4 Week Follow-up Visit (crosspost)

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for being so vacant these last few weeks. I've had a bit of a rough

time. Nothing too major, but affected my desire to sit in front of my PC.

It turns out that the upper abdominal pain I experienced for 8 days during

my 3rd week post-op was a bout of Acute Pancreatitis. The bloodwork Dr Pomp

ordered last week confirmed it. Chronic Pancreatitis is ongoing and is bad;

it signals an overall breakdown of the pancreas and it's ability to secrete

enzymes. Acute Pancreatitis just means isolated, individual occurrences of

swelling of the Pancreas. It is brought on in about 75% of cases, by abuse

of alcohol. The other 25% are caused by a variety of things, including

trauma or major abdominal surgery. It resolves itself and there is no real

treatment for it other than to control the pain (darvocet works *wonders*!).

Generally there are no lasting effects as long as it doesn't become

chronic.

So the painful stuff went away last week and was replaced by icky daily

nausea and vomitting. I've been dealing with that and while I have good

days and bad days, it is hard to think about returning to work and life when

the bad days are outnumbering the good. It has made the difficult pre-op

job of getting in one's protein nearly impossible.

But I went to my first post-op follow-up appt today and discussed all my

concerns. Got a script for Prochlorperazine (compazine?) to alleviate the

nausea. Of course Dr Pomp said some nausea is actually normal with the DS

though it is not generally mentioned too often. He said it is one of the

things that keep us from eating too much and stretching our tummies out too

soon. Be that as it may, the nausea I have had needed to be addressed

unless I was supposed to go on disability for the next 6 months. I started

the meds this evening and if they don't improve things for me I am to

contact Gee who will get me a script for something else.

But the biggest news of all - my weight loss! I think my PCP electronic

scale registers about 15 lbs higher than Dr Pomp's electronic scale. I am

comparing my pre-op weight from the higher

scale to the weight today. Conservatively I have lost 34 lbs in 4 weeks and

it might be as much as 49 lbs!!! Woo Hoo!! I will get to compare on the

same scale at my PCP visit this Monday.

One thing I did confirm in my visit with the nutritionist (I knew this

anyway) is I definitely have not been getting in enough water. Some of my

weight loss could be dehydration; which would be bad. She even said one of

the signs of dehydration is nausea. Bad catch 22 thing going on... Anyhow,

I'm gonna be working on this one. Hopefully the anti-nausea meds will help.

Guess that's about all for now! Still trying to catch up with everyone's

posts/progress as pre and post-ops. Hopefully as the meds start to do their

thing I'll have more stamina.

Hasta!

Terri Hassiak

BMI 61.8

http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/profile.phtml?N=H980366398

Appealed " Out-of-Network " Ins. Denial - AND WON!!!

Laparoscopic BPD/DS with Dr. Pomp on 6/25/01 - Down 34lbs in 4wks!

email(no spaces): bunsofluff @ hotmail.com

_________________________________________________________________

Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

[Guest guest]

Well Terri,

I have been thinking of you and wondering why you

hadnt posted. I am glad that you are back and I will

keep you in my daily prayers for your continued well

health and being. Can you believe that tomorrow is

already our one month anniversary who would have thunk

it????

Lisbeth

Dr. Macura

June 25, 2001

-21 lbs

--- Terri Hassiak wrote:

> Hi everyone,

>

> Sorry for being so vacant these last few weeks.

> I've had a bit of a rough

> time. Nothing too major, but affected my desire to

> sit in front of my PC.

>

> It turns out that the upper abdominal pain I

> experienced for 8 days during

> my 3rd week post-op was a bout of Acute

> Pancreatitis. The bloodwork Dr Pomp

> ordered last week confirmed it. Chronic

> Pancreatitis is ongoing and is bad;

> it signals an overall breakdown of the pancreas and

> it's ability to secrete

> enzymes. Acute Pancreatitis just means isolated,

> individual occurrences of

> swelling of the Pancreas. It is brought on in about

> 75% of cases, by abuse

> of alcohol. The other 25% are caused by a variety

> of things, including

> trauma or major abdominal surgery. It resolves

> itself and there is no real

> treatment for it other than to control the pain

> (darvocet works *wonders*!).

> Generally there are no lasting effects as long as

> it doesn't become

> chronic.

>

> So the painful stuff went away last week and was

> replaced by icky daily

> nausea and vomitting. I've been dealing with that

> and while I have good

> days and bad days, it is hard to think about

> returning to work and life when

> the bad days are outnumbering the good. It has made

> the difficult pre-op

> job of getting in one's protein nearly impossible.

>

> But I went to my first post-op follow-up appt today

> and discussed all my

> concerns. Got a script for Prochlorperazine

> (compazine?) to alleviate the

> nausea. Of course Dr Pomp said some nausea is

> actually normal with the DS

> though it is not generally mentioned too often. He

> said it is one of the

> things that keep us from eating too much and

> stretching our tummies out too

> soon. Be that as it may, the nausea I have had

> needed to be addressed

> unless I was supposed to go on disability for the

> next 6 months. I started

> the meds this evening and if they don't improve

> things for me I am to

> contact Gee who will get me a script for

> something else.

>

> But the biggest news of all - my weight loss! I

> think my PCP electronic

> scale registers about 15 lbs higher than Dr Pomp's

> electronic scale. I am

> comparing my pre-op weight from the higher

> scale to the weight today. Conservatively I have

> lost 34 lbs in 4 weeks and

> it might be as much as 49 lbs!!! Woo Hoo!! I will

> get to compare on the

> same scale at my PCP visit this Monday.

>

> One thing I did confirm in my visit with the

> nutritionist (I knew this

> anyway) is I definitely have not been getting in

> enough water. Some of my

> weight loss could be dehydration; which would be

> bad. She even said one of

> the signs of dehydration is nausea. Bad catch 22

> thing going on... Anyhow,

> I'm gonna be working on this one. Hopefully the

> anti-nausea meds will help.

>

> Guess that's about all for now! Still trying to

> catch up with everyone's

> posts/progress as pre and post-ops. Hopefully as

> the meds start to do their

> thing I'll have more stamina.

>

> Hasta!

> Terri Hassiak

> BMI 61.8

>

http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/profile.phtml?N=H980366398

> Appealed " Out-of-Network " Ins. Denial - AND WON!!!

> Laparoscopic BPD/DS with Dr. Pomp on 6/25/01 - Down

> 34lbs in 4wks!

> email(no spaces): bunsofluff @ hotmail.com

>

>

>

>

_________________________________________________________________

> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at

> http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

>

>

>

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