I'm home...story inside!
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April 3, 2006 - Surgery Day
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Well I made it to the losing side. I had to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. yesterday morning. Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. Check in and pre-op went smoothly except for the fact that ACC nurses could not find a "good" vein to start my IV. I asked my very good friend to be my CRNA (anesthesiologist) for my case. Having put me to sleep before he knew I was a hard stick. So as the ACC nurses decided to leave it for him to do he came in the room to ask them to do so anyway. They wheel me back to holding and try to find a vein...No success. Another anesthesiologist came over and consulted with mine and they decided to use a small vein in my left wrist to get me to sleep and they would work on another "good" vein after I went to sleep. Well they tried and I was so dehydrated they had no luck so I ended up with a central line!!! Surgery went great. Dr. Byars said it could have not went better. I was done in record time. I woke up in recovery complaining of heart palpitations. I have never experienced these before. Come to find out my central line was in too far which was causing me to throw PVC's. So they had to back it out about 4cm. Instant relief. Thank goodness that was the only complication I had. I got to my room at 11:30 with a headache from hell. Believe it or not plain Tylenol is the only thing that relieved it. I was up and walking laps around the hospital floor by 1:30. I ate a few sips of chicken broth and a couple bites of jello and drank lots of water. Had no problem eating and never once experienced any nausea or vomiting. For dinner I had a few sips of beef broth, two bites of jello and some unsweet tea. For a bedtime snack I had sugar free hot chocolate made with water. Still no nausea or vomiting. YEAH! I did lots of walking. The pain I experienced was mostly gas pain. It was a 4 on the pain scale. Pain meds were not relieving the pain and pressure. Finally around midnight it eased up a bit and moved into "referred shoulder pain". I didn't sleep well thanks to the nurses coming in every hour on the hour taking vitals.
April 4, 2006 - Day 1 Post Op
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I was starting to get pretty uncomfortable around 5:00 am so I got up and took a sponge bath, took another dose of pain meds and went for a walk. For breakfast I drank some more hot chocolate. Again no problems. This morning I am expediting more incision pain. The pain meds from yesterday are starting to wear off and I am feeling some burning at the incision sites. Dr. Byars came in around 11:00 a.m. and discharged me. Since I am doing so well on my clear liquids he gave me the ok to start full liquids today! Finally something other than broth! He wants me to remain on full liquids for two weeks then I can go to mushy foods. The 15 minute ride home was. By the time I got home I was hurting pretty bad. I was able to lie down and take an hour nap then the good ol' bladder called! I am still pretty uncomfortable. I would say the pain is a 6 today. It is different than was I experienced yesterday since this is true incision pain not gas pain. I am taking liquid loratab and applying heat to my belly. While I am on the subject of my belly I just want to add that I gained 9 POUNDS from fluids and swelling during my hospital stay! My belly is so swollen that I look like I'm 9 months pregnant! I'm off to take a hot shower to see if I can get some relief. I'll try to check back in and post an update tomorrow.