Day 4 post op

  Thought I would share some of my experiences.  I had RNY with Dr. O'Rourke at OHSU. The OHSU team is a wonderful team for pre and post surgery. Anyway, the night before my surgery, my wife and I came to Portland and stayed in a hotel room since we live 3+ hours away. My wife insisted that I clean out my system with MOM (Milk of Magnesium...or however it's spelled). I stayed awake until about 1am thanks to that, and was still running in the morning (although that's probably due to nerves).
  Showed up a little late because we were told to go to a different place, but it didn't seem to matter. We showed up at 5:30 and I was given a gown, a bed, and a TV remote. I took all my stuff and made sure my wife had it. OHSU took my CPAP and "inspected" it. It was kind of odd, but ok. At about 6:30 I had a bunch of the OHSU medical teams come in and ask a ton of questions (didn't I just tell the last 12 teams that same info? Ask them!) My veins suck, so they had some problems with getting in my initial IV (they had to use ultra-sound to find the vein). I gave my wife the last smooch right as they gave me my sleepy meds. Wheeled me into the OR and made my way onto the OR bed. As I was told would happen, a lot of medical people came at me to start doing what they had to do. My anesthesiologist (the pain person) held a mask on my face and soothed me with her voice while I assumed she was putting me to sleep. 
  I woke up in recovery and had a nurse keep telling me to breathe deeply. As you can imagine, I didn’t want to because of the pain! Finally when they were getting ready to move me from recovery into my own room, I asked what time it was and the reply shocked me, even in my state of druggedness. “3:30.” WHAT?!?! 3:30!!! My poor wife must have been wondering that happened, but later she told me that they called and updated her twice during the surgery.

 I remembered being handed a little blue cylinder with a BIG yellow button and was told that it was my pain medication. Easy to do! I instantly pushed it and away into morphine-land I was headed while they wheeled my bed into a room. It seemed that my bed had stuck wheels or something because they ran into everything on the way. After parking me (numerous more button pushes of the morphine pump), they decided to move me to a more private room. Finding more annoying obstacles to run my bed into, I was finally delivered to my final room!  My wife was given a bed so she could stay in the room with me…and then the non-sleeping began. I was poked, prodded, pumped, and pushed by numerous doctors, nurses, and my loving wife (for the better of me, I realized afterwards). I was delivered my first tray of food: jello, juice, and beef broth. I took one bite of jello and decided I was full. I had to start to relearn (through the pain haze) what my stomach was telling me. When I finally decided I wanted to sleep (which wasn’t long after being wheeled….banged….wheeled into my room), the number of tests and vitals needed was astonishing! More button pushing on my morphine pump. Throughout the first night, every two hours someone came by to poke, prod, question, or deliver something. This resulted in more morphine button presses HOPING that it would deliver me into an un-waking sleep for a few hours. Not so. My loving wife slept through it all right at my side, only waking up once for one of the nurses who must have mistakenly banged into her or something. I, on the other hand, had to try to figure out if my nurse was asking me something in English, Spanish, or some morphine created language I had yet to learn.   Don’t forget…if you have a CPAP, you MUST wear it…so that you can take it off every 90 minutes to talk to someone, take your temperature, or have some other medicine stuffed down your throat. While I liked to not wear my CPAP, I kept getting told to put it back on by either nurses or my lovely wife. Finally I just learned to leave it on and answer questions with extra air blowing out of my mouth. If you haven’t worn a CPAP before, take a Shop-vac, place it on reverse, stick it on your nose, turn it on, and THEN try to talk.   Day two found me with physical therapy, then some other type of therapy (I think I had mashed the morphine too many times to remember his title). So they taught me how to get up from lying in bed (Can I just stay lying down and sleep?), to walk, but I had already walked by then. This is something I must absolutely press upon. Walk, walk, and walk. It helps heal you faster, your backside isn’t as sore from lying in bed all the time (I couldn’t lay on my side, only my back), and it helps you pass gas also. Also the nurses find the time while I was away walking to change my bedding, lay out fresh gowns, etc. Walking resulted in many more pushing of the morphine pump. Throughout the night I vomited several times. Not fun.  Day three found me with a slight fever. My headache was the worst pain I was having. All I wanted to do was sleep and the doctor ordered my morphine pump taken away and I weaned to an oral medicine (oxycodone). Luckily I was able to sleep a little more between the slightly lessened visitations of medical staff. When I was awake, I tried to walk, drink, and actually eat. These things, along with pain medicine, helped my fever go down.  Day four was my last day in the hospital! I was released right before lunch, took a short ride to where we are now staying, and have been relaxing in my own terms. I look forward to a full night sleep.  Things I reiterate: clean your system before you go; drink TONS of liquids; eat what you can, when you can; have someone to help you even in the hospital if you can; listen to all advice the medical teams have to give. I hope this not-so-short blog helps someone who has pre-surgery jitters. Relax…the hardest part is getting the IV!

Why do you have to clean your system?  Do they make you or just a good idea?

They didn't make me clean my system out, but I saw a friend go through the same surgery with the same medical team, and she didn't clean out her system.  She then had some followup complications requiring her to go back in and get fixed.  I thought, "What would it hurt?" and now glad that I did.  The nurses were shocked at how soon I was up walking, drinking, etc.  Chances are you won't sleep much the night before your surgery anyway, so why not do something productive? :)  Good luck, God Bless!

Wade

Whoops. I logged in under my wifes name accidentally.

I am starting my 2 week liquid diet this Tuesday and will have surgery on November 25th.  I have been very nervous... and I have to tell you that your blog really did help.  Please keep me posted on the recovery process.  I will be thinking of you and your wife.   I am thankful that my best friend took the entire wee after my surgery to stay with me... I see that was a good move! 

The week long help will be well worth anything you can say or do.  Tell your best friend you might not say the nicest of things at times, but if they overlook that, then piece of....well, water.  Drink water. Good luck and keep me posted on your pre and post surgery.

I am starting my liquid diet as well on Tuesday!  Let me know how you are doing.  I have lot's of samples of protein's to try before surgery.  Right now I am doing a 7 day total body cleanse to get everything in tip top shape.  I heard it's really good to clean your system out for surgery, it just makes it easier postop.  My md does not require any preop diet, but I am doing it to get my liver as small as possible.  Anyway, would love to compare notes with you, especially since we are having surgery on the same date!  Keep in touch!

I appreciate this post very much!! Thank you for taking the time to tell us pre-ops your experience.My surgery is on the 25th and to say Im nervous is an understatement.

Lisa,

  I totally understand about the nerves.  On my trip down to Portland (about a 3+ hour drive) I was so nervous the day before that I had to stop visit a tree about every 10 to 20 miles.  You will do fine.  The hardest part is the IV.  The 25th will be here before you know it.  Good luck and God Bless.

That was really fun reading your story compared to mine.  lol Mine was fairly different though.  ITA about the IV being the worst part.  I am having issues post op with pain but nothing that isn't bearable but for sure the IV stunk!

One thing that was odd was the guy insisted on putting it on my left side when I know my right side is my good side and he took several punches which has never ever happened to me. 

It sounds like you have a fantastic, supportive wife though.  I wish my husband was more like your wife.  LOL No he had to cart our son around to school so he wasn't around much but it would have been nice to have him at my bedside.  He has done his part for me in the bathroom catagory and I won't go there it sucked for him.  LOL

Thanks for sharing!