I'm here!!! Update from a 6 day old
(deactivated member)
on 12/5/11 3:36 am, edited 12/5/11 3:39 am
on 12/5/11 3:36 am, edited 12/5/11 3:39 am
Hello everyone! First off, thanks so much to Gina 
for being there for me and keeping everyone updated the last week. This post is long, but I know I enjoyed detailed posts of surgery when I was anxious pre-op, so I thought I'd pay it forward. Here's my week, for the newbies and anyone else who cares:
I had open 2nd step DS (already had the sleeve) on Tuesday in Minnesota with Dr. Buchwald. I arrived on Monday at my sisters and started my bowel prep. I had to drink a bottle of mag cit and then an hour after I finished it, start the first of 3 rounds of antibiotics. Each time, was 4 horse pills, 2 of each different antibiotic. By round 3, I wasn't keeping them down at all. Was up ALL NIGHT, literally, puking my guts out and texting Gina. Love that woman! Anyways, so leave my sisters house at 5am complete with my bucket (still puking) and head to the hospital to be there by 6.
Once I was there, they called me in pretty quickly. I had a mental break and about busted out of there. I told them that I'm a very hard IV stick (IV's are also my major phobia in life) and so before they attempted, they called in some expert chick that stuck me ONE time, barely hurt, and it was in, WHEW!!!! I was freezing cold. Talked to the surgeon, anesthesiologist, nurses, etc. throughout the next 2 hours while they prepped me. I got to put on the awesome paper gown and they plugged the heater thingy into it and it was toasty warm ;-) The anes. said they were going to give me some Michael Jackson drugs to calm me down. I was in and out of tears, scared out of my mind. I didn't write my letters. Anyways, he injected some propafol (sp?) into my IV and that's what I remember. Apparently, I was still talking and such after this, because I have a picture with the blue hat on (I remember no blue hat) from when they were wheeling me into surgery that my mom said that I INSISTED she take. I have no recollection of this LOL. I looked pretty stoned tho. Found it on the way home from the hospital and just laughed. My last memory before surgery, was them wheeling me into the OR and me asking why on earth everything was green?! Everything, seriously. The walls, ceilings, bedding, everything. Dr. Buchwald was over in the corner and he waved to me and gave me a thumbs up. That was it.
The next thing I remember was that I woke up in a crazy amount of pain. I used my nurse button and asked for someone to come in. She told me that it was Wednesday afternoon. I had surgery Tuesday morning. WTF?! Apparently the anes. had given me something different as far as putting me out went to try and reduce the nausea I get, and whatever it was was some gooooood ****! My mom and sister weren't there, and I kept thinking, hmmm, why haven't they been here? I learned later that day, that they were there when I got out of surgery, but I had no recollection of that whole day. The nurse had me start hitting my pain pump, which was dilaudid .2mg every 10 minutes. I was so sleepy tho, that I'd fall asleep and not hit it, then wake up in terrible pain again. They started giving me shots of toridol. That stuff is AMAZING. So, I felt pretty good on that, was up walking, etc. They took my catheter out. I still had a superficial drain at the bottom of my incision as well as an NG tube. No JP drain tho! My incision is about 10 inches long, vertical between breast bone and belly button. As soon as the toridol would wear off, I'd feel terrible again. I guess that is a drug that you can only have the first 2 days because of kidney or liver damage or something of the sort. I couldn't get out of bed I was in so much pain. The nurse upped my dilaudid to .3mg. That was super, except it made me so dizzy that I couldn't stand or walk. SOOO, they had to call in some other doc that put me back on the toridol every 6 hours and moved the dilaudid back to .2mg. Finally, this worked. My pain was as under control as it could be. I also looked over to see the pretties flowers ever, from none other than my switch sister, Beth. Awwwww Thanks Beth!!
I look at my arms and hands in horror and realize that while I was in surgery, the anes. resident was trying to put in an extra IV in case mine blew (which it did, on Friday morning) and I had NINE...yeah, NINE holes and bruises all over my left arm and hand. When the IV blew on Friday morning, the expert lady that came in stuck me 2 more times to get another in....all the while I'm having another mental meltdown, bawling my eyes out. FYI...crying with big incision is not advised.
My next goal was to get that damn NG tube out. I couldn't even have ice chips with it in. I was so thirsty and my mouth was so dry. Buchwald said it cannot come out until I poop. UGH. Finally, Thursday I pooped. They took it out and it hurt like hell. Bled all over the place. The nurse said he'd never seen one that bled before. Happy to be his first. lol I was then given clear liquids for a couple hours, then fulls.
Dr. B discharged me Friday morning (well, of course, took the nurses 4 hours to get me out of there) and pureed foods. He said that the next day I could eat anything I want, provided I can tolerate it. I had a couple chicken nuggets the next day. We drive 4 hours the first day, and the other 4 hours the next day. I slept almost the entire time. Friday night, when i went to bed, I took a percoset. I woke up at around 4 and took another and walked. When I got up for the day, my face was swelled like a balloon. Weird, thought it was either the percoset, or the 14lbs of extra IV fluids I was carrying around.
I didn't take another percoset until I went to bed the next night. Woke up with my eyes so swelled that I could barely open them. Hmmm, must be the percoset. I called the hospital and the doc told me to not take anymore of those. He said that if they are causing my face to be that swollen that it was probably closing my airways as well. Then he told me that they can't call in narcotics over the phone. Off I go an hour drive to the nearest clinic on a Sunday. The doc there writes me TWO scripts, one for toradol and one for dilaudid. Sheesh. I feel like a walking pharmacy.
Anyways, 6 days out today and for the most part I'm feeling pretty good! Got the babies off to daycare this morning with the help of the older kids and I'm doing absolutely NOTHING all day. Sorry it took so long to update you all, I've been super busy and when I'm not busy, I'm sleeping. Thanks for all the a advice of the vets and noobs here. I have learned so much and can't wait to be all healed and a vet myself so I can pay it forward.
Going to go enjoy my 69 grams of protein in my tilapia now! Thanks for the swinging critters and prayers from you all. And again, thanks Gina.
for being there for me and keeping everyone updated the last week. This post is long, but I know I enjoyed detailed posts of surgery when I was anxious pre-op, so I thought I'd pay it forward. Here's my week, for the newbies and anyone else who cares:I had open 2nd step DS (already had the sleeve) on Tuesday in Minnesota with Dr. Buchwald. I arrived on Monday at my sisters and started my bowel prep. I had to drink a bottle of mag cit and then an hour after I finished it, start the first of 3 rounds of antibiotics. Each time, was 4 horse pills, 2 of each different antibiotic. By round 3, I wasn't keeping them down at all. Was up ALL NIGHT, literally, puking my guts out and texting Gina. Love that woman! Anyways, so leave my sisters house at 5am complete with my bucket (still puking) and head to the hospital to be there by 6.
Once I was there, they called me in pretty quickly. I had a mental break and about busted out of there. I told them that I'm a very hard IV stick (IV's are also my major phobia in life) and so before they attempted, they called in some expert chick that stuck me ONE time, barely hurt, and it was in, WHEW!!!! I was freezing cold. Talked to the surgeon, anesthesiologist, nurses, etc. throughout the next 2 hours while they prepped me. I got to put on the awesome paper gown and they plugged the heater thingy into it and it was toasty warm ;-) The anes. said they were going to give me some Michael Jackson drugs to calm me down. I was in and out of tears, scared out of my mind. I didn't write my letters. Anyways, he injected some propafol (sp?) into my IV and that's what I remember. Apparently, I was still talking and such after this, because I have a picture with the blue hat on (I remember no blue hat) from when they were wheeling me into surgery that my mom said that I INSISTED she take. I have no recollection of this LOL. I looked pretty stoned tho. Found it on the way home from the hospital and just laughed. My last memory before surgery, was them wheeling me into the OR and me asking why on earth everything was green?! Everything, seriously. The walls, ceilings, bedding, everything. Dr. Buchwald was over in the corner and he waved to me and gave me a thumbs up. That was it.
The next thing I remember was that I woke up in a crazy amount of pain. I used my nurse button and asked for someone to come in. She told me that it was Wednesday afternoon. I had surgery Tuesday morning. WTF?! Apparently the anes. had given me something different as far as putting me out went to try and reduce the nausea I get, and whatever it was was some gooooood ****! My mom and sister weren't there, and I kept thinking, hmmm, why haven't they been here? I learned later that day, that they were there when I got out of surgery, but I had no recollection of that whole day. The nurse had me start hitting my pain pump, which was dilaudid .2mg every 10 minutes. I was so sleepy tho, that I'd fall asleep and not hit it, then wake up in terrible pain again. They started giving me shots of toridol. That stuff is AMAZING. So, I felt pretty good on that, was up walking, etc. They took my catheter out. I still had a superficial drain at the bottom of my incision as well as an NG tube. No JP drain tho! My incision is about 10 inches long, vertical between breast bone and belly button. As soon as the toridol would wear off, I'd feel terrible again. I guess that is a drug that you can only have the first 2 days because of kidney or liver damage or something of the sort. I couldn't get out of bed I was in so much pain. The nurse upped my dilaudid to .3mg. That was super, except it made me so dizzy that I couldn't stand or walk. SOOO, they had to call in some other doc that put me back on the toridol every 6 hours and moved the dilaudid back to .2mg. Finally, this worked. My pain was as under control as it could be. I also looked over to see the pretties flowers ever, from none other than my switch sister, Beth. Awwwww Thanks Beth!!
I look at my arms and hands in horror and realize that while I was in surgery, the anes. resident was trying to put in an extra IV in case mine blew (which it did, on Friday morning) and I had NINE...yeah, NINE holes and bruises all over my left arm and hand. When the IV blew on Friday morning, the expert lady that came in stuck me 2 more times to get another in....all the while I'm having another mental meltdown, bawling my eyes out. FYI...crying with big incision is not advised.
My next goal was to get that damn NG tube out. I couldn't even have ice chips with it in. I was so thirsty and my mouth was so dry. Buchwald said it cannot come out until I poop. UGH. Finally, Thursday I pooped. They took it out and it hurt like hell. Bled all over the place. The nurse said he'd never seen one that bled before. Happy to be his first. lol I was then given clear liquids for a couple hours, then fulls.
Dr. B discharged me Friday morning (well, of course, took the nurses 4 hours to get me out of there) and pureed foods. He said that the next day I could eat anything I want, provided I can tolerate it. I had a couple chicken nuggets the next day. We drive 4 hours the first day, and the other 4 hours the next day. I slept almost the entire time. Friday night, when i went to bed, I took a percoset. I woke up at around 4 and took another and walked. When I got up for the day, my face was swelled like a balloon. Weird, thought it was either the percoset, or the 14lbs of extra IV fluids I was carrying around.
I didn't take another percoset until I went to bed the next night. Woke up with my eyes so swelled that I could barely open them. Hmmm, must be the percoset. I called the hospital and the doc told me to not take anymore of those. He said that if they are causing my face to be that swollen that it was probably closing my airways as well. Then he told me that they can't call in narcotics over the phone. Off I go an hour drive to the nearest clinic on a Sunday. The doc there writes me TWO scripts, one for toradol and one for dilaudid. Sheesh. I feel like a walking pharmacy.
Anyways, 6 days out today and for the most part I'm feeling pretty good! Got the babies off to daycare this morning with the help of the older kids and I'm doing absolutely NOTHING all day. Sorry it took so long to update you all, I've been super busy and when I'm not busy, I'm sleeping. Thanks for all the a advice of the vets and noobs here. I have learned so much and can't wait to be all healed and a vet myself so I can pay it forward.
Going to go enjoy my 69 grams of protein in my tilapia now! Thanks for the swinging critters and prayers from you all. And again, thanks Gina.
Thank you for breaking down your experience! Your attitude is sounding pretty great! I know I'm going to be a bag of nerves and emotions too. At least I won't be alone in that one.
I've had an IV blow before, and it hurts (I wasn't fortunate enough to be on pain meds at the time). It's good that you were out for it. Imagine the anxiety if you'd been awake.
I'm sure you're very happy to be home, and I hope you get lots of rest!! Remember to keep an eye on all of those fluids and get the walking in. :)
Take care!
Nic
I've had an IV blow before, and it hurts (I wasn't fortunate enough to be on pain meds at the time). It's good that you were out for it. Imagine the anxiety if you'd been awake.
I'm sure you're very happy to be home, and I hope you get lots of rest!! Remember to keep an eye on all of those fluids and get the walking in. :)
Take care!
Nic
I'm so glad to hear you're doing better. When I stopped in Thursday morning you seemed pretty groggy and dealing with pain stuff. Glad to hear things turned around so well for you! Just remember to REST when you feel tired, and get as much walking and sipping in as you can.
-EJ 
"If television's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who won't shut up." -cat and girl
5'6" HW 325 / SW 317 / CW 214 / First Goal 190 | Century Club 09/19/2011
"If television's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who won't shut up." -cat and girl
5'6" HW 325 / SW 317 / CW 214 / First Goal 190 | Century Club 09/19/2011
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