4 Days Out

Mar 27, 2009

I am four days out from my surgery now so I thought I should post my experience before it becomes a blur.  Surgery was Monday afternoon, got out of the hospital on Wednesday and am writing this on Friday morning.  I feel remarkably good.  I have had no big complications.  I am on potassium because my in hospital labs came back low.  Hopefully I will be off of them soon.
On the Friday before my surgery I was convinced that I was going to die.  It sounds kind of funny now, but it wasn't then!  I stayed convinced of that until mid afternoon Sunday when I started focusing on the positives and the future.  I also had spent a pretty good amount of time in prayer and had others praying for me.
I arrived at the hospital early as requested and was taken back for surgery at about 1:15.  I'm not sure what time I went in or came out due to being on a "margarita" :-) at first and then the big guns after.  I was wheeled to my room at about 6 where my husband, daughter and friend were waiting.  My friend who has had a few surgeries commented on how coherent I was.  I don't know how because I was pushing the morphine button way more often than it was allowing me to have some.  My family watched me for a while and every time I would drift off to sleep someone would say something and it would wake me up and send my pulse racing so the nurse suggested that my family and friend go home.  They did and I mostly calmed down and slept.  I discovered that I didn't like the way the morphine made me feel so I took my last shot of that around midnight and didn't do anything else after that except for liquid tylenol, one dose a day.  I think that is part of the reason that I feel so good already.
I am really grateful for the Kaiser classes because I learned so much and pretty much knew what to expect.  The one experience that I did have and that wasn't mentioned in any of my classes and I haven't read about on here was on my second night in the hospital I had about six straight hours of anxiety attacks.  I have only had one other one about 10 years ago so it was pretty scary.  The one I had ten years ago was nothing compared to these in the hospital.  I'm still not sure what caused them but I talked to a great nurse (Misty) the next morning and she said that she has seen it before.  She reminded me that it has been a long time that I have been trying to have this surgery and so much of my time and energy has been focused on it and now it's over.  I think that makes sense!  I haven't had any issues with it since that night and I pray that I don't because it's extrememly uncomfortable and scary.  I think being cooped up in a small space with no fresh air played into it and another factor was that feeling of loss of control that comes with being in the hospital and at the mercy of all of the nurses and vitals checking.  Also, why do they insist upon cleaning the floors with a very loud machine in the middle of the night and pushing around carts that squeak.  HELLO, anyone heard of wd-40?
Anyway, it's over now and on to a new portion of this lifelong journey.  I already feel better and am looking forward to being a more active person with healthier habits!

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About Me
Victorville, CA
Location
23.6
BMI
RNY
Surgery
03/23/2009
Surgery Date
May 04, 2007
Member Since

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