I knew I was going to be terrible at this blogging thing.
I had every intention of posting the day of or the day after surgery, but honestly I didn't feel up to it. The day of surgery, I got to the hospital an hour and a half before my scheduled time for all the intake stuff. The benefit of having my sleeve done at a small hospital is that I walked right in, and after I signed a couple of forms they took me right back. I didn't have to wait around much.
I changed into the gown (feeling super awkward about my butt hanging out) and then the nurse came in and started my iv, got some medications going, etc. My surgeon flew in, asked if I was ready and if I had any last minute questions, then prayed with me. I have no idea how he gets away with that, but I loved it. It definitely gave me a calm feeling. He left just as quickly as he came, I think he spent a total of two minutes in there.
After that, anesthesiologist stopped in to introduce himself and answer any questions I had. The dude was handsome, he looked kind of like a real life Ken doll. He left and it was just a few minutes until a nurse and the anesthesiologist's assistant came to wheel me into surgery. I triple checked that my mom was going to have my purse with her (I think she was getting a bit irritated by that, honestly), and then they took me back.
The next thing I remember, I was waking up in recovery. It HURT. The gas pain, right under my ribs, was insane. It felt like they had stuffed an elephant in my chest, there was so much pressure. Unfortunately, there wasn't really anything they could give me that would help the gas pain. I later found out that I was wearing an abdominal binder, and once I realized that I realized how tight it was. I wonder if taking that off would have helped the pain, given it more space or something, but it hardly matters now. I took off the binder eventually, because it just wasn't comfortable.
I must have drifted off again between recovery and my room, because I don't remember moving. All of a sudden my mom was there and I was in a nice big, private room. I still felt like garbage, but my nurse was wonderful. I was up and walking probably an hour after I got to my room. My mom was annoyed (as was I) because I was technically a "fall risk" and therefore I had to have hospital staff assist me any time I wanted to get up and move around. I also had to wear these sleeves on my calves that constantly massaged them, to prevent blood clots. I actually didn't mind that part, it felt kind of nice.
I spent the rest of the day dozing, walking, and watching tv. I had a popsicle, and some ice chips. There was an awkward moment at one point when volunteers came around with their therapy dogs, and one of them happened to be a coworker of mine. I got over it pretty quick, though, because I'm a dog freak. My mom left around 8, and I got back into the hospital bed to sleep.
That's when it all went to hell. There was a shift change, and I didn't like my new nurse. She wasn't very on top of pain medication, and even though the pain wasn't terrible I was still put off by it. Then, I'm not sure if it was the gas or pain, but I started vomiting. A lot. It lasted off an on all night. I was so worried they were going to force me to stay another day, when all I wanted was to get out and be in my own house. They didn't seem overly concerned, in fact even telling my nurse that I sometimes threw up in reaction to pain didn't really spur her to be more on top of it.
In the morning, I started to feel a little better, but I was still dry heaving more than I wanted to be. They gave me some protein drink, and some water, and told me to sip on it. They didn't tell me at first that my release would depend on how much I could drink/keep down. When I asked at around 10:30 am when I could go home, the nurse looked skeptically at the protein drink and told me I needed to have more of it. So I tried, oh I tried. It was hard. Not that I was nauseous, just so full and not at all interested in foodstuff.
Finally, around noon, they released me. I just knew that if I could get home and be free to move about as I pleased, that the heaving would stop. My mom drove me to my house, even though she was dying to take me to hers, and left for a while so that I could sleep. She ran a few errands and then came back to check on me, and then I pretty much kicked her out. I felt bad about it, but when I feel gross all I ever want is to be alone.
That first day home I mostly slept. I got up about once every hour and walked around, and attempted to drink some protein/water, but I didn't force it. Sleeping that night was awful. I'm a side and stomach sleeper, and I couldn't do either, so I wasn't comfortable at all.
Over the next few days it got better and better. It took a bit to find a balance between drinking water and and making sure I got enough protein, but I found it and it got easier. Honestly, while I wasn't ready to go back to work, I wished I was. It was a boring week. I don't understand how some people take two, four, even six weeks off work for this surgery. After one week I was ready to go back. I'll admit, it was exhausting the first few days, especially since I had to do story time (I'm a youth librarian) on Tuesday and Wednesday. But tonight is Friday and I no longer feel like I want to crawl into bed the second I get home.
On Thursday I had my post-surgical follow up appointment. I'm down 17 pounds! Also, the dietician advanced me to "smooth" food, basically anything of a pureed consistency. Greek yogurt, hummus, cottage cheese, etc. I was THRILLED to move on from a purely liquid diet. It got old, fast. So far it's gone really well too. Much better than I expected, at any rate, though it's only been a day.
I think that's enough rambling for now.
Goodnight!
SW: 273
CW: 255
No comments:
Post a Comment