Surgery Completed...Check! Home...Check!

Hey Ya'll,

Well, I am home now.  In fact I got home Friday, but I had so much mail to go through, that I spent a good part of it sorting the mail, etc.  Then, my friend Kelly from New England called me, and we talked for an hour!  Poor thing, they have been sick with the flu for about a month!  She also said that they are estimating that about 1/2 of New Hampshire is sick with the flu right now!!  She said that the flu shots they got didn't have the resistance to this variation of the flu....And then yesterday, I was busy getting our Bills sorted out and ready to pay.  Walt likes to have the monthly expenses prepared for him to go over.

Anyway, my Surgery story for those that are still interested....I checked into the Hospital at 6 am Tuesday morning, and was taken back within a few minutes to start getting me prepped for Surgery.  Luckily, they allowed one visitor to be with me, so Walt got to stay with me until they took me back into Surgery.  Since Walt wasn't going to be able to eat until I was in Surgery (as he wouldn't leave me), we stopped at the best donut shop in Reno for him on the way in.  He ate them inside though, (while I waited in the car) so that I wouldn't be tempted by them.

My Surgery lasted somewhere between 2 1/2-3 hrs.  But the Surgeon told Walt that it went really well.  I was taken to my "Private" room before I was even awake from Anesthesia.  I have never been taken out of Recovery before I was even awake enough to ask for ice chips!  But at least I was in my own room.  And of course, by then, I was awake enough to complain of pain and the need for ice chips.  Which they gave me after getting permission from the Surgeon.

So I sucked on ice chips for the next 20 hours or so.  Luckily, I love ice chips!  I tried to sleep, but it is hard when your in pain, and you have a guest in the room with you.  At least I always feel bad if I sleep while someone is just sitting there watching me....As before in prior Surgeries, I didn't have any gas pains.  In fact, my Abdomen didn't even bother me.  It was tender of course, but the only pain that I had was in my Back!!  I have a bad Spine, and a weak Back, so when I have Surgery, it is my Back that seems to hurt.  Walt figures that it was probably real tight from the stress of Surgery.  So it hurt like hell until Wednesday morning.  When suddenly it stopped hurting.  During the night, I was a good girl and walked practically the length of the Hospital and back to my room 4 times.  Which helped my Back.  At least when I was up and walking, it didn't hurt me.

And as usual, I didn't get much sleep either.  I did get a few hours, but not consecutively.  At least not until about 3 am, when I had the Nurses close my door.  That really helped a lot.  We kept it closed from then on, until I was released.  Because I was doing so well on Wednesday, Walt asked the Surgeon to release me.  We told him that we were staying in Reno at the Hotel another night just in case.  So he said that if I was able to eat breakfast, lunch and a dinner of Full Liquids, and not have any problems with nausea, etc, that he would probably let me go.

Well, I did great, no problem "eating" the liquids.  So I was released at 5:30 pm.  The problem was that I had forgot to bring my RX with me that the Surgeon gave me to take once I am released from the Hospital.  And we didn't tell the Surgeon this....We did tell the Nurse though, and tried to get her to give me a dose of the medicine to take with us to the Hotel, so that I would have at least one dose during the night.  But of course, she couldn't, and it is a controlled substance.  So she gave me a dose of it as I left the Hospital.  But since I was doing so well, I figured that I could make it until the next morning when we would drive home, and I could take my meds again.

Wrong!!!!  At 12:20 am (Wednesday night/Thursday morning), I woke up needing to go to the bathroom.  I felt chilled when I got up, and I had major Abdominal pain.  Once I was back in bed, I covered up trying to get warm, and within minutes, I felt like I was running a high fever.  I felt like I could set the sheets on fire just by laying on them.  So I woke Walt up, and had him check my Abdomen to make sure that my Incisions weren't looking infected, which they weren't.  In fact, they have never even turned black and blue!  If my Stomach wasn't bloated out, with the bandages on, you wouldn't even know it to look at my Stomach that I had had Abdominal Surgery.

Walt called down to the front desk to see if they had a thermometer so we could find out what my temperature was.  But they didn't have one, and offered to call an Ambulance for us, which Walt turned down.  But I was in so much pain, that I was crying uncontrollably by now (and I have a high tolerance for pain), so he asked me if I wanted to go to the ER.  I said yes, anything to stop this pain.

I didn't even feel up to putting on my cloths.  I went in my PJ's with my coat over them and a hat on my head.  It was only about 11 degrees outside, but I didn't even want to wear my coat, or have the heater on in the car.  I walked into the ER with my coat practically opened up.  Once inside, we found out that we were really lucky, and we were the only ones in the ER!  So I got signed in immediately.  I immediately took my coat and hat off, I didn't care what I looked like!  Then I was taken back.

When I told them that I had had the Bypass only the day before, they wanted to make sure that everything was ok in my Abdominal area.  But the first thing that they wanted to do of course, was to get my pain under control.  So they put in an IV, and gave me a really good drug that worked really fast.  The ER Doctor said that it was stronger than Morphine.  Well it worked....then they took 2 different samples of Blood.  One from each Forearm, which they said they wouldn't have the results back on for probably 24-48 hours.  Plus another Blood Test on top of these.  Then I had to drink a full cup of some Citrus tasting stuff before I could have the CT Scan done, which took me about an hour to drink.  But I was lucky, they said that usually they make a person drink 3 full containers of the stuff.  And then of course the CT Scan was done with Contrast.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when they took my temperature, it was....98.6!  So they figured that my feeling so hot was due to the extreme pain.  They could tell that I wasn't lying, because they could feel the heat in my skin, and see the super flush in my Face.  So of course, the CT Scan came back normal.  The only thing that was a bit out of whack, was my Liver, but I don't remember what she said about it.  So she was going to admit me to the Hospital to continue with the pain meds and watch me.  But she talked with another Doctor that had more experience with Gastric Bypass patients, and he said that this is not uncommon.  He said that it would be safe to let me go back to the Hotel.

So she gave me a new RX for pain meds, which Walt was able to fill at a Walgreen's on the way back to the Hotel.  It was 5 am by the time we made it back to the Hotel, and we both just crashed!  We decided to stay another night just to be safe after this though, so we didn't get home until Friday.  I of course felt fine by then.  I am now only taking the drugs at night.  The ER Doctor told me that my regular Surgeon will probably keep a check on my Liver to make sure that it does go back to normal though.

So I am doing fine.  My big revelation to those going into Gastric Bypass Surgery....DON'T FORGET YOUR MEDS AT HOME!!  My next appointment with the Surgeon is on January 2nd, and I can't wait to find out if I have lost any weight, and if so, how much!

Tomorrow, Walt and I are taking his Mom out to an early Christmas Eve Dinner.  She lives close to us, so we are spending it with her.  Walt's Dad died 3 years ago, and she still has trouble this time of year.  And although I feel like I could probably make it into California now.  The Sierra's are having a major Snow Storm so we might have trouble getting over anyway.  So we are going to miss Christmas with my family this year.  Tomorrow, I will only be one day away from Stage 3 Smooth Foods, so I am fairly sure that I can handle a little bit of Mashed Potatoes, or Refried Beans, etc. for Dinner.  Depending on what kind of Restaurant we go to.  I'll let you know how it went later.

Till next time....

Aloha My Friends,  
And Mele Kalikimaka, 

Which Means Merry Christmas In Hawaiian