85% of My Stomach is Missing! (Part one)
Well, here I am. Back from the hospital after a 2 night stay, with 85% of my stomach missing. I'll try and describe what it was like day by day...
Day 1 (Surgery Day):
Let me preface this by saying that I did not sleep a wink the night before surgery. Not. A. Wink. So, upon arriving to the hospital for my 7am appointment, I had already been awake for 24+ hours. So that probably added to the dream-like quality that everything had to it that day. But still, that's the only way I could possibly describe everything that happened that day. It was surreal.
Since I couldn't sleep, I decided that my husband shouldn't either, so I got him up at 4:30, and we set out from our hotel for the hospital at 5:30, even though it was only a 30 minute drive, and we didn't have to be there until 7am. At this point, I was convinced that I was probably going to die on the operating table, so I was giving my husband instructions, such as
"My wedding ring is in the change pocket of my purse. I'll want to be buried with it on."
Stuff like that. I'm sure he was amused by it all, but looking back, I can't believe I did that to my husband! (who already has some anxiety issues BTW)
So we arrived at the hospital super-early, and I tried, yet again to catch a 15 minute nap in the car. When it became apparent that even that wasn't going to happen, we went into the hospital to register at 6:30. They brought me back pretty quickly, but left my hubby in the waiting room. They weighed me (219.4) and brought me into a room with a stretcher in it, and told me to change into the gown and socks that were on the stretcher. Now, I don't know if they just see that someone is having bariatric surgery, and automatically put the XXL gown on the stretcher, or what, but that gown was huge. You could have put three of me in it. The socks were also ridiculous, they could have fit on my feet over a pair of winter boots! But I did as I was told, and proceeded to spend the next hour and a half trying not to flash everyone in the pre-op area... Then a nurse came in, took my vital signs, and did an admission questionnaire and had me sign paperwork. Then three separate anesthesiologists came in and talked to me, looked in my mouth, and asked me several of the same questions the nurse had just asked. Then another nurse put an IV in my left hand. Then, finally they allowed my husband to come back in.
We sat there and talked for awhile, and then my surgeon came in... now I know many of us bariatric surgery patients have had multiple appointments with their surgeon prior to the actual surgery day, but for me that was not the case. I'd only met Dr. Shillingford once for about 5 minutes, in January. But meeting him for the second time on surgery day, I was again reassured by his confident demeanor, and his relaxed bedside manner. Plus it helped that every other medical staff person I'd met so far that day had referred to him as an excellent surgeon. Once he arrived, that really seemed to get the ball rolling. Just about 10 minutes later, they were giving my pre-op "cocktail" (I asked, it was Versed). Then we rolled into the OR. I remember them asking me to scootch from the stretcher I was on, to the operating table, which I was able to do, and then....nothing.
Next thing I knew, I was lying on a different stretcher, in a different room, with a different gown on and someone was taking an oxygen mask off of me, and putting me on a nasal cannula (the little prong things that go in your nose). I was in a lot of pain, which I guess they anticipated, because someone handed me a little button, and said I could push it as much as I wanted for pain medication. Now, being a nurse, I know there is a lockout period, so you can't overdose yourself, so I must have asked that. They said it was set to dispense medication every 8 minutes. There was a blood pressure cuff on my right arm that kept squeezing every few minutes, so I decided to push the button every-other time the BP cuff went off. After three or four pushes, the pain had faded into the background, but by then I was becoming nauseated. Like clockwork, they asked me if I wanted medication for nausea. Yes, please! Once I had those nausea medications in, I was feeling pretty good. Good enough in fact, that when they got me up to my room, I was able to stand up and waddle over to my new bed almost all by myself... At this point, I was hooked up to two IV's, I had a foley catheter in, and I didn't know it yet, but there was a drain hanging off of the right side of my abdomen. But the only thing that was sore (and still is) was the incision on the left side of my abdomen. I later found out that's where my stomach was taken out.
The rest of that day went by in a little bit of a blur. I wasn't allowed any water, or anything else by mouth, but they did give me some swabs, and some ice chips, which were a godsend. I remember going for a walk, up and down the hallway with my hubby later in the evening, but other than that, I pretty much slept in between being asked, like 10 times, by 10 different people if I was diabetic, and/or did I need to have a CPAP machine (no, and no). And that was pretty much Day 1. And since I'm pretty wiped out, I think I'll save Days 2 and 3 for another post...
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