Track Marks?

I once again have a railroad on my belly.... or a zipper...or little bugs....I had ANOTHER surgery!

I was opened up again on Thursday, November 16th at 1:30pm and this time, Dr. Ameri took a souvenir...my gallbladder.  My Gallbladder was gross...super gross....so gross that it needed to be removed.  So gross that when it was removed my surgeon told me that I had "an ugly gallbladder".

Let me tell you, it was a horrible experience.  Most of the people I had spoken to had told me that the surgery was relatively easy.  That the healing time wouldn't be so bad.  That is SO not true. I spent 14 hours in the hospital in level 10 pain.  Unable to move, breathe, talk, pass gas, eat, or relieve my bowels without help or pain.  And when I tell you that my gastric bypass surgery was easier, know that I went back and watched the old videos, I read the old blogs, and it was still an easier surgery.  Not only did the gas stay with me for the entirety of my healing time so far, but so did the gas pain, the bloating, and the inability to do anything by sleep sitting up and drink water.  UG!

Highlight of the past 2 weeks....Thanksgiving.  I was able to eat, I was able to walk around, and I got to spend time with my family whom I love very very much. Wonderful day, I hope yours was fantastic as well.

Low-point....having my roommate come into my bathroom, while I sat on the toilet in almost blackout pain to save me from passing out and hitting my head on my sink.  For the record, I called her, well text messaged her, from my toilet because I knew that something was wrong and couldn't do anything on my own.  I needed help, or I would have been found the next morning passed out with my pants around my ankles on the floor of my bathroom.  Nothing good about that.  Thank you Gloria for helping me that night.

So tomorrow, Wednesday November 30th I will have my staples removed, all 10 of them.  And then we will see how I'm feeling.  There is a possibility that I pulled an ab muscle...but if that's the worst of this left, I can handle it.

Gallbladder surgeries are very common after gastric bypass.  My surgeon says that 1 out of every 4 patients will need to have their gallbladders removed.  A friend of mine who works at the hospital, and the wonderful nurses who helped me this time (Thank you A4 RN's) think those numbers should be half of every patient.  This is a common side effect, and it's a painful one..at least for those who are post-op.

How did I know I needed surgery?  I realized something was wrong with my gallbladder because my feces were white. That's right everyone....I had pastel poop!

Dr. Oz taught me to watch my poop...that was a great way to diagnose a number of ailments.  Mine was white...or almost white, which is NOT normal.  So I saw my Dr. and when he pressed on my abdomen, where my gallbladder was located, it was tender.  NOT PAINFUL, just tender.  An ultrasound showed that I had a single, LARGE stone in my gall bladder.  A 7 millimeter stone.  That is roughly the total size of a normal, health gallbladder.  The bile duct out of the gallbladder is roughly 1.3mm large....so my stone just stopped up the works. No bile could get out, and yet I could store it....hence the ugly gall bladder.  Watch your poop everyone.  If I wasn't, I wouldn't have discovered this issue until much later...and it probably would have been an emergency removal.

Next up....a testimonial.  Dr. Ameri holds monthly support/informational meetings for people thinking about weight loss surgery or who have already had one of the surgeries.  At each meeting he asks a patient to give a testimonial about how their surgery went, and how they have had continued success.  On Tuesday, December 13th I will be the person giving a testimonial.   I am honored to share my story with those who are thinking about or have had weight loss surgery.  I'm going to ask if i can record the testimonial for my blog, and for my boyfriend who has a work obligation.  So stay tuned for information on that.

Thank you for sticking with me...for sticking with my lack of posts...and for sticking with me throughout my vast number of changes. My commitment to the blog hasn't changed, but boy has my life changed.  I will continue to change, but hopefully it will always be for the better.