Just about there…….
On Tuesday night, I ensured I had everything ready to go in my backpack for use around the house, had all of my clothes laid out and ready……all the various things I mentioned in my prepping post.
I couldn’t eat or drink anything after midnight so I had my last sips of water and went to bed around 11pm.
Surgery Day:
I woke up early and got my bed all set up with my funky pregnancy pillow cocoon sleeping arrangement I had all planned out in my mind, had my last shower and got dressed in all my comfy clothes.
The plan was that Mom would take me to the surgery, would pick me up when they called and bring me home and then stay and babysit me and the doggos until Sean got home from work at 5pm and then he would take over. When Sean left for work Thursday morning, Mom would come back and once more take care of me and the dogs all day until Sean got home again…..and then Sean took Friday off to stay home and take care of me that day (and get a long weekend out of it lol).
I had previously asked where Mom goes when they call and they told me they have a back door to the surgical suite and they will advise her where to go when she picks me up…….kind of vague…….and I was concerned she would end up lost and this would be a pain in the ass for her.
We had to be at the surgical suite by 6:55 am for my surgery which was scheduled for 7:30 am. So after the debacle of trying to find this place the first time and walking the entire mall, we thought we would leave early this time and try to find a closer door and see if we could also find this special back door so she was ready and knew where to go.
Now I know that we have to go to the OPPOSITE end of the mall from where I came in last time at the WalMart doors but get this, when we try to drive around the mall to an entrance on the other side there is construction tearing up the other entire side of the mall (the squiggly lines in the image below are the entire side of the mall and street that are ripped up and barricaded) so you can’t go into any of the doors on that side or enter the mall or parking lot over there anywhere at all……..so good luck with that. Thanks for advising us of this guys!!!
We went back around to the side I entered last time and managed to find a sneaky side road just off 156 Street that took us around the other side of the mall up to where the construction blocked everything off. This worked out perfectly and took us around to a door that was literally the closest one to the surgical suite (see reddish star for where door is that we entered). At the same time we also found the Reserved Parking for the Surgical Suite and around the corner the sneaky back door they had mentioned (see yellow star for the back door to surgical suite) so thank god we came a bit early and figured this all out lol.
We head in and at 6:50 am I am in and I am filling out some last minute papers with Mom’s phone number etc. and then they say bye to Mom and usher me back.
I am taken into a room and there is a blue Rubbermaid bin, some gowns, fun paper underoos etc.
The nurse Patty who is simply lovely asks me some questions – my name, DOB, what I am having done etc. and slips on a wristband with all my info on it and puts a second one in the side of the blue Rubbermaid that will hold all of my belongings.
She weighs me and I am very insulted that although I have tried reverting to the liquid diet from my weight loss surgery and was at about 155 lbs this piece of shit scale is saying 160, but that’s life I guess. She looks at a chart and marks down my BMI info.
Day of Surgery Stats
Weight: 160 lbs
BMI – 28 (overweight) (Keep in mind before weightless surgery I was a 40 – severely obese…..so I’ll take the overweight ;)
Patty advises me to take off EVERYTHING and put it in the bin. She tell me to put on the silly one size fits none paper underoos. I can’t even explain how dumb these underoos are and I truly wish I had brought my phone because I would have taken a picture to document the absurdity of this shit but here is a pic I found online to at least show you them. As you can imagine they don’t stay on properly…..
Patty also tells me to put on a compression stocking for each leg (that goes from your toes up to your groin and will stay on for surgery and for the first two full days until you come back for your first follow up to help avoid blood clots). She says I can put my socks back on over top of these to keep my feet warm and should put my crocs back on to wear walking from here to the surgical suite and then we will toss them in my fancy Rubbermaid bin.
Then there is a hospital gown, that does NOT cross over in the back so your ass is literally hanging out for the entire world to see but there is a big hospital blanket you can cover yourself with.
Last step is a fancy hair net.
Patty tells me I can go use the washroom next door if needed and then just relax and make myself as comfy as I can and Dr. Edwards will be in within a few minutes.
As I left my phone with Mom I am sitting listening to the world’s loudest clock – tick, tick, tick, tick………..finqlly Dr. Edwards pops in.
Again, so lovely, he sits down and says:
Dr. E: Hi Penny, how are you doing today?
Me: Ummm a bit nervous but okay.
Dr. E: I get that….but no worries we’re going to get you in soon and get you all taken care of and you’ll look amazing.
Me: Awesome…….Do you think you guys could have a louder clock in here????.....
Dr. E: Right?? That thing is quite loud!!
Me: Oh and I need to thank you for these amazing underoos, these things are epic!!
Dr. E: So glad you like them, they’re all yours to keep……don’t say we didn’t give you anything!! Okay I am going to head out. Use the restroom if you need to and we will see you in the OR in just a few minutes!
Patty comes back to get me and I wander down the hall with her to the operating room and she introduces me to the anesthesiologist and the assistant, both lovely people but I can’t for the life of me remember their names…….She asks me to climb up onto the bed and position my but in the middle and then I can kick off my crocs and lay back.
Once I do this they add all these funky little heart rate sticky things to my body and get me all positioned.
Then the lovely anesthesiologist makes attempt one at the IV…….my veins say no such luck Senor……with no liquids in a while my veins are apparently hiding…….he makes attempt two………haha sucker, we aint’ coming out for you (says the vein to the anesthesiologist once more)…….so the anesthesiologist says to me, because you’re tensing up your veins are kind of collapsing or hiding whenever I try to insert the needle so what we’re going to do is give you a gas mask that will put you to sleep and then once you’re asleep I will be able to do the IV without your body tensing up, okay? Okay……..
So he hands me the gas mask and tells me to put it over my face and take long, slow, deep breaths and warns me gently that it will smell very weird but not to worry that’s normal and it will quickly put me to sleep. I’ve had this many times before so no worries guy, I know the drill…….I put it over my face and start breathing and WAIT this is NOT the same as those other times, I really do smell a very weird, very strong smell that is different than the other times. I have just long enough to take a few breaths thinking hmmmm what’s different about this gas than the gas from the other times? Why is this one so much……….…….ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Post-Surgery
Blink, blink, blink…….I look around and see the hospital curtains and realize I’m done. I’m not in pain, so to speak, but my brain is fuzzy and I am having a hard time breathing so I am breathing fast and shallow.
I hear them saying Penny…..Penny, you need to take slow breaths, your oxygen is at 100%, you’re okay. I try to breath but a few minutes later I’m doing the same thing and they’re saying the same thing. Not sure what the deal was and if it was just anxiety or what so I start taking slow, deep breaths….in through the nose and out through the mouth……slow and steady over and over……just concentrate on the breathing I keep keeping myself.
The recovery room nurse introduces herself as Sarah. I remember her asking how I’m feeling and giving me a pill and some water. Then I keep working on my breathing again. I can hear someone in the bed next to me and can see and hear someone in the bed across from me so I know there are (at least) three of us in here and I have nothing better to do so as I’m doing my deep breathing I find myself wondering what procedure they had done and trying to see them.
At some point Sarah comes back and tells me Mom is on her way and will be here soon, in the mean time she is going to show me the drains and what I’ll need to do with them. She says she’ll also be showing Mom when she gets here so not to worry about remembering it…….PHEWF……why the fuck would you even tell me when I’m high?? But actually I feel fully alert (I think) and as she shows me, I totally get what she’s saying. She shows me how to open them, dump them, “prime” them and seal them advising that I need to do this about every four hours and mark it on a tracking sheet they will give me.
Shortly after Sarah says Mom is there. She is going to go give Mom all my supplies and go through all of the instructions and details and then she’ll be back to take my IV out so I can get going home. Cool yo…….
Shortly after that I realize…..for fuck sake I actually have to pee…..how does this work? How do I get up? How do I move around? Just as I am about to go back into anxiety breathing mode, this lovely lady walks past and must have seen my face cause she asks if I’m okay……I croak out ummmmmm I need to pee.
She laughs a little and says hey that’s great, means you’re hydrated. As soon as your ride gets here we can get you ready and can then get you to the washroom. I say actually my ride is here, Sarah is out explaining things to my Mom now.
The lovely lady says “oh nice, I’m _____ (so sorry I cannot for the life of me remember). I’m another nurse here. Let me get your IV out and we can get you dressed and into the washroom.”
She takes the IV out and helps me pull my loose pants up and over the compression stocking telling me I need to try to leave those on for the next two days until my follow up appointment Friday. She helps me pull on my hoodie and zip it up……I have less than zero desire or care to put my sports bra back on and there is NO way I am getting underoos on so my undies and bra go into a little bag.
She helps me up and I can move surprisingly well…..again I think these Percocet are killer and are really helping with any pain…..she puts me into a wheelchair to make my way the 10 feet to the washroom where I get back out of it and get into the washroom and manage to pee all on my own. Back in the wheelchair she wheels me out to Mom who is waiting with my bag with my underoos, sports bra, drain cups, drain logs to complete, some gauze and Percocet. Then she wheels me out the back secret door and over to the car.
It’s a bit awkward getting up from the wheelchair as I am hunched over and then getting down into the car seat which seems to be exceptionally low but we manage to get me in lol.
I don’t remember much from the ride home as I was pretty groggy again as the Percocet had kicked back in so I think I slept most of the ride home.
We got into the house and the dogs run full tilt at the door, excited to see me, but truly I think they realize something is wrong and come to somewhat of a screeching halt and don’t jump on me but rather start sniffing me. I reassure them I’m okay and slowing make my way to the living room to the couch.
A few things they advised of:
- I need to keep pillows under my knees to take pressure off of my abdomen
- I need to move my ankles and feet around as much as possible to avoid clots…….just do ankle circles etc.
- Remember to take my painkillers every four hours (at the most, after 6 hours) even if I am sleeping, wake up and take them. If you don’t you WILL feel the pain. You can time this to do with your drains which is every four hours so then it all coincides.
My couch has reclining sections so I sat, very slowly and very carefully in one of the recliners with a pillow behind my upper back/head. We put two pillows under my knees as I need to keep my knees and back somewhat elevated to take pressure off of the abdomen and the stitches and then my heated blanket covered me and as soon as I was comfy I was passed the fuck out again.
The photo below I found online and this is essentially how you want to be sitting (I just used pillows to prop myself in all the applicable areas to be sitting like the photo shows).
Medications and Drains
They had given me 2 Percocet before I left the surgical suite at about noon. I set alarms on my phone/watch to continually wake myself up every four hours to do my drains and take more meds.
I woke up and took two more at 430pm and did my drains and again took two more and did drains at 830pm. I had Sean help me up at midnight just before he went to sleep so I could do my drains and take my drugs and set another alarm for 5am so he could help me again as he was getting up for work.
For the drains they give you a sheet to track the ml’s of liquid being drained and essentially you will have the drains in until the volume of the liquid is less than 25 ml in a 24 hour period for 3 days in a row.
Food/Drinks
Being so out of it and pretty much passed out the entire day from the Percocet I didn’t eat and truly didn’t even want to. I was super thirsty so I kept my glass of Gatorade next to me and drank a LOT of that over the first three days.
Issues
You might remember in one of the previous posts I mentioned the Benadryl……..so about midnight when Sean woke me up to do my drains/meds before he went to sleep I started itching….and itching……and itching. I didn’t think much of it at the time but even though I took my next dose of Percocet at that time I barely slept as I was itching and scratching my arms, legs, neck, chest…..everywhere….the rest of the night
Next Up......Week one (June 8-14)
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