my surgery experience Nov 7 2011

Hi All

I got home on the 9th a day early!     Woo Hoo!!!

I am in no pain at all.. a small amount of discomfort, very small

I do get tired fast ....but hey I have a few weeks to get that outta my system...

So here it is to the best of my memory .. lol kinda foggy!!!

I was the first surgery of the day.. had to arrive at 630 am

I was not nervous at all .. strange but true...

they were short staffed that morning and had a few people coming in from different depts to get the ORs filled up.. I had a change in anesthesiologist but that was fine..

I have veins that hide, so I told them that as they where getting ready to put in my IV.. well a couple nurses looked at me and one tried but didnt get it in so they said it would happen in the OR. they did give me an ativan and a acid reducer buy mouth and the blood thinner in the tummy which does sting.

I actually had to walk myself into the OR lol and get on the table Damien was there to help me get up.. I still needed my IV so the anesthesiologist. got that going.. and she put the oxygen mask on my face and within a few breaths I was out.

I next remember  being wheeled out of recovery and going up to icu.. no problems , my dr just prefers we go for one night...

up in icu they were attentive and asked about pain.. I had some and they asked how much well I said 7 outta 10 well holy they gave me moriphine and gravol ... night night I was back asleep

they had  me take like 9 pills with water!!! I couldnt believe that.. like man oh man
but I got them down no problem... a while later .. I sorta have no memory of time lol
they brought me more pills a big one in half pottassium I think he said and some liquid tylenol..
well the pills when down and I was onto the tylenol and washed it down with a bit of water and whoa nelly I threw up.. not pleasant at all..

awhile later ? I was awake no pain.. a little nausea and a nice nurse came and gave me a sponge bath, they used some kinda pink stain all over.. that was Ok

They also had given me a painful shot.. blood thinner it hurts in the tummy.. doesnt last long but it stings... I asked how many times do I have to have that? he said just once a day I said well that is the third time today!!!! pretty sure I had it for the second time in icu grrrr

Anyways the next morning I was given 3 small pills and eww more liquid tylenol.. of course I was scared to take it but it was OK this time... I was moved to the regular ward and slept on and off.. was given apple juice , I mixed it with water and it made me umm heartburny so I didnt really like it ... but I asked for antiacid and they got me some.. they had me on liquid tylenol.. but I truly had no pain.. just this heartburn .. I was able to get up and walk .. at some point they had taken the cathater out.. also not painful... I was able to go home the second day as long as I could tolerate my full fluid lunch.. so I took a few bites of all that was served on my tray and I got outta there!

no more of those blood thinner shots for this kid! plus the lab came every morning and took blood work umm nope, I am going home!!!!

I also had to have a drain removed and that was another painless thing.. so fast that even if It did hurt it would be over in a sec...

like I said I am not so good at punctuation ....sorry

hope this helps it was not tooo bad at all

Congrats on your surgery and welcome to the loosers bench!!!!  Things certainly are a little different from patient to patient, all of my blood thinner shots went into the arm as none of the nurses wanted to inject my tummy with the surgery there. 

Hope that you continue to have a smooth recovery and I'll talk to you soon.

Jayna

So glad all went so well for you!!
Rhonda

Hi! So glad it went well for you! Hope you continue to do well now that you're home. I'm still sore, but it's getting better with each day. Mostly hurts where the drain was. Good luck!

welcome home and thank you so much for the upate, i have been wondering how you were doing? i didn't know that sampath had you in icu on the first night, so thats very good to know.  From your first visit with sampath how long did you have to wait?  just curious.  i have so many appoinments in late november and december i just wonder where i am in the waiting process.  i have my upper GI on tuesday this coming week. 
take care and rest up, sure sounds like you are doing terrific!!!

So happy it all went relativly smoothly!

I didnt realize you get so many shots...good to know.

Thanks for the update.  Glad to hear you're doing fine and at home.  :) 

Are these blood thinner shots something everyone gets?  I haven't see anyone else mention them before.

I look forward to hearing about your progress,

Cathrine

As far as I know everyone gets them. I did too.
Rhonda

I think that all of dr. sampath's patients get the blood thinner shots.

readyornot, i believe that dr. sampath's patients all go to either icu or a monitored bed (kinda like a step down from icu) for the first night. on either one you still have monitors to keep an eye on your heartrate.  it's just precautionary but i feel much better knowing they were keeping an eye on me.  i didn't go to icu but i went to the telemetry unit to be monitored (it's on 2 south).

Congratulations on your surgery, can't wait to hear how your weight loss journey progresses.

Suzanne