole process to begin with; I was in poor health and thanks to the Lap Band, I'm doing much better thankfully.  I didn't experience too much discomfort, but after a few too many ice chips I did have a bout or two of nausea.  They immediately gave me something for it and it went away nearly instantaneously;  I would say they were very attentive there as well.  I did experience a very strange side affect to this medication as I had a couple bouts of tears, that seemed to come from no where without cause.  It was very strange to cry not knowing why you are crying.  Luckily it was short lived and it was explained that was a common side affect to one of the drugs that they had administered.

Finally I got to go back to the pre-op area where my wife can be with me.  She was a sight for droggy eyes.  By now I had found out that I was fortunate and they were able to move the port all in one surgery, so I was good to go, well sort of.  The one mistake that was made was mainly my fault.  I had asked Dr. Jessee to give me an adjustment while I was in surgery to save me from coming into the office later.  Well, they give you adjustments while you are awake for a reason.  Without being able to drink during an adjustment, you can't tell what the right level is.  Despite Dr. Jessee's best efforts, I must had gotten too much.  I exasperated that fact, by choosing ginger ale when offered something to drink.  Carbonation is kind of a no no when it comes to the Lap Band, but I was hoping it would help sooth my stomach from my earlier nausea.  It didn't take more than a few sips before the pain started.  It was hard to understand what it was exactly, especially in my post-op state.  It was a distinct sharp pain in my chest and there was no way to get comfortable.  After some discussion with the nurses, we deduced that I probably was fully blocked by my band being overly inflated.  They paged Dr. Jessee, but she was currently in surgery.  I had to wait for a while for her to come down to check me out.

When she did, she said that sounded like what it was.  She was concerned that it was going to be fairly uncomfortable to put the needle in so soon after surgery, but it was a relief actually.  Without even having to draw back on the syringe, a few CCs popped right out.  It was an instant relief.  Thank you Dr. Jessee.  All in all everything went very well and I experienced a very successful surgery.  The adjustment was just a minor issue that was easily corrected at the hospital.  Once I'm recovered from surgery I can go in for a proper adjustment in the office, and now that I have a secured port, it should be much easier than my most recent ones.  Going through some of these port issues is not very typical at all, but I consider it just a small chapter in my weight loss journey.  I was very amazed at how much better my body handled the surgery compared to the first time.  My health has really improved, and I feel a whole lot better and in the end that's what this is all about.  Thank you Dr. Jessee and Palms of Pasadena; without you my improved health would not be possible.

God bless!
me  :-)