Photos

I'm sorry for the wait with these!! I had some issues resizing images to get them to upload!

10 MARCH 2014

Before admission into the hospital

Just before anaesthesia/surgery

THE FOLLOWING ARE PHOTOS OF PHOTOS SO THE QUALITY IS A BIT OFF.  LOOK AWAY IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH!!

This is the cutting/stapling tool - on the left side of the tool is the stomach I will have remaining, and on the right side is stomach being removed

This is my remaining stomach and the staple line, some of the stomach is under the yellow fat that the surgeon placed on top to help protect and heal.  You can see my liver being held up on the top of the photo using tools.

This is the 'bean' part of the stomach that was removed.  It is filled with gas in this image but it would hold approximately 1 - 1.2 L.

 

THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN ON 15 MARCH 2014

This one is showing my 5 incision sites.  Bit hard to see but there's one at the the top in the centre, one on my right side, my belly button and two on my left side.

I will post a photo of the actual incisions when my dressings come off to show that they are actually really small not as bad as I was thinking at all.

Any questions, please ask.

=)

Day 5 Post Op

Almost five whole days since my surgery. I came home yesterday morning. I feel really fine. My left shoulder has a slight sharpness which will go away. My incisions don't hurt at all. My neck and back hurt from being so tense and not having been comfortable in the hospital. I am remembering to breathe and do my deep breathing excercises. The lungs get lazy during anesthesia and if proper excercises aren't done you could collapse a lung. So important stuff. I'm resting a lot.  I slept the whole night through and have been sleeping /resting every few hours. I'm doing lots of short walks to keep the gas in my belly moving as there's still some from surgery. Honestly I am doing and feeling much better than expected.

I have been "enjoying" broth, water, juice, up n go, optifast, skim milk, diet cordial and more water on my liquid diet. I think the water and juice taste the best. At the moment having 1L a day working up to 1.5 L.

With only liquids in you can imagine only getting liquids out. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. As I'm only having 125 ml per hour at most, when I do go it's only a really small amount of number 2, pretty normal number 1.  I have been adding benefiber to most of my drinks as per instructions and slowly I'm going less frequently and more solid.  Sorry if it's TMI but I know people who are thinking of having this done want to know what it's like.

I'm taking my chewable vitamins everyday and for the next 14 days will be giving myself daily injections in my thigh/tummy.  This is because I was taking oral contraception before my surgery and the injections help with hormones and blood thinning.

During my hospital stay I was injected with so many needles in my thighs, tummy, bum, arms and hand. These were for nausea, pain relief, hormone balance, blood thinners etc.  I did not know I was going to get so many needles. It was like 5- 10 per day.  I'm pretty good with needles but I'm still bruised and spotty from the injections sites. They will clear up!

I'll add photos in another post. As always, any questions,  please ask.

Weigh in tomorrow!  Will be interesting to see what happens.

=)

Surgery

Today was my surgery day. 10.35 this morning was last time I saw clock before anesthesia kicked in. 

All went well. I'm not in pain from operation, but have been drowsy, nauseas and uncomfortable all day. My back hurts and wants to be massaged but I just can't get to it! Haha

I'm in good spirits, happy so far.

I took pills to ease nausea but didn't need or want pain relief to my surprise! 

To all those worrying about me, sorry took me so long to post.

Know that I am showered, walking around and fine. Just uncomfortable in bed but want to sleep!

Will check in tomorrow! =)