Aurah

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Well I'm back from seeing Dr L on the 15th of May. I decided to make it a shopping trip and invited a girlfriend to go along with me. We went down for 5 days and shopped, visited the zoo, and shopped some more! lol I finally found those Dark Cocoa Almonds made by Emerald! Woot! And they were on sale at Kroeger and the cashier also had a coupon for me. Nice! I spent each evening soaking in the whirlpool at the Drury Inn. Perfect ending to each shopping day! I was going to make that my one and only trip down to see Dr L but I think I want to go back one more time. Not just for the shopping, although I dont need much of an excuse to go down there for that! :D Dr L said my weight loss was above average (134 pounds in 8 months) and that he would be concerned if my bloodwork wasnt so good. Well, good except that Im low on iron, but I can correct that with my current amount of iron intake. Also, I am low on Vitamin D and Dr L wrote me a prescription for Vit D to take on top of what I am taking now. I did forget to ask for a copy of my bloodwork. Dang it. Have to have Julie fax it to me.
Lately I have been having a weird tight sensation near my incision line when I am lying down and have to cough or sneeze. I was worried that I was starting a hernia. Dr L checked me out and YEP, thats what it is. He said its nothing to be concerned about right now, and that I can do excercises still but he wants to keep an eye on it.  Sooo, I made an appointment for September 18th, 2009, which will be one day after my surgiversary. But I may have to change the date as I have another girlfriend coming down with me in September and were not sure if her hubby has that particular weekend off to watch the kids. Either way its good, but it would be nice to get weighed one day off my year out though.
I'm looking forward to September and more Michigan shopping!

Wow, I am in shock about Diane (Need2lose). I heard that she had passed away a few days ago from complications from the surgery. I just cant believe it.  I cant stop thinking about her and what her poor family is going through right now. I cant stop thinking about how we communicated so often via OH and messages about our fight for OHIP approval and the application process. It seems like yesterday. How could this have happened? The doctors told her that she was coughing up blood because her stomach was so empty? Like WHAT!? That doctor should have his head examined and his license reviewed! You will be sadly missed Diane. You touched so many lives and hearts. May you find peace my friend.

I did it!! I am now down 100 pounds!! Love it! I feel so good too!
Now just another 60 to 80 pounds and I'll be where I want to be!
I LOVE MY DS!!

Wow, its been awhile since Ive blogged! Time flies!! I am now 5 months out from surgery and down 96 pounds! 4 more to go to hit the century club marker!
Well, my infection has finally cleared. Christmas was the last day that I had any packing in my wound. The skin closed and seemed to be totally healed. Just for the heck of it I guess it decided it wasnt done and it opened one last time to get rid of the last remaining gunck. Took about another month for it to be totally healed. I returned to work for the first week of February and havent looked back. :) I do miss seeing the nurses everyday though. They were all so nice and I would consider them friends. Anyways, I was off for a total of 5 months and I actually am enjoying being back at work. I like being back into a routine. It's also excelerated my losing again. Guess cause Im up moving around a lot more than I would be if I were at home. My Mum had bought me all new clothing for xmas and it all had fix perfect. Well, now they are already starting to fall off of me. I really need to take some up to date pics and post them here.
So I'm off to see Dr L for my first and only follow up appointment in May. I didnt do the 3 months follow up due to the fact that I will not drive long distances in winter. Had a bad accident many years back and I dont care to relive that. I'm bringing a girlfriend with me this time so we can spend some extra time down there shopping and site seeing. We already have plans to visit the Detroit Zoo, a show and many, many, many malls! LOL  We'll be staying at the Drury from May 13th to 18th. If anyone is down there at the same time let me know! :)
Cheers!
Trish

Wellllllllll once again I have ANOTHER infection. This time it is between my two wounds under the incision. It started about 4 days ago. I felt a little tender the first day and by the second day it was very noticable. Huge round bump in the middle of my stomach that is red, HOT and sore! So my nurse urged me to visit the emerg again, and I did. This time I was seen in under an hour and I didnt have to go into Ottawa. The Dr put me on Antibiotics again. But they dont seem to be doing much. Tonight my nurse noticed that the incision line looks more transparent and looks like there is infection right, right behind it. She thinks it should be cut open and drained. Well I am off to see my doctor tomorrow at her walk-in in the afternoon. I will get her to look at it then. My nurse also wrote a note to my Dr asking her to refer me to a specific surgeon here in Carleton Place. That way my nurse can take a more proactive action in treating my wounds, as she would like to rinse them out with half saline and half poroxcide. But my Dr doesnt ever seem to call the nurse back so we've decided to get another Dr to look after me.
So fingers crossed that this infection goes away fast!

Wow! October 7th already!
Summer is over already. Dang it sure didnt feel like a summer did it?! Was a cold summer. And now they are saying that our winter is going to be a really cold one as well with lots of snow. *sigh*

Anyways....Ive had my surgery :) Yes I know Ive been slow in posting since then. But I havent been doing much except sleeping and forcing myself to eat.
So I had my surgery on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008. All went well. I vaguely waking up in ICU looking at a hunk of a nurse! lol I also have foggy memories of Dr L removing the tube down my nose or throat. Thank goodness I was mostly out of it for that.
The next day I was sent up to the 7th floor. Boy did I love my pain meds pump! LOL I pretty much just slept for the first 2 days. Dont remember much from that time. Started coming out of my haze around the 3rd day. Man I had a hard time focusing on anything. I hate that feeling. Had a wonderful Nurse, Sofie, who originates from Montreal. She kept Erin and I under her wing and made sure we had what ever we wanted.
Dr L removed my drains the day prior to my release from hospital. And the nurse also took out my IV in my neck. Thank goodness, because that IV kept alarming every 5 minutes. I gotta tell you the drugs they give you are great for pain, but they gave me hallucinations. I knew it was the drugs, but each night I kept hearing the IV machines talking LMAO. They were only saying things in a sighing manner, saying yessss.. and... noooooo. Really creepy. I was sooo ready to be released on the Sunday.
My parents and I stayed at the Homestead Suites for the next week. They kept me busy and took me out everyday. Somedays I didnt feel like it, but after actually getting outside I felt great. We went shopping at Walmart, Target, Meijers, and Halloween USA :D I was able to pick up some soy crisps (garlic and parmesan) at Meijers. I tried finding the emerald cocoa almonds, but they didnt have that flavour :( I got some nice halloween decorations for the front lawn. Only thing is I'm not sure if I will be up to doing anything for this year. We'll see I guess.
So, I had my staples out on the 26th. It didnt hurt at all really. I was expecting it to hurt mucho. Turned out that the staples near my belly button hadnt helld my incision line very well and he decided to add more stitches. 3 more. He also left the last staple in my belly button. He also decided that I didnt need anything for the pain while he was resewing me up. Dang now that hurt!!
So all was going well. I got home and spent the week feeling better and better. Finally was able to turn on my side to sleep. Then last Saturday morning I got up to go to the bathroom, felt something on my belly, looked in the mirror to see pinkish coloured fluid pouring down my belly.
My hubby took me to the local Hospital. We spent 6 hours there and they fianlly told us they were sending us to the Civic Hospital in Ottawa. The surgery dept was aware I was coming in. We got there and of course it was an extremely busy day. I finally got taken in and was seen by Dr Roy. She was sure that it was just an infection, but she wanted to be sure so she sent me for an ultrasound. 4 hours later I was back down in ER, and the place was so busy people were lined up along the hallway everywhere in ER. An hour or so later the next shift of surgeons came into ER looking for me. I cant remember his name, but the Dr, the resident and an intern came to look at me. They had me go into the plaster cast room to they could check me out. The Dr disappeared and the resident came in to tell me that we had missed him by 5 minutes. The Dr got called up for an emergency appendectomy. So after another couple of hours, he came down with his troupe and had a look at me. He was afraid that I had fistulas and therefore admitted me so I could have a CT scan. There were no rooms, so I slept in the Plaster Cast room that night. Talk about cold and uncomfy! In the moring they transfered me to the Observation Room. Wow, lots of people in there. They finally came in to give me the dye to drink for the scan. At 1:30 pm I went for the scan. The Tech was super nice. When she tried to inject the dye in my IV in my hand, the dye started going under my skin, not in my veins. Wholly Macheral, that hurt! My hand looked like a puff fish! She had to start another IV. 15 minutes later I was done. A little later I got a room. Talk about feeling like I was floating on a cloud!! Wow, that bed was soooooo much more comfy! They let me finally have food after going 2 days without. Nummy... had mashed potatoes and tea.
That night Dr Roy came by and said all was good. No Fistulas. Woot! So she and her wonderful resident (wish I had gotten her name. She was the first person who talked to me once I was in ER. Super nice lady!!) fixed me up. They opened my two wounds a little bit more, irrigated them and packed them. I was released the next day once Nursing home care was set up. I now have a nurse coming twice a day. They are so sweet. My usual nurse is sick now with streppe throat. Ouch. So I have have 4 different nurses filling in for her. Man it sucks having tape ripped off your skin twice a day. My skin blistering and peeling off with the tape now. My nurse today had ordered a cool thing to help me out. She got what looks like a corset. Its tape on one side and holes on the other. So you put one on each side and loop string through the holes and tie it up. So the corset tape stays on for a week or so and you can just open up the corset part, clean and change the packing and re-tie me up. No peeling tape everyday :)
Anyways so here I sit. From day to day, waiting for my nurses to visit to repack my two wounds. Not so much fun. My lower wound, which is the big one, is still infected. I am going to see my PCP this Thursday to get a swab done and get more antibiotics. The nurses guesstimate that I will have to be packed daily for at least another 6-8 weeks. Hopefully sooner if we can get the infection to go away.
Well, thats all for now. I'll try to check in soon.
Cheers!

Well dang... it's the end of August already!
I did end up going camping with the puppies and had a great time. The pups were awesome too. They learned to walk on a leash, as the kids took them about 10 times a day LOL.
My lil one, Tia, warned me of someone outside the other night at 5 am in the morning. She started growling and barking, so I looked out my window and sure enough, there was a young guy tiptoe'in away from my truck. I yelled and him and took off like a bat out of hell. He took some change out of the truck, but nothing else. I think he was in the process of checking out my CD stash, but got interrupted. I love my puppies!!

So today was my last day at work until I return after the surgery. I decided to take next week off to clean and organize the house. I leave for toronto Sept 9th for a work conference till the 11th. From there I will be going to stay with my Brother and his family in Hamilton, and then my parents will join me there on the 13th. We then leave for Michigan on the 14th and I have my pre-op appointment with Dr L on the 15th. The 16th I will be spending in the hotel room with my soon to be friend Magnesium Citrate LOL. And then finally, my surgery is at 7am on Sept 17th.

Supergirl messaged me a few days ago to tell me that she now has her surgery date on the 17th as well. How cool is that! We can be walking buddies :D

I have been starting to organize the things I will need to bring with me, so I had my prescriptions filled today. OUCH!!!!! $260 bucks for my nausea meds! That was a surprise. Thank goodness for Sunlife and getting 80% back. 

So I have taken the rest of this week off and combined with next week I have 1 1/2 week off yippee! I was to go camping this weekend till the middle of next week up at Achray in Algonquin Park then for the rest of the week camping in Mattawa for Voyageur Days.  But!! We got two adorable, loving, hyper Chihuahua puppies!! OMG!! They are sooo cute! They are 4 months old and just a bundle of energy. We got them last Friday and I have been up with them all night all weekend. Basically to make sure they arent peeing all over the place. We named them Tia and Indie (short for India). I am going to sign them up for dog training. Cant wait for that!  I plan on taking them everywhere I go, except Michigan LOL. Then I will have 1 to 2 months off with them after the surgery :D My cat Tahlia was so cute with them. Of course they were trying to bark at her, not knowing what she was. She just ignored them would come up to me (With both babies cowering in my arms) for a scratch.. and mid scratch she would look at them, hiss to show them whos boss, and then go back to loving my scratching LOL . I have a feeling that they will get along fine in a little while.

I can't believe its already the middle of July! Time certainly is flying by! I have done all of my testing that is required of my except my bloodwork. I'll plan on doing that when I get back from holidays, as it only takes a few days for my doctor to get the results.

 

SEPTEMBER 17th, 2008 AT 7:30 AM!!!

11 weeks exactly from today! It seems so far away, but time zips by so I'm sure it will be here before I know it. 
Turns out I will be heading to Mississauga the week prior to my surgery for a conference for work. So looks like I will be heading to the conference on the 9th of September till the 12th. Then I will get my brother to pick me up, and I will stay with him for the weekend, and my parents can drive down and pick me up there on the way to Michigan. That way I don't have to go all the way back to Ottawa, just to turn around and drive back past Toronto a day later. I wanted to visit my brother and his family on the way past them anyways, so this works out perfectly!

Well I had my Sleep Test follow up appointment with Dr Leech. Funny lady. Turns out I DO have mild sleep apnea. I will be doing my follow up sleep test for the Cpac machine on July 8th. Not looking forward to that. But it will be nice to have the machine so I can sleep better and not be so tired everyday. Only thing is due to the fact that I am going to have surgery, the Dr suggested I get the machine that automatically adjusts the pressure, as after surgery she see my need for the machine deminishing and therefore I will need smaller and smaller amounts of pressure. BUT OHIP does not cover the automatic Cpac machine. So, I will more than likely go for the normal machine. Either that or see if I can rent a machine. 
Will have to see what my options are.