I go for surgery on Thursday March 31st. I am a nurse and have had surgery before so the surgery part is not a major problem. I was just told on Friday that I had to lose "enough" weight or my surgery would be canceled. I understand that some doctors require a weight loss before with the liquid diet, but they were informed of this in the begining I was not. I follow the clear liquid diet to the letter with everything being sugar-free, and clear. I have only lost four pounds. I do still have five days left including today, am now very nerivous and scared. I have worked to hard for this to fall thru.......thoughts?
Hi everyone:
So I finally have a moment to sit down and let everyone know how its going so far...so got up on the the 24th around 5am, and the laxative I took was still working and I had to be at the hospital at 6am.....so we get there, check in to admitting, 30 secs later, sent up to the 2nd floor to surgery waiting room with the wife. A nurse comes out with in 3 minutes, and I leave the wife there. They will get her again just before I go in. So they take me in to the preop surgery room where they put me in some snazzy "bair paw" scrubs, which has a bunch of slots and holes for different devices to be attached to...I was not nervous at all until I started to change, then I felt myself getting very emotional for a moment, realizing there was no turning back now. I had to run to the bathroom again...came back and they hooked up a hose that blows hot air into my scrubs to keep me warm. They weighed me again, I had lost a total of 25 lbs in 2 weeks. There were 2 nurses in the beginning asking me numerous questions, and I reminded them that I wanted sutures, not staples...not a problem. Then the Anesthesiologist came over to me and introduce himself. I asked him if he could give me something to take the egde off and he said he preferred not to as the more drugs he give the harder it is to wake up. He was the one who actually put in my IV. After 1/2 hour of questions and what not, they allowed my wife to come in around 7:20. The presurgery room was hopping with tons of other patients getting ready for whatever surgeries were going on that day. 10 minutes later 2 nurses came with their masks and hair nets on, kissed the wife goodbye, and they started to wheel me. They took off my glasses right away, which started to panic me as I can't see very well. As they wheeled me down the long hallway, there was a nurse behind me asking me a bunch of questions, she put a hat on me as well, and there was a nurse in front of me...they kept saying to me we were going to do timeouts as we went into the room, they kept asking me my name, birthdate, and what I was getting done...I remember the hallway getting colder and colder as we entered the operating room....in there was the anesthesiologist, and 3 other nurses, the doctor was not there....I remember looking around and there were 3 massive plasma big screens, a bunch of bright lights and lots of other gadgets. They helped me slide over from one bed to the other. A nurse came up to me and started to strap me in with my arms out to my side....all I kept thinking was I felt like I was in that movie "dead man walking". I remember saying how I had to go to the bathroom, the anesthesiologist asked me if I wanted to go...I said I am not sure, but within 30 secs of that I could feel going through my body the medicine...I even smiled and said you tricked me...I then said how I have a real funny taste in my mouth and hearing him say, that is a good thing . Next thing I know I remember slowly opening my eyes around 9:15ish, I felt something covering my mouth still, pumping in oxygen, apparantly I was intubated and had tubes down my nose during the procedure. They asked if I wanted any drugs, I said no as I was trying to be the hero. about 45 minutes later they put me into my own private room, my wife showed up about 15 minutes later. I was not in that much pain. about a 1/2 hour later, I said I would take some pain drugs. I met my new best friend for the next couple of hours and it was called "Dilaudid". They gave me a very strong dose via IV, and I felt it instantly...I actually got scared for a brief second as I felt so high and started to giggle...2 minutes later, you could have done open heart surgery on me and I would have not felt a thing. She came in 30 minutes later and gave me some Vicodin Syrup as well, the nurse said they would work great together and they did...I dosed in an out for a while at the same time trying to sip Water. I was so thirsty. So around 1pm they said time to get up and goto the bathroom and go for a walk. I got up no problem, did 3 fast laps around the floor. They could not believe how fast and mobile I was. They were ready to discharge me if I wanted to, I told them no. The wife went to go get lunch, I sipped on some diluted apple juice while taking breaths on my machine which you take home with you. I walked a few more times throughout the day and they wheeled me out of the hospital around 5pm. They had shaved my entire stomach, I hadn't been that smooth since I was 12 years old, my wife liked it, said it made me look thinner...so I guess I will be lasering when the time comes. I was in almost no pain when I left. Who was I to kid myself....around 7pm, the pain started to kick in. Not too bad, just felt like a small baby with nails on it butt sitting on my chest and stomach. I could not lay down at all. We went for several walks in the evening which really didn't help. I kept taking Lortab every 4 hours, which helped a little. I tried to goto bed around 3:30am, but had to sleep sitting up. The wife has had to help me with everything, getting in/out of bed (bed is very high), putting on pants (can't bend down). So I woke up at 7am today, with a lot of bloating...I was driven back to my mom's house while the wife was at work...I have been miserable all day, I feel so bloated. I am supposed to be back on a full liquid diet, but all I had today was a sugarfree gatorade, some chicken broth...need to be getting in 48-64 ounces of liquid a day...have not been hungry at all. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
