1 week Post-op

Oct 27, 2009

 I figured today would be a good day to to tell everyone how my day of surgery went, hospital stay and the 2 days have been since my surgery.
10/21/09-  My surgery was scheduled for 12:10 p.m. and they wanted me there at 10:00.  I arrived at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and within 10 minutes had all of my paperwork done and was back getting prepped for surgery, Blood pressure, IV, weight (which was 425, lost 70 pounds in 3 months).  All of the people (nurses, anesthesiologist, etc...) all stopped by and were very nice.  Then my doctor, Dr. Ikramuddin, stopped in and we talked for about 5 minutes about why he decided to change the surgery to an open duodenal switch, instead of laproscopic.  It had to do with scarring from when my gall bladder was removed 3 years earlier.  I got wheeled into surgery at about 11:30, and the next thing I remember I was in recovery and it was about 7:00.  It took me quite awhile to come out of the anesthesia because they had trouble keeping my oxygen levels up.  When I woke up I had tube coming out of both nostrils, and the breathing tube down my throat.  My throat hurt, was dry, and I had a hard time breathing with everything in there, it also sucked not being able to communicate with the people, they then took out the breathing tube, which made it a little better.  They then took out the other tube out of my nose (not sure what it was for) leaving just the ng tube.  By about 8:30 I was in my room.  At about 4:00 a.m. they got me in a far more comfortable bed, and at about 9:00 a.m. I changed rooms, into a private room.

10/22/09-  This was a pretty non-eventful day managed by my pca pump (gotta love the morphine) every 10 minutes, if i remembered to hit the button.  The team of doctors stopped by twice and my doctor stopped by once to see how I was doing and to see the incision.  I was starting to feel a little better and they started getting me up walking.

10/23/09-  Another boring day, being asked constantly if I have had a bowel movement or was passing gas (when that happened the ng tube could come out and I could start drinking fluids.  That was unsuccessful for the day.  And more walking.

10/24/09-  Still no bm and not passing gas, thats when they decided to use some assistance, not a fan of it.  In about an hour and a half there was success and the ng tube was removed.  Much better, but still had to wait 8 hours before I could have a drink of water.  So at dinner time I finally got to have some fluids, not a lot though, the stomach was rumbling and filled quickly.  Finally had a little more freedom, was still sore (mainly in abdomen) but spent a good part of the day sitting in the chair.  I also had by laptop brought to me (wireless throughout whole hospital) and used that since i could sit in a chair.

10/25/09-  Drinking fluids and walking.  I noticed the biggest change so far in how I was feeling.  My IV started leaking so they decided just to remove it, and get me off the pca pump and onto liquid pain meds.  My team of doctors stopped by this morning saw I was doing well and said there was a chance I could go home that evening.  Well that didn't happen because when they stopped by that afternoon they said they wanted to see how I was doing with fluids another day.

10/26/09-  Feeling even better, very few pain meds for the day and I got to go home.  I left the hospital at about 12:30 p.m. and arrived home about 1:15-1:30.  Some of the city streets on the U of M campus are not the smoothest, so that hurt a little and I wish I would have taken some meds before I left.  Once I was home I pretty much took it easy the rest of the day.  The stairs at home didn't prove to be a problem.

10/27/09-  My sister-in-law left and flew back home this morning, I was feeling good.  I spent time on all three floors of my house (a lot of stairs), had a few visitors and also spent about an hour and a half outside standing talking with neighbors.

When I was in the hospital I gained about 12 pounds (437 at about day 3), fluid weight, but am now at 422 (-3 lbs from surgery day).  I am amazed at how I feel 1 week after surgery and hope thing keep going in a positive way moving forward.  I have my first post-op appointment on friday and being i'm taking very few pain meds I am able to drive to it and won't be in pain doing it.  

Talk to you all later,
Jeff

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