Surgery day

17 May 2013 - Well the day finally arrived, I had to be at the hospital for 6.30am (... why so early?).  Fortunately hubbie had the day off work so I left him sorting the kids and drove myself off to the hospital.  I checked in and was taken to my room, I was lucky to have a room to myself with my own bathroom and TV.

Hubbie got dropped down by a friend, and checked in on me, before driving my car home.  All of the nurses that attended me during my stay were fantastic - a big cheer for the nurses at Glengarry hospital!  I was wheeled down to theatre around 11.30am, and laid in the waiting area for a while.  The nurses got me a lovely hot blanket, to keep me toasty!  My nerves had started to kick in at this point, and I started cross-checking myself as to whether I really wanted to go through with this surgery (par for the course I would think)...., then I wasn't sure whether I needed to pee again or not.....

I was wheeled into the op room, and Dr Dolan said something like "Are you ready, sure you want to do this?"  Eeek, wtf!!!  Anyway, the anaesthetist tried to insert my IV, he had trouble finding my veins (pin cushion springs to mind) but third time lucky managed, and the next thing I remember was waking up in recovery room!

Unfortunately I always feel quite nausea after anaesthetic, and this time was no different, apparently I had been given several things to try and alleviate this, but I was dry wretching into a sick bag, and some nurse was rubbing my arm... (times like that you always want your Mum!), I was taken back to my room along with my sick bag...., the nausea didn't subside for about 5hr but once it went I really felt pretty good :)  I felt quite sleepy, and didn't have a lot of pain, some shoulder tip pain (common with stomach surgery), but no real soreness!  Infact I was only on liquid panadol 8hrs after surgery.

Hubbie came to visit with my 2 beautiful kids, they didn't stay long, just long enough to see that I was OK and give me a kiss, before they headed off for a fun night at friends house.

The nurses kept waking me every 3 hrs to check my blood pressure, pulse, temp - all of which was OK.  I was able to sleep on my side from the beginning, infact lying on my left side helped the shoulder pain to go - weird!  I kept sipping water through the rest of day and night, was able to get up and pee and generally move around OK.  I felt far better than I thought I would.

The following morning I had a coffee, which went down fine.  Hubbie picked me up and brought me home, with some panadol, inflammation tablets, some strong painkiller (which I never used).  Liquid diet now for 2 weeks!...x