I made it!

Well folks, I made it through surgery.  Now to take good care of myself and avoid any post-surgical complications.  I'm working hard to document my journey and transformation so this is the best account I can give of my pre-op appointments through this morning, the first day after my surgery.  Here goes...

On Monday, my family and I drove to Coos Bay, OR where I was going to have the surgery.  My parents were going to be meeting us after my pre-op appointments at the AirBnB, then say goodbye to my family as they had to go back home for work and school.  We got into town just a smidge early, but the took me back early for my first pre-op appointment at the surgeons office.  All they did was take "before" pictures of me, took some vitals, and then weighed me at my request.  It was an odd pre-op visit in my opinion.  

After that visit, we had about 2.5 hours to kill, and the next appointment was literally a block away.  So we took the boys to McD's and got them lunch, and got me some water to drink and to have a protein drink.  After that we stopped at the store and the gas station and then looked for a park to go hang out at for an hour and a half or so.  We found this cool little spot near the place I was going to be staying that was right on the bay.  We hung out, watched the water, took some pictures and watched the Coast Guard helicopters coming and going.  Finally I couldn't take anymore, so we headed to the hospital for my next pre-op visit.  

During my pre-op visit, the RN asked me tons of questions about my vitamins, medications, etc.  I had been told at my first appointment in August I would be prescribed a regimen of blood thinners to take for 2 weeks.  I asked who would be dispensing that to me and she had no idea.  She called the hospital pharmacy and they told her they didn't do it.  So I said I would call the doctors office after my appointment because the surgeons assistant had told me it would be given to me at my pre-op.  

So after I was done with getting my check-in and surgery time I left and called the surgeons assistant asking her what was going on with the thinners.  We had just turned down the road to the house we were staying at when she called me back and said the prescription would be at the front desk.  Good grief.  My stress level was high, my anxiety was high, I wanted to just be in the house and take off my shoes for a bit but now had to go back to the doctors office again, to go back to Walgreen's again, to skedaddle back to the AirBnB to get the car back to my husband so he could head home.  I ran up there fast, grabbed it and dropped it off then jetted back to the BnB.  My folks had just gotten there so we said our hello's and then I said my goodbye's to my family and sent them home.  My parent's and I spent the evening chatting with each other and then they went out to dinner and let me relax a bit.  Later that evening I watched 911 with my son on Google Duo so it was like we were sitting with each other which I think made both of us feel better in a way.  I know he's been a little worried about my surgery too. 

The next morning my parents and I woke up bright and early to head to the hospital and check-in at 7:30am.  Surgery was scheduled for 2 hours after that.  They took me to my pre-op space and had me change into my gown and then wipe myself down with some anti-bacterial wipes.  After that they had me get up to pee and lucky me, my period freaking started.  So they got me some mesh panties and the worst pad on the planet.  I was so hoping that I would not have it until a day or two after surgery.  I got very lucky in that their stupid pads worked until I could get my own giant boat pad.  Anyway, TMI. 

So while they were doing the check-in a nurse came by and blurted "pre-op" to the nurse in my cubby with me.  She looked at me and basically said that means you are going in sooner than 9:30.  Holy crap.  So another nurse came in to help her so it went by faster.  They brought out the machine to help find a vein because nothing was glaringly useful.  The 2nd nurse gave it a try, and my vein blew.  Which I had no idea what that meant, and thought it meant something bad.  I'm such a worrywort.  So they tried again in the back of my left hand, twice, and both of those blew as well.  Then they tried again on my right hand.  Blew.  At this point, I was mega stressed out feeling like maybe all this was a bad idea and I was thinking of running away.  My dad was there with me and was helping me to stay in somewhat good spirit.  They went and got an anesthesiologist to come take a look to see if he could find a vein and he couldn't at first.  So they said they were going to take me back to recovery where they have an ultrasound machine to help find the vein since my veins were being so finicky.  I was mega dehydrated and that was causing the issue.  So at that point my dad was saying goodbye to me and that's when I lost it and started bawling like a baby.  I felt like I was saying goodbye to my dad for the last time and that I wasn't going to make it through surgery, etc.  I tried to pull myself together to say good bye, and gave him a kiss and hug and off he went to the waiting room with mom.  

They wheeled me back to recovery and the anesthesiologist found a vein within a few minutes and put the IV in me.  They immediately gave me something to relax me which normally I want nothing to do with, but at this point I wanted to check-out so bad I was fine with it.  I didn't know they had done it until I felt it, and it was awesome.  I felt so much better.  They got me into the OR, and within about 4 minutes, I was going under. 

The next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room feeling like I was having a heart attack. The pressure in the middle of my breasts was unlike anything I've ever experienced.  It was awful.  To be on the safe side, they gave me an EKG which was clear, and they told me so, and that helped me know it was the gas pain I was feeling and not me actually dying.  After a bit of me dozing in and out they took me up to my own room in the short-stay unit to continue my recovery.  They showed me how to work the TV, bed, gave me ice chips, etc.  The nurses were all fantastic.  Everyone was so nice.  I had one CNA that wasn't a huge fan of helping me out, but it was a guy, and when he was helping me during a quick walk told me he had an MBA in Hospital Administration and didn't like being a CNA but liked working for the hospital.  So that was interesting.  

My parents came in to check on me for a while but since I was so in and out of it decided they would head home until they knew I was close to checking out.  I really thought it would be around 5-6pm, but then one of the nurses told me no way, it was going to be around 11pm.  My parents are such troopers to stick by me for all this stuff.  They are amazing.  I don't know if I could have done it all without their awesome support.  They really got me through.  I asked for more ice chips and was crunching those down like they were going out of style and worked on my breathing.  I was taking short naps, and took two walks around through my stay.  It hurt so bad to get up out of bed, and going to the bathroom was such a chore with that gown going all which way, and my right middle finger had that monitor on it, so I was afraid it would get all gross during personal care.  Ugh.  

Overall while the day felt like it was dragging I took many naps, drank about 9oz of water through 10 hours, but ate about 1.5 cups of crushed ice as well.  They emptied my drains a couple times, and got me everything I wanted and needed.  I felt so much better when I was able to put my own underwear back on. LOL.  They kept saying I did so great, and was basically a model patient.  They even told me as I was leaving to come back in a year and see them so they could see the new me. LOL. As I'm sitting here typing this, I'm walking in place because I'm also paranoid about blood clots.  I won't have my next Levanox injection until after I pick them up between appointments so I'll be taking them with me to the doctors office so they can show me what to do.  I was totally out of it when they gave me the shot post-op yesterday. 

Today I'm not able to have anything to drink until after my esophagram (swallow test with barium to make sure my new stomach doesn't have any leaks).  After that, I have a follow up with my surgeon's office to have my drain removed.  I'm really paranoid they are going to find a leak and I'm not sure what that means will have to happen other than they go back in and fix it which means another surgery that will totally be out of pocket.  Fingers crossed I don't have to deal with that.  Ever.

So that's what the last 36 or so hours have looked like for me.  Now I'm going to get up and walk around a little since they said today I need to be walking as much as I can to help continue to get the gas pains out and avoid blood clots.  I'll have another post up in a day or three to continue the story of surgery week.  Peace!