The adventure en toto
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
First of all, 5:30 in the morning is just an unholy hour for someone to be expected to be at the hospital, ready to be cut open. But I was there, bright and early with my mom and Kevin in tow. The prep work was painless enough; the woman doing my IV was awesome and it did not hurt even a little bit. On the outside I was super calm and collected, making jokes with my loved ones and reminding Kevin about the doctor's appointment he needed to make. But apparently, I internalize my stress utterly and completely, because my blood pressure was a whopping 155 over 105. 155/105! Good lord, it's never been that high before. We all wrote it off as white coat syndrome and I went on about my surgery having business.

I couldn't help but think that it was a good sign that when the surgical nurse came to talk to me beforehand, she made sure to tell me that A) I picked the right surgeon because he was the best one at the hospital out of all the surgeons who do this surgery, B) the nurses actually FIGHT over who gets to be on Dr. Mueller's surgery teams, especially for this procedure and C) Dr. Mueller has AMAZING HANDS and does the best stitches she's ever seen. Apparently, I picked the doctor who's a combo of all the Super Docs on Grey's Anatomy.

All I know is that I was out before they even put the mask on me, which was good because it wasn't until I was kissing my mom and Kevin goodbye that I started getting teary. So hooray for being put to sleep before I could get all emotional!

The surgery went really, really well...it took him about half an hour less than it usually takes him because it was so easy for him to work on me. I guess I did a good job shrinking my liver down to a manageable size! Next thing I knew I was in recovery and I could hear all of them talking about how I had had a reaction to the telemetry sticky tab things because my skin was all red; I knew it was just because my skin is sensitive to having things ripped off of it, but I was too out of it to be able to tell them. Luckily they figured it out themselves.

I got to my room and hoo boy, I was spoiled because I got my own room! And it was a double room so it was nice and big so I could have more than 2 visitors at a time, which was the best part. Technically, Kevin could have stayed the night but the recliner didn't look comfortable so I sent him home to get some sleep. Figured I really needed my home care person to be well rested.

I didn't have a morphine pump ( but I did have really responsive nurses); they gave me morphine when I asked for it and Gas-X when I asked for it. Most of my pain was taken care of by an On-Q Pain Pump. It was basically an epidural for my abdomen, which meant zero incision pain. The only thing that hurt was my diaphragm, and my lungs at first. And that was pretty much gone by yesterday afternoon.

They were actually talking about discharging me yesterday afternoon since all the dang nurses kept telling me I looked like I'd had surgery a week ago. I certainly didn't FEEL like I'd had surgery a week ago! Luckily (and ironically) they kept getting high blood pressure readings on me during the day (mostly because they kept taking it either right after I finished walking or right when I was having a gas pain attack), so I got to spend one more night while they waited for a my clonidine patch to work its magic. It makes it hard for me to focus on things in the distance, but it got my blood pressure down enough for me to be discharged this morning, and I was home by 10:15.

I'm doing really, really well. I've gotten in my 64 ounces of water, we've done a few walks up and down the block, I even went to Walgreens! It's not all roses, of course...my body has decided to get every last bit of digested food out, which means diarrhea, cha cha cha. What I wouldn't give for just some plain old gas, you know? At least I know it'll run out eventually, right? I also discovered that Liquid Tylenol does not set well with me...I don't know if it was the corn syrup or the taste or what, but right after I took it, I was MISERABLE. My stomach hurt and I couldn't get comfortable anywhere. So I've switched to Children's Tylenol meltaways and that is way better. I am totally stoked that I don't need the prescription painkiller; for once, my high pain tolerance is working in my favor.

So anyway, things are good. I'm good, I'm hydrated and I'm able to sleep. Thank you all SO MUCH for your good wishes....I know it's cheesy, but I really believe that all the good vibes I got from my internet community had to have helped things go well.

And now I'm going to go watch TV and sleep. Yay for being home!!


7 Comments:

Blogger Danyele said...

Oh I'm so glad to hear that you're home and doing well. Take it EASY, ok? ((big hugs))

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hooray! Being in the hospital sucks (I know!) so...you are recovering well!

Blogger mo pie said...

Yay! I knew you'd come through with flying colors, but it's still great to hear. Here's to a very very quick healing process! Like lightning!

Blogger Folly Blaine said...

Hi. I'm a stranger and a lurker but I thought this was worth de-lurking for. I admire the strength it took to do what you did and I'm glad to hear you're doing well. Best wishes!

Blogger Melinda said...

Thanks you guys! And Christy, hooray for delurking!

Blogger bozoette said...

I'm so glad things are going so well!! Hooray for you. Smooches.

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good for you to be on the other side! You'll be amazed at how quickly you will recover and be back to a normal life. I can't wait to see you at the next Weetacon.

BettyBigHead

Post a Comment

<< Home

footer