I woke up at 6 and had to be to the hospital at 7:15. When we arrived, we were told we had to take the stairs because they were doing some electrical testing on the elevators, to which my dad replied, well we'll get out cardio in. I had to report to the fifth floor. Lots of stairs.
So I got to the pre-op waiting room, and sat for 10 minutes or so. They called me and took my information and gave me a bracelet. In another ten minutes or so, the nurse took a group of us down to the fourth floor. I was shown into your typical pre-op room with beds and nurses and curtains. I was told to remove all my clothing and put on the hospital clothing they had provided. This was pretty comical because I am a very small gal, 5' and 101 pounds or so. The clothes were absolutely huge
, so at first I didnt take off my underwear, but then I was told later that I had to remove it, so I did. I liked those clothes! They were huge but they were comfortable. Anyways...One of my nurses came in and introduced herself, asked me if I was allergic to latex, had I eaten anything that morning...and then she took off. So i read my book for awhile and then my anesthesiologist came up and visited. Asked me the same questions basically. I gave him my bag full of medications, and he looked those over. He asked me if i had ever had trouble with anesthesia, and I said no. That I had had a colonoscopy and had been put on demerol (which by the way was amazing, Ive never slept so much in my life). Anyways, he said what they were going to use was going to put me into a deep deep sleep but that I would bounce back from it much quicker. He left. A nurse came in and put in my IV, and she put it in the side of my arm, closer to my wrist, which was weird, but since I was going to be lying on my stomach, it made sense. Getting that done was probably the worst part of the actual surgical experience. Another nurse came, took my blood pressure, asked me lots of questions, basically more of the same. She said I had to take all of my jewelry out, which is harder than it sounds. I had to take my nose piercing out, and I had to take my earrings out, which are gauges, and look like horseshoes with little balls on each end that are supposed to unscrew, but I could NOT get them out. The other ones are pretty much the same except there is a ball that fits between the two ends of the earring and just clips in. I got those out. The others they just ended up taping i think.
After that, I met a few more of my nurses, and then it was time to go. I almost started crying as I waved good bye to my dad.
On the way, I confided in my anesthesiologist, and told him I was scared, and he said "well of course! this isn't something you get done every day." It was a short ride to the OR, and I had to sign some sort of release. Then I got off the bed, walked into the OR, and laid down on my belly. I positioned my arms above me head, one had a special table for my arm with the IV in it. The anesthesioligist put one of those finger monitors on my finger, and I briefly saw my surgeon. I got shot up with dope. I asked my surgeon about the incontinence, and he said something along the lines of " I dont think thats going to be a problem," one of the nurses told me she liked my earrings...i said thank you, and that was it.
I woke up in recovery and had some cranberry juice. I laid there for quite awhile. The nurse asked if I needed pain meds, and I said no, which was stupid because they had used a local anesthetic which started wearing off on the way home. They took the IV out, I got dressed, and they wheeled me out to the car where my dad was waiting. My dad drove me home. It was an uncomfortable drive (half an hour) because like I said, the anesthetic was wearing off, and it was getting more and more sore. :( I eventually got home to bed, and slept while my dad went out to get my meds. I took them as soon as he got home, an hour later.
They put me on oxycodone. The first couple of times I got really dizzy, my vision got patchy, and my whole body broke out in sweats. I tried to eat dinner but felt nausceous so I stopped. Basically, yesterday was a lot of sleeping and a lot of taking medicine. Oxycodone, milk of magnesia (can we say yuck?) and stool softeners. Magically, my body woke me up every 4 hours to take more pain killers. I have only been taking 1, which doesnt totally rid me of the pain, but it makes it bearable. I am afraid to take 2 because of the reaction I had to one. So at 8:30, my mom helped me sit up so I could take my pills, and then I went to bed. My dad checked on me around 1, and I had already taken to Oxy, and I woke up at 4:30 am to take the Oxy again by myself, and I took another one around 9 this morning.
I was able to eat some toast this morning.
Toast with jam. Whole wheat of course. Then I used the shower head on my bum, which I am supposed to do three times a day, and then my mom made me an egg and another piece of toast. I almost finished all of it.Now you are officially up to date on how I am. I feel pretty weak, and pretty tired, but all I've been doing is sleeping. Im waiting for the nurse to call back. I need to know how long I have to keep using the gauze on my bum for drainage, and I need to know how long the drainage should last. Right now it seems to have tapered off. This whole experience has been aggrivated by my monthly visitor (no better time I could have possibly gotten that right?
I know the ladies here can relate).I am also able to walk up the stairs with little trouble, its just sitting thats really a problem right now. I hope that I wont need the pain killers for too long, because I hear Oxy is highly addictive. Umm....I cant think of much else to say, so I guess I now have questions for our veteran surgeon people.
How long did it take before your pain subsided?
How much did you sleep? What was your best position for sleeping?
When did you get your first BM? (I havent gotten mine yet)
Thanks all, I will keep you updated.
kate
for taking the time to share all of this with us Kate.. alot of people will read this in the future when looking for advice of what surgery is like and how they will go with recovery..
