What did they do to you?

I've had some people ask me "What did they do to you?" So I thought I'd share a drawing that my surgeon, Dr. Stephen McNatt, drew for me at my pre-op appointment on January 6th.

This first drawing is of a normal digestive system. The big part there is my stomach, and you can see where he wrote Liver and Pancreas (that's the point where they are attached to your intestines and deliver all their goods that we need.)



This is a picture of my NEW POUCH. You can see that they made a small pouch out of the upper part of my stomach. The rest of my stomach is still in there, it still makes digestive juices and things that aid digestion. They pulled up a lower part of my small intestine, and you can see the arrow at the pouch indicates where my new pouch was connected at that point. (The little thing that looked to me like a mouse attached to the end of a piccolo was the drain. They took that out on Friday, didn't hurt.) You can see by this illustration that my stomach and intestinal track now resemble a "Y"; hence the name "Roux en Y" Gastric Bypass.


I hope this was a little informative. I refer to these drawings quite often these days, and I'm still in awe of how God has made our bodies to be so resilient!

Every day is not rainbows and butterflies :o) but I'm doing great! Today I made the decision not to take any pain meds, and I've done well. Only 1 more day of full liquids, then I get to venture into the Pureed Food stage for several weeks.