On Tuesday morning, we arrived at the hospital for our 10:45 AM appointment and we were immediately put in a prep room and told that they were already ready for me upstairs in surgery. I said goodbye to Mike and he left with my clothes and shoes.
They wheeled me down a few halls on a bed and into a large open room with curtain separters. It took them several tries to get an i.v. in. They were warned in advance that my veins rolled, and that's exactly what happened. The Surgeon came by as well as each member of the team and introduced themselves to me and asked if I had any questions. It put me at ease a bit.
I was in that room for about 20 minutes while they prepped me for surgery. I remember being wheeled down a few halls and going into an elevator. I don't remember much after the elevator doors opened. I was given anesthesia at some point in the room downstairs but I don't remember. The time was about 11:30am.
At 6:20 PM I caught myself arguing with someone. I was trying to get off the bed to go to the bathroom. I couldn't understand where I was and why this felt real but felt like a dream. I was coming out of anesthesia. It took me a few minutes to understand where I was and what had happened and to completely get my sight back enough to focus on anything. Everyone kept telling me I had just come out of surgery and that I had a catheter in. You can't imagine the releif I felt knowing the surgery actually took place this time.
I was still very groggy when they wheeled me into my room about 30 minutes later. I was told the surgery lasted 4 hours and I was in recovery for 3 and half hours.
I was on a morphine drip which I was in control of. I was able to push a button to release a dose every 6 minutes, which, I was always pushing too soon. The pain was manageable but I was very loopy. This was confirmed later as well, by the guests who were there to visit.
I had four incisions with staples. One was just above my belly button, another about five inches above that, one on the center far right of my stomach, and the last one was about two and a half inches from the top center one, to the left. This was the worst one. It was the largest and I can't remember if there was something there, but it was never stapled all the way. There was a hole in the center of it. I also had a drain tube coming from my left side which was draining blood from the surgerical site. I had a catheter which had been placed in while I had been under anesthesia before the surgery.
After my visitors left I just wanted to sleep. I remember feeling like I had been asleep for hours when a nurse had come in to check my vitals. I had only dozed about 20 minutes. The first night was vey busy. I was checked on often. My morphine bag needed to be changed, the drain tube adn catheter needed draining, my incisions were tended to and redressed, my vitals were taken and my C-PAP machine was hooked up and oxygen was filtered through the mask when I was trying to sleep. I had "boots" on my calves. They were like blood preassure cuffs. They would pump up every couple of seconds, (not as tight as a blood preassure cuff though), one leg at a time to keep the circulation going until I was able to walk. I also had fluids being pumped in my system because I hadn't had anything to drink since Monday night. Needless to say, it was a non-productive night of sleep, just dozing. If I rememeber correctly I was able to have water after I was in my room. A styrophome cup with ice was on my tray table at all times with one once measuring cups from which I sipped only.
In the morning I was able to eat. I wasn't really hungry though. They brought in a one ounce cup of Carnation Instant Breakfast - No Sugar Added Chocolate drink. I had to sip that. It took me a while to get that down. Most of the day was the same as the night before, trying to sleep as much as possible in about 20-40 minute increments. I noticed that my pain had increased a bit and they gave me an additional pain reliever. I was high at that point. I don't know really what I was saying. No one else could understand me very well either from what they said. My voice was also still very horse from the breathing tube that was down my throat during surgery (which I never knew about until later.)
I remember trying to call work. I work in a call center and for the past year and a half I have probably given out our phone number over 150 times in one day. But because I was under so much pain medication, I kept getting a sex line when I dialed our number. It happened twice.
Later in the day I was talking to one of the nurses about being a DJ. I had my laptop there so I could work on my music data base and was getting ready to do so. I told him I'd play him a song. When I tried typing in his request, I couldn't. I tried several times and was not able to find my hand-eye coordination needed to type the proper characters. I was pretty amused but frustrated.
Later in the morning, still the day after the surgery, they had me go for a short walk around the halls to increase circulation. I was able to roll onto my side and push up to get out of bed. It was a bit tough and it did hurt, but with a push of the morphine button I was back on track.
They removed my catheter on Thursday I believe. It was like being 3 again, everyone was praising me for peeing in the potty! There was a plastic bed pan like catcher that fit on the rim on the toilet which meassured how much urine was excreted. This was to be sure I wasn't getting dehydrated.
They started bringing me "meals" on Thursday. They consisted of 1/4 cup of sugar free Jell-o, about 1/2 cup of broth and 4 ounces of the Carnation Instant Breakfast. I never could finish it all before they brought the next meal. It was way too much.
The nurses would scrub my back and they left a basin of soapy water with a wash cloth and towel in order to give myself a sponge bath. That was refreshing. I was able to change into my own pajamas as well, a bit of home. This started on Wednesday. I remember that it took a while but was not as uncomfortable as I imagined it to be. I do have one regret. I did not wash my hair while I was there. There was a sink in the room but it did not occur to me to wash my hair in the sink because my balance wasn't where I'd wanted it to be in order to do that. By the time I left, my hair was embarrassingly greasy.
Here comes the funny part... When they set me up to give myself a sponge bath, they also gavc me a banana boat basin, a cup of water, a small tube of toothpaste and a little toothbrush. Day one was fine. I had no problem handling such an easy daily task. Day 2, however, was a different story. I started brushing my teeth and thought to myself, "Why can't I taste the toothpaste? It's not foaming in my mouth like it usually does. I kept brushing. Then I put more on my toothbrush. Just before putting the tooth brush back into my mouth I looked at the tube. I had brushed my teeth with Vaseline. I felt like a moron. I had to ask for a new toothbrush and water. The staff got a good laugh out of that. Thankfully, I didn't swallow anything, gross.
There was a television in the room that worked but I had found a chanel that had soothing pictures and soothing music. I kept it there most of the time. I didn't have the attention span to watch anything until Thursday because I was just too tired.
On Thursday, the Surgeon came in with his surgical team and went over what I should be looking for and concerned about after my release. I was released on Friday around noon.
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