My Surgery Story

[Chelsi 107]

Now that I'm home and all settled, I figured I would share my sugery story. Just to all those pre-ops, who aren't sure what they're getting into, it's sort of scary. Maybe my story will help ease your fears.

My surgery was scheduled for 11:45pm on Wednesday. I arrived at the hospital at 9:15. I spent a long time in pre-op, the hospital actually had a computer catch fire a few floors up which stalled me for another hour or two until they could clear all the OR's.

They had me walk into the OR, which was scary, but the nurses made me feel really comfortable. The anesthesiologist told me they were mixing me up a fantastic cocktail, and the last thing I remember was telling the nurses I shaved my legs for them. haha!

I woke up in terrible nausea and pain. Now, I guess it should be noted that I have no tolerance for pain and most pain meds made me feel nauseous. So I spent a good two and a half hours in recovery. They also had a problem getting blood from me, something about clotting. They finally got a good balance between my pain and nausea, and I was transferred to the step down bariatrics unit a couple floors up. From there, it was basically pain management and walking. Every two hours I had to pee, then I would walk around, then I would get some more pain meds and go back to sleep. This lasted all Wednesday night and then Thursday morning I had my leak test. First thing I could drink other than ice chips and woooo it was gross! But I had no leaks. They started me on what they call a phase one clear liquid diet. They gave me a tray of all sorts of stuff like Isopure (which i didn't mind), chicken broth, diluted apple juice, SF italian ice, tea. They measure how much I was drinking by having me drink out of the CC cups. The chicken broth helped A LOT with the gas. I guess it was the warmth, but when I stood up after drinking there was relief in my lower back.

My stomach is really sore. I've been home since 5pm last night. Last night was rough. Taking the percosets, crushing them and in applesauce is so gross. But I needed them to sleep last night. I woke up about an hour ago, sipped on half of a ready made Protein shake, took a walk around my block and feel pretty good. Sitting up is the best position pain wise, that's how i slept on the couch last night.

So far my focus has been on getting a Protein shake in, and my liquids. I'm really sore, but I'm trying not to take the pain meds. Percoset just makes me so loopy and yucky.

[hopeliveshere 294]

Thanks so much for sharing, this was very helpful for me! Good luck with your recovery

[DangerousD 77]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I have a low pain threshold as well and am worried about that. Let us know how you are doing and when you feel better?

[Chelsi 107]

i went from taking a 5mg percoset every two hours to half of one every four hours during the day. they're not lying when they say the walking helps! it really does. every half hour i try to get up and walk around, even if it's just around my kitchen counter a few times.