Question:
Can anyone tell me what are the procedures right after surgery while you are still in

   — jackie irby (posted on May 20, 2009)

May 20, 2009
Well, you're in the recovery room for an hour or two until they are sure you can keep ice chips down without vomiting (in my case, it was sips of water because my teeth are ultra sensitive to cold), then they take you to your own room. Within two hours, they get you up to walk. My hospital had special "high-top" walkers with a padded U-shaped platform that you stood inside of and rested your forearms on. It also had handles in the front for you to hold on to, and an oxygen tank on the side for you to hook up to (because you will most likely come back from the recovery room wearing a nasal oxygen canula). They want you to walk as far as you can, even if it's only to the door of your room. I personally walked all the way from one end of the hall to the other, and then back again half-way to my room (those self-medicating morphine pumps are wonderful things - LOL). They will also bring you a tray of clear liquids - jello, water, broth and tea. I was to drink one ounce of fluid every 15 minutes and they made ME keep a log of my intake. Oh, by the way, you will probably have a catheter. On day two, you are NPO after about 4 a.m. because they will be taking you down to do an upper GI to make sure all is working okay. They will give you a radio-opaque liquid that they can see go into your pouch and watch how fast it leaves the pouch through the stoma. If all is okay, you are taken back to your room. If not, you have to wait for a while and they will put you in front of the machine again to see if the liquid level in the pouch has changed. When it shows that the liquid is going down, you'll be allowed to go back to your room. When they are sure you are "putting out" what you're taking in, they will remove the catheter, then they put waterproof dressings over your incisions, and in my case, over the central line they had put in my neck, and told me to go shower. Of course, they unhooked the central line first, so I didn't have to drag the IV pole with me, then when I was done, they hooked it back up. They made sure I walked 6 times each day. You are also expected to do some spirometer (breathing) exercises at least 6 times per hour, so you don't get pneumonia. You will be hooked up to a Pulse Oxygen monitor, too.... and if your pulse ox goes down below 92 or so, the alarm will go off, and the pulmonologist will have to come see you. So, it's VERY IMPORTANT to breathe deeply and do your breathing exercises, because if your pulse ox remains low, they will send you home with oxygen. While you are in bed, they will put pressure stockings on you....plastic things that attach with velcro and fill up with air every few seconds. Whenever I had to go to the bathroom, I had to let the nurse know, so she could log the volume on my intake and output sheet. My surgery was Monday afternoon. By Wednesday morning, I was taking in enough fluids and putting out a normal amount of urine, and I hadn't had any nausea or complications, so they let me go home.... with the admonition to WALK several times a day, as far as possible, EVERY day. Besides the normal interuptions of the nurses taking your vital signs, that was about it. Oh, I forgot to mention one thing. Every doctor is different, but my surgeon ordered 3 injections of an anti-coagluant - to be given in the abdomen - one before surgery and two after. They didn't hurt at all. hope this answers your questions. And remember, no two surgeons do things the same way... so YOUR experience may be quite different from mine. But I do think they pretty much all do surgery, post-op, catheter, oxygen, self-regulated pain pump, upper GI, walking right away, breathing exercises, and liquid intake every 15 minutes.
   — Erica Alikchihoo