Journey into Gastric Bypass

I am 10 weeks post op and would like to share the struggles and rewards of having gastric bypass.

My journey began in August 2007, I made up my mind that this was something that I wanted and nothing could change my mind. I signed up for a local seminar with medical records in hand. I contacted my health insurance company to verify that they did cover the procedure. I was informed that it was in fact covered.

In December I had all of my preoperative work completed (labs, EKG, upper gi, and psych eval). The entire test came back normal and my surgery was scheduled. Surgery date is scheduled for January 07^th.

I checked into the hospital at 5:00 am the morning of surgery. Things went fairly quickly once I was checked in. I signed several forms and the nurse came into check my vitals and gives me an IV. Once the IV was in place I was wheeled down to the waiting room where I met with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist.

I was now ready for surgery and wheeled into the operation room. I was awake upon entry and helped scoot on to the operating table. I gave one look around the room and the next thing I know its nap time.

Roughly 2 hours later I am waking up in the recovery room. I can't remember much here but when I finally woke up in my room I was feeling a little nauseous and pain in my left side. Pain in the left side is common. This is where the largest incision is and also where the largest tools are inserted. With the IV fluids pumping through me I had to use the restroom. My first challenge getting out of bed myself, on my feet I slowly made it to the restroom.

I was able to eat a few ice chips but I had to have a barium swallow to check for leaks before any drinking. I waited patiently for them to come and get me to do my leak test. My mouth was so dry that I wanted this over with. I was giving a cup to drink and I could not get it down. It made me sick to my stomach. Now I can't really say that it physically made me sick it may have been in my head. This was the first thing I was drinking with my new pouch. I did eventually make it through the test and was given the ok to drink.