Home Sweet Uncomfortable Home

Well, after 2 nights in the hospital, we made it home safe and sound!

A recap of my experience:
Tuesday morning I woke up very very ready for everything to happen. Unfortunately I was the last scheduled surgery for the surgeon and he was running late so we waited in the pre-op area for over 5 hours. At that point all I could think was HURRY UP!!!! It wouldn't have been so bad, but I hadn't eaten in forever so I just wanted to get it over with.

I was finally walked into the OR (yes I had to walk myself which scared the crap out of me) around 6:15pm. I had to climb up and lay on the operating table by myself. And the doctor or RN guy asked me if I had anything I wanted to say before they began. All I could think of was "Please don't kill me." Everyone in the room had the same reaction : WOW!. And I hated to be morbid but that is all I could think at that point. I just wanted it to be over with and to start a new chapter of my life!

Within a minute or so I was fast asleep and only remember waking up slightly in the recovery room. After waking up more I found out that I unknowingly had a hiaial hernia that needed to be repaired before the sleeve could be performed. So my 1-1.5 hour surgery turned into a 3 hour surgery. But, on the bright side, the other complication would have been another separate surgery eventually had I not gone in for this one. I have 5 incisions now. 4 small ones at the top of my stomach and one larger one by my belly button (Roger said none of them are bad). They all have glue holding them together rather than stitches and no drains, which is pretty darn awesome. I also bypassed having a catheter which is great.

I am tired as everyone said I would be but my biggest complaint is that my back is sore, which is from what I was told, based on the hiatal hernia fixer-upper. They had to really jiggle my shoulders and neck. Ew. So when I try to stretch my back out I pull my stomach, which is only sore down by the belly button but WOW does that incision hurt!

So after all of this, I have come to realize that thankfully, but not thankfully I am not hungry. It's great because I am not freaking out about eating but it stinks because I have consume quite a bit of liquids. And my mouth is bigger than my stomach, so I am hyper-conscious about drinking too large of a sip. Today I didn't get in nearly enough protein so tomorrow we are going to start charting my liquid and protein intake to make sure that I don't get dehydrated. Roger's nerdiness is really coming in handy for this situation because I am so fly by night that the thought of charting doesn't make me very happy, but it delights him so that is great. Right now the only thing I want to chart is my next dose of pain meds! The doc was kind enough to prescribe a very nice cocktail that puts me to sleep pretty well. It includes an anti-anxiety med which in my humble opinion is super smart because I am so crazy about drinking too much at once that I am not drinking enough at all. I swear my brain is too active most of the time.

My biggest question is when do I start to feel "normal" again? When will my stomach stop hurting? When will I be able to drink a sip of water and not freak out that it won't come right back up???But I think the pain thing is the most important right this very moment. Walgreens had a 1.5 hr wait so in about 45 mins Roger is headed out to pick up my meds. I am needing them right now. Oh and he was also a trooper about taking pictures of the journey. The recovery nurse yelled at him for taking my picture so I had to "ok" him doing it. I am sure they are convinced we are looney tunes. BUT I also had him take pics of my incisions which I can't even look at! Hoping that a month or 2 from now I will be able to look no problem.

Just got out of my first shower after surgery and managed to not see any incisions. Boy does it feel great to be clean! And I now realize how important it is to have someone here to help me. Sometimes I get a little too big for my britches and times like these make me realize just how helpful Roger and the rest of my family really is.

And now.... off to bed. I am already scared. Good thing I have anti-anxiety meds to take to drift me right off!