MaeFB
Five days post-op!
May 11, 2009
So, I didn't check my weight the day I got home... (Saturday) I heard a lot of people gain weight in the hospital, so I didn't bother. I have checked yesterday and today, and goodbye to that water weight, I'm losing now! 244. Once I'm under 240, it will be the lowest I've been since high school.I'm going to give you a blow-by-blow of the hospital stay at Newton-Wellesley. (Until I get bored. Hahah.)
My surgery was at 7:50 in the morning, but I guess I was to be all prepped by 7:30.
I arrived at 6:00 with my mother and grandmother, and was called in by 6:30.
The nurse there had me go to the bathroom and change out of my clothes... (Yes, EVERYTHING COMES OFF) and into one gown. Since one gown does NOT cover my back end, I got into bed immediately.
Then was time for the anesthesia IV, which only had a sedative at the time. (Joy of joys, my tiny veins, now also dehydrated, put up a fight. And my fear of needles left me near tears.)
After that was hooked up, I got to see my surgeon. He laughed, my mother was more scared than I was!
After that, it's all a blur. I was wheeled into the OR, I had to slide onto a different bed, and they knocked me out. That was that!
Waking up was... I'm sorry, it hurt. They woke me up early on... (I honestly think it was before I left the OR, but I'm fuzzy on the details.) I was sure I'd never get back to sleep with that pain, but sleep I did.
Until 12:30 when they brought me up to my room. I was trying to look alert, so I was sitting and smiling, and talking. Apparently I pulled it off, because the nurse said 'They're never that alert when they come up' to my mother as I passed.
Then came the point where the very nice nurse... I swear... tried to torture me. She had me rol onto my right side, then my left. I literally COULD NOT BREATHE for the pain, but then I was righted, and in tears, and pressed my pain pump button. All was well, and Julie really was nice afterward.
The rest of Thursday is a blur. I slept for HOURS. My mom and grandmother stayed, then left, then returned. My two best friends came by, and I was so zonked they left not long afterward.
Every hour someone came in to check my blood pressure and temperature and O2 stats. At first it was nice to see a friendly face and to talk to someone, by two in the morning I wanted to strangle them. I barely slept all night. This was not helped by the fact that my roommate, who had a different surgery, was in pain and cried all night.
Then came the Protonix, the antacid, sometime in the middle of the night. I nearly cried, it BURNED, okay? BURNED. The nurse said it shouldn't, but ignored it. I continued pressing the pump button all night, but I was still extremely sore, and my wrist and hand burned all night...
Friday morning, it turned out that the IV had infiltrated, and the medicine I was supposed to be getting in my BODY was actually only travelling into my hand and arm. (Both of which were swollen) They had to re-set the IV (what a fiasco) in my left hand finally. From this point forward, I almost didn't MOVE my left hand. I was too scared of causing it to 'infiltrate' again.
Friday also passed in a blur. My mom came by, then my dad, and I slept most of the time. I was walking, I had been since Thursday.
The occupational therapist had me sit on the toilet to see if it was pain free. (It was.) As I was getting back into bed, however, the second most painful part of my stay happened. I stepped. on. the. catheter. Holy hell, I thought I was dying.
So when Dr. Partridge came in that night and said 'if you can sit on the toilet, we can take the catheter out', I wanted to kiss her. After that, I moved around a lot, and by Saturday I had cabin fever. I walked all morning, barely sat down, visited another gastric bypass patient I knew would be there... (We'd met during the blended diet review session) And talked to all of the nurses. My IV was removed, and I took the Dilaudid by mouth.
Then my grandmother and mother arrived right after Dr. Partridge gave me the okay to leave, and the nurse to remove the drain in my stomach arrived.
...This hurt. Not a lot, but it stung. It only lasted probably one second or so, though, so it was okay in the end. I never napped on Saturday in the hospital, I was so wired to leave.
And that was that. My hospital stay in a nutshell.
~MaeMae~
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About Me
Townsend, MA
Location
24.8
BMI
Surgery
05/07/2009
Surgery Date
Nov 08, 2008
Member Since
