Hospital Experience(s)

[TulipStar 2]

Personally, I don't like staying in strange places. I have only had to stay in a hospital once and it was a nightmare!

[kacee 3]

I would have been out about 4 hours before they released me (there 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.) but I couldn't pee and they finally had to "foley" me to relieve my bladder. Not the most fun thing in the world, but afterwards, I was good to go. I never felt BAD enough to feel like I had to be in the hospital and was just as happy to get home.

[NYGMEN 0]

I stayed overnight and i was glad i did. The staff at NYU are great. I had a little more pain then i thought i would but they took care of that with pain meds. I also have bad disk in my neck and back so staying in bed for hours at a time hurts on it own. They has a chair there fit for a king that i wish i could put in from of my big screen and watch the SB in. I only had to ask once and with in 15min they had it setup so i could go from the bed to the chair as much as i wanted and that was in recovery. When i went up to a room they made sure i have the same setup there before they sent me up. I felt much better the next day and was ready to go at 9:30.

[gwhite 0]

I came home the same day. Wish I had been kept in overnight...not because anything was wrong. I felt fine....and sore but that was it. Its that I just DIDN"T get any sleep when I got home. Family and friends kept calling to see if I was ok.

The guy who had the banding surgery right after mine had to stay in. I'm not sure why...and I was too out of it to be my usual nosey self. Everyone is different...so if the doc says stay in..stay in..safty first!

[shortgal 5]

My surgery was late afternoon and I was so groggy from the anesthesia, that I could barely walk for several hours after getting to my room and I had already been in recovery for a while, too.

I didn;t get much sleep later that night, but I was glad I was able to get anti nausea meds before getting some pain meds.

By the next morning, I was definitely ready to go home!

[make33 2]

I had surgery early morning and stayed overnight. Make sure you get up and walk, walk, walk! It may be tough with your IV, but I made sure I was up 10 minutes of every hour and I didn't have the gas pains everyone else describes.

Also, if they give you juice to drink, make sure you dilute it 50-50 with water--I didn't and got very nauseous...

The only negative issue I experienced was at night: I had my IV on my right and the hospital gave me an oxygen clip for my nose on the left--and then they velcroed leg massagers on my legs. Well, I was okay until I had to go to the bathroom--the IV was running well--(and I am a FREQUENT urinator anyway!)--the first time a Nice Nurse came in to unvelcroe my legs so I could go.

The second time a Nasty Nurse answered the call and it was ten minutes until she came! When I told her I really had to go, she made that "Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now" joke and just laughed.

Well, didn't she answer the call the third time--only this time she didn't bother showing up at all!!! So, after 15 minutes I painfully reached down and ripped the velcroe off my legs myself and just went. She never DID come in to check on me!!

Regardless, I AM glad I stayed overnight so I could have professionals there just in case... :rolleyes2:

[pearlygirl 1]

I'm not banded yet but my doc does require a overnight stay. I'm glad though. As a nurse, I feel more comfortable being looked after and should any complications arise.

[steph_co 9]

Even though my surgery was 3 hours from my home (which meant stopping every hour to get out and WALK), I would have been climbing the curtains if they had made me stay. I hate it when I don't feel well and I'm sleeping in a strange bed. Yuck. I couldn't wait to get the heck out of there and start heading home.

[Thor 0]

I had surgery last Friday week ago tomorrow, in a small country Hospital in Clinton Ill. John Warner, My experience was great, My surg for lapband was to be at 12noon, I had told my husbund that they would just have to put me under as soon as I got there needed to eb there at 10AM, well I arrived, this sweet kin nurse by name of Diane came to get me, I walked to my room, single room, she was very up beat, thank goodness, there were 4 other before me, some were already out in the hall walking, which I thought was encouraging!!!.She started my IV, then My antibiotic, because I had my knees replaced in May, so I have to have a dose of a strong anti. before any type of surgery. well then we watched tv talked Diane was in and out talked about everything, then about 11:45 Got a shot in stomach,blood thinner, to help with blood clots, oh forget to tell you ,one of the first thing they did when I got there was put those blow up tube like things on your legs, to help with circulation. Right at 1200 they came in, ask if I needed to use the bath room, which of course I did, tthen was off, I remember going into surgery, they were all talking with me, had me move over , anithesist said now I want you to just close you eyes and relax, the lights are really bright in here, the next thing I remember someone was calling my name and asking how felt, and on a scale of 1 to 10 what would I gage my pain,I can remember asking if I could go over 10, nurse laughed and said would like to keep it in that range, said ok, a big 10. She gave me moraphine twice, was in surgery 11/2 hours, recovery 45min, and back to the room by 2pm, by this time was awake,would kind of go in and out, not a deep sleep just sleepy and dizzy. not much pain at all ,very bad sore throat,from the tube I am sure. and the port sight was alittle sore about a 6 out 10. very dizzy, I mean I really had to concentrate on one object to keep the room from going crazy, no nausea, but they had given me something extra for that because I told them that I have been known to come out from being under, vomiting bad, so they addressed that. Had 4 inch size areas, and the port which is about 3-4 inches long on the left side, now that has been the one that has caused my the discomfort but not that much, Got liquid loritab,which with liquid tyl took pretty regular for about 24 hours,then started to take the tyl during the day and stronger at night. Had the surg at 12 noon Friday 25th, home on the couch at 8:30 that night, had aabout 90min drive from Hospital to my Home. and was back to work on Wed. 30th. I am a triage nurse for Family Practice Dr. so my job is a sit down. but I was so tired when I came home didn't know If I would make it through the whole day or not, took today 31st off I have my 5 day check up at 1pm, all in all it wasn't bad, I know we are all different, each of us has a different pain level, I just made my mind up that I had faught so long and hard to do this nothing was going to make it a bad experience. Becky BELIEVE.

[MamaJava 1]

My insurance also made me stay overnight. I was SO glad I did! I had really bad chest pains from the gas forced in there during surgery. I was getting really scared so they took me down for an X-ray and said my stomach was the size of a football it was so huge. It hurt. BAD.

I also don't handle anesthesia very well at all. I am disoriented for a long time afterwards. It helped to have people take care of me. My hubby and the nurses would pound on my back for me (like burping a baby but harder) and that's finally what helped ease the chest pressure.

Other than the bed being horribly uncomfortable, it was a positive experience overall. I felt safe there, since I tend to worry about what might go wrong after getting sent home. I was double and triple checked before I was sent on my way the next day.

[ugagirl 0]

I did not want to stay overnight and I voiced that early on when I got to the hospital. My surgery was at around 10:00am and I was released that evening around 8pm. I had to do an upper GI swallow and pee at least 100ml before they let me go.

If I had been in extreme pain I would have stayed but I felt fine to be discharged. I was ready to be back at home in a comfortable setting.

[Blund 0]

MamaJava, I just LOVE your "summer goal: shorts." Same here! I might say "summer goal: public wearing of shorts!"

[cierra'sgrandma 1]

You know, I DO have one or two pairs of shorts that are nice and comfortable {HUGE} to wear, but I don't wear them in public. It's a self-image thing, I guess. Yeah, I look forward to "public wearing of shorts"! I also look forward to being able to find jeans that fit. And I mean DENIM jeans!

[WestCoastFatGuy 3]

I was very apprehensive about my overnight stay, but like so many others have posted... VERY GLAD that it was required. While the only real pain I experienced was immediately upon waking in recovery (before they gave me the fab-u-lous pain killers), it was much better to rest in the hospital for a day rather than going directly home. The adjustable bed... the attention from the staff and doctors who were wonderful and accomodating and quick to answer questions and offer encouragement couldn't be beat. I was hospitalized at the University of California Irvine Hospital and cannot say enough good things about my surgeon or the care that I received during my stay. All my worries were unfounded and I am confident that you, too, will be glad your insurance requires the overnight.

[Blund 0]

My Dr. says I'll have to stay overnight, and I guess I'd want to anyway. When I had my first kid, I went home early Second kid, I stayed overnight. By the third kid, I was like "what the hell was I thinking?!!" and I stayed as LONG as the insurance would pay for it!!!!

DH doen't get enough "daddy time" with them anyways!