Surgery date ............ Nov 2nd
It is 100% normal to be both nervous and excited. I had my RNY on Nov 2nd also, and a week before, I was nervous like a long-tailed cat in a room filled with rocking chairs! Pinging off the walls, almost. Then, a couple of days before surgery, I calmed down a lot, and actually got a good night's sleep the night before surgery.
Surgery was pretty much a non-event for me. The guy who inserted the IV did a great job (one stick), and when the anesthesiologist said, "OK, you're going to start feeling a bit woo..." That's all I remember. Next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room, and my wife wasn't there. I asked if they could get my wife for me, and they did. Absolutely no pain from the surgery at that point, but my tail-bone was hurting because the surgical gurney had minimal padding, and they had me at a 45-degree angle, with a lot of my weight on my tail bone. Wierd that I couldn't feel anything from the surgery, but my tailbone still hurt...
They moved me to my room, and helped me off the gurney, then into wonderfully cushy bed. It felt heavenly! Except that I was down too low, and the "curve" was in the middle of my back instead of at my hips. Moving up 6 inches in the bed was extremely difficult, and that's the first time I really felt any pain from the incision sites. And really, it was only the "larger" site where they inserted the stapler that hurt. (To this date, the other incisions have not bothered me a bit - only that one.)
Next, they showed me how to work the morphine pump. Wow. That thing works! Every time I started feeling a bit of pain, hit the button, and "whammo" no more pain! It has a safety mechanism that prevents you from actually giving yourself more than you should have, but I found that I didn't need it nearly as often as I was "allowed" to use it.
So for the next hour, there was a flood of people coming by to get my temp/BP/pulse/O2 saturation, blood sugar, check the drain, check the catheter, etc. Then it was time to go for a walk. One trip up and down the hall - no biggie. Breathing exercises. Do it all over again. Around 6:00PM (surgery was at 9:00AM), I walked four laps up and down the hall. Then at 8PM, I did six laps, and at 10PM I did 10 laps, then they let me go to "sleep". (Still waking me up every hour or so for some test or another.)
At 4:00AM, they were back, waking me up to walk again to walk, etc. Again, I walked about 8 laps, and was thoroughly convinced I would be going home that afternoon, no problem. I seriously had only minor discomfort (did I mention that morphine is great stuff?), was drinking about a 1/2 ounce of liquid (water, crystal light, or isopure) every 15 minutes, and feeling pretty perky. I was ready to check out of there...
Then my belly button decided to "explode". I've had a mild hernia there for a while, but I guess with all the air they pump in for the surgery, plus all the swelling and "re-arranging" that goes on, plus all the IV fluids that "bloat you up", the increased pressure caused my poor belly button to throw in the towel. It was suddenly about 2 inches across, and sticking out 2 inches from the rest of my belly. I showed the nurse, who called the on-call doctor, who called my surgeon in to see what he wanted to do. Dr. Nick (surgeon) explained that it was too large to be sewn closed, and with all the other internal trauma from the RNY, he couldn't use mesh to repair it either - at least not for a while.
So the only course of action available was to "sqeeze" all the stuff back through the hole, and keep pressure on it to prevent it from poking out again. Let me tell you, that was painful, not the least because of all the pressure they had to exert... But eventuall it "popped" back in, and he took a wad of gauze and stuffed it into the belly button, taped it in place, then put a roll of gauze across it, taped that in place, put another roll at a 90 degree angle to the first, taped that in place, and then wrapped a "belly band" around the whole deal. Whew!
For several hours afterward, it was all I could do to choke down a 1/2 ounce of fluid every 1/2 hour, and they told me I couldn't go home. I was disappointed, but also kind of relieved, because I didn't really "feel" ready any longer. By evening, I was feeling a lot better, and able to resume the "sip, sip, sip" every 5 minutes to get 1/2 ounce down every 15 minutes. Logging all that became a pain, but I knew it was only for a short while, so - deal with it.
Next morning, I was back up and walking semi-comfortably again, and feeling much better. Last of the morphine ran out before 7:00, so on to the "take home" pain meds. Guess what? They work too!
By the time the doc made his rounds, I was 100% sure I was going home. Had visits from the bariatric nurse (lots of good info, much of which I'd already learned on OH), nutritionist (details of what to "eat" when I got home), and several others. Discharged, walked to the car, my wife drove me home, and I suddently realized I had no idea where I was going to spend my time... At this point, you can sit up for a few hours at a time, but I found I could absolutely NOT lay down on a flat bed. Way too painful. Luckily, I have a nice LazyBoy that has become my bed / day couch when I'm not up and around. Wish I had planned that one better... Might have rented a hospital bed for a week or so, just for the comfort factor. Oh well.
Sorry this is so long, but I figured others could benefit from hearing my story. I'm doing great now, walking 15 minutes every couple of hours, and continuing to do my breathing exercises. Probably will work part-time from home (lucky me to have a job that allows that) next week, then go back to work for week 3.
Best of luck to everyone on the November schedule!
Surgery was pretty much a non-event for me. The guy who inserted the IV did a great job (one stick), and when the anesthesiologist said, "OK, you're going to start feeling a bit woo..." That's all I remember. Next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room, and my wife wasn't there. I asked if they could get my wife for me, and they did. Absolutely no pain from the surgery at that point, but my tail-bone was hurting because the surgical gurney had minimal padding, and they had me at a 45-degree angle, with a lot of my weight on my tail bone. Wierd that I couldn't feel anything from the surgery, but my tailbone still hurt...
They moved me to my room, and helped me off the gurney, then into wonderfully cushy bed. It felt heavenly! Except that I was down too low, and the "curve" was in the middle of my back instead of at my hips. Moving up 6 inches in the bed was extremely difficult, and that's the first time I really felt any pain from the incision sites. And really, it was only the "larger" site where they inserted the stapler that hurt. (To this date, the other incisions have not bothered me a bit - only that one.)
Next, they showed me how to work the morphine pump. Wow. That thing works! Every time I started feeling a bit of pain, hit the button, and "whammo" no more pain! It has a safety mechanism that prevents you from actually giving yourself more than you should have, but I found that I didn't need it nearly as often as I was "allowed" to use it.
So for the next hour, there was a flood of people coming by to get my temp/BP/pulse/O2 saturation, blood sugar, check the drain, check the catheter, etc. Then it was time to go for a walk. One trip up and down the hall - no biggie. Breathing exercises. Do it all over again. Around 6:00PM (surgery was at 9:00AM), I walked four laps up and down the hall. Then at 8PM, I did six laps, and at 10PM I did 10 laps, then they let me go to "sleep". (Still waking me up every hour or so for some test or another.)
At 4:00AM, they were back, waking me up to walk again to walk, etc. Again, I walked about 8 laps, and was thoroughly convinced I would be going home that afternoon, no problem. I seriously had only minor discomfort (did I mention that morphine is great stuff?), was drinking about a 1/2 ounce of liquid (water, crystal light, or isopure) every 15 minutes, and feeling pretty perky. I was ready to check out of there...
Then my belly button decided to "explode". I've had a mild hernia there for a while, but I guess with all the air they pump in for the surgery, plus all the swelling and "re-arranging" that goes on, plus all the IV fluids that "bloat you up", the increased pressure caused my poor belly button to throw in the towel. It was suddenly about 2 inches across, and sticking out 2 inches from the rest of my belly. I showed the nurse, who called the on-call doctor, who called my surgeon in to see what he wanted to do. Dr. Nick (surgeon) explained that it was too large to be sewn closed, and with all the other internal trauma from the RNY, he couldn't use mesh to repair it either - at least not for a while.
So the only course of action available was to "sqeeze" all the stuff back through the hole, and keep pressure on it to prevent it from poking out again. Let me tell you, that was painful, not the least because of all the pressure they had to exert... But eventuall it "popped" back in, and he took a wad of gauze and stuffed it into the belly button, taped it in place, then put a roll of gauze across it, taped that in place, put another roll at a 90 degree angle to the first, taped that in place, and then wrapped a "belly band" around the whole deal. Whew!
For several hours afterward, it was all I could do to choke down a 1/2 ounce of fluid every 1/2 hour, and they told me I couldn't go home. I was disappointed, but also kind of relieved, because I didn't really "feel" ready any longer. By evening, I was feeling a lot better, and able to resume the "sip, sip, sip" every 5 minutes to get 1/2 ounce down every 15 minutes. Logging all that became a pain, but I knew it was only for a short while, so - deal with it.
Next morning, I was back up and walking semi-comfortably again, and feeling much better. Last of the morphine ran out before 7:00, so on to the "take home" pain meds. Guess what? They work too!
By the time the doc made his rounds, I was 100% sure I was going home. Had visits from the bariatric nurse (lots of good info, much of which I'd already learned on OH), nutritionist (details of what to "eat" when I got home), and several others. Discharged, walked to the car, my wife drove me home, and I suddently realized I had no idea where I was going to spend my time... At this point, you can sit up for a few hours at a time, but I found I could absolutely NOT lay down on a flat bed. Way too painful. Luckily, I have a nice LazyBoy that has become my bed / day couch when I'm not up and around. Wish I had planned that one better... Might have rented a hospital bed for a week or so, just for the comfort factor. Oh well.
Sorry this is so long, but I figured others could benefit from hearing my story. I'm doing great now, walking 15 minutes every couple of hours, and continuing to do my breathing exercises. Probably will work part-time from home (lucky me to have a job that allows that) next week, then go back to work for week 3.
Best of luck to everyone on the November schedule!
Jim, thanks for your story. Made mine seem on track. I had surgery on the 5th and am now home. No adverse effects except for GAS in my chest and I suppose stomach. Never got to the point in the hospital where I was walking as much as you did or keeping liuids down. Was throwing up while being discharged. My doc did remove my hiatial hernia while in there so my belly button didn't explode. (Hope all is going well with that!!) I want to put up how many pounds I have yet to loose with the OH measurement tool. Maybe will look into it later. Listening to you, I am going to try and walk a little more today. Definitely have to go downstairs. Take care, Imani
Most Active
Recent Topics
