Road Block #1

WARNING:  If you are eating or even thinking about eating – stop.  Do not read any further until you are satisfied that you will not vomit or retch.  The following post is filled with YUCKINESS!! 

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in several days.  Let’s just say I had a bit of a complication.  Ok, it wasn’t a bit – it was a BIG complication.  Evidently, being served a cocktail of anesthesia and pain meds with a side order of dehydration will cause severe,  extreme, unbearable constipation.  I told ya – YUCKY!  Turn back now – Last chance!! 

I’ve been reading up on this subject on the lapbandtalk.com forums, and found out that most other folks started stool softeners immediately following this surgery.  All the paperwork I received from the hospital and surgeon’s office stated in a casual way, that I could start stool softeners if I FELT constipated.  Every forum thread I read through kept stating “when you ingest nothing but liquids, you won’t have a bowel movement – dont’ worry!  It will happen when you start ingesting the mushies.”  Well, I was 8 days post-op before I FELT the need to go (and I even started my mushies a little early hoping it would help matters along).  By then…it was tooooo late. 

I tried every over the counter product known to Wal-Mart, Target, and Walgreens, and every home remedy suggested.  Nothing.  Well….there was something, but it didn’t want to go anywhere.  Just to give you an understanding of what all I tried in a 24 hour period:

2 doses of Milk of Magnesia

2 containers of applesauce

1/2 bowl warm oatmeal

8 oz warmed applejuice

8 oz orange juice

flax seed

4 benefiber packets

Citrucel – didn’t have Metamucil

walking, walking, walking

2 hot baths

dulcolax

16 oz warmed prune juice

Kleritea

2 suppositories

1 enema

NOTHING worked.  It was 11 days post-op, and I still hadn’t had a BM since the week before my surgery!  That’s almost 20 days!!  I kept hearing how common constipation was with this surgery, and how I shouldn’t really be expecting a BM since I was only consuming liquids.  WRONG!  When I finally went to the ER at 4am Saturday morning, the doctor told me that was a big, fat myth.  That even though I hadn’t been eating anything, I should still be having SOMETHING….maybe not as often, or even as productive as I’d like, but still….SOMETHING. 

They did an x-ray, and it showed a severe impaction.  They had to remove it……manually. 

OOUUUUUCHHHHHH!!!!!!!!  I’ve had 3 children – 2 of them were completely natural (not by choice, but because the epidural came too late), and I have NEVER, EVER, EVER been in so much pain!  I was screaming….I thought they were going to have to strap me down for a moment there.  By the time I left at 9:30am, I had lost 5 pounds and could barely walk out the door. 

Worse than the physical pain of the nurse’s fist being repeatedly shoved up my rectum – I was mortified!   But I felt even worse for the nurse doing the…..extraction.  She was so nice, and (God love her)  she tried to be gentle, but it just wasn’t helping.  I swear – if I have to take Benefiber, Metamucil, AND Citrucel 3 times a day for the rest of my life, I’ll do it – I promise!!!!  Just Please God, don’t ever let me endure that again!!!!!! 

The moral of my story – if you have a lapband surger – or any abdominal surgery for that matter – ask gross questions to your doctor, make sure you understand the risk of severe constipation or impaction, take the message boards and forums with a grain of salt, and take preventative measures BEFORE you feel you might have a problem!! 

And there you have it – the yucky, sucky story of my first road block with this surgery.  I know this journey is going to have bumps, and I’ll probably get a few bruises along the way.  But if I can make it out alive, I’ll be a healthier, happier person.  Or at least, that’s what I keep telling myself!

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~ by amyslapbandjournal on February 22, 2010.