The best medicine of all

May 26, 2011

Post-Op Day 6

A brief update about today – I feel fantastic! I read on posts on the general VSG forum that some programs prescribe B12 after surgery to help boost energy depletion from the caloric drop, so I decided to pick some B12 strips that dissolve on the tongue.  It might be psychosomatic, but about 2 hours later I felt peppy for the first time since surgery! Might as well stick with it...

And now, back to the hospital:

After my delightful two-hour stay in the recovery room, they gave me what they termed a “floor dose” of morphine and off I was wheeled, bed and all up, down, around, until I heard the “Welcome to 4 North B!” and I was handed off to the unit nurse, Jamie. I had to perform a shimmy to transfer from the operating bed onto the room bed, and apparently they said that was a good sign that I could do it myself.

The rest of Friday is fuzzy, but I do remember doing a little shuffle walk down the corridor and back with one of the nurses – they REALLY want you to get up and moving as soon as possible after surgery. And since they are the ladies with the morphine, I was happy to keep them happy so they could keep me not unhappy. :)

Some of you have asked if laparoscopic surgery hurts.  Hell ya!  Whaddya think?

The first day the worst pain, bar none, is from the gas they insert into your abdomen during the surgery. It causes shoulder pain and stomach pain, and it really doesn’t start to clear until about 24-36 hours post-op. Suck it up and buzz every four hours for your morphine.

On the day of surgery, they wouldn’t give us anything to drink at all, so by the morning of day two, I was eager to go for my barium swallow test.

The barium swallow test is very important to check to make sure there are no leaks in the stomach after VSG surgery. Can you imagine drinking some water and having it dribble into places it’s not supposed to go?

As eager as I was, though, it was really gross. The stuff you have to drink – blech – and then stand there on this platform that jerks back and forth while they maneuver the x-ray. It was a gagsome experience, and I HIGHLY recommend asking the techs to let you suck on some ice to numb your taste buds before going for it.  I didn’t do this and had to have a bucket next to me during the entire test that I could spit into.

Happily, though, the test was good and I got the all clear to go to clear liquids (water, apple juice, cran cocktail and broth – my favourite) for the next 24 hours.

The rest of the hospital stay was fairly monotonous but here are some tips and highlights:
-    As soon as and whenever you get out of bed to use the bathroom, take the chance while you’re unhooked from the wall with your IV to walk the hallway. This will really speed healing and help with the gas pains.
-    Don’t bring a ton of stuff to the hospital, but it was nice having my own nightshirts, robe and sandals. Plus I brought one cheerfully coloured blankie from home, which really brightened up the bed – which you will spend a lot of time in.
-    Bring vaseline. Your lips get really dry in there.
-    Order the television. You won’t even have the energy to read.
-    You CAN bring your cell/smartphone – there is good reception and it’s cheaper than hooking up the room phone, but there is no wireless, so leave your laptop.

Initially Dr. Pace indicated that we would probably be in the hospital for two nights, but neither we, as the patients, nor the nurses felt that we were up for discharge at that time and Tracy (the other VSG patient) and I both stayed three nights.

Speaking of Tracy, I knew there was someone else slated to “get sleeved” on the same day as I was, but I didn’t know who it was. On my first night in the hospital, she stopped by my room during her first shuffle around to introduce herself and said that she already knew about me from my blog!

She had been doing some web searching about the surgery in the week prior and found my blog – how cool is that?

We spoke frequently throughout our hospital stay and will stay in touch forever, I expect – it was so awesome to have someone to share the experience with. 

I think Dr. Pace will be doing surgeries in twos from here on, so definitely try and meet your surgery buddy – it was an awesome support for me.

By the time we were released on Monday, we were more than ready to go. By then I had been off of the morphine for 24 hours and was only needing to take Adasol 30’s at night and some regular Tylenol in the day.

My BFF – who had been a regular visitor throughout my stay – was there to take me home. And while I felt every bump along the way, it was so good to finally be going home.

About an hour after I arrived, my son was dropped back after spending a great weekend staying with various friends. Honestly, every time I called him from the hospital, he seemed to be having too much fun to want to stop and talk to me, so I really didn’t think he missed me that much. No odds, I was just happy he was having a good time and being so well taken care of.

So when he spent the first hour at home clinging to my neck and telling me how much he loved me, well, I think that was the best medicine of all.

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