Sucessful surgery on 9/12/11

Sep 16, 2011

I had my DS on Monday the 12th.  I arrived at the at St. Mary's at 10:30 for a surgery scheduled at 12:30.  They quickly had me in a gown, gave me a pill that prevents nausea which takes a while for the body to absorb.  Then I received my IV, which went really well.  They numbed my hand first, that just stung a little and then she had it in on the 1st try.  Amazing to me since I got poked 4 times last time I had a blood draw cause the nurse couldn't find a vein.  The surgery before mine was running a little behind, so I was taken back to the operating room at about 1:30.   All went well, surgery lasted about 4 hours.  Then I spent 2 hours in the recovery room coming out of anesthesia.  The next thing I remember was being moved from the very uncomfortable bed that was hurting my back into a bed in my room.
The nurses were great at the hospital.  The bed was really annoying because it keeps adjusting on it's own, usually as soon as you get comfy, it moves again. 
I arrived in my room about 8:00pm.  I slept a lot, but kept waking up ever 10- 15 minutes all night, was told this is normal.  It was so weird because it would feel like I slept for a long time, but only 10 minutes would go by, it was a very long night. 
They got me up to walk at around midnight.  I made it out of my room, across the hall and got really dizzy and nauseous so we went back to my bed.  Then around 4 in the morning, I walked again, that time I made it out into the hall in a short circle around the elevators.  There were many people in checking my vitals, incisions, and making me get up to walk.  I had a nice pain pump that you could push every 10 minutes to get some more.  I was on that until the 1st night and part of Tuesday.  Then they switched me to a liquid pain med called Lortab.  It tastes awful, but it works well.  They also had me taking Valium to help with pain and a couple different meds for nausea. 
By Wednesday morning, I was doing really well, walking every few hours, getting in enough fluids and they released me by noon.  I was glad to be home, I think the worst part of the stay was the annoying hospital bed. 
All in all, the whole process went really well.  I'm so thankful there were no complications.  I think picking a great surgeon has a lot to do with why it went so well. Dr. Kemmeter is wonderful. 

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