Home Sweet Home!!

Jun 24, 2011

6/24/11 -I am officially on the Loser's Bench!  Came home from the hospital yesterday.  For those that don't want the long read, my experience for the most part was excellent and went well.  Very minor pain and doing good!  For those that want all the gooshy details....

Here is my experience....

6/21/11 - Day of surgery.  Did not sleep at all the night before.  Figured I would get plenty of sleep post-op.  Left the house about 3:30 a.m. and got to the hospital about 15 mins early at a quarter to 6.  In fact doors were still locked and had to wait outside with a set of proud expecting parents that had come in to be induced that day.  When we finally got inside there was only one person doing admitting so I let the anxious couple go first.  Finally I got in there, but most of my stuff was already done in advance so had little to do.  She told me where to go.  Was sent to the ICU waiting room, but was not in ICU post-op so that was confusing, but only had to wait about 15 mins or so before others started coming in off the elevators.  Shortly after, a nurse with a clipboard comes around the corner and starts calling our names.  Was taken to OR prep area and they took vitals, did pregnancy test and had me change into my gown and tagged my bags and took them to recovery room.  They did my IV, gave me the blood thinner shot in my stomach. Then the anesthesiologist and his assistant came by, my surgeon came by, his head OR nurse came by.  Everyone was very nice and very caring.  I was more worried about the tiny 4-6 wk newborn in the area next to me that was coming in for surgery than I was for myself.  Bless his heart!  Not sure what he was having surgery for, but thought of him the whole time I was in the hospital!  Not sure what time it was when they came to get me to go to OR.  Didn't seem like long.  Got to OR and they strapped my arms to the table and we joked about how cold it was in there.  They had a part on one of their machines come off right as they moved it to get ready for surgery, so they had to fix that.  It must have either been an easy fix or they did so after I was out because the anesthesiologist was telling me he was going to give me one thing in my IV to make me relax and put a mask on my face for oxygen and then I would be asleep.  Pretty much as soon as he said that....I was.

Woke up to the recovery nurse in my face.  Couldn't tell you much of what she said or I said.  Just remember somewhat being taken through the halls to my room and them getting me to my bed and one nurse telling another to call the waiting room for my mom to come up.  I had a lot of gas pressure pain as they pump your gut with air to see inside of there.  That is the one and only time I asked for pain meds.  I did not know it until the second day they were giving me Toradol every 6 hrs or so, but it was mild pain reliever and was perfect for me as I HATE morphine!!  No side effects other than a little sleepy about 20 mins after they gave it to me.  Napped 30 mins or so then was fine.  I did not have the terrible ongoing gas issues after those first few hours.  I had gas, but somehow it moved around and was not greatly painful.  They had me up and walking around that evening.  The hardest part was still being groggy from surgery, but I made it.  Throat wasn't really sore from surgery, but dry and dry lips.  CHAPSTICK CHAPSTICK CHAPSTICK  Oh and they also kept a heart/oxygen monitor on me and oxygen in my nose.

Day 2 Post-Op - Sleep came and went the first night had more problems getting comfortable.  Very little pain from surgery.  Got up and walked a few times but got nauseous. Hit the nurse button and they told me they would tell my nurse, but she never came.  I hit the nurse call button several times and each time I could hear them turn the button off.  An hour and a half later my nurse came in with my scheuled meds and I was on the side of the bed w/a cold rag on my face bent over the table.  She asked if I was ok and I firmly said that I was NOT ok.  She said I should have called for her and I loudly said I had been for the past hour and a half.  She said it couldn't have been that long because she had seen me walking in the hall and I said I was walking in the hall right after my husband called me from overseas and just then looked on my phone and said exactly what time that was.  She didn't have her facts straight.  She came back later with some story about her pager not working and that she had gotten a new pager.  I told her that was funny because someone answered the first time and it was turned off each time after.  The next morning the day nurse was back and asked if my bed was turned on and I am like "What?" and she said well they said you had an incident with the call button not working and so she was looking around and said that one was loose.  I said well SOMEONE answered it, NO EXCUSES.

Day 2 went well.  No more nausea very little pain.  They took out my catheter.  I walked quite a bit.  They took me down to X-Ray and had me swallow a clear liquid and took pictures as it went down.  I was supposed to drink the barium stuff next, but when he realized I wouldn't be able to do both he didn't have me do it.  He said the pics looked good and showed what they needed.  I was ok'd to have 30 cc's of either lemonade or broth every hour, had to breathe into the volumizer each hour ten times and they wanted to see you walk up and down the hall 4-6 times a day.  I did more walking than that.  Mostly because my back and shoulders were sore from using them to get in/out of bed and it was better than lying in bed.  I had my routine...  Save my drink until after the volumizer.  Throat still dry from surgery and sucking in that air makes it dryer.  Walk right after.  That helped the liquid move down and prevented gas and then came back and sat on bed or laid down.  About midday was able to take a shower.  They locked up my IV and covered it with a bag and let me shower.  Loved the hot water on my sore back muscles!  After the shower they said they would leave the IV off since I was tolerating the liquids, but would keep the needle in in case I needed meds through it.

Day 3 even less soreness.  Got to get up and shower and go home!!  Slept better the night before. 

Ride home went well and got home and sat on couch.  Kids wanted me to watch Open Season 2 with them and that was a mistake.  IT HURTS TO LAUGH!!  ha ha  Lucky for me, I dozed in and out through most of it.  It took me from noon until ??? to drink one 11 oz Premier shake and then drank water the rest of the night and through the night.

Today I started early thinking I could get in more than one shake, but I could not.  Fealt full as a tic most of the day sipping on the one.  Been drinking water since.  Not going to push it.  I knowit will come in time.  Weighed myself this morning and have lost almost 15 lbs since my pre-op apt. 6/8.  My feet and ankles are the skinniest I have seen them in a long time!  I have been peeing off all the water retention.  Problem tonight is crumbles from multi vit are stuck in my throat giving me the coughs.  Sips of water isn't taking care of it.    I suck on my multi vits so don't have big chunks that didnt' get chewed up good enough.  Just tiny granules sticking.  UGH!  But if that is the worst of the problems I can handle that.  I have been blessed so far with a good experience.  I pray it continues for eternity for me and my experience with WLS.

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