last question for the night lol - after surgery

when you woke up from surgery in recovery..what were the first thoughts/feelings that you had. did it feel like you were hit by a bus, or was your pain somewhat allievated by the meds. were you scared and panicking when you woke up?

 i woke up and literally couldnt keep my eyes open. a couple hours later when i could focus, i had insane nausea and i vomited mucous 2x. (the nurse said cuz i live with people who smoke). they gave me a shot for the nausea and it went away completely. i kept drifting in and out of sleep and id wake up and be like omg surgery is soon..but then would realize it was over THANK GOD. the worse part was being awake when they wheel u in the OR...

I was groggy and dizzy and the first clear thought was "I gotta pee really bad" then I did....right into the cather and into the bag.  Was kinda strange just letting go like that then I passed right back out.

No panic or scare when I work up.  I wa**** with intense nauseating pain, but it went away real fast because they gave me something and I more or less slept for the next 4-5 hours off and on.  I came around later that day and was up waking by evening.  Yes, there is pain, but that's what pain medication is for, and I used it.  Even when I was released from the hospital, I used the pain medication prescribed at night, it was helpful. 

   I woke up inturbated , that was a freaky feeling. My surgeon wanted to make sure that I would now have any breathing problems post op , so He left the tube in. I woked up and tried to touch the tube and say take this thing outta Me. They thought I was going to try and pull the tube out myself so they restrained Me , that just made Me feel worse. They did it to protect Me because if you pull it out yourself you can damage your vocal cords and may not ever be able to talk again.

I remember waking up and asking the nurse if I was dead.  And I remember being annoyed but the oxygen but my arms felt too heavy to do anything about it.  I think I must have fell back to sleep after that.  I don't remember pain in recovery.  I remember being confused because my friend who works in recovery said that she would be there and she wasn't.  I kept asking for her.  It was a strange feeling overall.  

 I'm 8 years post op, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  I remember that I kept arching my back and felt terrible pain, so don't do that!  The pain was controlled by the morphine.  The thing that bothered me the most was the dry mouth.  All I wanted to do was brush my teeth to moisten my mouth.  I suggest having a CD that is calming for you to play once you wake up, that helped me a lot.  I think it was something that I had control over and knowing I had control over something helped calm my nerves.

Wishing you the best of luck on your journey!

Stephanie E

WHen I woke up I remember feeling like I had just run a marathon and was sweating and soooo thirsty.  They actually gave me an ice chip.  I was also itching out of control and dry heaving.  They continued to give me meds until that stopped.  The sweating was due to tha pain meds so it continued until the second day.  I had a fan on in my room and FROZE the nurses, etc.  WHen oneof my drain started leaking in the middle of the night, the nurse begged me to turn off the fan as she already had a sweatshirt on! :-)  I don't remember feeling pain, just tighness in my stomach.  I will say it hurt pretty bad and I screamed when then they ran in into a wall going into the room and I remember yelling when they went speeding over a creack in the floor!

I remember so little post op, I was just taken aback by the catheter. I didn't know I'd be getting one and it was uncomfortable. It's all I could think about. They actually gave me a dose of Morphine I think to shut me up, but I was quite irate when awake. I actually got the doctor to take it out.

Otherwise, I don't remember recovery at all, I only remember being in my room.

Before surgery I told the anestheseologist that I was terrified of waking up nauseous and completely out of it because that's how I was when I had my gall bladder out 1 1/2 years ago. He ended up giving me 4 different anti nausea meds to help and I must say they defintitely worked. I woke right up after surgery and didn't fell sick or anything. I knew that the main reason for doing my pre diet was to shrink my liver and would hopefully NOT have to have open RNY vs Lap. I did NOT want open. SO when they woke me up, the first thing I said was "was it laproscopic or open?" They said it was done laproscopically and I gave a thumbs up! I felt great!