Sleeved 5/23

[MSinger 348]

Hey all, so I was sleeved on 5/23. I am so grateful for everything I've learned from this board just by reading people's stories, so hopefully, someone can benefit from mine...

My surgery was at 9:15 am this Tuesday. On my way to the hospital, I was complaining to my sister that I wish my surgery was outpatient instead of I day inpatient stay because I was so sure I'd be fine and just wasting my time in a hospital... boy was I wrong! Apparently I don't tolerate anesthesia well at all.

I woke up in the PACU in horrible pain and severe nausea/gagging/abdominal spasms that were almost nonstop. The last time I had surgery was when I was a kid and I just remember waking up and feeling a bit of pain then.. I thought it may be the same. I was transferred to my unit for my first night and every few minutes I was calling the nurse for pain meds or nausea meds, or both. They had me on 3 different types of medications for nausea, 2 different pain meds. Despite this, I was still having significant breakthrough pain and nausea. I couldn't get out of my bed at all, let alone walk a few hours after surgery. The entire time I kept thinking what the heck did I do to myself and I wondered whether I'd be sent home feeling this way. I didn't get more than a few minutes of sleep the entire night. All of the nurses on the floor did everything they could to help me out and I could not be more grateful for such a wonderful team caring for me.

The next morning I was still on max doses of all the same medications, but I was starting to feel better. Started walking with the nurse's assistant and took a few more laps around the floor throughout the day. I had lots of secretions in my lungs that was keeping my oxygen saturation down, so I had to clear them out. By evening time, I was more stable, but I still had not peed and was not passing gas. This may be TMI but they had to catheterize me 5 times I had to stay inpatient for another night so they could monitor my urine output.

This morning I woke up much better, just trying to take in all of my fluids, but I'm getting small bouts of nausea from just one 1oz of liquid per hour. It's slowly getting better, but I'm still behind on my fluids.

Anyway, I'm so happy to finally be home. I'm gonna keep drinking fluids like it's my job.

I also wanted to add a couple of things people may find helpful:

First, if you are out of surgery and having trouble tolerating plain Water, try a flavored water. I never was much of a fan of flavored water pre-op, but it helped me so much after surgery.

Second, if you are having bouts of nausea, ask the nurse for some alcohol prep pads (the ones they swipe you with before you get an injection), place it under your nose and keep inhaling. This may seem strange, but it kills nausea and worked great while I was waiting for my IV nausea meds to be administered.

I hope my story didn't scare anyone off. Everyone responds to anesthesia differently, I guess I'm one of the unfortunate people who have a hard time with it. I also hear for most people the first night is by far the worst, and that was definitely the case for me. I started feeling much better by the next morning.

Good luck to everyone!

Edited May 25, 2017 by MSinger