She warned me not to do the same.
I ignored her.
I mean, I get a curiosity from both my mom and dad; a fascination with surgery and medicine and all that jazz. I can't begin to recall how many medical shows we've watched with broken legs and parasites and benign tumors.
Heck, I even watch impacted ear wax removals and cyst popping on YouTube just to pass the time sometimes.
So, yeah! Why in the world wouldn't I look up a surgery I signed up for? How could I possibly not be more curious than ever?
I winced a lot more than usual. No number of medical shows would prepare me for watching something that is going to happen to me.
But, a few minutes in, the wincing stopped. Am I a little more aware of how much pain I will be in? Hell yeah! But, I'd prefer to know what to expect than to wake up surprised by how miserably sore I am and instantly regretful.
For those of you who are curious, here are the links to the two videos I watched:
Video #1
Video #2
However, if you are curious how it is performed, but too queasy to watch the videos, I'll do my best to explain what I saw in layman's terms (as I ain't no fancy schmancy doctor!)
The surgery is done laporoscopically. From what I could tell, there were four small incisions made in the abdomen (and honestly, watching the instruments pierce through was the hardest part for me.) They also inflate your abdominal cavity with gas. This lifts the skin up and out of the way so they have a clearer view of the organs they are working on.
In the second video, the surgeon actually used a surgical marker and measuring tape to mark important aspects of the stomach first. But, in both videos, it seems that the preparation is the longest part of the surgery. They must separate all the blood vessels and connective tissue between your stomach and your pancreas, liver and diaphragm. I don't know how heavy these patients were, but seeing how much fat surrounded their organs was a real eye opener. No wonder I'm so uncomfortable all the time! An assistant uses one small set of forceps to grab and move things in coordination with the surgeon, while the surgeon uses another pair of forceps and a small dissecting tool (I can't remember what it's called.) The dissecting tool looks like more forceps, but when they squeeze down, you see a little smoke come up and it splits the tissue without any loss of blood. I'm supposing it's cauterizing.
So, they sever all the connections and the blood vessels to the lower portion of your stomach, and that seems to be the most tedious part. In the second video, they found a hernia and fixed it with two sutures. They said it was important that the sutures were non-dissoluble so that scar tissue would form and close the hernia.
Then it came time for the actual gastrectomy.
A tapered tube about the width of your thumb - called a bougie - is inserted down the throat and into the stomach. The first video shows what the bougie looks like, but you can actually sort of see the bougie in the stomach of the second patient. This works as a guide for the size they want your stomach to be. Then, they use this tool that - in all honestly - looks a little like a small, metal flatiron - to separate your stomach. The tool makes six rows of staples and, smack down the middle of these six rows, it slices through the tissue of your stomach.
Just like that.
They continue this along the length of your stomach - it takes about three to three-and-a-half passes of the stapler before your stomach is completely severed.
In the second video, the doctor said that the top of the stomach is a common place for leaks to occur, so he sutured around the staples to ensure a tight, closed fit.
The first doctor used a little plastic baggie to remove the excess stomach - the second just pulled it out - but in both cases, the part of the stomach being removed is simply slipped out from a 1-2" incision in the bottom left of the abdomen - now a purplish color instead of the bright, pink color it used to be. (Watching it be pulled out of the incision was the other most disturbing part for me.)
Although neither video shows it, they did say that the gas is removed from the abdomen before the incisions are glued closed and bandaged.
Quite honestly - I'm glad I watched it. It answered a lot of questions and resolved a lot of curiosity for me. Plus, seeing it made it a little more tangible and a little less scary. It's very neat, quite blood free and incredibly clinical - nothing gory about it at all, which somehow eased my mind a bit.
I think, seeing how my new stomach will look also REALLY pushes home the point that I have to be good to it. I have to take things slowly. I have to be patient. I can't ignore the puree foods and the soft foods stages. The poor thing will go through a lot during this procedure and recovery, and I need to be kind to it.
If you are considering the Sleeve Gastrectomy, or have already signed up, or maybe even already had it - I hope this helps to ease some of your questions.
Please be kind.
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