paulajh75
Week in review
Nov 11, 2009
I am doing things backwards, which if you knew me, know real big surprise here.
Well the pre op surgery process went VERY fast and I had my surgery Nov 6, 2009! My "2nd" birthday. I prepared myself the week prior by drinking mostly protein shakes, eating a spoon full of creamy peanut butter, or eating a beef jerky when I felt hungry. One day I ate a small taco salad, without any chips or 'bowl', lettuce and meat basically and found myself MORE hungry than if I would have just had my protein shake! Go figure.
I use to work at one of our local hospitals that put you on a liquid and veggie only diet for 2 weeks prior to surgery, and now work at the other hospital where surgery is scheduled and was only required to be NPO at midnight. I also work with an eating disorder therapist/expert/life saver, and we split the difference.
This night before surgery I had the WORST sleep ever in my entire life! I was so anxious, I can't say I ever felt nervous, just ready. This entire process has been over 5 years in the making. I've been back and forth and forth and back in the surgery for wt loss wagon. Having my daughter and the dramatic events of her first 10 months have changed that. THAT blog's another day another site!
Anyway I had to be at the hospital by 7:00 am, but it was a 2 hour drive to get there. My wonderful Dad, took me there. I drove to his house the night before, so not being in my own bed the night before didn't help, and that 32 oz of water that I wanted before midnight didn't help either. LOL
So I get checked in, gowned, weighed - 316 day of surgery, down from the 324 I was October 23 preop physical. IV started... then the wait. I was so thankful that they did not tell me 'tentative time" or I would have crawled out of my skin. So when they tell you to bring a book or something to keep you occupied, do it. I tried to sleep, but was too anxious, I know I dozed, but nothing to write home about.
I think is was shortly after 10am on November 6, that I was hopping into a wheel chair to go to OR. The OR's really are cold when you get in there... but the lights will heat it up... at least I guess... I hopped up on the table, the nursing staff talked to me. The anethesiologist came in, talked to me about the "juice" he was giving me..... then i remember a nurse talking to anethesia guy Joel, about the circumstances of my daughter's medical problems, and how horrible that must be (they must of read my chart cuz I didn't say a word), and heard "Paula you're in recovery". Boy that was fast and I was OUT OF IT!
La la la la land. I know they used my weight for how much "juice to give me" but I didn't think I was ever gonna wake up.
I have NO idea what time I got to my room. I know the nurse that took care of me was Sue, but I haven't the slightest idea what she looks like. My pain was pretty intense, but I had a pain button to push. Everytime I did I felt like vomitting. After a few ice chips to moisten the worse cotton mouth I think I said "button, nausated". Sue figured out what I meant and got the pain meds switched. After that I was not afraid to push the button. Now morphine's my friend. They also had phentanol patch on me too. (over kill). I finally asked for the patch to come off...then I started to become more awake.
Being a nurse I know how important it is to cough, deep breath, and walk. Christin is my pm nurse for 12 hours. She was wonderful. I eventually unglued my eyes and was able to sit up. Not the best feeling in the world, but compaired to earlier pain, not the worse either. Walking didn't go so well. I was too light headed, but did stand up, move in place and repositioned myself. I think we did this 2 more times before walking was successful. But after that all was pretty okay.
One problem I did have was controlling my blood pressure after surgery. It would go through the roof and I'm not sure how many times i was given labatalol, but once the pain was under control that improved as well.
Oh yeah, I also had a hiatial hernia, Dr. Smith repaired "since I was in there."
Saturday, I continued to sleep a lot, and munch ice chips. About 4:30 am I went for a wheel chair ride to xray for a couple of xrays to make sure there were no leaks in my new stomach. If that went okay, then it was advanced diet!
I had a routine... eat ice chips, sip water, nap... get up to bathroom, then walk. I did it over and over. Some times I napped in chair, sometimes in bed.
My dad was there with me. I didn't say much, but just having him there in the room was helpful. The hospital was awesome to him as well. It was opening deer hunting season and the hospital is in a smaller rural area so they knew we were having hotel issues. They have 1 room with double bed... they only put 2 pts in it in emergencies... they gave me that room incase Dad could not get a hotel. Well there were some last minute cancelations so Dad got a hotel where he got much more rest than if he'd of staid with me, but the hospital was WONDERFUL.
Dad went back home Saturday afternoon and I continued on my routine of sip, eat, pee, walk, shower, sleep through discharge on Monday morning.
So now it's already Thursday.... I'm walking each day, outside when nice. In the hallways of my apartment building. Working on sips! Have resorted to my daughters sippy cup today, that's helping. I wonder if they make adult sippy cups? LOL
That's it for now. I have lots more to say, but I have to finish my bkfst.
