Jeff Keeping It Real!

Good morning: Have not written in a few days. I have been doing good overall. I had a couple of days of fatigue and was getting concerned. I am doing better now and am sipping my fluid, I am getting at least 1 liter in a day. As of this morning I am down to 299.6 pounds. this is a total of 25.9 pounds. I have slowed to about 1 to 2 pounds a day. This is what the doctors wanted to happen about a pound a day. I want to wait for my incisions to heal before going back to work.  I may call Dad and see if he needs company for a day. Just to get out of the house and see how I do.

I have been living off of tuna, egg salad, and beef jerky. I am eating 3 teaspoon of food now, where before it was 1-2 teaspoons.  Well I will try to get back on my game of blogging more frequently.
JB

Update on how I am doing today. I am not doing bad with the pain, the area where the byopsy took place still gives me fits but getting better. I am back on all my prescribed heart medications. Today is the first day I took the Lasix and have felt drained all day. Not sure if they are linked together or not. I also get dizzy when getting up, I had that a little before but it is very noticeable today. Mind: Well my mind has been good today. Not to much thinking about food which was nice.

Food:
Breafast I had egg salad
Lunch I had tuna made with mayo and spices
Dinner I am having 3 shrimp

I eat with one of my daughters baby spoons. It takes approx 5 of those to equal one teaspoon. I am eating about 5-6 baby spoons full right now.

Talk to you later.
JB

5:25 PM

5-days Post-Op Morning

Slept okay last night for my first night home. Woke up this morning and immediately had a bowel movemement. Weighted myself and I am at 314 pounds. That is 11 pounds down just a short of a week from surgery. I had 6 baby spoon bites of egg salad my wife made. I am taking my pills slowly over time.

Talk to you later.
JB

Before and after surgury updates I have had a very successful surgery up to this point. I had VG (Vertical Gastrectomy) surgery on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 0900.  I had to check myself in on Monday for heart precautions.  I admitted myself at 0800 and had a right heart catheter put in at 1030 by my cardiologist took 30 minutes. That went extremely well considering the last one I had it took them 2 hours and 4 doctors. Then I went to CCU for the rest of the day. I had bowel prep starting at 1640 and boy oh boy by 1830 I was sitting all night. I consider myself lucky because they thought they were going to putting a balloon pump in and that would have meant I lay there for bowel prep would not have been good.

I then went into surgery at 0715 on Tuesday and Dr. John Rabkin performed surgery at 0900 (so I was told) and out of surgery at 0959.  All early detections were that it was a success. In my wife’s mind when I got up to ICU and said something to her she was happy. Quit frankly, I do not remember a damn thing from surgery until the next day. Due to my heart condition I did not get out of bed that night. I remember seeing some key people on Tuesday. My WIFE, Dr. John Rabkin, and Barbara Metcalf. I was told I held conversations with these people, sorry but do not recall talking.  Let’s be honest here about the pain.  I was not in much pain on Tuesday, mainly because I do not remember much of it.  Now Wednesday, started off okay.  Then I played macho man and did not use my PCA (morphine drip) nearly enough. The pain at one point was pretty severe. They asked me on a scale of 1-10 how much?  My wife looked at the chart that CPMC provided, that showed pain levels, and she said well it is obvious he is a 10 he is crying.  So they doped me up and provided extra pain medication. That did the trick, my pain was tolerable, and of course the side effect is that I slept most of the day, but that was okay with me. Now come Wednesday night, actually I think it was Thursday early morning. I told my nurse I wanted my follie out. So we took care of that and with in an hour I also got up and went to the bathroom. They were thrilled about that.  Thursday was a catch up day for me on what happened the two days before. I also had my first meal, well if you call a popsicle a meal then yes my first meal.

I was released Friday and finally made it home. Pain wise, I have some don’t get me wrong, however it is not bad at all. I think the biopsy they did on my liver hurts more than my wounds. Speaking of wounds, I have 4 lap holes and one 2 inch incision on my belly button. Eating is so different, my mind is going crazy. My 9 month old daughter eats more than me. As a matter of fact I am using her baby spoon to eat with. So it feels like I am eating more instead of 2 bites from a teaspoon. I get approx 5-6 baby spoon bites. Fluids, well fluids have been interesting. I take my sips, sips, sips (like you said Barb). After 1 to 2 sips I have to stop and wait. Then within a minute or two I have this throw up sensation, but all it is, is a little air bubble.

Take what I write here as just another example of the way people take surgeries. Remember also I had extra precautionary measures being taken due to my heart condition. I look forward to keeping everyone updated as the days and weeks go by.

Take care
JB

Update

Good morning all:  Today is day 3 post op. I am sore but overall in good spirits. Tuesday is but a blurr to me. Remember seeing certain people but do not recall talking to them. Tuesaday was a the day of sleeping. Of course so was Wednesday for the most part. I was on a morphine drip Tuesaday and Wednesday. According to the nurses I did not use enough. Gees anymore and I would be telling them all my secerts.Well with any luck I will be out of here today. Saturday for sure. Being sore is expected, but does not costatuite staying around this long weekend.I will have a lot to tell later, but wanted to get a quick howdy out.

Talk to you guys later.———–Jeff Blankenship

This was sent from my Blackberry while in my bed in the hospital.