Four weeks til I get THE body of my life!

I had the DS, Tony and it was an open procedure..so the worst part was A.) getting out of bed
B.) Getting back into bed C.) the apathetic staff at Scranton's CM Hosp. 

For the most part, the nurses were ok, but the night crew sucked. I needed pain meds at least an hour before I knew they would give it to me, so just bit my tongue until the 4th hour. Then I called for a nurse...it took 45 min for anyone to answer. I told her I was in very bad pain and past due for meds and she said "I will tell your nurse" and long story short...it took ANOTHER 2 1/2 hrs to get the darned meds. I am a nurse and would NEVER let that happen to my patients!!
PLUS they had only one phone and one TV for 2 people. I had a screaming old lady beside me who yelled all night and slept most of the day. Once, I was over 2 hours into a movie and the climax was coming...da biotch woke up and changed the channel. I changed it back, she changed it back. I shut it off! Funny!

But I digress, I have had many surgeries...mostly on bone, tho...bad knees, hammertoes. They were not easy to recover from. But the DS, after just a few days, was not so bad. Not great, but not as bad as the knee surgery.

So, not having my muscle cut as in the DS, or bone cut away as when I had the implant in the knee...I am prepared to feel like crap for a while, but with my eye on the prize, I am ok with what is to come.

Give the girls a round of smooches for me, OK??
Teri

No kisses for Jess !!  Her head is big enough already !!  LOL   But I have took it real easy and have not left the room today except to go to the breakfast bar so I am actually feeling a little better .  Guess getting out and slowly walking around a lot was just wearing me out too much .

If you do not know any Spanish then I would pick up a small little dict. to have on hand plus now that the clinic has wireless internet a laptop is almost a must anyway but it comes in handy every now and then with the comm. gap. But trust me you will she SO much of these nurses you will thing they are staying in the same room with you !!  LOL   But they are really caring and will go out of their way to help you .  These nurses only work 8 hour shifts and the regular night nurse (Patty) is one of the best . She even speaks some english which is nice.

And like I said it is not the pain because it is really not bad at all or that much of it  -- just the being really tired that is what I have to get past now !!

And yes you have a private room with a phone (got to get a calling card for long distance) , a flat screen tv , and private bath room with a big walk in shower so there should be no problems there . Only problem is over half of the TV channels  are in Spanish and some parts of the day  -- more than that.  Warning don'****ch any CSI shows before you come because one of the English channels shows those kind of shows over and over all the time !!  

And I also saw first hand how Dr S deals with patients in pain .  Just ask Jessica about the first few days with her mucha bum -bum rear end !!   And see what she tells you . FYI  -- she ask for it though because she made him promise that her butt would not be flat any longer !!  LOL 

So if you have already had all that done before then you should already be prepared to just sit /lay down and rest which is probably what I should have been doing all along .

Talk soon
Tony

Tony, I have seen on the PS board that many people talk about how tired they even months later...it must really knock the hell out of you. So, I think I will just lay low and not worry about getting out much. I am bringing books and maybe some DVDs...although then I will need to buy a dvd player. I am not bringing this laptop with me. It is just too heavy to schlep around the airport. I want to get a 2# netbook, but they dont have dvd players inthem...so then a portable DVD player. Aw heck...forget the DVDs. I will read.

So YOU tell me..how does Dr S deal with pain. I need to know this. With my DS, I cant take tylenol and I heard he gives that....also I am allergic to morphine. It makes me puke...and demerol does nothing for me. I would actually rather take morphine and puke than take that do-noting demerol, but for this surgery...puking doesnt sound like a very good idea.
(ROCK   *me*   HARD PLACE) get it??

OK, dont kiss Jess...we dont need to enlarge her head, but how is Debbie doing? Do any of then speak Spanish?? I knew I should have taken it in HS. Darn it.

gotta lie down a while. worked 12 hrs last night and night before with precious little sleep in between and no sleep yet today.

Be good, be well and be happy!

Teri

Teri,
I had the same problem with my laptop being too heavy.  It weighs almost 15 lbs!  My BF told me that netbooks are really not good deals.  You can get a better deal with a smaller LapTop.

I just bought a very small Dell at Costco for $699.00  It has a webcam which will be great to skype my daughter with and it has a dvd player.  It weighs 4.8lbs.  Much smaller and manageable!  I uploaded Skype free and with a microphone/headphones I can talk to anyone world wide free - Skype to Skype is always free.

I can not tell you what it was but I know he changed it twice because she was really hurting and upset because of the pain in her butt . This I can tell you for sure  -- he does not like / want to see he patients and even upped my pain pill in the hotel after he saw the first one was not enough for the night time . During the day -- I almost do not need one but he wants me to try to get 8 hours a night in the bed -- and since dropping 200 pounds my body just does not like to sit still  -- more so it does not like to lay down so when I  am in pain in bed  -- makes me more likely for something to ease it . 

And this was my first laptop !  Just have always had desktop at home and work so never needed / wanted one  -- but I now love this thing .  Maybe look into a case with wheels and a expandable handle on it . Or just strap the case on the handle of you carry on with wheels like I did .   However the netbooks are easy to carry -- you got me on that one. And FYI  -- I called before every leaving home and told the airlines that I would need asst. on my return flight . And I did not even have to check when I got to the airport because the lady ask me did I need a wheelchair because it was on my information  -- told her only on the return and she said --"no problem" !!  So I have no plans of trying to go thru customs at Dallas without some help !!  LOL 

Debbie just made it to the hotel and we are all going to the "happy hour" at 6:30 when it starts because it ends at 8pm.  That way maybe we can get enought to bring back a mid night snack .LOL

And FYI  -- Jess knows just enough Spanish to get us all LOCKED up so I have been using the laptop and the spanish dict.  !!  No problems so far with that . (Fab who did not get to come was the one who knew Spanish !! ) 

Hyjack!

Hey Terry I will be bringing my laptop with a 17" screen so if you want to bring DVD's go ahead I think I might own 2 DVD's, I will also bring my cord to try & watch them thru the TV if the TV in the room has the right plug! 

I also plan on laying low & just getting as much rest as possible.

Just thought I'd let you know that I also speak Spanish, I just haven't practiced much in a while.  Somehow it always seems to come back to me whenever I need to use it!

It won't be much longer now!

Fab

Cool Fab...I just bought a netbook...so I dont have to lub my laptop around. I took it to Florida and what a hassle. It was sooo heavy and nobody had wireless after all.  I do have a few DVDs if I can find them, I was also going to see about getting some movies from the Library too.

We can just chill and watch flicks and lay low. Or go out and raise hell if we really feel like it...NOT!

Glad you speak Spanish. I only know a few naughty words...which I do NOT intend to use.

TTYL..Teri

I hope you start feeling more rested soon!  I know what you mean about getting out.  I am pre-op, but I know that since losing all of this weight, I have a real problem with just staying home when I'm sick.  I have too much energy for my own good!  I wanted to ask you about your Short term disability paperwork.  I sent all of my FMLA paperwork to Dr. S today via priority mail.  With the my short term, they need to contact him personally.  Did you have paperwork to complete?  I know every STD is different.  Mine is UNUM. 
Thanks!

Yes I ended up with two sets to have him sign . The first was for my company which I sent Fed Ex and he returned Fed Ex but  then the third party ins. company waited so long to tell me that they had some for him to fill out that I ended up bring theirs with me on the plane and will mail them back once I get home . They said I had 14 days from the time of surgery to get them back or they would send me a notice saying I only had another 14 days to get them in or else . Told her I would not mail them until Oct 21 so she could get the notice ready to be mailed when the first 14 days came because I would still be out of the country. LOL 

And FYI -- he has now problem with filling out the paper work as long as you get it to him -- or bring it with you .

Good Luck
Tony

Thanks Tony.  I sent them priority and they cost me $26.00.  How much was Fed Ex?  I'm expecting there to be more forms from the disability company.  I appreciate your feed back on this.