Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln....
Nov. 26th, 2011 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuI spent Tuesday consuming clear liquids in preparation for my surgery on Wednesday. It didn't require the full cleansing prep demanded for my colonoscopy, but it's never fun. The really fun part is that I've been confined to a clear liquid diet ever since. I'm hoping that tomorrow morning I'll get some real food, but I don't know for sure.
Wednesday morning Snippy drove me to the hospital for my 10 a.m. check-in for a noon surgery. I was taken to the Short Stay wing, even though I'd be in the hopsital for two or three days. That's where they do all the surgical intakes, regardless of how long you'll be staying I met my surgeon's resident (and remember hoping he was a Yang and not a Karev). Also the anaesthesiologist, and the nurse anaesthetist, and the OR nurse. Met my surgeon again last of all--we were prepped an ready and waiting on him early on, as he was coming from another local hospital. I lay under a warming blanket while I was repeatedly asked the same questions by everyone--monotonous, but an excellent means of making sure no mistakes happen. I got an epidural prior to surgery to help with the pain for this abdominal procedure in addition to the regular anaesthesia and pain meds. I was eventually wheeled into the operating area, and someone placed a mask over my face--and i knew no more.
I know, because I was told, that they intubated me, and attached heart monitors, and everything else. I underwent a bowel resection. The surgeon cut out the section of my colon which contained the perforation from June, the polyp he'd removed and tested, and the hot diveritculi. Then he stapled me back to together and pressure tested my result with gas and water (like checking a bicycle tire inner tube for leaks) twice. It was all done laproscopically, and it went very well. I'm told.
I remember drifting in and out of consciousness afterward until late in the evening, but no pain. Snippy tells me that i did, in fact, complain of pain, but I remember almost nothing of that evening. I've spent the last two days in the hospital getting pain meds, at first via my IV drip but shortly changing to Oxycodone tablets. They work pretty well; which is not to say that I'm not experiencing pain, but it's much less sharp and more bearable when I'm properly dosed.
I get up periodically and walk slowly around the floor, pushing my IV stand with me. And every hour I try to use the Volodyne 5000 to exercise my lungs, thereby helping to prevent pneumonia. You blow all the air out of your lungs and then suck air through a tube in the device. The object is to fill your lungs slowly but thouroughly, making sure they're fully open. Occasionally--but less often now--this results in coughing. And let me tell you, coughing when you've had abdominal surgery hurts like a son of a bitch.
It's also necessary.So you do what you have to do. And having suffered from one bout of penumonia this year, I am strongly motivated to avoid another. Other than that, I've been sleeping a lot and eating regular but unexciting meals of hot broth (chicken or beef), jello (lime, lemon, or "red" and juice (apple, grape, or the like). I've noticed that when I get really tired, I'll sleep for about two hours before waking. Then I'm good for a couple of hours.
I'm really tired of the clear liquid diet, unsurprisingly. There are a number of criteria I have meet before they'll release me to recuperate at home. Among them: no fever (check), removal of my catheter (check, this afternoon), and flatulence. Not something you generally want to encourage, but they need to be sure that my intestines have fully recovered from the anaesthesia and the shock of surgery and are functioning properly--and that's one of the big signs. And I'm happy to say that, at last, we got some action on that front. I'm also hoping that this means I'll graduate something at least a little more challenging than jello and broth for breakfast tomorrow.
It's going to be an uncomfortable recovery here or at home, but I'd rather be at home. Either way I'm getting a renewed education in just how involved your abdominal muscles are in almost everything you do....
Still, the surgery went very well. I'm recovering, and the problem is solved. Once I DO recover from the surgery, I should be good as new. And that's something to be grateful for.
Wednesday morning Snippy drove me to the hospital for my 10 a.m. check-in for a noon surgery. I was taken to the Short Stay wing, even though I'd be in the hopsital for two or three days. That's where they do all the surgical intakes, regardless of how long you'll be staying I met my surgeon's resident (and remember hoping he was a Yang and not a Karev). Also the anaesthesiologist, and the nurse anaesthetist, and the OR nurse. Met my surgeon again last of all--we were prepped an ready and waiting on him early on, as he was coming from another local hospital. I lay under a warming blanket while I was repeatedly asked the same questions by everyone--monotonous, but an excellent means of making sure no mistakes happen. I got an epidural prior to surgery to help with the pain for this abdominal procedure in addition to the regular anaesthesia and pain meds. I was eventually wheeled into the operating area, and someone placed a mask over my face--and i knew no more.
I know, because I was told, that they intubated me, and attached heart monitors, and everything else. I underwent a bowel resection. The surgeon cut out the section of my colon which contained the perforation from June, the polyp he'd removed and tested, and the hot diveritculi. Then he stapled me back to together and pressure tested my result with gas and water (like checking a bicycle tire inner tube for leaks) twice. It was all done laproscopically, and it went very well. I'm told.
I remember drifting in and out of consciousness afterward until late in the evening, but no pain. Snippy tells me that i did, in fact, complain of pain, but I remember almost nothing of that evening. I've spent the last two days in the hospital getting pain meds, at first via my IV drip but shortly changing to Oxycodone tablets. They work pretty well; which is not to say that I'm not experiencing pain, but it's much less sharp and more bearable when I'm properly dosed.
I get up periodically and walk slowly around the floor, pushing my IV stand with me. And every hour I try to use the Volodyne 5000 to exercise my lungs, thereby helping to prevent pneumonia. You blow all the air out of your lungs and then suck air through a tube in the device. The object is to fill your lungs slowly but thouroughly, making sure they're fully open. Occasionally--but less often now--this results in coughing. And let me tell you, coughing when you've had abdominal surgery hurts like a son of a bitch.
It's also necessary.So you do what you have to do. And having suffered from one bout of penumonia this year, I am strongly motivated to avoid another. Other than that, I've been sleeping a lot and eating regular but unexciting meals of hot broth (chicken or beef), jello (lime, lemon, or "red" and juice (apple, grape, or the like). I've noticed that when I get really tired, I'll sleep for about two hours before waking. Then I'm good for a couple of hours.
I'm really tired of the clear liquid diet, unsurprisingly. There are a number of criteria I have meet before they'll release me to recuperate at home. Among them: no fever (check), removal of my catheter (check, this afternoon), and flatulence. Not something you generally want to encourage, but they need to be sure that my intestines have fully recovered from the anaesthesia and the shock of surgery and are functioning properly--and that's one of the big signs. And I'm happy to say that, at last, we got some action on that front. I'm also hoping that this means I'll graduate something at least a little more challenging than jello and broth for breakfast tomorrow.
It's going to be an uncomfortable recovery here or at home, but I'd rather be at home. Either way I'm getting a renewed education in just how involved your abdominal muscles are in almost everything you do....
Still, the surgery went very well. I'm recovering, and the problem is solved. Once I DO recover from the surgery, I should be good as new. And that's something to be grateful for.