The ups and downs of post surgery in the hospital
Ok so having surgery is not anyone's favorite thing and for good reason lol. I have been out of the hospital for just over a full day at this point.
Day of the surgery.
This was honestly the easiest day for me. I studied what was going to happen, I watched videos, I had waited over a year for this day, I was excited, I was ready. First my husband and I went to ambulatory which is just where they get you ready for the first set of doctors. You get weighed, take off your clothes, wipe yourself down with a set of thick moist antibacterial towelettes (one for arms, one for chest, etc.) I was put in a hospital gown called "bear paws" or something cute like that that attaches to a hose on the wall that blows warm air, the whole thing inflates like a sleeping bag, it was very cozy lol. Then we waited, watching tv until pre-op was ready for me. In pre-op they had me put my hair in a hair net, gave me my IV (I'll write more later about my stupid veins and my IV adventure), gave me an anti clotting shot in my leg, went over some standard questions, and then more waiting. There is no tv in this room, also nothing scary going on so relax and take a nap if your going to be here a while. When the Dr was ready he came to see me in ambulatory I was given a shot of versed (sp?) "This medication is used ... before a procedure or anesthesia to cause drowsiness, decrease anxiety, and cause forgetfulness of the surgery or procedure". I remember going into the OR, getting on to the operating table and having my arms strapped into place and then breathing through a mask. I do vaguely remember waking up in a post op room and asking someone to help me wake up because I felt like I couldn't wake up fully. I don't remember the trip to my final room or getting from the OR table to the bed in my room. The rest of the day I napped quite a bit. I did not do any walking because the pain medication I was on at that time made me very nauseous. They switched the pain medication and although I was still very nauseous I could at least hit my pain button with out a huge wave of nausea overwhelming me.
The second day I walked the halls at least 4-5 times. When I slept it was in shorter increments, but still quite often. I tried talking to friends online or holding a conversation with visitors but the morphine knocked me out and I dozed off after just a few sentences. I didn't feel too groggy or anything when I got up and walked around. I sat in the chair and moved around the room frequently. That night I woke up around 4am and my uvula had swollen to about 3 times it's normal size, my throat was slightly sore but my main issue was the face that my uvula was laying on my tongue and making it feel like it was hard to breath and making me cough and activating my gag reflex. The feeling was like having a large glob of phlegm sitting on your tongue. The coughing did cause some bleeding in my incisions, and the panic feeling of the extra pain from the coughing and the feeling like it was hard to breath raised my blood pressure. Since the throat irritation was new and did not present itself on the first day I was concerned about strep throat or some other cause. My doctor was called but never responded to his pages, which I am very disappointment about. All this day I was able to drink small quantities of water and had to keep a detailed log of how much I drank.
The third day I continued the detailed log of my intake and around noon was allowed to choose something from the full liquid menu, I drank small sips of carnation instant breakfast over time and had strained cream of mushroom soup. It was easiest to simply dip the spoon into the soup just allowing it to coat the spoon instead of taking a "bite". Ice chips were easier for me to chew on than sipping the water as well. At this point I had been burping quite often but no..well..farting, or bowel movements. My doctor came by in the afternoon, and without looking at all said my throat irritation was likely because of the breathing tube during surgery and that if I had issues with my BP to go to my family doctor. I was very disappointment that 1. he operated on me while seeming ill himself, 2. was dismissive of my concern about my throat swelling, 3. was dismissive about my blood pressure. My husband had the same doctor and had a completely different experience which leads me to believe he is either sexist or "cranky" when he is sick and should not be performing surgery anyway. Getting discharged of course took so long that I had to be given another does of medication after I was disconnected from my last IV (which wasn't working at that point anyway, again more with my IV nightmares later since they are completely specific to my body and not typical of this procedure)
Day of the surgery.
This was honestly the easiest day for me. I studied what was going to happen, I watched videos, I had waited over a year for this day, I was excited, I was ready. First my husband and I went to ambulatory which is just where they get you ready for the first set of doctors. You get weighed, take off your clothes, wipe yourself down with a set of thick moist antibacterial towelettes (one for arms, one for chest, etc.) I was put in a hospital gown called "bear paws" or something cute like that that attaches to a hose on the wall that blows warm air, the whole thing inflates like a sleeping bag, it was very cozy lol. Then we waited, watching tv until pre-op was ready for me. In pre-op they had me put my hair in a hair net, gave me my IV (I'll write more later about my stupid veins and my IV adventure), gave me an anti clotting shot in my leg, went over some standard questions, and then more waiting. There is no tv in this room, also nothing scary going on so relax and take a nap if your going to be here a while. When the Dr was ready he came to see me in ambulatory I was given a shot of versed (sp?) "This medication is used ... before a procedure or anesthesia to cause drowsiness, decrease anxiety, and cause forgetfulness of the surgery or procedure". I remember going into the OR, getting on to the operating table and having my arms strapped into place and then breathing through a mask. I do vaguely remember waking up in a post op room and asking someone to help me wake up because I felt like I couldn't wake up fully. I don't remember the trip to my final room or getting from the OR table to the bed in my room. The rest of the day I napped quite a bit. I did not do any walking because the pain medication I was on at that time made me very nauseous. They switched the pain medication and although I was still very nauseous I could at least hit my pain button with out a huge wave of nausea overwhelming me.
The second day I walked the halls at least 4-5 times. When I slept it was in shorter increments, but still quite often. I tried talking to friends online or holding a conversation with visitors but the morphine knocked me out and I dozed off after just a few sentences. I didn't feel too groggy or anything when I got up and walked around. I sat in the chair and moved around the room frequently. That night I woke up around 4am and my uvula had swollen to about 3 times it's normal size, my throat was slightly sore but my main issue was the face that my uvula was laying on my tongue and making it feel like it was hard to breath and making me cough and activating my gag reflex. The feeling was like having a large glob of phlegm sitting on your tongue. The coughing did cause some bleeding in my incisions, and the panic feeling of the extra pain from the coughing and the feeling like it was hard to breath raised my blood pressure. Since the throat irritation was new and did not present itself on the first day I was concerned about strep throat or some other cause. My doctor was called but never responded to his pages, which I am very disappointment about. All this day I was able to drink small quantities of water and had to keep a detailed log of how much I drank.
The third day I continued the detailed log of my intake and around noon was allowed to choose something from the full liquid menu, I drank small sips of carnation instant breakfast over time and had strained cream of mushroom soup. It was easiest to simply dip the spoon into the soup just allowing it to coat the spoon instead of taking a "bite". Ice chips were easier for me to chew on than sipping the water as well. At this point I had been burping quite often but no..well..farting, or bowel movements. My doctor came by in the afternoon, and without looking at all said my throat irritation was likely because of the breathing tube during surgery and that if I had issues with my BP to go to my family doctor. I was very disappointment that 1. he operated on me while seeming ill himself, 2. was dismissive of my concern about my throat swelling, 3. was dismissive about my blood pressure. My husband had the same doctor and had a completely different experience which leads me to believe he is either sexist or "cranky" when he is sick and should not be performing surgery anyway. Getting discharged of course took so long that I had to be given another does of medication after I was disconnected from my last IV (which wasn't working at that point anyway, again more with my IV nightmares later since they are completely specific to my body and not typical of this procedure)