Howdy and how the heck are ya!? I was sleeved three days ago and I feel great! I'll start at the beginning.
I didn't sleep much Monday night, my sister and nephew stayed the night to help get the children off to school and to watch DS4 while DH was at BGH with me. My younger cousin and step-son also wound up coming by and spending the night, they are all in their early 20's so I just love talking to them about life. We stayed up until about 2 am, I then laid down, prayed for about an hour, talked with DH for another half hour and closed my eyes for maybe fifteen minutes. I was fully active at about 5am, I took a shower, dressed, double checked my bags, and put them by the door. Then I woke, hugged, and kissed each of my sons and told them not to worry we would Skype later. We arrived at BHG at 6 o'clock on the dot and found the "guy in the tuxedo". We had a bit of a wait as I was scheduled for 9:15, so I read the newspaper and tried to ignore the Timmy Ho's breakfast sandwich and coffee DH was wolfing down. The nice guy in the tuxedo returns around 6:50 and takes us to the surgical floor. I get all comfy in a very flattering green gown in my semi-private holding area. Well it turns out that my roomie and I have the same surgeon, she is having the Lap Band done and is the 8 o'clock case. We trade a few jokes between us, and off she goes to be prepped by anesthesia. Moments later, the nurse returns to give me my Lovenox and informs me that the first case has been postponed and I'm next. As much as I was sure that I was not nervous and I was ready for my sleeve, when I got this news my heart sank into my gut and my palms were instantly sweaty. Welp, nothing to do now but stand on what I believe so here I go. I jump up on the gurney and flash a toothy grin at my very nervous husband and assure him I will see him very shortly. I am wheeled back to the pre-op holding area where I meet the anesthesia resident who is going to start my I.V. (great) she starts by injecting me with something to numb the site(inject me to make the injection hurt less?) whatever, I figure well maybe it's going to be a deep PIV so I smile and tell her to go for it. OMG it hurt so bad I wanted to slap the foundation off of her face. She was digging and adjusting and all the while the(other) student was asking me eight million questions about my history to distract me(get on my last nerve), so while I'm telling him all about why I'm fat and how long I've been fat and how many diets I've been on the anesthesiologist comes over and makes the 18 gauge catheter fit and runs the Ringers Lactate with Ampicillin piggy backed in. I asked what every single thing they were giving me was and I was shocked that they didn't readily offer that information. Now that I've been poked twice and traumatized I am also cold and shivering; or shaking of nervousness. The very kind and pretty nurse comes with a syringe with an orange label and I ask"what's that?" she said "something called Versed to help calm you down" well things were looking up from there! Into the ice cold operating room we go. I jump up onto the table position myself in the middle and put my life in the hands of Dr. Posner and his OR staff....
I wake up in recovery the clock says 10:50. I estimate the surgery must have taken 2 hours instead of 1 and I notice my shoulders and chest are very sore, hmmm...I wonder if i had a hiatal hernia? The nurse comes over and pushes some dilaudid and confirms my suspicion, she says it will be a few minutes for my room to be ready and gives me a generous helping of ice chips to work on while I wait. I'm a tad sore, and my throat hurts, but I feel okay. I came out alive and now my life will change forever.
Around noon I get up to my room 1515 window, "wait no private room?, you know I'm family first?" "I'm sorry Mrs.W we are at capacity" First thought after that is let me get the heck out of here ASAP!
Around 1o'clock DH shows back up. They wouldn't let him see me in recovery so he went home to check on DS4. He visited briefly and then I sent him home so that I could "rest". The nurses on the floor were nice enough you could tell they were very busy, it always took about 20 minutes to get anything I asked for, but I know how it is so no big deal. I got up and walked the floor and walked to the bathroom, a lot. I tried and tried to void and to no avail, I could squeeze out a few trickles but I somehow was feeling like my bladder was still full. I called my nurse and she said she would come do a bladder scan, well an hour later I was writhing in pain and here she comes. "dilaudid first please" I said. She performs the scan and indeed I had nearly a half liter of urine in my badder, so I bought myself a foley for the night. I figured at this point why bother wrestling with the foley, I.V. pole, drain, and monitor. I planned to stay snowed and just sleep the night away and besides Skyping my boys and my close friend that's what I did.
Day Two
The Nurse Practitioner came in early, so my first request was to get rid of the foley. We went over my discharge instruction at great length and she ordered an upper GI. Within 10 minutes the foley was out and I was being wheeled down to radiology for the barium swallow. Now up untill this point I was only allowed ice chips and tiny sips of water so the Omnipaque and barium went down effortlessly. The tech told me right away that there were no leaks and I was relieved. When I got back upstairs I had a lunch tray of clear liquids to enjoy. There was chicken broth, yellow jelllo, and apple juice. Since I had been told by Dr. Posner My stomach would be able to hold 3-4 ounces I portioned myself 1 oz of broth, 0.5 oz of jello , and0.5 oz of apple juice, I know that doesn't equal 3 ounces but I was trying to account for the swelling :) I got it all down in about 30 minutes and then got up and walked the floor some more. By the time Dr. Posner rounded at around 1pm I had walked a mile around that little unit.He asked me if there was any reason why I should stay and I could not think of one, and neither could he. I showed him how I would care for my drain and dressings at home and promised to call him if I had any issue at all, in return he gave me my walking papers. I got dressed and got home a little after 3. When I got home my MIL was there getting my troops in line. I sat and visited with my MIL, SIL, and children and answered all their questions. I showed DS3 my belly wounds(he has one too so he wanted to compare). I then poured myself a few cups of liquids and retired to my bed for the evening.
Day Three
I don't remember what I did, I drank a lot of fluids and took my pain meds around the clock.I went out and ran a few errands, that was really it. I wasn't feeling too bad just tired.
Day Four
I went to the dentist, I got my old mercury fillings replaced with composite ones. I cooked spaghetti for my family. I wasn't hungry, but I was sleepy. We had friends over and watched The Grinch.
Day Five
I got up early, got dressed, even put on makeup! I was feeling fabulous! I went to the Wailing Women Ministry meeting. This is the first day I got in all of my fluids and protein. I haven't been on the scale...maybe tomorrow.
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