On The Way to Recovery

I know that Elizabeth posted for me after the surgery, but since I am home now and feeling a little better today, I will try to give details.

We got to the hospital at 7am on Tuesday. The surgery was to start at 9 but it really got started about 10 I think. I talked to the anesthesiologist first. I told him that I do not take Vicodin or Morphine because I can't breathe when I take them. He said that is partly what they are supposed to do, suppress breathing. But in his foreign accent told me that he would not force me to take them. He instead decided to do an epidural to help with pain management after the surgery. What a great decision...at least for two days. I had virtually NO PAIN after the surgery. I had the epidural until Thursday when I broke it and it had to be removed. Apparently that was long enough to get through the initial pain because I still did not have an extreme amount of pain from the surgery. My headache was a different story. If I could describe the pain for you...I felt like RIPPING MY HEAD OFF MY NECK. I would have done this by grabbing the back of my head at my spine and just pulling up and forward. That probably would have been quite a mess for the staff to clean up so I refrained. That pain has finally become manageable today. Not even the pain meds made much difference...I pretty much had to lay on my back (almost flat) and the pain would subside a little. All the nurses and I feel that it was from the epidural. (Also a friend of Geoff's and mine that works at FWO feels it was from the epidural.) When the anesthesiologist came in to remove it (a different one than I saw before the surgery), I asked if the headache could be from the epidural. He said he didn't think so...hmmmm. I think he lied.

So after I saw the anesthesiologist, Dr. Yahanda came in. He explained everything again and said he would see me in a little while. The anesthesiologist gave me something through my IV that he said would relax me. Now, I know he really meant relaxed, but before I left that room, I was pretty much out of it. I barely remember looking at a nurse that was holding me up in the OR while the doc put the epidural in. That was it...next thing I know, I am in my room.

So fast forward to the next morning when Dr. Yahanda came into my room. He said the surgery was a success. He removed 4-5 inches of my stomach and all seemed to be going well. My diet for that day, as it was for Tuesday and would be for Thursday also, was ice chips. Not even water...JUST ice chips. I told him he was pretty serious when he said "liquid diet". He said "What do you mean, those ice chips are solid."

Basically, the rest is all pretty mundane. Tuesday night, I stood by the side of my bed. Wed and on, I walked at least three times and up to five times, depending on the severity of my headache. There was one funny story...

I had a tube up through my nose that went down into my stomach to drain my stomach of acids, etc. Wednesday night, two nurses came in to talk to me and get my vitals, etc. They had to wake me up because it was 1:30 in the morning and at that point I had been pretty much sleeping all the time. When the nurse that stood talking to me woke me and stayed beside the bed, I started smelling this AWFUL smell and the only thing I could think it could be was this nurse. And I thought, if they aren't saying anything about this smell, then it MUST be one of them. I could not wait for them to leave. I thought I was going to throw up. At last, they left. I rolled over to the other side to go back to sleep to find my bed was wet everywhere. And the smell was coming from the bed. I called them right back in and told them about it. My drain tube from my stomach had leaked all over my bed and me. So, at 1:30 in the morning, one nurse was helping me change and wash while the other was changing everything on my bed. Now, didn't I feel bad thinking it was one of the two nurses who stunk up the room when actually it was ME!!!!!

Being home has been so much better. I have been able to eat a little today without gagging at the sound of the word "food". And, as I said, the headache has gotten a little better. The only pain med I am taking is Extra Strenght Tylenol every 4 hours or so. I think I'm on my way...