Climbing aboard

pcoppock

I've been reading along for a while and figured I'd post.

I'm about one month into the approval process for VGS. I've done the seminar, the initial doctor visit and started the nutritionist visits. I feel like I'm making good progress. With luck I should be ready to get the final approval in early October, and hoping for a surgical date in late October or early November.

Right now I'm struggling to get regular activity in. Part of what has gotten me to this point is bad ankles, aching back and general lowered ability.

I'm interested to know what everyone's hospital stay has been like. I hear a lot about pre- and post-op, but not much about those few days.

-Phill

jomamacita7

Welcome Phill! I'm pre-op for gastric bypass, probably in September if all goes well. I can relate to the difficulty getting activity in as I've got bad knees! Hoping that gets a lot better after some weight loss. Good luck to you on this journey!

rpyle111

Welcome! At my initial orientation, they had us sign up for an exercise class. I was semi-regularly exercising, so they threw me on a machine and I go a workout in. They spent lots of time with others, finding an exercise that they could tolerate. See if your program has an exercise physiologist and ask them for help. Starting to move regularly is the important step, even if it has been a while.

You've got this!

Feel free to friend me if you would like! I'm scheduled for VSG September 30.

Rob

pcoppock

Thanks guys!

Rob, I've read a few of your posts. Your definitely an inspiration. I'll ask about a physiologist.

I really just need to bite the bullet and get up early enough to get a walk in.

Tristaan

As far as my hospital stay after RNY, the first day I was pretty doped up. They tried to get me up around 10pm and walk with the assistance of my husband and the nurse. I made it about 10 feet before I got nauseous. By the next morning, I could (slowly) get myself out of bed and by the afternoon I was walking the floor with my fluid pole. I went home on the third morning. Went for a short walk with my husband that evening. The first few days I just took it slow, but it really amazed me how much more I could do from day to day. A year ago, I couldn't walk more than a few blocks without my lower back hurting. I'd wake up in the morning with excruciating pain in my joints and back until I moved around and loosened them up. Now I walk 3 miles easily. The pain and swelling in my back and joints has largely abated. Depending on what underlying joint and mobility issues you have, the weight loss may or may not completely help with your symptoms. Be gentle those first several weeks, and work up slowly. I only walk so far as exercise, and I am still losing an average 2.5 lbs a week, which is fine by me.

ATXHeather

Welcome Phil! I am schedule for VSG this Tuesday (if all goes according to plan!). I had to do a 3 month supervised diet before my insurance would approve it. I also don't really like exercise but I am trying to find ways to increase my activity. I got a fitbit one and I find that to be very motivating. I do like walking but it is currently 100 degrees so that is unpleasant. I have a recumbent bike which is easy on the knees and ankles but hurts my butt (I'm hoping that will get better once my butt is smaller!).

Feel free to friend me if you want to see someone go through it. My diary is open to friends. Right now, I am on all liquids for pre-op, tomorrow is all clear liquids. My doctor seems to have stricter rules for this than others but I am happy to follow his advice.

Heather

pcoppock

Thanks for the perspective Tristaan. I have some tendon issues in my left ankle, along with osteochondritis, and maybe the same in my right ankle. There's a tear of the meniscus in my left knee, along with some arthritis in both ankles and knees. The knees are as much of a concern as the ankles. I was in a walking boot on the left ankle for about 2 months. for now my ortho doc is treating it with prescription anti-inflammatories. I'm cleared to start walking as much as I am able. I think the path he is taking is to treat my ankles with the drugs to get me through the VGS surgery, then see how they are as the weight comes off.

What helps is that my husband and I are both going through this at the same time. He doesn't have the same degree of weight to lose as I do, but he has more health issues with diabetes, cholesterol, and some other things.

We've both done the weight loss thing together before, but this does feel different. Granted, we are only a month in, but we are making a lot better choices than we were a short while ago. And moving forward is what matters.

-Phill

pcoppock

Heather- FR sent. Best of luck this Tuesday. I look forward to watching as you go along your journey.

I do have a FitBit flex, and it has been helpful. I have the steps goal set to 5K right now. I meet that a few days a week. tomorrow we are starting a change to our morning routine. We'll get up earlier and I'll kick huby out of bed so he can go to the gym. I'll go for a walk in the neighborhood. Just a few years ago I did a challenge with friends and walked 5 miles. I was about 80 pounds lighter than I am now, so it'll be a while before I am back there again.

-Phill

SibylDiane

pcoppock, my hospital stay was pretty uneventful. Warning, TMI ahead!

I went into the hospital early Wednesday morning. They got me checked in and changed into a hospital gown and slippers, then gave me an IV and started filling me up with fluids. I met with the anesthesiologist who explained everything that would happen and offered me Versed (I declined, I like having my wits about me and wasn't terribly nervous). They kept filling me up with fluids for about 2 hours, right until surgery.

So, I woke up in recovery and desperately had to pee, but couldn't get out of bed, so they had to bring me a bed pan, which was pretty awful but better than the alternative. The gas pain in my shoulder was pretty bad but not unmanageable, I wasn't crying or anything. After about an hour in recovery they wheeled me up to my hospital room and I requested that they prop me up in the big chair rather than put me lying down in bed. I think that was the right move. I stayed upright and was able to get up and start walking about an hour after I got to my room.

The next two days were pretty much a haze of sipping (they brought me a tray of different kinds of liquids every couple of hours), napping in the chair -- not in bed! -- walking, and getting poked, prodded, and injected by various nurses and my surgeon. I barely slept at all both nights. The pain wasn't bad -- they gave me liquid lortab every 4 hours. I had a surgical drain but the surgeon took it out about 24 hours after surgery.

I spent no time watching tv or doing anything else recreational other than occasionally keeping in touch with people via my phone, checking twitter, and playing a mindless game on my phone. Pretty much everything was sipping, walking, and dealing with post surgical stuff. Got released Friday at noon and went home (already had my prescriptions filled pre-op) doing well, getting in all my fluids and protein, no complications. It was not the most fun two days of my life but it was fine.

pcoppock

Sybil,

That doesn't sound too bad at all. And I never thought about a chair vs. the bed. It would be much easier to get in and out of compared to a bed I bet.

Is there anyone who has gone through VGS or RNY that uses a CPAP? I'm wondering what accomodations they make for that in the hospital? Do I bring my own? Do they supply one? That's one of the first things I hope to ditch after the surgery. I've only had it since early March but we travel a fair amount and I'm already tired of lugging it around and dealing with getting distilled water whenever we go someplace by plane.

-Phill

rpyle111

I use a Cpap and am supposed to bring it to surgery with me.

ATXHeather

pcoppock, my hospital stay was pretty uneventful. Warning, TMI ahead!

I went into the hospital early Wednesday morning. They got me checked in and changed into a hospital gown and slippers, then gave me an IV and started filling me up with fluids. I met with the anesthesiologist who explained everything that would happen and offered me Versed (I declined, I like having my wits about me and wasn't terribly nervous). They kept filling me up with fluids for about 2 hours, right until surgery.

So, I woke up in recovery and desperately had to pee, but couldn't get out of bed, so they had to bring me a bed pan, which was pretty awful but better than the alternative. The gas pain in my shoulder was pretty bad but not unmanageable, I wasn't crying or anything. After about an hour in recovery they wheeled me up to my hospital room and I requested that they prop me up in the big chair rather than put me lying down in bed. I think that was the right move. I stayed upright and was able to get up and start walking about an hour after I got to my room.

The next two days were pretty much a haze of sipping (they brought me a tray of different kinds of liquids every couple of hours), napping in the chair -- not in bed! -- walking, and getting poked, prodded, and injected by various nurses and my surgeon. I barely slept at all both nights. The pain wasn't bad -- they gave me liquid lortab every 4 hours. I had a surgical drain but the surgeon took it out about 24 hours after surgery.

I spent no time watching tv or doing anything else recreational other than occasionally keeping in touch with people via my phone, checking twitter, and playing a mindless game on my phone. Pretty much everything was sipping, walking, and dealing with post surgical stuff. Got released Friday at noon and went home (already had my prescriptions filled pre-op) doing well, getting in all my fluids and protein, no complications. It was not the most fun two days of my life but it was fine.

Thank you so much for this post! I will try my best to remember to ask them to put me in a chair (I go in on Tuesday.)

pcoppock

I use a Cpap and am supposed to bring it to surgery with me.

Have you noticed the pressure on the CPAP going down as you lose weight? I've only lost 15, but already see the average pressure dropping a little.

rpyle111

I have had mine for so long I'm not sure it is the one that tells me the level, or even if it adjusts on the fly. It certainly doesn't have an external display. I'll take a look at it to see if I can figure it out.

rpyle111

Looks like my machine does not change pressures on its own. I should probably think about a sleep study some time post surgery to see if my level should be modified.

pcoppock

Definately. My surgeon said that more than likely I'll be tossing mine out the window a couple months after surgery. Seems odd given that I've only had it since March, but then again I had packed on almost 100 pounds in 2-1/2 years.

csmccord

Sybil,

That doesn't sound too bad at all. And I never thought about a chair vs. the bed. It would be much easier to get in and out of compared to a bed I bet.

Is there anyone who has gone through VGS or RNY that uses a CPAP? I'm wondering what accomodations they make for that in the hospital? Do I bring my own? Do they supply one? That's one of the first things I hope to ditch after the surgery. I've only had it since early March but we travel a fair amount and I'm already tired of lugging it around and dealing with getting distilled water whenever we go someplace by plane.

-Phill

I had RNY about 2 years ago, and used a CPAP at the time of surgery. They actually make sure that you have been wearing it before surgery. I had to prove to them that it was set for the correct pressure, that I knew how to use it, and that my body was used to using it on a regular basis. Anytime that I slept, either drug induced naps during the day, or at night they made sure I had it on. The put the machine beside me, and was able to arrange it so that the tube looped over the back of my bed and stayed out of the way.

My surgery went well, and I was home on the 3rd day. The only issue I had is that while on the Morphine pain pump I wasn't able to pee. I could get up, get to the bathroom, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get anything to come out. The eventually had to do a temporary catheter. After 24 hours I was off the pain-pump and could then pee normally.

Just be prepared to walk, walk, walk....then walk some more. There will be gas pain (they use nitrogen gas to pump up your abdominal cavity to make it easier to work). Walking helps to relieve that relieve that pressure. You'll hate walking, more than likely it will pull and stretch in your stomach area. So you'll walked bent over for about a week post-surgery. It really wasn't too bad.

As for CPAP, yeah I still have my machine, but I haven't used it in something like 18 months. I used for a few months after surgery, until I had my second sleep study done, and much to my great pleasure I didn't need it anymore! I hated that thing!

I used the same pressure on it the entire time I was on it. I only wore mine for about a total period of a year, of which something like 8 months of that was pre-surgery.

Great that you and your husband are doing this together! My wife and I both had RNY 6 weeks apart, and attribute much of our success to the fact that we have mutual support. You will have bad food days, and your hubby will have bad food days. Just be there for each other and keep and open mind.

annwyatt69

My hospital stay was one day. I had my RNY at 8 o'clock in the morning on a Thursday and was released at 9 o'clock the next day. I live 3 hours from the hospital and probably slept mot of the way home. They had me up and walking about 4 hours after surgery.
The need for my CPAP ended about 2 weeks after I got home, my medications dropped and now am on virtually nothing. I am a type I diabetic on an insulin pump and my insulin usage has dropped from over 155 per day to about 25.
The hospital used oxygen, so my CPAP was not needed. My only complaint with any surgery I have is that they make me disconnect my insulin pump and they don't seem to know the proper amount of insulin to give me--so I wind up with blood sugars over 600 until I am able to reattach the pump.
Good luck and hope that everything goes well for you!

pcoppock

Great advice and guidance, thanks!

Went for my first formal walk in weeks (months?) this morning. In the past I would wait until I felt good enough that I could take the dogs with me and deal with their pulling. I've decided that as much as I'd like to take them, it's better if I go by myself and start getting in better shape, so that I CAN eventually take them for walks.

Tristaan

I use a CPAP, you need to bring the mask/headgear with you to the surgery. I assume a sleep study was part of your pre-surgery testing? So they'll have the right settings on file at the hospital and just hook your mask up to their machine. I forgot, I did have a catheter that first day out of surgery. I think they took it out by the second afternoon - then whenever I went to the bathroom I had to go in a measuring cup kind of thing placed over the toilet so that they could measure my urine output. It was a little uncomfortable bending to sit up or down, or get in and out of bed. I wouldn't call it horrible though. You just kind of gasp and breath your way through it for a few seconds. Once I was situated, there was no pain at all. Also, the second day I (vaguely due to the morphine) remember being wheeled to another floor and having xrays of my digestive system taken to check for leaks. I had to swallow some nasty stuff and wait 30 minutes. I was pretty out of it, but remember trying to keep my head up while sitting in the hallway

pcoppock

No sleep study as part of my pre-op clearance, but I did one in February after hubby complained about my increased snoring. I didn't stop breathing often, but when I did my pulse-ox nose-dived into the low 70%, I'm on a variable pressure system that tells me what the previous night's pressure was, last 7 day average, and 30-day average. It's been creeping down over the last couple weeks from 15.5 to 14.

I'm sure they will give me more details as I get closer. Right now I have 2 more months of nutritionist supervised weight management before they can submit for approval with Cigna. Once approved I'll get a surgical date, hopefully mid to late October.

-Phill

Dannadl

Hi. I'm Danna and I'm 28 months post op from RNY. My husband and I both had RNY 2 months apart in 2012. We're each down 180lbs. He's at goal (got there in 6 months but finding maintenance more difficult), I'd like to lose around 30lbs more.

Our hospital stays were very similar. We each had surgery on a Friday afternoon. Laparoscopic RNY. The nursing staff got us up around midnight to stand and walk for the 1st time. Our surgeon's office has a policy that you can only be in bed In the hospital from midnight to 6am. The rest of the time you must be either up walking or in a recliner chair. My pain was well controlled. Generally our surgeon's office uses liquid vicadin for the pain. I am allergic to Vicadin so they used a very small pill of Oxycontin for me. But my husband had vicadin. Most of my discomfort came from the gas used to inflate my abdomen for surgery working it's way out. So, Sat. we were each in the hospital all day. I spent the day sipping water and getting up to walk laps in the hall every 60-90 min. My surgeon required walking every 90-120 min but both my husband and I did it more often out of boredom. On the pain meds I couldn't follow the storyline in a book and there was nothing on TV and my attention span was shot due to the pain meds. So, walking and conscientiously sipping water to get my required number of ounces in is pretty much what I did. I brought a pair of sweats and a t-shirt (both kind of loose) to the hospital and wore the treaded socks they give you so that I was more comfortable and less exposed on my walks.

We were each released from the hospital on Sunday morning and home before noon on Sunday. After being released from the hospital I never took another pain killer. My husband took pain killers for about 2 days after coming home, but was walking around the block within 1 hour of coming home.

The more walking you do right after surgery the better you will feel and the quicker you will heal.

As far as pain. I felt like there was minimal pain with this surgery. To be fair, I have a relatively high pain threshold and compare this surgery to 2 C-sections, gal bladder surgery and an open surgery to remove 11 tumors from my uterus. This one was less painful that the C-sections (though those weren't bad, I was up walking around 6 hours post op on both of those and off pain killer completely within 4 days). RNY was WAY less painful than the tumor surgery, which was by far the most painful surgery and recovery I've ever had. RNY was slightly more painful than gal bladder surgery, but not much. The recovery on gal bladder surgery was a bit slower though, because I had it 10 weeks after a C-section while nursing a newborn and taking care of my then 2 year old.

My husband's pain threshold is not really as high as mine and he still recovered really fast from RNY.

pawoodhull

Hi Phill. I had my sleeve 3 years ago. My hospital stay was uneventful. At my biggest I could barely walk, 20 pounds down for the surgery and I was a little better but I was up walking that afternoon. It was tough until they discontinued the morphine drip, then it got much esier to stay awake long enough to walk. Truth is, they will want you up and walking same day, helps with the healing, moving out the air they pump you full of and prevents blood clots.

For the longest time walking was all I could manage, not far and not fast, but I was walking. Between the spinal arthritis, along with arthritis in the hips, knees, ankles, and feet (not to mention the damage being 386 does to a body) I was barely mobile. But the weight comes off fast and walking gets so much easier.

I still have arthritis, always will, but these days I am pain free 99% of the time. I still walk as my main form of exercise simply because I tend to get injured when I attempt other things. So walking and working out on my pilates machine are my thing.

Talk to your doctor about what you can and what you want to do for exercise. As the weight comes off whatever you choose to do will become easier. Hope that helps.

Pat

pcoppock

Pat and Danna, thanks for the detailed response.

I'm really looking forward to the process. I know as I get close I'll have more anxiety around it, but I expect that. I just keep in mind why I'm doing this.

-Phill

ATXHeather

This is completely off-topic, but I had the same problem with my dog pulling (a springer spaniel). He pulled so hard that I ended up with shoulder surgery. I bought a Gentle Lead (at major pet stores) and instantly no more pulling. He does sometimes try to paw it off but he's gotten used to it. It is much more gentle on the dogs than them constantly pulling against their collar and it improves the walk so much.

Great advice and guidance, thanks!

Went for my first formal walk in weeks (months?) this morning. In the past I would wait until I felt good enough that I could take the dogs with me and deal with their pulling. I've decided that as much as I'd like to take them, it's better if I go by myself and start getting in better shape, so that I CAN eventually take them for walks.

pcoppock

Totally on topic, lol. We have a tandem leash that hubby has used a couple times and says it makes them even out. The big slow one keeps the small quick one in check. I may try that after I have a few more walks under my belt. I was just really happy I was able to make it 1.2 miles and I don't feel wrecked tonight.