It's done and I'm home

All went well. Dr. Aceves and Dr. Compas are both great. They pay a lot of attention and I never saw a doctor so often when I was in a hospital before.

The surgery went smoothly. I was up and about a few hours later and felt pretty good. A little wobbly, but good.

During the night my i.v. ifiltrated and started pouring out all over the bed and into my arm instead of the vein. They fussed with it all night but it did not improve, just deprived me of sleep. In the morning they tried to start another one in the other arm. They were not being successful so I made them stop and said I would speak to the doctor.

When Dr. Campos came in he said I was drinking well enough and did not need it. Woohoo.

Day two was the worst. The gas would just not dissipate no matter now much I walked. I was also under longer than expected because they found a hernia and repaired it too.

That night I took my first pain med and some sleeping meds because I really needed the rest after the prior night, but that is all the pain meds I've needed.

Yesterday I passed the last of the leak tests (the stuff didn't taste as bad as I was warned.) Then they brought me the soup. I liked it so much better after all of the sweet stuff, plus the warmth felt better than the cold going down.

Today I'm able to drink as much as I want. So I don't think I will have much trouble getting my fluids in.

The only down side is the nurses. I kept hearing about how wonderful they were, but when I was there most didn't speak a word of English. Not that they weren't nice, but communication was a problem. They did what you asked for but not much more.

Today the trip home was a nightmare. I got to the airport in San Diego and paid extra to move my flight to an earlier time. San Diego being San Diego it was socked in with fog. My flight circled the airport for an hour and then ran out of fuel so they sent it to another airport to be refueled. Before it came back I watched my original flight leave (I didn't have enough time to get it switched again before it left.) The terminal was freezing cold, so by the time I got to my house I was exhausted.

Thanks for all of your support. It really saw me through this. There were no surprises.