Xpost: A Lot of Work to Get on the Loser's Bench
I posted this to the RNY forum
I thought I would go ahead and start to write up my Odyssey.... excuse the typos or meandering mind.... I'm all drugged up.
Tuesday morning hubby and I left the house at 6 am to go to the hospital. We paused for him to get some fast food since I didn't want him leaving to eat once they took me back to start the surgery.
They had trouble getting the IV in.. tried my right forearm and left crook of my elbow before passing the buck to the anaesthesiologist. He got it in my left hand without incident. Then they surprised me by injecting Verced before I left the pre-op room... and I knew what that would mean: pure amnesia from about that moment. Hubby gave me a kiss, and I was off to the O.R.
The O.R. (in my memory and surely NOT reality) was a medieval dungeon with rusty saws and a dirt floor. There was a goat and a chicken standing on the operating room table, and my surgeon looked a little like a werewolf. I realized that they gave me verced so I wouldn't have second thoughts upon seeing this menagerie.
The next moment I woke up, and the very first thought on my mind was "Nuh UH! I'm NOT going to have this surgery" (especially not with such an unsanitary operating room). My second thought was "I woke up! I made it through surgery! Yay!" I sort of looped in and out of wakefulness in the recovery room for some time. I was glad I made it through surgery and somewhat dismayed that my first thought on waking was that I wanted to cancel.
Eventually, in a twilight zone of unreality, I was shipped to my hospital room. Very shortly thereafter, my hubby showed up. It was 2 pm and he was there as a great comfort to me. He left that evening at 8 pm and I had a chance to get to know my roommate. She was, it turned out, on her FIFTIETH day of being in the hospital. She'd had RNY surgery approximately a year ago and had spent all but about two months since her surgery in the hospital with catastrophic complications. She was finally going home the next day, but it was a little bit disconcerting that my roommate was one who had such awful complications.
That night I had to pee every 45 minutes for the entire night. (talk about getting your exercise)... and every time I got up I was nauseus.. I was very glad that the nursing staff were very attentive and nothing like I'd heard... they came direct when called and were super supportive.
I decided the next morning that I would not try to go home that day. (and they wouldn't have let me since I hadn't passed gas anyway)
They told me they were going to take away my pain pump, my honey bunny was running behind, the 'good nursing staff" left, and the new nursing staff were awful, my IV line was all wrapped around one of the supports on teh bed, manacling me to the bed and keeping me from being able to do anything, every effort to ask my nurse to untangle my arm from the support was met with a nod and a "walk by" with no action taken. The phone started to ring, and it was too far away for me to reach, but it was shrill as hell and rang twenty times. I started to get freaked and emotional for no apparant reason, and buzzers started going off all over the place, IV was out, pain pump was freaking out, leg cuffs were beep beep beeping my oxygen monitor detected I was hyperventilating, and I was just freaked out. The nurse continued to ignore me and the various and sundry alarms and later said "I didn't know what to do to make you feel better, so I gave you some space". It was a dark dark moment and I was highly emotional for about an hour. My roommie, as she prepared to leave, was very compassionate and comforting and I felt guilty because I'd had this pain-free problem-free surgery and here this other woman with huge issues was comforting me.
I got ahold of myself and my roommie departed and hubby arrived.
He felt bad that I had a bad morning but I couldn't pinpoint what was bugging me... aside from knowing they were taking away the pain pump. He made an unfortunate joke about that and the waterworks turned on. But I got control of myself again.
Someone came in and was cleaning out the newly vacated bed. In need of a little understanding and sympathy I mentioned that it wasn't a good idea to put a new post-op with someone with excessive year-long complications, and the woman went OFF.... how the other patient would be back, and how all the new patients are in great condition, but give it a month, she said, they're ALL in here, bleeding all over the place, having big complications. Thank God, she said, that she was naturally thin and all she ahd to do was diet. She was, she told me, once 151 lbs, but she dieted and got down to 135. Then with a snooty and uppity look, she departed.
Personally, aside from the appalling lack of empathy, I was doing great. I had to re-educate the food services people and let them know that the meals they were serving me were inappropriate and send them back to bring me a more appropriate meal. I loved discovering popsicles, and I wondered what was wrong with me that i could drink water so fast without repercussions.
Later that day I got a new roommie who had surgery with my surgeon's associate. They apparantly lost the leg-cuff machine from her bed, so put on the cuffs and did not put them on the machine. She developed a lot of calf pain towards the evening and so I ended up loaning her my machine while they "were waiting on a new one from supplies". I was very concerned about her.
Meantime I was given my Lortab Elixir and asked for an orange popsicle. My plan: go to sleep and try to get through the night. It was 7 pm. At 11 pm, I got my orange popsicle, after asking and asking and asking and asking and finally the mother of my roommate went and got one for me. I had to ask for new meds before I could even try to sleep. It was very crazy.
This morning I was served cream-of-wheat, which I cannot stand. I asked for a replacemnt so I was given some "Glucerna" which had 23 grams of carbohydrates and the third ingredient on the list was something like Corn Maltodextrin (or something like that). I do believe I had my first experience with dumping! Heart racing, nausea, need to sleep. I slept for an hour and woke up refreshed. Ucky stuff! Hope it's not a sign of things to come.
Finally got out of the hospital at 11:50 and was home before 1 pm.
I'm sort of woozy and can't chat... gets me seasick. But I wanted everyone to know my lovely experience.
For the most part, aside from the soreness around the periphery of my tummy, I'm pleased with the tiny-ness of my incisions... I expect them to disappear in a year. Doc bypassed 150 cm. I'll see him in three weeks.
Anyway, that's all I have the stamina to write.
Oh and on their scales I weighed in at 295 before surgery, 293 day after surgery and 292 today.
Tuesday morning hubby and I left the house at 6 am to go to the hospital. We paused for him to get some fast food since I didn't want him leaving to eat once they took me back to start the surgery.
They had trouble getting the IV in.. tried my right forearm and left crook of my elbow before passing the buck to the anaesthesiologist. He got it in my left hand without incident. Then they surprised me by injecting Verced before I left the pre-op room... and I knew what that would mean: pure amnesia from about that moment. Hubby gave me a kiss, and I was off to the O.R.
The O.R. (in my memory and surely NOT reality) was a medieval dungeon with rusty saws and a dirt floor. There was a goat and a chicken standing on the operating room table, and my surgeon looked a little like a werewolf. I realized that they gave me verced so I wouldn't have second thoughts upon seeing this menagerie.
The next moment I woke up, and the very first thought on my mind was "Nuh UH! I'm NOT going to have this surgery" (especially not with such an unsanitary operating room). My second thought was "I woke up! I made it through surgery! Yay!" I sort of looped in and out of wakefulness in the recovery room for some time. I was glad I made it through surgery and somewhat dismayed that my first thought on waking was that I wanted to cancel.
Eventually, in a twilight zone of unreality, I was shipped to my hospital room. Very shortly thereafter, my hubby showed up. It was 2 pm and he was there as a great comfort to me. He left that evening at 8 pm and I had a chance to get to know my roommate. She was, it turned out, on her FIFTIETH day of being in the hospital. She'd had RNY surgery approximately a year ago and had spent all but about two months since her surgery in the hospital with catastrophic complications. She was finally going home the next day, but it was a little bit disconcerting that my roommate was one who had such awful complications.
That night I had to pee every 45 minutes for the entire night. (talk about getting your exercise)... and every time I got up I was nauseus.. I was very glad that the nursing staff were very attentive and nothing like I'd heard... they came direct when called and were super supportive.
I decided the next morning that I would not try to go home that day. (and they wouldn't have let me since I hadn't passed gas anyway)
They told me they were going to take away my pain pump, my honey bunny was running behind, the 'good nursing staff" left, and the new nursing staff were awful, my IV line was all wrapped around one of the supports on teh bed, manacling me to the bed and keeping me from being able to do anything, every effort to ask my nurse to untangle my arm from the support was met with a nod and a "walk by" with no action taken. The phone started to ring, and it was too far away for me to reach, but it was shrill as hell and rang twenty times. I started to get freaked and emotional for no apparant reason, and buzzers started going off all over the place, IV was out, pain pump was freaking out, leg cuffs were beep beep beeping my oxygen monitor detected I was hyperventilating, and I was just freaked out. The nurse continued to ignore me and the various and sundry alarms and later said "I didn't know what to do to make you feel better, so I gave you some space". It was a dark dark moment and I was highly emotional for about an hour. My roommie, as she prepared to leave, was very compassionate and comforting and I felt guilty because I'd had this pain-free problem-free surgery and here this other woman with huge issues was comforting me.
I got ahold of myself and my roommie departed and hubby arrived.
He felt bad that I had a bad morning but I couldn't pinpoint what was bugging me... aside from knowing they were taking away the pain pump. He made an unfortunate joke about that and the waterworks turned on. But I got control of myself again.
Someone came in and was cleaning out the newly vacated bed. In need of a little understanding and sympathy I mentioned that it wasn't a good idea to put a new post-op with someone with excessive year-long complications, and the woman went OFF.... how the other patient would be back, and how all the new patients are in great condition, but give it a month, she said, they're ALL in here, bleeding all over the place, having big complications. Thank God, she said, that she was naturally thin and all she ahd to do was diet. She was, she told me, once 151 lbs, but she dieted and got down to 135. Then with a snooty and uppity look, she departed.
Personally, aside from the appalling lack of empathy, I was doing great. I had to re-educate the food services people and let them know that the meals they were serving me were inappropriate and send them back to bring me a more appropriate meal. I loved discovering popsicles, and I wondered what was wrong with me that i could drink water so fast without repercussions.
Later that day I got a new roommie who had surgery with my surgeon's associate. They apparantly lost the leg-cuff machine from her bed, so put on the cuffs and did not put them on the machine. She developed a lot of calf pain towards the evening and so I ended up loaning her my machine while they "were waiting on a new one from supplies". I was very concerned about her.
Meantime I was given my Lortab Elixir and asked for an orange popsicle. My plan: go to sleep and try to get through the night. It was 7 pm. At 11 pm, I got my orange popsicle, after asking and asking and asking and asking and finally the mother of my roommate went and got one for me. I had to ask for new meds before I could even try to sleep. It was very crazy.
This morning I was served cream-of-wheat, which I cannot stand. I asked for a replacemnt so I was given some "Glucerna" which had 23 grams of carbohydrates and the third ingredient on the list was something like Corn Maltodextrin (or something like that). I do believe I had my first experience with dumping! Heart racing, nausea, need to sleep. I slept for an hour and woke up refreshed. Ucky stuff! Hope it's not a sign of things to come.
Finally got out of the hospital at 11:50 and was home before 1 pm.
I'm sort of woozy and can't chat... gets me seasick. But I wanted everyone to know my lovely experience.
For the most part, aside from the soreness around the periphery of my tummy, I'm pleased with the tiny-ness of my incisions... I expect them to disappear in a year. Doc bypassed 150 cm. I'll see him in three weeks.
Anyway, that's all I have the stamina to write.
Oh and on their scales I weighed in at 295 before surgery, 293 day after surgery and 292 today.
~Lady Lithia~ 200 lbs lost!
March 9, 2011 - Coccygectomy!
I chased my dreams, and my dreams, they caught me!
You are a loser already! Hang in there Lithia....seems you and I attract people on this weight loss journey who simply can not do their job competently. I have just had another go round with my hospital. But the worst is over and you are home in your own bed with the best nurse in town. Sleep well tonight and tomorrow should be better.
Hugs, Gena
Hers a thimble of protein shake to you!! Hope you're stocked up on popsickles at home. They do make them sugarless don't they? That's a good idea. Hope your feeling better today. did you have laser? I am having a revision, so Dr. J has to do a full cut down my belly. It's not fun, but I am a positive person and know it will be worth it. Thanks for sharing, sweetie. Keep in touch! I go for preop 04/03 and am actually looking forward to it. One more step closer to the final end!! Sandra
Sandra...myspace.com/mesasiandra
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