PLennon
A Hard Days Night
Jan 29, 2010
Well, I did it! On Tuesday, January 19th, I finally had my surgery. I originally had a "call time" of 10am, but they called a couple of days prior and moved me to noon. Of course, the night before, I could have nothing by mouth, not even water past midnight, and I had to drink 8oz of magnesium citrate. Lemme tell ya, that stuff tastes like ASS! But, it did what it was supposed to do and by morning, I could whistle through my butt. I hadn't had such a case of dry-mouth in my life. It was absolutely painful. I was walking around with a water bottle, taking a mouthful and spitting it out into a cup just to lower the irritation. Even my tongue was chapped. Sitting in the waiting room listening for my name to go back to pre-op was maddening, but it finally happened. I went back and got into the lovely ass-presenting gown that they provided and lay on the gurney as different people came in and poked and prodded me, taking vitals, getting me hooked up to the IV so they could start running fluids into me and fitting me with several wrist bracelets just to make sure I remembered my name. I have to say, the staff at Celebration Health was very friendly and very efficient. They have this down to a science, truly. I met with the anesthesiologist, his assistant and his assistants assistant. Finally, Dr. Kim came in and asked if I had any questions for him, which I really didn't. I've been researching this for so long, I think I may be able to scrub in to a surgery myself. Dr. Kim is a very analytical man and doesn't seem to "get" humour. It's okay, he's a bloody genius!Several hours passed and they sent my friends in to see me one at a time, which was nice because I didn't want to leave things like my wedding band in the hands of anyone I didn't know. After a while, they finally came in to get me for surgery. As soon as I was wheeled into the operating theater, I got a glimpse of the "Da Vinci" machine, which is an amazing robotic device that they use for certain parts of the surgery. Immediately, they started moving me to the table. I asked if they could play any music and they said sure. Of course, I requested Beatles and soon, I heard the sound of what I think was "Get Back". I'm not really sure, because they put a mask over my mouth and nose and said "okay, take three deep breaths" and I was OUT!
When I woke up in recovery, of course my mouth was dry as the Sahara. They brought me some ice chips. I didn't feel any real pain, just a tightness and some discomfort. I had a new IV in my other hand that they must have put in after I was out. I was very groggy, but very happy that it was actually done! I was in recovery forever! They didn't have an available room to put me in. After a very long time, a nurse came and said they had a room for me. My friends said they would meet me up there. The only thing I needed was for someone to haul me up there. Seems the hospital bed I was lying in was the same one that I would be using in the room. They called transportation and then we waited...and waited...and waited. After about an hour and a half, someone FINALLY showed up to take me to my room. When we got there, my friends were there, looking half asleep. It was already almost 10 at night and they'd been waiting since noon. I have amazingly tolerant and loving friends. They're actually more of a family to me than anything.
They hooked me up to IV fluids and also to a Morphine pump that I could hit every 6 minutes for pain relief. I have to say, it didn't really do much. I had thought that I'd only be in hospital for 24 hours, but they informed me that RNY patients now do a minimum of 48 hours. That first night....well, it was a nightmare! The pain I was feeling was absolutely excrutiating. The morphine did nothing. The problem was, not only was I having pain from the surgery, but my back was in total spasm and never let up. They moved me from the bed to a reclining chair. That didn't do much either. I just couldn't get comfortable. So, the first night, I didn't sleep at all. The next day, they took me off the morphine pump and put me on the liquid Lortab, which is essentially the same as Vicodin. It must have been a very low dosage, because with that, even in combo with my Xanax that they brought me, I was still having horrible pain. I noticed that a great deal of the pain was coming from the drain which was still in my body that they emptied every shift. THAT was like white-hot pain and it never let up. I was literally screaming. I couldn't take it. I honestly, at one point, wanted to die. I felt a little sorry for the night nurse and staff, because I was so hysterical, but I just couldn't help it. When you're in that much pain, there's nothing left to do but cry and scream. Somehow, that gets the frustration of it out, I guess. I did manage though, to get a little sleep. I had been up for two days, so I think I wore myself out.
Here's the most amazing thing...when I woke up the next day, I needed to pee. I called the nurse and she helped me to the bathroom. Well, I think I had a "magic pee" because as I sat there on the toilet, all the pain went away! I was even able to stand and walk back to bed on my own. Yeah, there was an achey-ness, but no real pain. I even cancelled the pain meds that I had requested right before going to the toilet! It was remarkable! I went for a walk around the floor and was even building up some speed. Then...the heavens opened up and they came to remove that awful drain. Lemme tell ya, whenever I hear the words "okay, take a deep breath", I know I'm in trouble. I had no idea how much hose was in my body! I could literally feel it snaking through my chest cavity and it made this awful sucking noise as they pulled it out. Once it was done though, sweet relief! I went for another walk and ran into Pedro, one of the other people who had surgery the same day I did. He still had his drain and a lot of pain. I told him that when they pull out the drain it's like magic because so much of the pain disappears.
One sort of funny thing happened. I had so many people coming in and out of my room. Dr. Kim was running late, so I didn't see him till later, but Dr. Alabi came by and several other doctors. My nutritionist was there helping me figure out some food stuff. They told me that I needed to attend a very short "movement" class. My friend Trish was there and witnessed this. I stood up to go to the movement class and the very second I did, I felt this wetness. I said to everyone in the room..."well, I think I either peed myself or just started my period"! One site of the red confirmed it. The nurse went to get me a sanitary pad. They brought me this pad that had to be from the 1960's! It had no adhesive at all. I was waiting for them to hand me the belt and safety pins!! How archaic in this day and age. Anyway, I was late, but made it to the class.
They told me that I'd be released as soon as Dr. Kim came in to do his evaluation. He didn't show up till almost 7:30 that night. My friend Katie was coming to get me and she went ahead and just went to work instead of waiting all that time. We arranged for her to pick me up when she got off work and in the meantime, they moved me to another section of the hospital because they needed my bed. When I was there, I actually saw Dr. Tanton, who was visiting another of his patients. That was so cool.
Katie finally came to get me and I spent 3 days and nights at her house because she had the room, she'd had the surgery and she really just wanted me to be there. I'm very glad I did, because that first day, I don't think I could have done much on my own.
This has been a VERY long blog entry, but there was so much to go over. I'm now 10 days post-op. I have no idea how much weight I've lost. Every scale is different. I have a feeling I haven't lost as much as I thought I would. I'm sticking to the pureed diet like it's my new religion. I've only been able to do some minimal exercises, so maybe if I ratchet that up, more will come off. I had some pain in one of my incision sites tonight and called Dr. Kim. He's having me come into the office on Monday, just so he can have a look. Other than that, my first official follow up with him is Friday, February 5th. More later...
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About Me
Orlando, FL
Location
25.3
BMI
Surgery
01/19/2010
Surgery Date
May 27, 2009
Member Since
