My hospital Experience

Aug 07, 2009

I recently posted about my hospital experience on the RNY forum board and since I am too lazy to retype my experience I am going to copy and paste it here

So when I was pre-op I scoured this site looking for the hospital experience because I was so scared so now I am going to contribute my story to those of you coming up. Keep in mind I went to a enter of excellence and my surgeon was excellent so my story doesn't resemble too much the ones I have read.

I checked in to the hospital two hours early on Tuesday. As soon as I got there they did a pregnancy test (as I am of a child bearing age) and then took my vitals. My IV was inserted, and for someone who has never had one this seriously freaked me out, but it was not at all as bad as I expected. The time pretty well flew. I got asked about 20 times my name, birthdate, surgeons name, and procedure being done so there would be no question at all what was going on. Surgeon came in to meet me for any last minute questions and the anesthesiologist came in. Once they answered all my questions they directed my boyfriend to the waiting room and wheeled me off.

So the OR is really what I was afraid of. Not after but being knocked out and everything. They wheeled the bed up to this teeny tiny bed in the OR and had me scoot onto it. As soon as I did they began strapping down my arms but as soon as one was strapped down I was out. I remember nothing past that. Apparently they didn't want to warn me they put the drug in my IV which was fine with me because I didn't have that last minute anxiety.

I woke up in the recovery room and everything was foggy and the nurse asked how I was. I could tell I felt sore but i was kind of out of it. Not enough to not remember anything but definately didn't care lol. The nurse right away asked me if I wanted pain medicine and I said yes. Not necessarily because I needed it but I was afraid of going without it to be honest. Well me and narcotics don't mesh real well. Always have had an unstable relationship. About two hours after going to my room the nurse tried to help me sit up to go for a walk but I got real dizzy and nauseaous. I am pretty sure it was because of the pain medicine and not the anesthesia but i guess it could have been. I did have a cathetar but it was put in when I was asleep. As soon as I made it to the room they took it out and really i barely felt it.

So when I got up a few hours later to go to the restroom i looked in the mirror ad noticed blue dye running down the left side of my face lol. My surgeon does the leak test while you are on the table and asleep so they put the blue dye down a tube in your throat (kind of nice I didn't have to do that test a day or two later) but I was kind of funny looking with the blue dye that didn't come all the way off.

I did not have drainage tubes but  I did have a pain pump that wasn't taken out until today. Didn't hurt but the area where the small tubes went in were slightly sore until they were taken out. Really nothing painful happened at all after surgery. the most painful thing was burping for me because it makes you chest expand. I never had much gas pains. I could feel it rumbling before i burped but nothing too bad. I walked. The first day I really wasn't comfortable....I won't lie. But it got a lot better by the next day and then today I can get up and down by myself. Granted I am still sore but before I could barely pull myself up. Now I am in my own bed and getting out of it like a pro. Surgeon said I was progressing perfectly...faster than a lot of patients he sees but pretty close.

Other than the first time I didn't take anymore narcotics. I took liquid tylenol the same night (at the pressure of my nurse who did not believe I wasn't in any pain), and some liquid tylenol yesterday. No other pain medicine then that and I have been fine.

So even though everyone is different I hoped this helped a little bit. I was scared to death of the experience but it definately was not as bad as I thought...though I am not exactly eager to get back into the OR

If any of you have any questions please feel free to ask. The site has been my addiction before surgery and I just want to give back to the community

Oh yeah and the pre-surgery diet so far has been the worse. I can't even stomach the idea of putting food in me now lol. I was afraid to drink water when I was allowed too lol

0 Comments