Tag: gastric bypass surgery


We All Fall Down

28
June

Saturday afternoon at about 4:30, my mother fell.  She’d been having more trouble walking lately, so it wasn’t really that surprising that she fell.  What was surprising was that no matter what we did, we couldn’t get her up off the ground.  Normally, she’s fairly easy to get back up off the floor.  This time, it seemed like everything that we were trying was failing.  We tried for the better part of about 7 hours on Saturday night and debated calling an ambulance.  At about 11:30, my parents decided that they needed to rest and that we would start again in the morning, which we did.

We realized on Sunday that it wasn’t going to be something that we could do on our own this time.  I had to get on my computer and look at the HEMSI website to get the non-emergency line, after my dad called a nurse for the insurance company that handles their Medicare Plus.  (He tried to get through on the insurance company’s line for about an hour, and he kept getting sent around to different people.)  He had tried to call HEMSI before I got the non-emergency line, from a number that was given to him by a local social services agency.  (That number was wrong.)

When HEMSI got here, they asked her if she wanted to go to the hospital or stay here.  My mom made some comments about wanting to stay here.  I told the paramedics that they needed to take her to the hospital.  She had some scrapes and carpet burns on her legs from the various attempts to get her up.  So, they took her to the hospital.  My dad followed behind a little while later.  (The paramedics told him to wait about 30 minutes before he came.)

I stayed home when he went to the ER after her.  Apparently, while he was there, he was treated like he’d viciously beaten and neglected her.  She told me that a social worker counted the bruises that she had on her, especially the ones in the shape of hand prints.  The social worker wanted her to tell her how she’d gotten them.  My mom told her that those were from the attempts to get her off the floor, which is true.  The social worker didn’t believe her.  The doctors and social worker asked my mom if she felt “safe” at home.  I understand why they felt the need to ask this, since my mother was heavily bruised and it had taken us so long to get her medical attention for this fall.  I also understand that they don’t know the full story and are just assuming that my mother is never taken care of or is harmed physically by her family.

The bruises that concerned them ranged from the size of the tips of my fingers to the size of a grapefruit.  They were all very dark purple.  These bruises were on her arms, her legs, her abdomen, and her chest.  (Her back had no bruises.) If the doctors and staff had noticed that my mom continued to bruise every time they assisted her, then I think that they might have been a little less judgmental.  By the time I saw her yesterday, she had additional bruises from where they’d attempted to give her an IV (one huge one at her elbow and one on her thumb, where they’d blown veins and put too much pressure on her) and where they’d put her blood pressure cuff.  Anywhere that she had the slightest bit of pressure applied, she had a new bruise.

The bruises look bad, but they are fairly normal for members of my mom’s side of the family.  Huge purple bruises that pop up for pretty much no reason are something that my great-grandmother (Mama) passed to my grandmother (Nana) and that Nana passed to my mom and that my mom passed to me.  They’re one of the lovely conditions that we all have had to deal with.  (We also have similar psychiatric issues, problems with vertigo/balance/tendency to fall, headaches, heavy periods/early menopause, reactions to most medications, etc.)  Each previous generation has had to explain to doctors that they haven’t been abused.  Hell, I had to deny being abused a few times when I had the old mattress that would cut and/or poke me during the night.

The doctors have run tests on her.  They said that her muscles had atrophied, thus the falling and being unable to get up.  They told her that the breakdown in her muscles had caused certain enzymes to be released that had taken a toll on her kidneys, heart, brain, etc.  (Remember how I was worried because she had gotten so incoherent?  Apparently, there was a reason.)   They’ve started her on physical therapy, which is great.  (I still don’t understand why the orthopedists never suggested physical therapy after she broke her ankles and was forced to stay off her feet for the better part of a year.)  They’re also trying to fix the issues that have occurred because of the breakdown.

I think that the nurses on the floor that she is currently on have figured out that the bruises aren’t from abuse.  I think they’ve also figured out that we do care about my mom very much and never intended to do anything bad/neglectful to her.  My only issue with the nurses on her floor is that they haven’t been taking care of the scrapes and carpet burns.  When my dad and I went yesterday, I wanted to see if they were improving or getting worse.  I was told (and then shown by my mom) that nothing had been done for these marks.  So, my mom had the tech bring her a pan of water with no-rinse soap in it so she could bathe.  (Normally a tech would be the one to help her bathe, but apparently that isn’t one of the tech on that floor’s duties.)  My dad and I helped her, and I helped clean the wounds.  My mom asked the nurse, after we were done, if she could have a bandage placed over any of them.  The nurse said that she might be able to get some Neosporin for them, but she wasn’t sure.  That annoyed me quite a bit.

Oh, the doctor told my mom that she was malnourished.  Apparently, she isn’t getting enough protein.  I think that’s probably true for every member of my family, since we all have various forms of anemia & deficiencies.  We’re going to have to change our diets, which is going to be difficult.  (Higher protein foods always seem to be a lot more expensive, which makes it a lot harder for us to buy them.)

Yesterday, my mom had said that she might get to come home today.  Today, though, the new day for her to come home is tomorrow.  I’m not surprised, since the discharge days always change.

Side note: My back is still hurting from trying to help my mom up this weekend.  (I hurt it about 30-45 minutes into the ordeal.)  I’ve been downing quite a few Tramadol and Flexeril since then.  Hopefully, the pain will lessen soon.  If not, I guess I’ll have to go get it checked out.

Comment » | Confessions, Family, Sickness and Health, So Damn Special

The Weighty Issues

22
March

We have all experienced some form of discrimination in our lives. I’ve learned, though, that people have this tendency to just accept certain forms as being okay, while they will be ready to “cut a bitch” on others. For example, in Jenn’s entry on weight discrimination, she had some fairly good points, but most people seized on the opportunity to tell her off because she made some generalizations. Oddly, in their comments, they generalized or, in so many words, accused some people of exaggerating what goes on in their lives.

For a little over 10 years now, I have been on a fairly constant stream of psychiatric medication. Now, while I was obese before taking the medicine, my weight skyrocketed on it. In the first year, I gained over 50 pounds. Later, I lost the weight after I had gastric bypass, only to start gaining again after certain medications were added into the mix. A combination of medication-induced hyperthyroidism, the removal of said medicine from my treatment, and the addition of a mood stabilizer [Depakote] at a dose that caused concern for everyone who saw it, except the psychiatrist, seemed to contribute to the regain. I kept telling the doctors that I was gaining weight because of medicine. No matter what doctor I saw, the doctor would say that the gain couldn’t possibly be related to the medicines. They would accuse me of being in denial of how much I was eating, much like this comment. Sometimes, I would doubt myself and think that they might just be right.

When I quit taking Risperdal a while back, I stopped gaining weight. A few times, I would lose the weight, except when I would be close to my period. In the past year, my weight has pretty much stabilized. I have taken 1 form of psychiatric medicine, Effexor, and I have stayed within a limited (20 pounds, which is my general weight gain amount prior to my periods) weight gain & loss range. My eating has stayed about the same, with me only eating more on very rare occasions. So, I would say that that would be fairly good evidence for the cause of the weight gain being related to my medicine and not me gorging on Ding-Dongs and Ho-Hos. (I’ve never had either, btw.)
And, as I pointed out in my response to Angel‘s comment regarding any possible studies linking a difference in treatment with weight, there actually has been at least one.  A group of Johns Hopkins researchers actually did a study that was reported on in ScienceDaily.  The study reported that, “In a group of 238 patients, each 10-unit increase in BMI was associated with a 14 percent higher prevalence of low patient respect.”  Now, this might just be something that applies to doctors, but I have a feeling that it might also apply to some people who work in non-medical fields.

I know that when I was at a skinnier weight, my mom had a sales person almost refuse to let her buy a pair of size 12 jeans for me because they could tell that my mother wasn’t that small.  This wasn’t at some high fashion store.  It was at Walmart in a state with an extremely high rate of obesity.  You would think there would be less judgment in a Walmart.  Of course, I’ve written about disrespect at Walmart, when my mom was pretty much laughed at because she asked for assistance and refused to get a wheelchair cart/scooter for her.  (I know that a lot of people have a bit of a preconceived notion about obese people who use scooters, but my mother didn’t have the strength in her ankle to walk and [a month later] had broken the other ankle because of the lack of strength in her bones.)

And for those who say that the cause of the difference of treatment is related to self-esteem, I must say this.  I hate that kind of statement.  People claim that low self-esteem leads to people being more disrespectful, which I think is shit.  I have a poor body image, but my self-esteem probably borders on too high sometimes.  While a person might hate the way that they look, it doesn’t mean that that person is suffering from some great amount of self-hatred.  A lot of us grew up learning that we are more than our outward being.  My shell may be ugly, but that doesn’t mean that I think I’m unworthy of respect.  And saying that a lack of self-respect might warrant a lack of respect from folks who work in retail is utter crap.  If a customer walks into your store, it is your job to be nice to them.  Even if you think they are ugly, smell bad, have bad hair, talk funny, etc., you are supposed to service them in the same way that you would service someone who is more to your liking.  You don’t get to pick and choose who you’re nice to.  As an employee at a retail store, you become the face of the company and you really do not want to represent the company as being snobbish.  Why? Blog entries could be written, tweets could be made, but more importantly, the business might lose (potential) repeat customers and you might lose your job.

None of us will ever know what any other person goes through on a daily basis.   None of us would really want to know it either.  We can’t walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, and we shouldn’t judge them based on their circumstances either.

Comment » | +internet friends, General, Internet, Mental Health, Purchases, Rants, Sickness and Health

30 Days of Truths: Day 1

8
March

Okay, I saw this on nimil’s blog, which she got from Jennfur, who apparently got it from Angel, who got it from somewhere. I think I might actually be able to do this one.

Day 1: Something you hate about yourself.

This answer really depends on the day. Some days I’ll hate my quick temper. Others I’ll hate how I have let so many people walk all over me. I think that I probably always hate my weight, so can I say that for today? My weight has been something that has pretty much always been an issue.

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That picture is from Easter of 1986, when I was 2 years old. My weight wasn’t really bad then. It started getting worse as the next year or so went by. My mom has always said that my weight sped up around the time I started opening the fridge. She said that I used to eat cheese like crazy as a kid, which I believe since it’s been something I’ve always felt compelled to do.

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That’s me at around 3. I know it’s from when I was 3, but I’m not sure at what point it was taken. And the next is when I was nearing 4.

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Those years were kind of hard ones for my family. At three, my mom and I were in a fairly serious car accident. I had a concussion, but my mom had what was basically a severely dislocated shoulder. She had to have surgery to rebuild her shoulder, and she couldn’t really do much in that time. A few months later, I had to go to the hospital for my asthma, and after that my weight started going higher and higher quite rapidly.

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By the time I was 7, I weighed way too much, but the doctors weren’t acting really concerned at this point. There was more concern over the control of my asthma and no medical professional suggested that I try to lose weight until around the time I was 10. My grandfather, of course, made the suggestions through his cruel comments.

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At 10, I started to a special weight loss program through Huntsville Hospital that was for tweens & teens (along with their parents). Once a week, we had to go to classes with other overweight & obese kids. We’d get weighed. I think that at that point, I was almost five feet tall and 175 pounds. While I was in the class, which lasted about 3 months, I lost less than 10 pounds and I was following the diets really well.

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My weight kept going up as the years passed. By the time I was 13, it was at about 225, with my height being about 5’3″. I was on my third or fourth type of diet through a registered dietitian by this time. My weight would go down 1 pound a week, then go up 2 the next.

y2kaftersk8 steph13th007

At sixteen, I was about to head into the hardest emotional time period I had ever gone through. I was already feeling severely limited by my weight. I had never dated, kissed anyone, etc. I thought I was horribly ugly and undeserving of any kind of positive attention. I was also at about 275 pounds and 5’5″ here. I would gain 50 pounds over the next 9 months, most of it within weeks of starting on a constantly increasing amount of psychiatric medicines (started with Paxil, then added Xanax and Zyprexa, and finally added Celexa). I was also a high school student when that picture was taken, and within about 6 months of the picture, I was a high school dropout.

At nineteen, I hit my highest weight (to that point), which was 341.3 pounds. I had gastric bypass surgery that year. I began to lose the weight. And by 22, I was at around 195-205 pounds.

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But a year later, I had already regained much of that weight back. And at 27, I hover between 330 and 345 pounds. (It’s different at every appointment.)

On My 27th birthday

Future Topics:
Day 2: Something you love about yourself.
Day 3: Something you have to forgive yourself for.
Day 4: Something you have to forgive someone for.
Day 5: Something you hope to do in your life.
Day 6: Something you hope you never have to do.
Day 7: Someone who has made your life worth living for.
Day 8: Someone who made your life hell, or treated you like shit.
Day 9: Someone you didn’t want to let go, but just drifted.
Day 10: Someone you need to let go, or wish you didn’t know.
Day 11: Something people seem to compliment you the most on.
Day 12: Something you never get compliments on.
Day 13: A band or artist that has gotten you through some tough ass days.
Day 14: A hero that has let you down.
Day 15: Something or someone you couldn’t live without, because you’ve tried living without it.
Day 16: Someone or something you definitely could live without.
Day 17: A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.
Day 18: Your views on gay marriage.
Day 19: What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics?
Day 20: Your views on drugs and alcohol.
Day 21: (scenario) Your best friend is in a car accident and you two got into a fight an hour before. What do you do?
Day 22: Something you wish you hadn’t done in your life.
Day 23: Something you wish you had done in your life.
Day 24: Make a playlist to someone, and explain why you chose all the songs.
Day 25: The reason you believe you’re still alive today.
Day 26: Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why?
Day 27: What’s the best thing going for you right now?
Day 28: What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do?
Day 29: Something you hope to change about yourself. And why.
Day 30: A letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself

3 comments » | 10 Years of Madness, 30 Days of Truth, Confessions, General, memes, Mental Health, Sickness and Health, Who I Was - Past

I Got Cultured

16
February

Well, the stuff in my navel did. I had a different doctor today, and he was a bit more interested in the stuff. First, he noticed that my BP was a bit on the high side (154/95; pulse: 128; last night it was 140/104; pulse: 130) and he checked my heart/lungs. Then, he pressed on my abdomen, which has gotten more and more tender. He didn’t try to swab or anything, but went to ask an attending and do some research. When he came back, he asked about my gastric bypass surgery. I told him that my navel had been one of the incisions back then (in 2003) and that it had also been an incision spot for my gallbladder surgery (in 1997). He said that the incision spots can sometimes develop ulcers even almost 10 years out. He did some more research and came back and had me lay back again. This time he approached it with one of the otoscopes and looked in it. He had to clean it some and tried again. He didn’t see anything, but could tell that it was an infection of my umbilicus. He went to consult with other doctors and they decided to get a culture of my navel.

If I have any kind of infection that can’t be treated by Bactroban, they’ll give me oral antibiotics. (He mentioned clindamycin.) He suggested that I not use anymore Q-tips because he thought that might have caused it. (Doubtful, since the Q-tip was used after the blood & stuff came out.)

I almost didn’t get seen today, because when I called the clinic, the receptionist had me schedule an appointment for tomorrow. My mom thought that was crap, so she called in and basically berated the woman until they found a spot for me for today. The woman said that my chart said that the doctor left a note in the chart saying I should come in tomorrow to see my regular doctor, which was crap. She kept claiming that I’d made the appointment on Monday, but my mom wasn’t having any of that. She got so intense that I think that everyone in the house (including Willow) was a bit afraid of her. (Mom’s convinced it is something bad and that I might die, which could be true, but isn’t necessarily.) I was a bit happy that she was here to do that for me, since I have trouble vocalizing things sometimes.

Comment » | Sickness and Health, So Damn Special

Walk On Sunshine and All That Stuff

5
December

I was walking and slipped on a piece of paper. Most people can step on things and not fall down, but not me. Gravity is not my friend. It never has been. Clumsiness is one of those things that runs in my family. My parents may not have expected to have a red-headed child, but they knew that they would have a clumsy one.

I didn’t completely fall, which should be a good thing. It wasn’t completely good, though. My already-hurt left knee popped backward into its hyper-extended state. This caused some discomfort at the time, and now I’m experiencing some pretty bad pain in it. I probably should ice it or something, but I want to wait just a little while longer. (I hate icing my joints when it’s still pretty cold outside.)

My mother and I went to Wal-Mart last night. It was the first time that we’d done that together since before she broke her right ankle. I walked through the store, which was a bit too much to do since the injury. She suggested that I do one of the cart things, but I never feel comfortable with those. She had to do the cart because when she’s up for more than a few minutes (without any kind of support) she tends to start falling. When she falls, she breaks bones. Apparently, this is what happens when you are over 50 and have a Vitamin D deficiency that’s pretty bad. So, the lesson to be learned from this is that we should all make sure not to lack Vitamin D in our diets, especially anyone who might not go out in the sun much (the nerdiest and red-headed among us) and those who’ve had weight loss surgery or health conditions that cause malnourishment issues.

Other than the clumsiness, I’ve been a little more dizzy lately and my ears have been roaring. Sometimes I feel like I have some pressure in my head around my ears, but not in them. (Like right behind and above them.) I call the pressure headaches, but they have no pain, so they’re not really headaches. I tend to describe a lot of odd things as headaches. Bad moods even get called headaches. It’s like my catchphrase. Kind of a dumb word for a catchphrase, though.

Ah, this week’s music charts, according to my last.fm profile.

Top 7/24 Artists

  1. Madonna
  2. Dream
  3. Charlotte Martin (tied for 2)
  4. Kelly Clarkson
  5. Christina Aguilera (tied for 4)
  6. 3OH!3 (also at 4)
  7. Dido
  8. The Donnas
  9. Semisonic
  10. No Doubt
  11. Death Cab for Cutie
  12. The Beatles
  13. Sarah McLachlan
  14. Michael Jackson
  15. Mandy Moore
  16. Kings of Leon
  17. Miranda Lambert
  18. Franz Ferdinand
  19. Regina Spektor
  20. The Killers
  21. Antonio Banderas and Madonna
  22. Jenny Owens Youngs
  23. Carrie Underwood
  24. Nicholas Hooper (every artists from #7 on was tied for #7)

Top 2 Songs (Only doing 2 because the rest are tied at 3 for being listened to once.)

  1. Dream – Pain
  2. 3OH!3 – Touchin On My

2 comments » | Family, Music Stuff, Sickness and Health, Top Artists, Top Songs

Gold Digger

22
September

My great and wonderful appointment today was pretty much a waste of time. I spent all night fasting, only to find out that I needed to pay $75 to the retail-ish (looked more like a store than a medical office) office before I could have a test done to find out if I even needed the surgery. The test is to see if my pouch has been stretched, which I know it hasn’t from the endoscopy done in 2009. The only part of the whole thing that is stretched is the stoma (the part that connects it to my intestines) and I don’t think that a capacity test could figure that out. If I couldn’t afford that, then I could pay $30 to see the nutritionist.

I found that funny because according to Medicare:

Medical nutrition therapy services are also covered for people with diabetes or renal disease when referred by a doctor. These services can be given by a registered dietitian or Medicare-approved nutrition professional and include a nutritional assessment and counseling to help you manage your diabetes or kidney disease.

How often is it covered?
Medicare covers three hours of one-on-one counseling services the first year, and two hours each year after that. If your condition, treatment, or diagnosis changes, you may be able to get more hours of treatment with a doctor’s referral. A doctor must prescribe these services and renew your referral yearly if continuing treatment is needed into another calendar year.

Who is covered?
People who have diabetes or renal disease (people who have kidney disease but aren’t on dialysis or haven’t had a kidney transplant, or for people who have kidney disease [but aren’t on dialysis]) with a doctor’s referral up to three years after a kidney transplant.

I haven’t been fully diagnosed with either, but I have been advised to tread lightly when it comes to my kidneys. I can’t have certain procedures done because I might end up with kidney failure. So, who knows?

Anyway, I can’t afford paying either of the charges, so either I’m not going to get the revision procedure or I’m not going to get it done by the doctor I had do the original surgery. Either way, I’m confused, hungry, and tired.

Comment » | Sickness and Health

Indirect Signature Required

14
September

I saw the family doctor yesterday. I really like her, and I’ve seen her before, so I’m pretty sure that she is competent. (My history with incompetent doctors causes my trust level to be almost nil these days.) She seemed concerned with the lump. She said the issue might be due to possible ulceration at the connections made during the gastric bypass surgery. (Isn’t that lovely?) She is sending me for an ultrasound for it tomorrow to make sure that if it isn’t an ulcer, then she finds out what it is.

Tomorrow is also the day that I will get my beloved laptop back, which is aggravatingly funny. Why? I was told on Friday it would be here Tuesday. Of course, the second person that I talked to this afternoon said that the shipping policy for Dell states plainly that it takes 7 to 10 days for a product to go from me to them and back to me. I knew that, but I also know that being told that it will be here one day and it not being here makes me a bit annoyed. When I get annoyed, I get annoying. Also, why would it take over a week for a computer to be delivered? If you use FedEx Express, then it should take 1 day (or less) to get to Houston, then another 1 day (or less) to get back to me. What honestly takes 5 days to repair. As far as I know, when my dad used to do hard drive installs and re-installs on our old Tandy computers, it took a very short period of time (between 15 minutes and a couple of hours, depending on the frustration level, cussing involved, etc.). I grew up having at least 1 computer in my house. Since I was 2 or 3, I’ve seen repair and upgrade jobs. It would only take a longer period if a product wasn’t in stock. I have a hard time believing that a 500 GB hard drive is that hard to find in Texas. Maybe 1 to 2 days, but 5? No. No! NO! This is a level of screwed up that even George Bush would marvel at.

Oh, sweet and nice doctor yesterday was shocked and amazed by yours truly’s über periods. I don’t really know why. Irregular and heavy periods are really not as uncommon as people think. So many people these days are either PCOS-ing or Endometriosis-y that I wouldn’t find it surprising that mega periods are affecting anyone. If you take into account my family history, my weight, my own health history, etc., then the idea that I would have a period that lasts around a month or more and is extremely heavy is not nearly as surprising as the idea that they’re shorter and lighter. I’m surprised that she didn’t call in some kind of hormone treatment or refer me to some OB/GYN that specializes in this kind of thing.

She did do one thing that was completely unexpected. She prescribed Polytrim eye drops. Admittedly, my eyes are itchy, but that is pretty much always true for me these days. They have some red marks in them, but that too is normal. It was a bit unusual when I went to the pharmacy yesterday to get my mom’s diabetes and blood pressure medicines and found out that those drops had been called in.

Comment » | Rants, Sickness and Health

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