My Surgery Went Really Well!

Hi everyone,

I'm afraid this might be a long post, but I think that writing down my RNY experience on Monday will encourage pre-ops. 

Everything went really well.  I didn't feel much pain and by the evening I came home (Wednesday), I felt mainly mildish gas pains and pain in my calf muscles from walking the wards every hour that I was awake when I was in the hospital.

I was told to arrive at TEGH at 11:30am, but of course, I got there about 45 minutes early - better early than late.  After I registered at Admitting, I went upstairs to the 1st pre-surgery waiting room, where I waited until about 11:35am.

Then, a nurse came and helped get me ready for surgery.  I put on the 2 gowns and the shower cap hair keeper, and anti-embolism stockings.  They were a little hard to pull on, but after surgery, I found that they kept my legs warm.  They weren't uncomfortable.  Then, the nurse gave me 2 sublingual Xanax the PATTS anesthetist had kindly ordered, and started my IV painlessly.  I honestly can't remember, but I think she gave me a needle to prevent blood clots too.

Then, my Dad & I were led to the true pre-surgery waiting room.  I went to the bathroom, and I met my surgeon, Dr. Jamie Cyriac, who is very kind and lets you ask as many questions as you want and who is obviously a great surgeon!  About 10 minutes later, at 12:40pm, I was led to the ER itself.  They let me keep my glasses until I had climbed onto the table and positioned myself properly.  I am virtually blind without them, so I was grateful.

I woke up in the recovery room in some pain and said so twice  - then, I was in no pain the whole time I was there.  I had to stay in the recovery room an extra 4 hours because I have severe sleep apnea, although by the last 90 minutes I was quite awake.  For the last 40 minutes, I was the only patient in the recovery room and the nurse came to talk to me until I left, which was very kind of her.

Then I was wheeled up to my semi-private bariatric room.  Luckily for me, no other patient (female anyway) showed up while I was there, so I got a free private room!  I had a little pain after I had to scoot from the transport bed to the room bed, but a nurse hung some morphine and I had no more pain issues.  I only got out of bed three or four times that night to go to the bathroom - they keep waking you to check on your vitals.  Once I walked around 2 wards.

The next day, I was still on morphine but I was given apple juice to dilute 50:50 with water and SF Jello, and either chicken broth or beef broth.  I had to go slow and I was almost afraid to try out my new pouch, so I made sure to only sip 2 little 60ml medicine cups and hour.  This day, I was walking the halls every hour or so for 10-15 minutes.  They say it helps you pass gas, as well as avoid blood clots, but I didn't pass much at all until the day I left the hospital.  I didn't get a blood clot though.

The final night in hospital, I woke up in quite a bit of pain, and instead of 2 crushed Percocet, I was given IV morphine again.  After that, there were only 2 times when I felt enough pain to count down the last hour until the next Percocets, but the pain wasn't exactly unbearable.

On Wednesday, the day I was discharged, I was served 1% milk, apple juice & water, and wonder of wonders, overcooked, unflavoured & unsweetened oatmeal.  Never has anything tasted so good afer 23 days of liquids!  I was fine that day on 2 Percocets and was kindly given one one hour ahead of schedule for my drive home to Richmond Hill, otherwise by the time I got out of the pharmacy, I'd have run out on the way home.  Thankfully, the bumpy roads didn't hurt much; Dad drove slowly.

At home, my father installed a raised toilet seat, which has proven to be a Godsend and makes going easy.

I was shocked when the Percocet I took at TEGH wore off that I didn't feel much pain at all; it was a bit of abdominal pain and a bit of gas pain, and my calf muscles hurt from all that walking!  I kept waiting for the pain to get worse, but it hasn't.  I napped in a recliner during the afternoon and evening and kept up the walking.  By the time I went to bed, I found it did not hurt very much at all getting in and out of my bed!

Today, I started off the day with a Percocet and a dense protein shake.  I'm using the unflavoured whey protein isolate I bought and the SF Da Vinci syrups.  My challenge is to get in enough liquids, protein, and other fuel now, but I can't say they didn't warn us at TWH that that would be a 24 hour job at first!

So, my advice to newbies and pre-ops is please try not to be terrified of the surgery like I was.  Everything went perfectly, and the only signs I have really (apart from a few tiny incisions and very mild pain) are that I have no hunger, and feel full quite quickly now if I'm drinking a protein shake (or NF cottage cheese, no sugar added applesauce, etc.).

I hope this post wasn't too long and I hope it helps calm some pre-ops' fears about the proceedure.  I'm so happy to be home again!

And thank you to all my kind friends and to my angel Monica too!  I appreciate all your kind thoughts and wishes and PMs.  I will try to answer everyone in the next day or so.  I'm not feeling much pain at all, but I am tired, so I do take naps.

Jenn.  :)

Great posting and story!   Thanks for sharing for everyone and I am very glad things went well for you.  I must say, while I plan on following my clinic's strict rules about the 2 weeks of clear fluid and then 2 weeks of full fluids, I am sitting here jealous that you can clearly have more than just jello, broth, juice and water.        (sigh).   

By the way I had the same trouble with the back of the calves and I figured out why. While you are shuffling around the halls I bet you were slippers like I did ...which are usually pretty flat.  Once I got home I put running shoes on and the calf pain went away.  I was on the treadmill since 2 days ago (for 2  thirty minute walking sessions) and I was only 4 days post op when I tried.  Way better than walking my halls which are really short and boring.  And wearing running shoes with just that little bit of elevation helped the calves and I have no further calve pain.

Dar

Thank you Dar,

You might have hit upon the cause of my calf muscle pain - it subsided when I went home, even though I kept up the walking.  Different centres really do have different rules about what you can eat on Opti and after surgery!

Jenn.  :)

Thank you for sharing Jenn.  It did help calm some of my pre-op fears.  Good luck with your recovery

Hi Mom-of-Mark,

I'm glad that I could help calm some of your fears - I don't even need painkillers now!

Jenn.  :)

Thanks for the full report on your surgery it's a help for us who are waiting.  I'm glad to hear you are doing so well.

Hi Zilah,

I'm glad my long-winded account was of some use to a few people!  I'm doing amazing now.

Jenn.  :)

Thank You jenn......good post.

Thank you Nelson.  I'm doing amazingly well; so much better than I thought I'd ever do!

Jenn.  :)

Hey there! Great to hear how well your doing and we do appreciate all the details! Makes my upcoming surgery a little less scary!

Continue getting stronger day by day and keep us all posted