August 24, 2017: Three month post-op visit

I should start with addressing two issues: first, this appointment was 12 weeks and 1 day post op for those of you paying attention to the dates. Secondly, the three month appointment really started 10 days earlier.

On August 14, I went to the lab to get my bloodwork done for my upcoming appointment. To help anyone going through this in the future, the phlebotomist took seven vials of blood and it took two arms to get this job done. The good news is that this is not a fasting blood test so I didn't get woozy or anything. I could list all of the blood tests they did, but highlights included a standard CBC, protein checks, B12, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and electrolytes.

Between August 14 and August 24, I got to see my blood tests come back using the MyChart feature Johns Hopkins provides to all patients. Everything was coming back beautiful.

Finally on August 24, I had my appointment which, thanks to nasty traffic, I was nearly late for.

I sat down with my Nurse Practitioner and discussed how the last three months had gone. I told her about a burning sensation I had under my ribs the previous week, but changing my diet and certain routines things had gotten better. She then told me that she thought the best idea was to re-prescribe Protonix, which I would have asked for if she hadn't brought it up. We began going over my average daily diet and I apologized for my diet sounding bland, but I had adjusted my diet to address that burning sensation, which I assumed to be heartburn. She said "I'm already giving you back your Protonix!" jokingly.

I am doing one thing bad: coffee. I was completely off the sauce prior to the surgery but I found coffee to be a helpful part of my daily routine at preventing constipation. I told her this and we addressed changing my constipation prevention routing. The new routine is:

• 1 colace 3 times a day
• 1 Senna at night (was 2)
• 1 serving of Metamucil at night (new)

Then we went over the bloodwork, which as I had seen was great. One deficiency was in Vitamin A, but it was minimal, so they are going to watch and see how it goes for the next three months.

Finally the surgeon came in and she did the standard pain check by touching my stomach, which went fine.

These post op appointments are so important no matter how far out you are. I think I would be hard pressed to find someone who skips an appointment so early, but there are people who just don't want to go to the doctor when they are feeling well. However, bariatric patients, for the most part, have been trained better than this.