sherri0121

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Dr Lowe came in and said he was going to allow broth and liquids to my diet.  If I tolerated them well, then he didn't see having me spend one more night in the hospital.  He said if by 4 I was still fine that he'd issue the release.  I was pretty excited to get to go home.  This time I opted to walk out as opposed to waiting for transport to take me out.

The puppies were so happy to see their mommy home and sleep in one bed.  Peace and love exists.

I saw Dr Lowe in the morning.  I was still pretty drugged up and on the anti nausia meds.  My blood work was good so the Dr decided to do a CAT scan.  He came in shortly afterwards and told me I had an internal hernia.  Apparently when the small intestines are attached to the new pouch there is a window that is made through the colon.  At that junction is where the stitches came loose and caused a blockage.  He was going to have to go in to fix it.  He scheduled me for surgery at 1 PM.  At 12 PM they wisked me off and prepped me for surgery.

I was in recovery before I even knew it.  When I woke up I asked the nurse if they were done.  She chuckled and said yep you sure are.  I was still pretty groggy and my mouth was bone dry.  Thank goodness for swabs!

I arrived back into my room and Chip came in shortly after.  He was such a wonderful sight.  He's been my rock and a strong supporter of what I've been through.  I'm glad he's been with me.  He probably wishes he wasn't with me though after going through all this mess.

I was on swabs the rest of the afternoon. The Dr came in to report everything went well and that I could probably leave on Sat.

Everything was fine or so I thought.  I had a great Christmas morning and day.  Enjoyed friends and family.  About 11 PM I started getting severe cramps and vomiting.  I decided to wait it out hoping it would get better.

About 1 PM I crawled out of bed and came downstairs.  I tried to find a quick remedy on OH through the chatroom.  That was a useless cause.  2 AM came and I was throwing up blood and bile.  I was still having the cramping and sweats.  I just thought if I could get through this I'd feel so much better.  Finally at 4 AM I'd had enough.  I called the surgeon's office and asked to speak with who was on call.  The Dr returned my call and I explained my symptoms.  My two choices were to go to the ER and have a CT scan or wait till 9 to go to the Dr office.  I opted for the second choice.

Chip finally woke up about 7 AM.  I filled him in and he decided to take me to the Dr.  I didn't even shower, just brushed my teeth & hair and changed clothes then out the door.  I was still puking when we arrived at the surgeon's office.  It seemed like it took forever, but finally about 30 min later I was seen by the dr.  He decided to admit me to the hospital.

So off to the hospital we went.  I was checked in fairly quickly and in a room.  I really don't remember too much about this day except I was on Morphine and anti nausia medicine.  YEAH for Anti Nausia MEds!  I'd never survived without it.  I do remember them taking some blood and using my arms as pin cushions.  They look terrible.  They're all black and blue bruised.

At 7:30 i got up and dicided to find what I needed to get my own bath.  I wasn't about to wait around for someone else to do it for me.  Since I was able to use the bathroom the day before I saw there were towels and wash clothes already in the bathroom.  I found a small wash tub next to the sink.

The timing was just right.  The IV bag was about ready to run out and alert the nurse as I was finished washing up.  She came in to change the bag and was suprised to see me up and about.  Thankfully she returned relatively quickly with a gown that fit and had all it's ties.  She did go ahead and disconnect the IV.  I did take one more shot of Morphine before she did that. :)  I really didn't over use the morphine.  It really just made me tired and not feel like doing anything.  I think the day before I'd only had 8 or 10 doses.  

I was anxious to get out of the hospital.  Not to long after getting the iv disconnected the nurse came in to ask if I'd like the drainage tube out.  This is the part that scared me!!!  She offered me a Vicodin pill which I refused because it was going to take about 45 min before it'd take effect.  I bit the bullet and told her lets do it.  It was somewhat painful, but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

The doctor came to visit with me about 11:30 to let me know I was going to be released and give me all the post op details.  40 minutes later and all the release information was taken care of.  The nurse convinced me to be wheeled out the hospital...I wish I wouldn't have.  She came back about 15 min later to tell me that she'd requested just a wheelchair because they were backed up.  I didn't  get wheeled out of the hospital until 1:15 PM.  I was really getting antsy.

I got home and soooo happy to see my babies (dogs).  I rested for most of the evening and watched my favorite shows.

I didn't sleep well at all last evening, mostly off an on from 11 PM to 7:30 AM.  I was woken up 3 or 4 times for vitals, blood being drawn, or for the nurse to check on my IV bag etc.

The last time the tech came in she brought in some towels, wash clothes, gown and told me to call when I was ready to get up.  So I called about 8:15, it was 45 min later before anyone showed up.  I was getting ticked off.  She ended up bringing me another gown and some towels.  So then she left because I told her I could finish up myself.  I went to go put on the gown - the first was too small (I wasn't happy) - then the second didn't have any ties.  Of course I had to call again and wait another 20 min for anyone to show up.  I will say that DEFINATELY DON'T EXPECT ANYTHING TO BE QUICK!  Thank goodness they did take out the cath. though.

I went ahead and sat up in the chair.  I decided to french braid my hair (no chance to get it washed) and did my makeup.  I just couldn't sit around looking homely all day.  I made sure to stay up all day to make sure I had a better chance of sleeping through the night.

This was the first night I was allowed anything other than swabs.  Dinners were given out about 6 PM.  Almost 7 PM and I asked when should I be expecting my Glucerna.  Hours came and went and the only updates I received was that it was ordered.  Finally, 8:30 PM and two were delivered up to the room.  I was upset about it too.  They gave me the chocolate.  It wasn't bad.  I was allowed to drink 30 CC's an hour and only 30 CC's of water an hour also.  I read the back of the can and it said it must be refridgerated.  So I was left figuring out how in the hell do I keep this stuff cool.  The best I could think of was to use some of the small cups with ice and place the little cup I was drinking from atop the iced cup.

At 11:30 I turned off the TV and hoped full a restfull night.  I slept throught the night and wasn't disturbed until 3 AM then again about 7 AM.

I wasn't really nervous to have the surgery.  I was anxious to have it completed and start with the weight loss process.  I was a little disappointed that during the 2 week liquid diet I had only lost 8 lbs.

Background: I under estimated how difficult the liquid diet would be.  I really  didn't think it would be hard.  It was nice that the Dr allowed me to have Thanksgiving dinner which was 2 days into the liquid diet.  I definately tried to keep busy during the 2 week period.

Surgery Day:
Surgery went just as planned with no complications.  I went in about 9:15+ and Chip was notified at 10:30 that the surgery was completed and I should only be in recovery for about an hour.  Ha!  I didn't get out of recovery until about 3:30 PM.  It really didn't matter to me because I slept most of the time.  

Once I was in my room and settled then Chip came to visit. He sat with me until it was time for him to go home and feed the dogs.  My aunt actually camed to visit me too.  She works on the same floor on the other side of the building.  It was nice she came to visit me too.  However, I think she only came because she'd got called back into work.  I was disspointed that she didn't visit the next evening, but oh well.  Heck my cousin even works in the same hospital and she never did visit.  What is 10 min out of their day.  I could understand if they weren't already there, but come on.

The nurses and techs were fine.  Although just after 10 PM my night nurse came in to check me out.  While she was listening to my breathing my phone rang.  I told her not to worry about it, but I don't think she heard me.  She insisted on getting the phone.  Well she ended up dropping it into the cup of water.  That was the end of the phone.  I couldn't even call Chip at the house because it was long distance from the hospital and I didn't want to be charged a LD charge.  Thank goodness one of the techs came in and lent me her phone so I could call Chip to let him know I had no cell phone.  In the end the hospital was extremely nice about the whole thing and is going to reimburse me for a new phone...hopefully no problems here.

My pain wasn't too bad.  I think the absolute worst thing was my mouth was soooooooo dry!  If it wasn't for the swabs I don't think I would have ever made it.