swollen2swanky

Sunday July 8th the day before my band, I could not believe it was finally here! I booked a room at the Renaissance Airport Hotel off highway 70 so we could get a little more shut eye on Monday morning. I was scheduled to arrive at the hospital by 6:30am. {I live 1.5 away from the hospital} We left town a little early to do some Anniversary shopping for muah!! {Been eyeing a pair of Sperry's} We stopped in SOCO at the Mall and scouted out not one, but 3 new pair of Sperry's just for ME!! One might think I am spoiled, BUT I can wear 2 out of 3 pair to work, SO that is called resourceful!!
We arrived at the Hotel around 6:30 pm and checked in, room 835. The hotel was very nice and the service was amazing. We settled into the room, I made a protein shake, and we snuggled into the bed to watch some uninterrupted TV. {I have a 2 year old} Click Click Click....they were all black. I called down to the operator and due to the storm {Mind you it never really did storm}, the dish was out!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME, I'M GOING TO MISS TRUE BLOOD!!! Now what...? We kept clicking around the channels hoping to find something and we found a movie channel. {Not part of Dish} Awesome, lets watch a movie!! We looked around at all the titles and finally agreed on watching Hunger Games. Click to order....HOLD IT....$18.99!!!!!!! Are you kidding me.....$18.99?!?!?! I called down to the front desk again and asked if we could get any kind of discount for the movie due to the Dish being out and they approved!! For FREE they said, just charge it to your room and we will remove the charge. We curled up into bed and watch the movie. {It was pretty good}
After the movie I took my shower, a very long shower and cold I might add. Not the water, but the routine I was to follow with the pre-surgical soap to rid any and all bacteria from my skin. I had to stand in the shower butt naked, wet, and cold for 5 minutes while the soap soaked into my hid!! While I stood there, I thought, I get to do this all over again in the morning. Yippee!!! After my bath, my darling hubby took some before photos of me in my bra and undies. "YIKES" was the word of choice after I looked over our little mini photo shoot and I was so happy that my hubby still loved me after looking like that. If I was ever fearful of this surgery, it was all gone after that photo session in the hotel room during a so called storm!!

Monday Morning!!! It was here, my big day was finally here. I took my cold shower, got dressed, and headed out the door. We only had a 20 minute drive to the hospital. {Hotel Room Score} I was told to register with the hospital first and get my potassium checked prior to surgery, so we went to the lab registration {Took forever} and finally made it down to the surgery center. The staff was so friendly and all smiles even though I was 30 minutes late due to lab!! {Not my fault} I registered with the surgery center and they took me back immediately for prep. Those doctors and nurses had me in a gown, IV, and all the t's crossed and i's dotted in no time. It was time to go!! They brought Jake back to get a little kiss or two! As I said "See you on the flip side", I don't even think I got the word "side" out. I was in la la land!!
Time was not really something I gauged on surgery day after I was in the hands of the professionals, but they told me it would take about an hour and a half for the surgery. {They also repaired a small hernia} As I started to come to in recovery I was greeted by all the nurses that assisted me prior to surgery. I'm pretty sure they didn't have 2 heads before I went under.....?!?! Thankfully that cleared up and before long I was sitting up on my bed, AND laying back down on my bed. I was feeling a little bit of nausea coming out of anesthesia. {Normal for me} They finally brought Jake back to see me and the nurse kept saying "As soon as you can walk around, you can go home" That was enough for me to push through the nausea and get up. I walked to a recliner in another recovery room and gained my head back from the spin there. The nurse brought in my new best friend the "Air Suck Tool". {Yes that is not the medical term, but it works} She gave me a goal of 1500 to reach starting out. Blow out.........SUCK! I reached 2500 on the first try!!! I did that a few times and the nurse said that was amazing. I walked several laps around the floor and she said I was good to go. Now I still wasn't watching the time, but I think it was around 1:30pm. They loaded me up in the H3 and away we went.
I slept most of the way home and when I woke up a few times, I would move my legs around to get the circulation going in them. I had blood work done for clots and everything was normal, but you can never be to safe. We arrived home and I got settled on the couch. I pretty much camped out on the couch for the remainder of the day except to get up and walk around the house some. I was feeling pretty good considering. I did take a few doses of my pain meds that evening to help with some of the discomfort and allow me to rest. I would say surgery day was a success!! Pain was about a 6 out of 10!!