vertical sleeve gastrectomy

One Week Post VSG Surgery

Posted on by mrs.stork

As I write this it has been 10 days since my surgery day.

For the first week things have gone great. I still find myself trying to get rid of some gas but it isn’t too bad. As far as incision pain, I have to tell you, it isn’t that bad.

It’s not fair to say that, because everyone is different, but I have had the experience of having two c-sections and that is what I’m comparing it to.

So I had the surgery one Wednesday, and two days later, I was inside of an airplane heading home to my family.

On our way back we did not have a direct flight and although I was a little worried, the flight wasn’t too bad. Of course I felt a little uncomfortable with some gas pain, but overall it wasn’t the worst flight I have ever had.

Once home the kids were all over me to see the incisions and what the doctor had done to me. They know I had surgery (had to tell them otherwise they would be jumping all over me) but the little ones weren’t exactly sure what had happened. My 8yr old on the other hand knows this is for weight loss and he is amazing about it.

During the weekend we went to the store for some groceries and I have to tell you, it kicked my behind. I was exhausted but the end of it. On monday I returned to work. I feel like I did pretty well the first day, but on Tuesday by midday I was clearly running out of energy.

I am pretty open about this surgery with any and all people. Even at work. My son goes to a catholic school and folks know about it there too, and I can see people wanting to ask me about it and being shy; I tell them, ask away. If I have an answer, I will gladly share it with you.

So lets talk about stats. From all that I have seen online, they always talk about the heaviest weight, the surgery weight, the current weight and the goal weight.

Now, before we keep going, my doctor who clearly is a jokester, told me that my goal weight is 115lbs and to be safe we would add 20lbs making my goal weight 135lbs. Boy oh boy did we laugh when he said that. So for now, I’m going to set my goal weight to something I have not been in a very long time but not that crazy of a number.

Without any further delay, here are my stats.

HW (Heaviest Weight) = 280 – this was my weight before I start the pre-op diet
SW (Surgery Weight) = 272.6 – This was my weight on monday; 2 days prior to surgery
CW (Current Weight) = 258.8 – That’s my weight as of Thursday 03.28

There you go, not going to lie, it is very hard to post this for the world to see. But you know what, this is me.

Surgery Day! VSG here I come.

Posted on by mrs.stork

Today (March 20th) was surgery day y’all. Of course I was a little nervous and it showed when they were taking my blood pressure (not surprised there).

The process started at 9am, when their car service came to pick me up from my hotel. Once I arrived it didn’t take long to be called back. I was given another one of their T-shirt, some pants, compression stockings and non slippery socks.

I was taken to my bed and there I got to sign some more paperwork, answer a lot more questions (yes some were the same as yesterdays) and then get hooked up to a lot of wires. I was given this green color liquid Tylenol. Then I was given some antibiotics and some more meds that now I can not remember.

I got to talk to the surgeon himself and we got talking. Like always, I asked questions and even asked if I would be able to see pictures of the procedure, which he said Of course. He proceeded to show me some pics from yesterday’s Endoscopy and the nurses were fascinated that I was into it. lol We cracked some jokes and he told me I needed to hang a picture of my stomach in my living room. I’m telling you, Dr.Apel has a great sense of humor and great bedside manner.

Next was the anesthesiologist and the OR nurse. They explained again all that was going to happen and told me not to worry. I was informed that once surgery was over, they would let me sleep for about 15-30 minutes and once I was awake I would be walking and then the hubby would be called back to stay with me. And yep, that is exactly what happened.

By 12:45-1:00pm we were all done at the surgery center and our ride was there to pick me up. I was feeling a little nauseated but nothing bad. The second I got inside of the car I knew that I wouldn’t last long. No they were not driving like crazy, I just have terrible motion sickness and it shows. Yep, I “threw” up right then and there in the car.

Once there It was now about getting used to the gas pains and nausea. The nausea has been kicking my behind and the gas is pretty much stuck in the middle of my chest, but Tom has been trained on how to burp me. LOL

That’s it for now, I have to be up through the night every 2hrs to go for a walk and tomorrow morning I have an appointment at 11:45am for my IV infusion.

Thank you all for all the love and support through this. The journey has just begun. Can’t wait to see what the future brings.