Rob's Adventures in Surgery
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rpyle111
Posts: 1,066 Member
Warning: There are no actual adventures here. Everything went so well, so much better than I expected!
Tuesday morning: I reported to the hospital at 9:15 for surgical prep. They took us back into a cubicle, gave me a wonderful hospital gown and started prep. IV started, lots of questions (including me telling them what surgery I was having to make sure I knew). Anesthetist, interns all over the place, and finally my surgeon came to talk with my wife and I. He knew I had lost 100 pounds pre-surgery and was extremely impressed. I told him I had been having second thoughts and he told me that this was my last chance to pull out, and we talked for a few minutes and I decided to continue.
He left and then they wheeled me into the surgical suite. The last thing I remember was moving myself from the transport be to the surgical table and that’s it.
I woke up in recovery and was quite disoriented, but not in a ton of pain. The guy next to me was being belligerent about needing to pee and not believing that he had a catheter that was taking care of things for him. He was getting very anxious, but eventually they calmed him down. My room was not ready yet, so I had to stay there for about an hour (I wasn’t keeping great track of time, though). I was dozing off and this nice nurse kept telling me to breathe. After a few times, I remembered to tell her that my CPAP was under the bed and she should hook it up for me. After that i could doze in peace.
They eventually moved me to my room, and when I moved myself from the transport bed to my room bed, that was when I felt the pain. Moving my legs over didn’t hut, but when lifting my shoulders off the bad, I could feel the ‘too many sit-ups’ pain. It was not nearly as much pain as I expected. Within about an hour, they wanted me to get up and move, and I felt great! I was up and striding the hallways with no real pain. No food or drink Tuesday, but they brought me some ice chips to keep my mouth moist. Tuesday’s excitement was staying up way too late watching the super exciting Royals/A’s baseball game.
Wednesday started too early with nurse visits and vitals, and the breakfast! proteined chicken broth, decaf tea, SF jello and watered down apple juice. They gave me one ouch little cups and I had to put everything in the little cups and drink them out of that, while keeping track of how many I consumed through out the day. I also got up and walked a ton, creating a walking path through the ward that gave me about 3/4 of a mile per trip. I ends up walking 11k steps (5.6 miles) on Wednesday and the nurses were all very happy. I have to believe that my pre-surgery fitness success really helped me here. I also managed to get down 80 ounces of stuff throughout the day
This morning (Thursday) started similarly, breakfast and walking, there was nutrition class to go over the post-surgery plan, and then I was discharged about 11:00 and was free! On the way home, we stopped by my work (which is also where my wife started working Monday) to see her and to sop by my group to let them know everything was going well and I would see them in a few weeks. Now I’m home and laying out the plan for all of the med and food of my new life!
All of the nurses and staff at the hospital were fantastic, there were 5 others who had surgery either monday or Tuesday and we would see each other in the hall walking. Everyone was doing well, but they were in a lot more pain that I was. Three of us sat together in the nutrition class this morning and everyone was doing better that they were yesterday.
I never thought that there was a chance I would feel so good this quickly after surgery!
My advice to all of the pre-surgery folks is to get in as good shape physically as you can, because I am sure it had a lot to do with how good I feel.
Rob
Tuesday morning: I reported to the hospital at 9:15 for surgical prep. They took us back into a cubicle, gave me a wonderful hospital gown and started prep. IV started, lots of questions (including me telling them what surgery I was having to make sure I knew). Anesthetist, interns all over the place, and finally my surgeon came to talk with my wife and I. He knew I had lost 100 pounds pre-surgery and was extremely impressed. I told him I had been having second thoughts and he told me that this was my last chance to pull out, and we talked for a few minutes and I decided to continue.
He left and then they wheeled me into the surgical suite. The last thing I remember was moving myself from the transport be to the surgical table and that’s it.
I woke up in recovery and was quite disoriented, but not in a ton of pain. The guy next to me was being belligerent about needing to pee and not believing that he had a catheter that was taking care of things for him. He was getting very anxious, but eventually they calmed him down. My room was not ready yet, so I had to stay there for about an hour (I wasn’t keeping great track of time, though). I was dozing off and this nice nurse kept telling me to breathe. After a few times, I remembered to tell her that my CPAP was under the bed and she should hook it up for me. After that i could doze in peace.
They eventually moved me to my room, and when I moved myself from the transport bed to my room bed, that was when I felt the pain. Moving my legs over didn’t hut, but when lifting my shoulders off the bad, I could feel the ‘too many sit-ups’ pain. It was not nearly as much pain as I expected. Within about an hour, they wanted me to get up and move, and I felt great! I was up and striding the hallways with no real pain. No food or drink Tuesday, but they brought me some ice chips to keep my mouth moist. Tuesday’s excitement was staying up way too late watching the super exciting Royals/A’s baseball game.
Wednesday started too early with nurse visits and vitals, and the breakfast! proteined chicken broth, decaf tea, SF jello and watered down apple juice. They gave me one ouch little cups and I had to put everything in the little cups and drink them out of that, while keeping track of how many I consumed through out the day. I also got up and walked a ton, creating a walking path through the ward that gave me about 3/4 of a mile per trip. I ends up walking 11k steps (5.6 miles) on Wednesday and the nurses were all very happy. I have to believe that my pre-surgery fitness success really helped me here. I also managed to get down 80 ounces of stuff throughout the day
This morning (Thursday) started similarly, breakfast and walking, there was nutrition class to go over the post-surgery plan, and then I was discharged about 11:00 and was free! On the way home, we stopped by my work (which is also where my wife started working Monday) to see her and to sop by my group to let them know everything was going well and I would see them in a few weeks. Now I’m home and laying out the plan for all of the med and food of my new life!
All of the nurses and staff at the hospital were fantastic, there were 5 others who had surgery either monday or Tuesday and we would see each other in the hall walking. Everyone was doing well, but they were in a lot more pain that I was. Three of us sat together in the nutrition class this morning and everyone was doing better that they were yesterday.
I never thought that there was a chance I would feel so good this quickly after surgery!
My advice to all of the pre-surgery folks is to get in as good shape physically as you can, because I am sure it had a lot to do with how good I feel.
Rob
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Replies
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So glad to have you back with us Rob, and I am so happy you are doing well! I also could not agree more with this -
My advice to all of the pre-surgery folks is to get in as good shape physically as you can, because I am sure it had a lot to do with how good I feel.
I really do feel doing as much work as possible pre-surgery will help you immensely through surgery and recovery, and you are a shining example of that!! I know you are going to rock your new life!!0 -
Holy cow you are kicking butt and taking names!! :drinker: I am glad you decided to go ahead with the surgery--- I find that with the sleeve, weight loss is still work, but i have a lot more "leverage" when making decisions--- by that I mean I do not get maddeningly hungry unless I go several hours without eating--- it makes it easeir to not cave in to cravings. Also, if I do decide to indulge, I can only eat so much before I have to stop-- the "damage" is SO much less and can be counted in hundreds of cals instead of thousands. Hope your recovery continues to go well!0
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Whoop! Congratulations on this next step in the journey. So glad you had a relatively good time of it. Amazed with your walking stats-strong strong work! That is one thing I am really focusing on in the prep process, increasing activity as I work my way through eating and emotions, carb attacks, etc. Glad to hear you are doing so well.0
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Congratulations Rob you did great you have achieved so much already it can only get better0
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Did you also have this posted somewhere else because I could've worn I comment (if not, good job by the way :bigsmile: )
I could've sworn I did :noway: but Im only seeing this thread now :ohwell:0 -
Boy I can imagine the weight is just going to fall off of you now. It was already moving so well. You'll be slim Jim before you now it. Well done.0
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Weighed today. Up 5 pounds from pre-surgery weight. That's a lot of fluids! Not surprising, though.
It'll start coming off as I adjust to the new lower calorie level.
Rob0 -
Great news! I'm glad your on the other side and doing so well- it will just get better from here.
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For all the walking you did in the hospital did you wear your sneakers? If so, how easy was it to get them on with the abdominal pain? That's something I wonder about as I get closer. I can't do long spells of walking in anything but my sneakers.
Great job, by the way!
-Phill0 -
Most of Wednesday I just wore the rubberized socks they gave me. One of my trips was downstairs to the pharmacy to pay my copay for the post surgery prescriptions they delivered to me. For that trip I wore my sandals. I stayed away from sneakers because I wasn't sure I could get them on.
I am sure the nurse's aide would have helped me. The staff was really attentive, even though I didn't need much help, they were always asking how they could help me.
My feet hurt Thursday morning, so I probably should have wore the sandals more.0 -
Weighed today. Up 5 pounds from pre-surgery weight. That's a lot of fluids! Not surprising, though.
It'll start coming off as I adjust to the new lower calorie level.
Rob
AWESOME! So good to hear you are recovering nicely.
I too weighed 8 lbs more post-op than I did pre-op. Very common. My advice: just breathe in... breathe out. It will come.
Good luck and keep it up!!
Kate0
