The Surgery...

Jul 09, 2010

My surgery was July 1st at 7a.m. Because I lived out of town and was expected to arrive at the hospital at 5:45, I stayed in the hospital guest suite the night before. I must say that although I know the Word of God, and a faith-filled woman; fear really entered in the morning of my surgery. The devil will do this to you, make you question your decision, but since I know God's will for us is to prosper and be in good health even as our soul prospers; and He has satisfied me with a long life,  I went on with the operation. But it was still a struggle.  By the time I made it to the surgery holding area, my blood pressure was 145/103, and my pulse was 115 beats per minute. The nurse immediately looked at the numbers and asked if I was scared. I said yes, and they proceeded to let me prepare for surgery. However, God is faithful and he sent in my anastesiologist to build my faith, because faith does come by hearing. This doctor was so confident and told me that since I did not have any health problems, I was going to be their star patient and everything was gonna be easy and go perfectly. This really calmed me down. If they have no fear, why should I? We laughed and talked as he hooked up may IV, and they also gave me a mild sedative to prepare me for surgery. The last thing I remember is getting onto the operating table before I woke up in recovery. I just remember the nurse saying "wake up, it's over, and you're in recovery." I just began to thank God that I had made it through. That was the spiritual side , all the natural side remembers is the pain .  Maybe I was a wimp, but the pain was unbelievable. I have had surgery before, and I never felt this feeling. My sister said it was the gas, I don't really know. Although I was in and out of sleep, I do know that everytime I opened my eyes, I asked for pain medicine. I kept telling them the morphine wasn't working and to give me something stronger . My family was able to see me around noon, and they thought I was the most hilarious patient. They continue to pick on me today about how I was acting. My older sister can't understand what I was going through, because she had the surgery a year earlier and she swears she was not in any pain. However, because the hospital was pretty packed, I was not able to get a room until about 4 pm. I was moved to SICU, all of his paitients stay in ICU the first night after surgery to ensure that there is careful monitoring in case of any problems. Needless to say, I still slept most of the day, although I was not supposed to. The doctor made it to my room at about 6 pm, and I was finally woke and cognizant of what was happening around me. When he found out that I had not been out of bed, or gone to the bathroom, he was not happy, and "stressed" to the nurses his orders for his patients to be up and walking soon after surgery. They then came in and unhooked me, walked with me to the bathroom, and then we did a few laps around the ICU ward. I did this about twice that Thursday night, but mostly, I requested pain meds and slept. Friday I was feeling better and was able to become pretty much independent. The nurses would unhook my equipment when I wanted to get up, and just let me walk the halls alone when I felt like getting out of bed. I did have to have the swallow test that Friday morning, to ensure that I did not have any leaks in my pouch. The test went well, and I was finally able to have something to drink. They immediately started me on Crystal light. I must say that I did not drink much of anything in the hospital, and it is still a struggle today to get in the liquids(and we are not even gonna mention the protein ). To wrap up my hospital stay, I took my last dose of pain meds on Friday at about noon, and once the gas passed, I felt back to my old self. However, because the hospital was so packed, I never got moved to my room. I spent my entire stay in ICU. This was fine with me, because the nurses were right there in my face and at my constant beck and call. Plus, once they were assured of my stability, I had my run of the floor. Finally, I was released Saturday morning to go home.

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