Donna H.
Sleeved on Monday!
Aug 09, 2014
Monday was the big day for me. I went in at 6am in the morning for surgery at 8am. The prep went well, including starting the IV. It usually takes several nurses with 2 attempts each to place the IV. I have bad veins! This nurse hit it on the first try! I was calm most of the morning but felt panicky when they wheeled me into the OR. I was soon asleep, so I didn't have too much time to freak out. I woke up in recovery with intense chest pains. They hooked up a pain pump, but the nurse told me that the pain was likely from the gas and the meds would not relieve gas pains. She was right. I just had to bear through it until I could get up and walk. Shifting my position often did seem to help the pains.
I was moved to my room and my husband was there waiting. The surgeon said that my surgery went very well, with no complications or surprises. Not much else happened that day except for routine vitals by the NA, naps and sucking on ice chips. I went for my first walk around 8pm. I had to be cath'd twice that night due to an inability to urinate on my own. That's a common problem with surgery.
The next morning I had an upper GI done. It was pretty cool except for the drink - very disgusting. I was placed on a table that rotated me from lying down to standing up. I saw my new, tiny stomach! Very cool to watch the contrast flow through. The doctor said it looked good and I was taken back to my room. Once the test results were confirmed, I was given a protein shake to drink. It took me an hour just to drink 2 oz. For dinner, they brought me cream of mushroom soup (yuck) and Greek yogurt. The nurse disconnected my IV fluids and had me drink as much as possible (which wasn't much!) in order to help my bladder to start working again. I was told if I couldn't urinate on my own, I would stay another night. I ended up staying another night, but during the night, my bladder was back to normal, which meant I was going home the next day!
Recovery at home has been slow. I'm thankful for our recliner since I can't get comfortable in bed. Drinking fluids has been really hard the last couple of days. I still had pressure in my chest from gas/acid relux. Today is much better. The pressure is gone and I made my protein and liquid goals for the day. I have been walking and managed an quick errand to Target today. I stopped taking my pain meds Thursday night and don't have much pain. The incisions are tender, but not bad. So 5 days out, I'm starting to feel human again! Looking forward to eating real food again!
