I guess it’s time to do a bit of a recap of what went down this last week.

Monday

I had to be at the hospital at 7am; I was 15 minutes late.  While waiting for my surgery I was put in the room I was going to have.  There was a woman in there that had had the procedure last week and was being discharged on Monday.  It was really handy.  It was the first time that I was able to talk to someone in the flesh that had had the procedure.  I got to ask her a lot of questions and she helped quell the nerves that were running rampant.

I was second on the surgery list so I was taken down to the holding pen at 9:44am.  I was lucky enough to be able to offer a student nurse the ability to follow my case from admission to recovery.  So I spent a lot of my time talking to her about what was going to happen and her experiences.  I met the anesthesiologist again and she talked me through what would happen and what to expect.

At 10:00am they took me into the anesthesiologist room and started preparing me for the surgery.  I met the nursing staff that would be assisting throughout the procedure.  Got some last minute jokes in.  (Apparently I asked them to take me for one last spin through MacDonalds Drive-Through.)

The last thing I remember was getting some gas offered to me.  Then I was awake in recovery.  Recovery was really noisy and bright.  I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep.  I’m not sure how long I was in recovery for, but I know that I asked to go to the bathroom and they gave me a bed pan.  No way was I going to pee in the bed.  I sat on that bed pan for two hours with no movement.  They took the bed pan out and sent me up to the ward.  Once in the ward they put the bed pan back.  Another two hours and no movement from the bladder.  I ended up asking if I could go to the bathroom.  The nurse was really surprised that I was up and walking.  Peeing is a mighty motivator!

HUBBY was in the ward with me, but I kept going in and out of slumber.  I remember telling him to go home around 6pm and to take my mobile because I didn’t want to see or talk to anyone.  I just wanted to sleep.  I was so tired.  I wasn’t in much pain, just really tired.  I woke up again later in the evening to find that I had a roommate.  She seemed to be in a lot of pain and was begging her husband to remove the tube in her nose.

I got up and went to the bathroom again and then straight back to sleeping.  At 10:00pm they woke me to take my vitals.  I thought it was closer to 4am in the morning and was rather surprised when they said it was only 10pm.  My mouth was so dry, all I wanted was some water or ice to try and get some moisture back in my mouth.  I wasn’t allowed any.

It was now that my roommate and I go to talking and worked out we’d both had the same procedure by the same surgeon.  We quickly bonded over our experience.  She had a nose tube which I didn’t have – thankfully.  She was also experiencing nausea which I didn’t have.  I had pain from the gas that they used to pump my chest cavity up with.  The nursing staff advised that if I wanted to get rid of that pain that I needed to get up and moving about.

I slept a lot of the night, only being awake for more vital measuring.  I was connected to an IV, had a nasal oxygen tube and had a drain on my left side so moving about was cumbersome.

Tuesday

By the start of Tuesday I was desperate for some water.   I wasn’t hungry, just wanted something to parch the dryness in my mouth.  I got ice at 9am. It was like heaven.  I have never been so relieved to have ice in my life.  We weren’t allowed to sip water, just suck on the ice.  The ice hurt going down, but again that was due to the gas and swelling in my stomach.

I wasn’t feeling any pain, but I was hooked up to mother’s little helper.  I was able to self medicate pain relief.  I found that when I had some I was instantly sleepy so in the end I was just using it to go to sleep.

Jo (my roommate) and I spent the day comparing our symptoms and talking about why we’d done the procedure and what we hoped to get from it.  She was in a lot more discomfort than I was.  At one stage she was dry-retching from the nausea.  It was horrible.  It took the nurses 45 minutes from when she asked for anti-nausea medication to when they actually administered it.  It then took them another two hours before they changed her bedding and gown from where she’d had a fluid spill.  I was disgusted with the nursing staff at that point.

If it’s one thing that this trip to the hospital has provided it’s an insight into the nursing profession and the way they run the wards.  Some nurses are brilliant.  They don’t make you feel like you’re a pain in the ass for ringing for them.  They respond quickly, they explain what they’re doing and they’re considerate of the patient.  Some nurses on the other hand make you feel like something they’ve stepped in.  Like you’re a pain in the arse for calling for them and that they have other things they’d rather be doing than help you.  Jo and I spent a lot of time talking about the nursing staff and how the experience differed from our expectations.  It was also funny because we got to know the moods of the nurses.  We had one nurse three days in a row and her level of care definitely depended on the mood she was in.  In the end Jo and I just laughed about it and tried to help each other out where possible.

Tuesday was all about the sleeping and ice.  Our surgeon visited and was really happy with the operation and how I was recovering.  He spoke about how he saw my progress happening and when I would be put on clear fluids.  He talked about how our stomachs were in shock and swollen from the procedure.  He was really friendly and helpful.

HUBBY came to see me and laughed about how out of it I had been the day before.  I spoke to my parents on the phone during the day which was great.  It’s hard at times to be so far apart when things like this happen. But I know they love me and were thinking of me and sending me well wishes.

Tuesday afternoon some random nurse, who didn’t introduce herself, came in and informed us that she’d noticed we didn’t have our curtains open.  We just both looked at each other.  We’d been dead to the world asleep when she came in so we didn’t see why it was a big deal.  When she left Jo and I just cracked up laughing.  We then started referring to her as the “Daylight Savings Nazi”.

I had my first sip of water and it HURT! It was so painful.  I was a little concerned that it would continue to hurt, but they told me that it was because of the gas that was still in my system.  I continued to sip water throughout the day, but it wasn’t as important as I was still on an IV.

Tuesday night was more vital monitoring during the night, but it was stretched out a bit more.  We were also woken for our blood thinner injections.  I started to amass a nice little collection of bruising.  I got up twice during the night and went for laps of the ward. I did a thirty minute round at 10am and then a fifteen minute round at 2am.  It was so helpful for moving the gas, but it still hadn’t moved enough to remove the pain.

I struggled a bit when I had my first shower.  It was so frustrating not being able to move freely and then calling for the nursing staff to help me get dressed afterward and having to wait forty minutes for them to turn up.  I was a little bit over it all.

Wednesday

I had my first meal.  Clear chicken broth.  It was awesome.  It took me nearly an hour to finish.  I was also given apple juice, jelly and cordial but I couldn’t bring myself to consume it all.  I started storing up my apple juice and gave it to HUBBY when he’d visit.

In the afternoon they removed my pain medication IV.  I didn’t miss it.  I still had my fluid IV in.

Jo and I continued to talk about crap and laugh about our experience.  My student nurse came to pay me a visit which was cool.  She was so excited about the operation and talked to us about what she’d seen.  She was amazed at how the procedure had been done.    She talked about how he’d removed the stomach, how they’d secured my liver in place so they could access the stomach and how the removed stomach has died during the procedure.  It was really cool to hear her so excited about what she’d seen.  It was also great because it provided a level of information that we wouldn’t normally have gotten.  I’m really glad that I was able to help someone have such a great learning experience.  Hopefully it’s something she remembers for years to come.

My good friend, M, came to visit for a few hours.  It was great to see her and catch up on everything, although towards the end I was struggling to keep my eyes open.  I was really amazed at how tired I was and how it seemed to come on really quickly.  It was just so lovely to see her.  HUBBY came and visited at lunchtime as well.  It’s funny how you miss intimacy when you’re in the hospital.  I just wanted to cuddle with him and I was strung up on machines.

Jo and I had talked about the need to move the gas from our bodies.  We were laying down chatting and I felt some movement.  I turned to Jo and apologised for the fact that I was about to pass gas.  A little bit came out and it was louder than I thought it would be so I started laughing.  That just caused it to come on in spits and sputters.  The two of us were cracking up.  It went on for minutes.  I hadn’t had a laugh like that in ages.  I felt so much better after getting rid of that gas.

That afternoon they removed my drain and replaced it with a bag.  It was gross.  My cannula also failed so they removed my IV.  They told me that if I couldn’t drink a liter of water by midnight to let them know and they’d have to put another IV in.  I told them at 8pm that I didn’t think I’d be able to drink the water and could I have another IV.  The nurse agreed and said she’d go get the stuff to put it in. I must have fallen asleep straight after talking to her because I woke up at 10:30pm and I didn’t have an IV in and the nurse in question had finished for the day.  I buzzed for the night nurse and asked where my IV was.  He assured me that I’d be able to drink the water and if I couldn’t they’d give me the IV in the morning.  I was furious. All I had heard all day was that I needed to keep my fluids up because dehydration was a major set back and could make me sicker and here it was the nursing staff not doing what they said they would.

I called him back about fifteen minutes later and told him my drain bag was leaking.  He “checked it” and said it wasn’t.  I disagreed and moved it and a stream of fluid shot from the bag.  He then had to put a new bag on the site.  I wrapped a small hand towel around the bag just in case it leaked again.  Only one problem, I forgot it was there when I woke up an hour or so later and went to the bathroom.  When I stood up the towel slide down the bag and knocked the cap off the bag. The contents of the bag went everywhere.  I was drenched.

I ended up going to the bathroom and then calling for a nurse to come and change my gown for me.  Twenty minutes later they turned up and I got to put dry clothes on.  Again it was frustrating having to wait that long for someone to come and help me.

A few hours later I woke up drenched in sweat and shaking from the cold.  It was horrible.  I was so cold and I couldn’t control my hands from the shaking.  I ended up calling for a nurse and getting a heated blanket.  The blanket was heaven, but the shaking was scary.

The night nurse was just weird.  He used to come in to do our checks and turn on the overhead lights and wake us right up.  At one stage Jo had to have her machines reset and it took him forever to turn up and then when he did it was a major production.  In the end it provided Jo and I with much merriment.  I came to the conclusion really quickly that if we didn’t laugh you’d either cry or get really angry.

Thursday

The day started with the night nurse coming in at 6:30am flinging the drapes open and welcoming us to a “brand new day“.  At the time both of us were asleep.  It was just nuts.  The minute he finished our vitals we went straight back to sleep.  They woke us again an hour later.  By this stage both Jo and I were complaining that we just wanted to sleep.

The day was fairly uneventful.  Another visit from the “Daylight Savings Nazi” to tell us that she wants to see us all walking around the ward.  We just laughed when she left.

I had a full day of clear fluids.  I had to keep a record of all the fluids I consumed.  I found it easier to get fluids down as I had moved a large chunk of the gas that was still in my body.

In the afternoon I was really starting to hanker for something more substantial than clear fluids.  I asked the nurses a couple of times if I could have some milk or ice-cream.  I was told no.  I cried on the inside.

Jo and I continued to move around the ward.  Jo still wasn’t feeling well.  The surgeon told me that I’d get to go home on Friday.  Yay!

I had visitors again – COUSIN and LEE LEE.  It was great to have familiar faces and a laugh about things that weren’t stomach related.

It’s weird but I had some apprehension about heading home.  I wasn’t sure how I’d manage the fluid intake and what if something went wrong.  It’s weird how the mind works.

I had some stomach pain during the night and they gave me oral painkillers.  It tasted like shite, but worked a treat.  I was out like a light.  When I woke up I thought I was in a hotel and was trying to work out whether I was still in Canberra or not.  Totally weird.

I woke again during the night drenched in sweat and hot as Hades.   The night nurse ended up tracking down a fan and bringing it in to try and cool me down.

Friday

I was so tired when morning came that I struggled to stay awake between visits from the nursing staff to check vitals.

The surgeon’s offsider visited us early in the morning and brought good news.  I could go on to free fluids.  Apparently I was supposed to have a protein shake yesterday but the nursing staff hadn’t supplied it like he’d requested.  So he organised some breakfast for me.

It was so awesome to be able to have food with some texture.  I ate my ice-cream straight away, and then paid for my eagerness with some stomach pain as my body tried to digest everything.  I had some porridge and saved my yogurt, milk and juice for later.

I got a visit from the hospital dietitian.  She told me everything that the Canberra Bariatric Dietitian had told me.  She also provided me with two samples of Sustagen.

The surgeon came by shortly after I’d had a shower and told me I was free to go.  Woo hoo!  At 11am HUBBY came to get me and we left the big house.  Yay!

Jo and I have agreed to meet up in four weeks time to catch up and see how we’re both going on our journeys.  I can’t wait to see how she goes, it’s so exciting.

We stopped by Woolworths on the way home.  I’ve never been so desperate to punch someone out.  I was so cranky.  It seemed like every person with a trolley or shopping basket seemed out to hit me in the stomach.  The staff also couldn’t point us in the right direction for where the Sustagen or Up & Go was located.  The place was nuts, seemed like everyone was out to get their pre-Christmas groceries.

By the time we got home I was knackered.  But glad to be home.

So that was the week that was.  It seems like a dream from long ago.  It’s hard to think that I’m missing some of my stomach.  The struggle now will be to keep the fluids up and not fall behind.  I need to work out a way to keep a journal of what I’m consuming.  Might be time to buy another Moleskin.