CARE VERSUS MONEY

Well I have been thinking about this post for some time.  I had a few people contact me about the procedure, where I had it done, how much it cost etc. etc.   When I tell people how much I had to pay, they are taken aback. " Wow that is expensive, if you have it in Mexico isn't it cheaper?"  This line really gets me, why, because YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!

This procedure is not about money, this is about your health!  This is a major surgery, you are having most of a beneficial organ taken out of your body.  Do you want just anybody doing it? Do you want the procedure to be done in a clinic or a hospital?  Do you want round the clock monitoring or to be sent home within a few days of having your procedure? So many things could happen and if you are by yourself, you don't know what is normal feeling or what isn't.  What if you are staying in a hotel by yourself?  As I have said in one of my previous posts, I don't know how anybody could do this on their own!!

Now there are many that I have read about or heard about that have done just that and I guess they seem to be fine, but I bet they could have cut down the stress and uncertainty if they were with others that had it done at the same time and were monitored continually.   

I went through a company here in LLoydminster called Beat the Odds. The owner Pam relayed to me that she wanted to provide the best care she could for her clients and that her experiences of going through the procedure in Tijuana, would not be repeated in her company. I can attest that her and her company has exceeded my expectations!

The care that the 5 of us received was more than exceptional, right from the minute of arriving in Puerto Vallarta to the very last minute we left! Firstly we had a facilitor with us pretty much every minute we were there. She was with us at the hospital, when the doctor was seeing all of us, when it was our turn to go to the operating room and when we came out of the operating room. All three days we were in hospital   We all stayed together in a condo for the remaining five days we were there. Facilitator stayed there as well in cause there was any problems and to just keep us company.  This is where it was nice to have others that had gone through what you were going through.  We could tell each other what we were feeling and find out if it was normal or not.  We could talk about how we felt emotionally and bat ideas around with each other.   

The doctor, Dr. Jose Antonio Castaneda Cruz was amazing.  Explained to each one of us before we went down to surgery what he was going to do in the OR, asked if we had questions or concerns and genuinely cared about our feelings.  He would check in with us each day at the hospital and when we were at the condo, called everyday to see how we all were doing.  If there was anything he didn't feel right about he would bring us back to the hospital to see us again to make sure we were all doing well before going home. (most of us are friends with him on Facebook ).  He also comes to the Beat the Odds Christmas party every year. :)  

Pam made sure that we all had rides to the hospital and back, she had wheelchairs for us at the airport there and back, hotel the night before we left and that we had time for site seeing the day before we left.    If we needed anything we got it.    

So did I pay a lot of money, yes I did.  Did I get what I paid for? YOU BET I DID!!    

IF you are thinking about getting this surgery done out of country, please think about your health and the care you will receive.  |Not about how cheap you can get it done for, it could make all the difference in the world!    

Till next time.   Ange

SINCE BEING HOME

Hello,
Well it took some adjusting to get back into the real world when I got home.  I was very tired and weak and didn't really want to do a whole lot of anything. Tomorrow will be a month since surgery and although I feel better everyday, I am not 100%.  I still do not have a lot of energy and I attribute that to not getting in enough fluids or protein, although I am trying my best.

As we had an eating plan to follow when we got home, I tried to stick to that, although it was not spelled out for me as I like, (and why would it be, everybody is different), so I had to try and figure out what I should be eating.   I knew I needed to have up to 70 grams of protein a day and at least 8 -8 ounce glasses of water a day.   I had bought two different protein shakes from Shaklee before I left so that at least I could drink those for my protein when I got home.   I was on full fluids for the week we got back and for the last two weeks could have anything that we could eat if we had no teeth.   So pureed anything.

So off to the store and bought myself regular yogurt, cottage cheese, drinkable yogurts, thick soup and my husband made this awesome soup with stew beef, barley, onions, carrots, potatoes and garlic of which I pureed.

As each week progressed, I realized that I was not getting near the water in I should, I would be lucky if I got 3 glasses a day and maybe 25-30 grams of protein a day.  My stomach was becoming more unsettled, full-feeling, and I was burping constantly.  Last week I was so frustrated because I was eating less and less and seemed like the minute I put anything into my mouth I was full and didn't want to eat another thing.  I had gone to the doctor for my check up and told him what was happening and he prescribed Maxeran a medication that helps empty the stomach quicker.  I thought okay this will be good.

I had been talking to some other ladies at this time who had had surgery and I think they were perplexed as I was as most were eating normally,  within the guidelines and doing well.  I though okay it must have been because of the inflamed stomach I had to stay an extra day for in hospital.  I was just taking longer than the others to recoup.

Finally after spending about 4 of the seven days last week in total frustration and not wanting to eat anything; to being so uncomfortable to the point of pain, I decided I had to do something.  So I stopped everything that I had been eating before including the protein shakes and introduced one food at a time.

Well, low and behold, I got better!  These are the items I know I can not have right now:  ALL DAIRY products or stuff with dairy in it.  No chicken, beef or pork.  No soy or whey protein shakes.  No orange juice or anything acidic,  no spice or anything from a can or box.  The items I have tried and can tolerate right now are:  fish of any kind, fried or boiled eggs(tried scrambled, no good).  Yams, tried a tiny bit of t-bone steak and was okay.  Cantalope and grapes.  Potatoes, no skins yet and veggies.

So I have to be vigilante in my eating ways for a little while longer until my stomach is completely healed and settled.    Oh yes I forgot to mention that I stopped the Maxeran as well and also the water we had at home.  I hardly ever drank the tap water, but we do have a water cooler that we always buy either distilled or reverse osmosis water.  I can't drink it, it tastes chemically on my tongue and gives me the same full feeling and burps that I felt with all the food I couldn't eat.  So have been drinking Evian water and it seems fine.

I know that this won't last forever and it will settle down once everything is healed. So I just carry on day-by-day knowing that this trouble will be over soon and I can get to the business of looking like the image I have in my head of myself skinny.

Tomorrow I have an important post that I want to put up, so stay tuned.  Until tomorrow.  Pay It Forward!            

Ange.

SHALL WE CONTINUE

Hello, Hello!  I am alive and well!

My apologies to those who were following my journey.  When I got home I didn't really want to do anything, as was quite weak and tired, so put everything on hold until I was feeling like I wanted to do something again.

I want to thank everyone who sent me messages, and well-wishes and wondered how I was.  I appreciate you all!

I feel that I have a lot to say and one item in particular is very important to me, so that will be a post in itself.  I will just carry on as far as I remember from the day we got our drains out.

As you know we had drains put in, as above; one on each side of our abdomen.  The tubes were long and attached to the bottom were bulbs that collected the fluid that drained from our abdominal cavity.  The left-side drain was usually fuller than the right-side, as left was the side that most of the stomach was taken from, although they pulled the useless stomach from the right-side incision.

Anyway, the day we were to get our drains out, which was the day before we were to leave, I stood up after getting out of bed and noticed I had blood running down my leg from the right-side drain.  The bulb was fuller than the left side and darker in color.   What in the world was going on now??  I re-enforced the drain site with more gauze and bandages and waited to see the Doctor.  It didn't really hurt  more than usual and it wasn't spewing blood out, so I figured I could wait.

When it was my turn to get my drains out, I explained to him what had happened, that I had more drainage etc and he didn't seem to think it was a big deal.  So out came the drains.  It didn't hurt, just felt a couple of flutters from inside the abdominal cavity and just like a lubricated tube sliding through a hole.   That's how I would describe it.  But once those drains were out, I felt wonderful; no more shoulder pain, no more pain anywhere really.  I would say that two of us had a vasovagal response from getting the drains out.  I had mild heart palpitations (of which I get from time to time anyway) and the other lady got light-headed. Neither reaction lasted that long.   Then we were off to the Malekon (sp)(Boardwalk) for sight-seeing, shopping and to watch the sunset.

Sitting at an outdoor cafe on the beach waiting for sunset.  Boy do I look big.  Don't look like that anymore!

Sunset I was waiting for!

That night when we got home as we were sitting around watching TV before bed I developed a terrible pain in my right-side.  It felt that my muscles in my side were cramping and I couldn't take a deep breath.   I started to walk around and it seemed to dispel a bit, so went to bed.  In the morning when I went to get up it happened again and I thought how am I ever going to sit on a plane for 4.5 hours home.  I had stopped taking my pain medication the day after we got home from surgery so didn't want to start taking it again.  It seemed that if I stood upright or walked around it helped, so did that until we got onto the plane.  Fortunately, I didn't suffer on the plane, but unfortunately after my husband picked me up and we went to have supper, even touching the spot that hurt made it go into severe spasms.  I had to sleep on my left side all night.  By morning it was a little better but was now right under my drain incision site and a lump was forming.  The cramping was subsiding somewhat.

I had a idea that since the drains were taken out and I had been draining more on the right-side that day that there was no place for the fluid to go or it wasn't being absorbed into the body fast enough, so sat in my tissues and muscles causing cramping.  This was confirmed by my doctor here in Lloydminster.  I am fine now no pain or lumps, incisions are healing nicely and there was no infection of any kind.

Again, this is my experience only, the other ladies did not have this problem.  Everyone's body is different and everyone experiences different circumstances.  Some experience NO symptoms, as another one of our ladies did.  She was ready to go home the day after surgery!  (She is still doing well and has 22 lbs gone so far).

I will leave this post for now and continue tomorrow with more posts.  Be kind to one another!  Ange.