Friday, May 25, 2012

I'm Alive and a Bandster!

I had my surgery yesterday and I'm doing ok. My ribs feel like they were ran over by a car. Apparently I had a hiatal hernia that Dr Malley fixed while he was in there and that they had to "blow me up a little more to fix it."  I really haven't had a lot of shoulder pain, but I have had a few random hiccups and man those hurt. My surgery nurse Rena was funny she had me laughing my head off before surgery. 

Surgery Day went like this.......

My surgery was moved up to 10:30 and I found that Wednesday, so I had to check in at 8:00.

My husband and I took our child to my parents and left him with my Dad, my husband went to work and my mom and I drove to the surgery center. We made good time and got there a few minutes early.

My surgery nurse Rena came and got me from the lobby and my mom had to hang out in the lobby until I was prepped.

I weighed in at 263.4, so a loss of 8.6 lbs in 2 weeks.

They took my height, which there is no way could be correct. There measuring stick thing said 5'4" and I'm been measured a lot in the last few years and I'm almost 5'7" not sure what's going on there.

We got to my room and I was handed a cup to pee in. Once I got back to the room I was given instructions to change into a gown and awesome socks. I didn't realize that blinds were open and I gave the highway a show until after I was changed....

Rena came back in and started my IV and gave me some Pepcid through my IV to help my stomach and than gave me a shot to help prevent blood clots. They (another nurse came in to help Rena) took my temp, blood pressure, heart rate, and placed these monitor pads on me. Rena gave me the remote to watch some TV and I looked at it and it had 1 button with a red plus sign on it, so I tell her that this remote looks like a nurse call button and she said haha your right and handed me the TV remote.

Around 9:00 Rena popped her head back in and I asked about going to the bathroom, so she got me set up to walk down the hall to take care of business.

Once I got back in the Anesthesiologist popped in to ask me a few questions and than Dr Malley, popped in to see if I had any questions and to tell me that we were going to get started soon.

They came and got me around 9:45. Once we got into the surgery room they had me move over to a different bed and started strapping down my arms.... I don't remember anything after that.

About 11:15 I opened my eyes for a sec and caught the time, then I remember lifting my oxygen mask and saying that I think I'm going to vomit and someone handed me a sucky thing to put in my mouth, but it was just a burp and I giggled and put the mask back down. I also remember having a lot of phlegm in my throat.

After that I started to wake up enough that my mom got to come back to my room. I had a sore throat from the tube that they put down your throat while you are in surgery. I also had horrible cotton mouth. Rena wouldn't let me have any water or ice chips until I had my barium swallow and had seen Dr Malley. I did get to have a pink swab to wet my mouth with. I basically slept on and off for a few hours. At some point Rena asked me if I felt that I could go to the bathroom and I said "let do it!" So I walked down the hall with some help from my nurse. My husband popped back in over his lunch to make sure that I was doing OK (he just started a new job and couldn't take the whole day off).

Around 1:30 Some one came and got me for my barium swallow, which was exciting (closer to going home). I took a picture of my band.


Shortly after that the Anesthesiologist came in and asked how I was feeling and if I remember anything, I was like you mean during surgery? No (weird, right?). I did tell him that my throat was sore and he acted like that was weird.

Rena pushed the rest of the drugs into my IV before taking it out and letting me change.

After I was changed, Dr Malley came in and went over my surgery and my post op instructions again and I was finally given some Apple Juice to sip.

Shortly after, I was given my prescriptions for pain med and anti nausea med and we were off. I was wheeled to the car and we were headed home. We did stop by the drug store to fill my prescriptions, but made it home around 3:00pm.

I have been sleeping with a heating pad under my back and a heated throw on top of me to help with the pain.




14 comments:

  1. wooooohoooooo!!! Congrats and I hope for a speedy recovery! :)

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  2. Sounds like it went well, and you're already home, hooray!! Move around as much as you can - it'll help with the gas pains.

    Welcome to your new, healthy life!!

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  3. Yeah for you! I was just a couple of days before you, but today is the first day I can tell I'm on the upswing. Woo-hoo!

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  4. Congrats! This week is popular. It's 4 days out for me and I'm felling pretty good. Gas x and walking have been my best friends. Hopefully each day will get better.

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  5. Yay.....
    I had the same 'height' strangeness happen to me the day of surgery. I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it. I am 5'6" and they measured me at 5'4". When I said something to the nurse she told me that it is better that I am shorter because it make my BMI higher (WTH?) and depending on my insurance, they may stop covering fills and such if they consider my BMI to be in a normal range. Still not happy about it.... I usually lie and say I am taller, oh well.

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  6. Awesome! :) Welcome to the land of being banded. Take care of yourself and sip, sip, sip that water and walk when you can.

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  7. I forgot to add that I love, love, love that you have a pic of your 1st barium swallow. Save this pic. May be useful down the road...you never know.

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  8. Glad to hear things went well!!! Welcome to bandland :)

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  9. Yeah!!! Im glad you feel well enough to blog. The road will be bumpy so hang on it is all worth it.

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  10. It's so weird when I hear about these outpatient surgeries.... Did they offer you the option of staying overnight? Anyway... Gas-X is a godsend and I used liquid tylenol to help with discomfort... I am glad you got through it with ease and wish you comfort in your speedy recovery.

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    1. This Dr does do the lap band surgery at a hospital if your insurance requires it. Mine did not, so I was at a surgery center and I was not given the option to stay the night. I'm glad that I got to go home and wasn't stuck with an IV or a B/P cuff going off every 30 mins.

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  11. Oh and medical term for the thing you almost got sick is the "Puke Slinkky"

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