68 Years Young, 4 Years out from Gastric Bypass - Claremont, CA

About a week after my surgery my PCP put me back on my blood thinner pills. (I have chronic A-Fib so am on blood thinners all the time. I am usually taken off of them a week before any procedure). My drain got clogged and I was bleeding excessively from the drain incision. When my surgeon found out, he immediately took me off the blood thinners. For me, it takes about 5-7 days for my blood to get back to normal consistency. So for the next week I was soaking through the maxi pads I was using for bandages as well as my binder and all my clothes. I was tired all the time due to blood loss. (I doubled up on my iron supplements to help alleviate the fatigue and build up my blood). As a result of the wetness of all the blood, the steri strips started to come loose and the incision started to open. The blood finally started to clot and my surgeon authorized a home health nurse to come to my home and pack the incision and change the bandages every day. In the middle of all this, I attended my granddaughter's graduation and walking back to the car, I fell and broke my wrist! I had to have surgery on my wrist and the doctor put a pin in and put a cast on it. Anyone ever try to get dressed with one hand? It's not easy! lol Anyway, when the incision opened up, it was about 2 inches long and tunneled about another inch on each side. It is now almost closed. I am only wearing a very small abdominal bandage now. The nurse thinks it will be totally closed in another week. I only had to wear my binder about 4 weeks. Besides the 4.2 pounds of excess skin that the surgeon removed, I've lost another 10 pounds since the surgery. Dr said I could start walking and use the recumbent bike. That should help me keep the weight off. Of course, now that I have permission to walk, I can't tie my tennis shoes because of my wrist. lol It's getting better, it really is!

Through it all, I have had plenty of help from family and friends and have maintained an attitude of gratitude. Dr Wali and his staff have been great and I'm very pleased with the results!

Doctor said I'm coming along great. He took off 4.2 lbs of excess skin! It seems weird to feel that area and it's so much flatter than it was!

Got it done and all is well. I'm actually not in any pain. Dr prescribed Tylenol with codeine but I haven't had to take any. If I start to feel any pain, I will just use extra strength Tylenol because I hear the codeine makes people nauseous. I was incredibly tired last night and felt very weak when I got up. Also, nauseous. Hate that, but it didn't last long. I slept in my recliner with a neck roll and was pretty comfortable. My friend lent me her walker and it was a Godsend! She also spent the night here to help me up and bring me water and ice. Oh yeah, and a Weight Watchers fudgesicle! Wow, that was certainly good and helped the nausea. I guess I needed something on my stomach. I can take a shower tomorrow before I see doctor for my post-op checkup. Will update again tomorrow.