Stomach surgery ... Not for the faint of heart.
6/18, - getting prepped mentally for surgery. not really sure you can do much of that but trying. I had to be typed and cross matched by the hospital lab the day before than only took a matter of an 10 minutes and I did it on my work break. I am told that I need to be there about 30 minutes prior to when I was told to be there for the surgery so that ment 5:30 am.
6/19 — 4:30 am I pack 3 magazines, 2 books of word searches, my book that I am reading that is part of a series, a couple of pens, playing cards, shampoo, deo 2 sports bras etc. Am I prepared or what? I don’t know what I was thinking when I still am barely coherent enough to consintrate on more than one line of text without mentally floating off.
5:30 - off we go. I had to wear a bracelet from the lab at the hospital for the surgery so that they had the proper blood ready. Well you kn0w the darn thing fell off while I was sleeping so I didn’t have it on when I arrived at the hospital. Hubby says… oh I am sure they have 2o copies of it. NO WE don’t sir go home and get it.
I finish registering and head up for the dreaded IV. reason I hate IV’s well I have veins that run at the sight of a needle. No kidding!! I am a hard draw. Let me tell you right now I look like I have been a user for 20 years.
The lady re-assures me that she generally doesn’t have a hard time. FAMOUS last words. She took only 2 times. I do say only here. Second times the charm and I head off to surgery after having talked to the doc. He briefs the complications etc.
7:30 - surgery starts. Last thing I remember is freezing my butt off on the table. About all I have ever remembered.
12 pm- wake up in the recovery room and happily accept pain killers! and beg to have my glasses back. As I am wheeled back to my room, hubby tells me that the mass was bigger than they had thought and it was quite complicated. They had accidentally nicked my small intestine a bit. It was quite a zoo in there and too longer than Doc M had anticipated. It was so bad that he was quite worried that if anyone should have to go back into my stomach it would be quite major. So he took out the ovaries and my appendix so that I would never have to be opened up down there again. Scarring in the area was quite extensive from the last operation. I should avoid stomach surgery at all cost again.
So much for a tummy tuck.
The rest of the 19th is a blur, I went back to my room. Which in this hospital is all private rooms set up in a pod like setup. 5 rooms to a small hallway, which contains all you would ever need for care of those 5 rooms. There are about 10 such hall ways on the floor. At the end of the floor is ICU. My room was just outside the doors of the ICU.
At some point during the hourly wake up to check vitals, I notice blood on my arm. Alot. Where did this come from… the spot that they had tried to put in earlier had blown, cause of the blood thinners after the surgery, well it was bleeding alot. No one seemed to notice the next 4 times they checked my bp that it was bleeding alot. One nurse finally gets an idea that I should not have my bp taken in that arm and used the one with the IV in it. *I am only now using starting to have the black and blue go away from that spot.
They got me up and walking that night about 10 pm. I got out of bed and made it to the door and that was it. I think Doc M stopped by but don’t quite recall.
I love those puffy things they put on your legs to avoid blood clots!! mmm… I learn to love a leg massage.
6/20 & 6/21 things progressed well and by thursday night I was getting up on my own and getting to the bathroom. All and all about 4 feet. I wasn’t too spacy but loopy. ah pain killers. I have quite alot of water retention as they gave me a ton of fluids. So they say… I called up my clinic and talked to the doc M’s nurse to find out that this is normal it will go away on its own.
At some point on one of these days hubby told me that Paul died. I was surprised. I called Jo on the 21st to giver her my condolences. She told me all of what happened.
6/22 Friday and 6/23 Saturday. Recovering at home nicely thank you. Pain in the butt that I can’t sleep on my stomach and that and the fact that I have been lying in a semi upright possition for 5 days made my back stiff!!! I was eating well and recovering nicely thank you. Needed assistance in getting around but all in all not bad.
6/24 Sunday. I wake up early about 5:30 in alot of pain, take a pill and go about business, I wake up hubby to say, I am really hungry … peas make me something… peas and carrots. He gets up sniffling all the way… (sonny boy’s head cold passed on to the hubby.) Grumbling he makes me an english muffin sandwich with pre-made eggs and a sausage patty. yummy! Reason I recall is that is the last non liquid meal I have had to date.
About 8 am I start barfing. utoh. Let me try to have an icie to settle my stomach. No work! about 11 barfed that up. (I really don’t generally do that more than once.) Hubby getting worried. I plead with him to run to the drug store and get me some stomach medicine cause the crap that I take for reflex isn’t working. He heads off. mean time I barf again … he gets back about 11 am I down the meds and try relax. No luck. At this point all the progress of the last few days is down the tubes. I can’t walk much less get up. He sits me down and calls the ER. Doc M says take me to in.
I grudgingly whine as he rushes me off. runs in the hospital gets me a wheelchair. They take me in almost immediately. Doc comes in says white count is up again. That it appears to be an infection of some sort and they are admitting me again so since the nick in surgery may be to blame.
As I am getting assessed, well barf again. They give me another IV. The ER nurse was the same one that was on the last time I was in there on the 6th. She got a pro at starting IV nurse to come in and get it in. this one was the first on my left hand. That gets going and I calm down a bit sleeping on and off.
about 4 pm I am in a room across from the nurses station in a pod with a pre-mie baby on the bed. It wasn’t a nice picture the rest of the day. Barfed 2 more times, and dispite the anti barf meds. The on call surgeon from my clinic came by to talk to me. They think it is either an infection or a blockage, both possible complications of the surgery. They start an IV of antibiotics and find another anti nausia med that I can take inbetween dosages of the one the worked good.
6/25 Monday… Praise be the antibiotics started to work. Doc M visits at some point to tell me the options we have and they are going to watch me to see how it goes. I’ll spear you the gross-ness suffice it to say that my body did what it wanted most of that day. But I wasn’t barfing.
6/26 Tuesday - Feeling better, stopped running every 20 minutes, getting stronger, started on liquid diet. IV infiltrated on my left hand after they started the potassium drip. so they had to start a new one on right arm. So now lets see… Bruised left arm, 2/3’s from the very 1st IV that didn’t want to bleed… and they bled for a whole day. Bruise and retaining on right hand from surgery and IV’s tue-thursday. Blown IV on left hand … Swolen and painful.
Tuesday things are working very slowly and was told that as long as things didn’t get worse that I could expect to go home on Wed. Complained to him about the potassium drip causing my right arm to hurt now. He says he’ll make sure they just turn it down. That was at 7pm.
By 9pm a very swollen and painful right arm and left hand and countless number of wholes make it impossible for me to get another IV in. But that doesn’t stop the nurse from hell from trying. I call her that cause at least the others numbed me up and they gave me a shot of pain killer before poking and turning and grinding to find a vein. NOt this one. She got the kit and was going to try! AFter one poke about an inch from the purple bruise on my left arm…. She misses. Wow.. you are puffy and bruised all over you poor thing. Lets see if we can talk the doc out of getting another one started.
Of course he says we’ll give her pills and see how that works, if all goes well then we don’t need to start one. took the Potassium pill and the antibiotics and they all worked well. THANK GOD!!!
6/27 Wed. 7am Doc M comes in. How is our Pin cusion feeling today? Ready to go home? YOu come at me with another needle you’ll know just how a pin cusion feels buster. :)
Your tests are all fine, everything is slowly coming back to life. It seems any number of things could have happened but you intestines fell asleep and so did your stomach. It seems to have resolved but I want you to gradually VERY gradually go back to eatting. STay on a liquid diet and work your way back to the good stuff slowly. If you have any problems come back and see asap. In the mean time follow up on the 3rd and we’ll see how you’re doing.
Hubby picked me up at lunch time. I have never been so nurvous about eatting in my life. So far so good. The only t hing I have had solid was Ramen noodles, small amount of plain noodles last night and an english muffin to take my meds with. So far so good.
I am praying like no tomorrow that nothing stops agian. I don’t want to be back in there again. They would have to surgically open me up again and drain or cut. ick!
I sat on the swing last night with hubby enjoying the nice weather. Didn’t top 80. love it. Went to WM to exercise and walked a bit too much. But was ok. Supercenters are huge.
An interesting note that I learned last night - when you are ill having a hard time moving etc, everyone in WM rushes around you like you aren’t there or are a speed bump in life, teens barely miss running you down, walking. What an experience. I hope to never forget how this feels and not be in such a damn rush to nothing. And this wasn’t peak time at WM either.
6/28 thursday. took me over an hour to summarize but I think I got it all! I am still quite fuzzy and while I can walk around it is really hard. My head isn’t totally checked in but I don’t really think my head is ever 100% checked in. LEts just say this month has given me a reality check like I didn’t really care for but am thankful to GOD for.
To sum it up… next time you use the toilet be thankful. It truely is the little things that mean alot.
