Final Costs for a self Pay MGB - 30 day progress

[Guest guest]

I called the hospital today to see what the final bill was for their

part. While your hospital stay continues to drop, the hospital

charges keep going up a little quicker. Doc R - 3200.00,

Anesthesiologist - 980.00, and hospital - 8364.34 for a grand total

of 12,544.34. ly, I was expecting it to be less by a couple

grand. I was the last surgery of the day and one of the first ones

out the next morning and I had no complications. I'm not complaining,

just making an observation. Now for the good part.

My one month anniversary is tomorrow and I have lost (drum roll

please...) 38 pounds. I wanted to try and stay on liquids for 2

months, but I just could not do it. I was HUNGRY!! I transitioned to

solid food very quickly. I was eating pureed soups after 1 week and

then migrated to soft solids like fish, whole soup, and oatmeal in

the second. I eat 4 or 5 times a day. An exmaple day would be a 6 oz

fat free yogurt that I eat from 8 to 9, fruit juice from 9 to 12, mug

of soup and crackers 12 to 1, juice from 1 to 4, fat free pudding

with strawberries from 4 to 4:30, more juice till dinner at 6:30.

Dinner is sometimes homemade, but usually its a lean cuisine and a

small side of vegetables. It takes about 45 minutes to eat that. I

have had no acid or bile reflux. No problems with the Actigall either.

I take carafate twice a day instead of 4. You need to take it hours

after eating and an hour before drinking anything so if I took it as

directed during the day, there wouldn't be any time for food or

water. I take it at night on an empty stomach and first thing in the

morning before showering. I am going to stay on the prevacid for 3

months just to make sure the acid thing stays away.

Stomach signals are still a little funny. I am occassionally hungry

and full at the same time. Yesterday, I almost hurled after dinner. I

had that hungry but full feeling and had JUST one more bite.

Shouldn't have done that. I had about a half hour of hurt. Its like

its pushing up on your diaphragm or something like that.

I think I'm comfortably eating around 1,000 calories a day, so with

the malabsorbtion component, I probably actually get around 800

calories a day. I have a digital scale that measures in tenths of a

pound. I weigh everyday. I know I shouldn't, and if I plateau for a

length of time I probably won't but I still lose 2/10th's to half

pound a day, so its fun to watch.

You pre ops are making the right decision. I would do it again in a

heart beat. I used to eat in one sitting what I eat in 2 days now.

Good luck in your decisions.

Ken Grakauskas

MGB 10/20/00

348/310/190