My Surgery Story!! :D

Aug 09, 2010

SO, I know that not a lot of people have heard my surgery story, so this will probably be long! First of all, thank you to everyone who prayed for me on my 10 day countdown and on their own. It really means a lot to me!!

I had a very good day/night before the surgery. I didn't have any feelings of panic about the surgery or any doubts. I also didn't feel like I had any anxiety about the surgery either. I did drink a whole bottle of magnesium citrate (laxative) and it took what I thought was a long time to work, so I was a little concerned that I was going to wake up in the morning and have to tell my surgeon that a whole bottle of laxative had no effect on me and that can't be good, lol... But, at 3:00 in the morning, it worked, and continued working every 10 minutes or so till my surgery! The unexpected blessing in this was that when my dad sent me a video message of himself wishing me well at 4:00 in the morning, I was awake to see it and wrote back, so he called me and we talked for like a half an hour. That was a real booster for my mood and my day!! :D

In the morning, I got up and at em with a shower, and 7 minutes of required scrubbing with the prescribed soap. It's pink and smells like rubbing alcohol, so refreshing, LOL... I got dressed in some loose and comfy clothes with not a lot of elastic, and we set out for the hospital. Chris dropped Ashley and me off and took Rachel to school. I kissed her goodbye and told her I love her. I started to tear up a little but I shook it off and kept going. I told Ashley, "This feels like leaving her at the airport for a trip or something..." But, I was good. I signed in, and had a seat. I found the nearest bathroom, important stuff!! I used the bathroom 3 times while we waited. I didn't feel anxious or stressed, I was in a good mood!

Finally, I was called to sign some paperworks. That was not a big deal, most of the paperwork was already signed in the drs office. And, then I was moved to another area to wait to be prepped. In the prepping area, they stripped me of all my worldly possessions and put me in a purple hospital gown with vents. It was made of paper. And, they put me in compression stockings and did some other stuff to me. My blood pressure was a little high and my heartbeat was a little rapid, so even though I was feeling relaxed, I was experiencing a bit of anxiety after all... They also weighed me, and I weighed in at 263.7, which means that I did meet my pre op goal of 50 pounds lost before surgery!! :D They gave me a heparin shot in my arm that stung LIKE CRAZY. That sucked!!

Once I was safely tucked in my bed and all heparined, they were calling me to go into the pre op area. The nurse said they must be running ahead because that was quick since I was scheduled for 1030 surgery and it was only around 9. They rolled me to a new place. The guy bent the rules and let Chris and Ashley wait with me since no one else in the room had any family with them at all. Turns out you usually only get 1 family person. I was doubly blessed. My nurse came in, we recognized her from one of our classes, so that was awesome! She told me I would have to leave my glasses with Chris and Ashley and some other surgery stuff that was probably important, but all I heard was that I would have to leave my glasses, lol...

Next came Dr. Takahashi, and Dr. Brennan the anesthesiologist. Dr. T is awesome and I knew that already! Dr. B was really great! I told them I was freaking out because the nurse said I couldn't take my glasses and I'm blind without them, and I wear them all the time, and If I take them off at the dentist, I have a major panic attack and are you sure I can't bring them with me?? They both agreed that it would not be a problem for me to have my glasses, and I was very relieved. Dr. T asked me what kind of surgery I was having and some other stuff (protocol!). Dr. B told me all kinds of anesthesia stuff and then asked me if I had any questions. I said, "I have a degree in theatre, and I am an actress, singer, and comedianne..." Dr. T interrupted and said, "So, you're going to be really dramatic about things??"

We all laughed and I said, "No... I just wanted to ask you to please be careful with my vocal chords because I really use them a lot and would be super devastated if anything happened to them..." Now, some anesthesiologists think a request like that is an insult or a really stupid thing for a patient to say, and from what I understand, it's always touchy when you bring something like that up... Dr. B was awesome!! He said that's not a problem at all, What I can do is use a smaller tube and be extra super careful when I'm working around your vocal chords, it will be great! I was so relieved and happy!! I really liked him and as you know I was pretty worried about not knowing who he would be!!

A few minutes later, they rolled me into the OR, I had a few moments amusement about the difference between what it's like on Greys Anatomy and what it's like in real life. And there I was in OR 14, one of 2 specific to Bariatric Surgeries only ORs at Torrance Memorial. I said, "Wow look at all the monitors!" The computer screens in there put Chris' office to shame, and that's saying a lot. There were at least 8 huge widescreen monitors hanging from the ceiling in a 360 degree view over the bed... They asked me to scooch over to the operating bed, which I did. I said, "Wow, you guys keep it bright in here!" Dr. B said, "Let me give you some medicine for that..." I didn't even have time to say, "Medicine for brightness?" and the next thing I knew I was being rubbed on the shoulders and told I did great, and that it was time to wake up...

It was done! I was groggy!!! I had some kind of squeeze ball in my left hand, didn't know what it was so I squeezed it. Turns out it was a JP Drain they had put in and squeezing it was not a good idea. My gown and whole bed had to be changed, lol... I was loopy and droopy and totally groggy, but I wasn't in pain... I just felt like I was floating between reality and where ever it was that I was... I knew I was supposed to be up and walking but that just wasn't a possibility for me, I was so groggy and dizzy, I couldn't even imagine it... I didn't get into my own room until around 5 something, I didn't even have the mental capacity to make a joke about having a reservation... I don't remember a lot about being in the recovery area, I was SUPER out of it... But, around 8ish, they got me standing up, and then I sat right back down and had to be given nausea medicine. Around midnight, I took a stroll about 1/4th of the distance they wanted me to walk, got dizzy and had to be wheelchaired back to my room. The next day, I asked them to take me off the pain pump because I had figured out by withholding the button that it was that medicine that was making me so dizzy and nauseous. They took me off it, to switch me to tylenol codeine. I asked for regular tylenol, I said I'm tired enough without taking codeine, and I need to get walking! So, tylenol it was. And, I was up and walking before I knew it!

The next day, I had my drain removed, my iv got infiltrated and had to be removed. (Avoid an infiltrated IV if you can, MAN THAT SUCKS!! My arm was hot and swollen for about 24 hours, it burned and was miserable. I still have a sore spot in my wrist from it. IVs should never hurt for more than a second or two, If it does, don't let them put anything else into it, if it is infiltrated, anything they put into it is going straight into a body area where it should not be!! Believe me when I say it's better to get stuck again than to deal with what I went through!!) My blood had to be drawn twice that day... My iron levels were low, as usual, so they had to be checked again before I came home. The guy said I had good veins like I had been pumping iron. I said I was pumping iron, it was just the ferrous sulfate kind. He thought that was really funny! It was a long and crazy day, but in the end I got to go home!!

And, that's my whole surgery story.

Huggles!!
~Sarah~

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