the ins and outs of surgery

My bariatric surgery was on August 22.  We were to get to the hospital at 6:30 and naturally both of us set our alarms for 5:30 PM and we woke up with 15 minutes to get to the hospital.  We made it only 5 minutes late and then had to wait nearly 45 minutes to have them start my pre-op work.  After that it went quick- it was only 25 minutes until I was in the operating room.  For the first time in any surgery I don't remember anything after they put the oxygen on me.  A few deep breaths and I was out.  Typically I hear them telling me to relax and then that they are giving me the sedative.  Not this time!  

The next thing I knew I was in the recovery room feeling ready to puke.  I didn't, luckily, but it was definitely feeling that way.  I fell back to sleep and then woke up in my room.  

I dozed on and off all day, taking the morphine they offered.  I had a roommate from hell- I will discuss that in a further post.  Spent the first day mostly sleeping.  They had me get out of bed and walk on the spot for a few seconds then back to bed.

On Tueaday I woke up feeling pretty good.  I took a bit of morphine through the day but not much.  I had my catheter removed and was cleared to be up and moving around, so I went for several walks.  I also had the joy of the leak test. You stand in front of an X-ray machine and drink this nasty sweet/bitter liquid while they check to make sure that everything goes where it is supposed to. At about 3 pm we finally got clearance that everything looked good and I could start plain water- 2 tbsp per hour only.  Let me tell you, after about 40 hours with no water (and having been intubated) that water was gooooood.

On Wednesday I got moved on to other clear liquids- broth, tea, etc, and up to 1/3 of a cup per hour.  Spent a lot of time walking around the ward and chatting with the nurses.  My bruising got much worse and everyone seemed really concerned.  They did several more blood tests and had three more doctors come and look at it.  They drew around bruises with sharpies to get a sense of how fast they were growing.  They slowed down in growth and it was discovered that my hemoglobin had dropped and that was why the bruises were spreading.  Nothing to worry about they assured me.

I had a crappy sleep that night- just tired of the hopsital bed and wanting to be home.  Thursday they took out the IV- finally, and moved me to a protein shake diet which I will be on for the next two weeks. I got discharged from the hospital at around noon and headed on home.

The last couple of days have been about sitting around, napping, and drinking constantly- or so it seems!  Today has brought a bit of soreness and itchiness at the incision sites but that means healing!

Everyday is a bit better than the last!