January 2015
Weight – 15 stone 5 pounds (98.6 kg)
Total loss – 10 stone 6 pounds (63.9 kg)
Since my last post I have had a bit of a nightmare. Remember I told you about the bad reaction I sometimes get to certain foods? Well, it turns out I had gallstones. Unfortunately, I spent Christmas eve in Cardiff hospital on lots of painkillers until I was allowed to go home Christmas morning. I can honestly say I had not experienced pain like it before and it was very, very frightening. More so because I had had such a significant surgery and I was worried something was wrong. I then found out that gallstones are a very a common post-operative issue and 70% of patients get them. I was referred for surgery to have my gallbladder removed and luckily I didn’t have to wait too long. The operation was scheduled for April 2nd. During the wait I had a couple of pain attacks but at least I knew the cause. It was an unwelcome side effect but I was just glad it was a fairly straightforward procedure.
In January I also had an appointment with the dietician and the bariatric surgeon at Homerton and they were both very happy with my progress and weight loss. I was only in there for 20 minutes, a long trip for such a short time but necessary. They asked me about my diet and if I was having any problems to which I told them I seemed to be ok and was adapting well. Amongst the obvious concerns about having such a huge surgery, my mum’s other concern was my love of cooking and food and how I was going to cope with this after the operation. I can honestly say that I actually love cooking more than I did before and of course I still absolutely LOVE FOOD!!! I enjoy adapting recipes and buying new ingredients I’ve never tried before. Tony and I have never eaten so well.
I’m afraid at this point I have some bad news. After my birthday, turning the big 4.0 and a visit home to Wales, 2 days before my operation to have my gallbladder removed, I lost my longest and very best friend in a terrible accident. I won’t go into detail but as you can imagine it was an incredibly difficult time. I did go ahead with the operation as my friend would have told me to and I had enough time to recover before travelling back to Wales for the funeral. Unfortunately things got a bit worse. 2 weeks after the operation and 5 days before the funeral I woke up in the most incredible pain I have ever felt in my whole life. Honestly, it was worse than the gallstones. It was shooting up my right side to my shoulder and I literally could not breathe. I screamed for Tony and told him I thought I was going to die and to call an ambulance. I was so scared, but the pain even stopped the tears. Of course, I was not actually dying, but can you believe it? I now had kidney stones which were passing through. If any of you have ever had kidney stones you will understand how much pain they cause. I found out that again, this was another post-op issue that effects some patients. I spent 4 nights in hospital hooked up to painkillers until eventually the pain subsided and I was able to leave. The whole time I was panicking that I would miss my friend’s funeral but fortunately I made it just in time.
Though this was an incredibly difficult time I was doing well at university and looking forward to the future. Next time I will tell you about the next stage, plastic surgery!
Thank you for reading my blog, see you next time.
Claire x
mybigfatsurgerydiary 