Infection healed, Port back, happy and healthy again :-)

Hi @all,

Did you miss me? ;-) I surly missed you guys :-)
I am truly sorry for not blogging in such a long time. Unfortunately I was/am so busy with work that blogging was just not possible. At any rate... I am back :-) and I am happy to be back :-)

Here are the news:
Due to an infection I had my port removed on 11/20/2009 and I am happy to say that my infection has healed and I no longer have any problems or pain. It took a little while to get an appointment at Cedars Sinai to get my port back. From what I have learned December is a very busy month and I only got my port back on January 15th 2010. It felt like I was waiting for forever to get a surgery date. This was the best surgery out of all 3, everything went very well and even though they had to put me under general anesthesia I did not get sick, had no gas pain and no other pain at all *knockonwood*

When I got the port back I lost all my restriction :-( This was very bad and I have done some very bad things. Nor sure if I should tell you a little food porn but the worst thing was when I ate an entire Costco bag (those bags are HUGE, meant for 5 families or so) of potato chips on a weekend.

Am I bad or what? :-D But I am glad it happened, not the infection of course, but my mega-5-families-super-sized-bag-of-potato-chips-experience because I came to realize that I am sick, sick when it comes to food and that I have no will power to say "no" or to stop eating when I actually should not be eating. Lap-band surgery was the best thing I have ever done for myself.

I did not gain any weight though because other than a couple of moments of weakness I did okay, even without restriction. However, I was stuck at 246 for many weeks. Once I lost my "sweet spot"it got more and more difficult. "You only know what you had when you lose it" is soo true!

On February 2nd I got my first fill since I got the port back and the restriction only lasted a couple of days. On Tuesday, February 23rd I went for another fill and I am feeling GREAT! My restriction is right there where it was before I got the infection and I am very motivated again. I hope it stays there if not I will get another fill. At this point I have no more time to waste ;-)

When it comes to my weight loss:
9/11-09   Starting Weight 295
11/20/09 Port Removal Surgery Weight 259 (lost 36 pounds)
1/15/10   Port-back Surgery Weight 246 (lost 49 pounds)
Today:    240 pounds (total loss of 55 pounds)

Yes, the infection was a little set-back for me. I had to work much harder to still lose weight because the restriction I had (without the port) was not sweet-spot-restriction but I am still happy that I continued to lose weight and most of all did not gain any.

I am also glad that this all lays behind me. I tried to avoid thinking about it too much and that was probably also a reason why I avoided lapbandtalk and blogger.

Hopefully by tomorrow I can say FINALLY good-bye to the 240s and my goal for March is to say my final good-byes to the 230s.

I am happy, healthy and I loooooooooove my lap-band :-)

Now that the infection and recovery from it lays behind me... I would still do it again! Even with the infection and all... the lap-band is sooooo worth it.

I hope all of you are doing great and I can't wait to read your blogs and let them inspire me.

Thanks for all your support and last but not least I would like to wish everyone a Happy 2010 ;-)

Port removal - It's done - Living without a port!

It's done... my port has been removed on Friday morning. My surgery was scheduled for 7:15 am and I had to be there at 5:15 am, way too early for me... but this way I could not worry too much.

When we arrived at the hospital I had to follow the same procedure as for the initial lap-band surgery except that it took place on a different floor. Everybody was extremely nice, caring and professional. After I changed into the "sexy" surgery outfit they took my weight and the hospital scale displayed 254.5 lbs which made me extremely happy... but since I do not go by the hospital scale it does not mean that my scale at home will display the same weight. At any rate... it made me happy because in that very moment I was not an morbidly obese person :-)

I mentioned it already in my earlier postings that I have a severe needle-into-my-veins-phobia and during the last couple of days I had some horrible experiences. For the pre-surgery blood test I was sent to one of those diagnostics centers on Wednesday and met the rudest nurse EVER. She did not care, yelled at me and even insulted me because of my accent. No idea what her problem was. I surely hope that she does not have any children. Then on Friday at the hospital an anesthesiologist student was trying to put the IV needle in but couldn't do it. He tried 4 times at different locations but did not hit the vein. After that I was so frustrated that I asked for a "real" anesthesiologist to put in the IV because I couldn't take this try and miss the vein any longer. He put it in with the first try and it was not painful at all. However, my arms and wrists are all blue and green from all the trials.

Then everything went very fast, my surgeon arrived, my doctor arrived (no idea why he was there), my husband was called in and I tried to convince everyone that I do not need/want general anesthesia... the last time I felt so horrible that I did not want to go through all of it again. So they gave me propofol  instead and I knocked out and cannot remember much.

My surgeon took my port out... AND he managed for me to keep my restriction! YEAH!!!! So now I do not care how long this healing process will take because I still have my restriction.

Even though I wish that I had never gotten this infection in the first place, it was important for me that my surgeon found out what kind of an infection I have and since it is a staph infection (staphylococcus aureus) it was also important for me to have the port removed. Unfortunately the antibiotics will not work on the port (or any implant for that matter) and some surgeons believe that there is a  strong connection between infections and that they (if not treated 100%) may later lead to erosion of the band. This is not a chance I want to take.

Sorry, TMI... my surgeon did not close up the port area, so I am living with a hole at my belly button area until Tuesday. It is stuffed with gauze and I have to remove it 3 times a day and have to keep it wet with Saline. Not something that is very pleasant to do. But this way most part of the infection can leak out. It is not that bad especially since it is so much less painful than when the port was still inside.

I am feeling good, have no pain and most importantly I still have a restriction. No idea when the port will be put back in... but will definitely keep you informed.

Thank you very much for your positive words, motivation, encouragement... you are the best cheering squad anyone can have... you guys are the BEST!

Verdict: Infection! :-(

My worst fear has become a reality, I indeed have an infection.

During the next couple of days I will have to undergo all the pre-op procedures for clearance again and have my port removed. I do not know all the whens and whats yet but will keep you informed. All I know is that the port will be removed soon and that I may lose my restriction since it is complicated to clip the lap-band tubing.

Need to be sad for a couple of hours and digest the bad news.

This is a major set-back for me and I am really starting to think that some force does not want me to get slim and puts those nasty obstacles in my path.

I will show you who will be slim very soon! Nothing and nobody will stop me!!!