kelbeth83
Surgery! 1st day post-op! --Still at the hospital--
Jan 23, 2009
Well, I had my surgery on Friday morning/afternoon. All went very smoothly and very well. There were 5 incisions total (including the port). I was a little sad that it took 5 and not 4, but it is what it is. The Dr said it went great with no complications, and everyone said I had the best attitude they'd seen and that it will for sure help in my recovery.
Right when I got to the hospital at 10am, I was admitted for the iv and all that jazz, when they told me I needed to pee in a cup for a mandatory preg. test. OH NO!! I truly wished I had known this in advance.. When you haven't drank anything since midnight the night before, and it's 10:30am, AND you peed right before you left the house, there's truly nothing left in your bladder, at least not mine :( I have a nervous bladder anyways and always find it hard to pee in a cup, so I always need to know in advance to mentally prepare myself and make sure I have to go, real bad lol. That's been my trick. So anyways, they put in an IV after I spent 40 mins trying to pee, and pumped me full of 2 bags worth of liquids.. to no avail, no pee. :( I was so upset thinking my surgery was going to be postponed because of this. The nurses were so sweet and understanding, especially one named Kellie. What a coincidence!! She told me if worst came to worst she would put in a catheter and get the sample that way. She promised to use numbing gel and that no men would be in the room, and stuck to her promise and got it that way. I was so grateful and relieved that she did this. Never once did anyone make me feel bad for being a "dud" lol. They did this right in the OR so I was able to scope out the joint. That's when my nerves finally set in. I was so nervous about the peeing thing that I was never able to worry about the surgery itself haha. So for about 5 mins prior to giving me anethesia, I was shaking like mad. It was uncontrollable I was so scared. Then right when it hit me that it was about to start i started to cry. My eyes welled up and I tried to hide it as I don't normally put my emotions out there for anyone aside from my close family and boyfriend. Then I was told they were giving me medicine to make me feel good and then the athethesia. Well within 20 seconds of them saying that I felt like I had boozed the night away in the bar haha. I even said that and they all laughed. I don't remember a single thing after that statement. Which is just fine by me :)
I woke up in recovery, and just kept dozing on and off. They kept me there till I seemed fully awake which wasn't until 4. The whole time I kept feeling bad for making my family wait so long to see me and then I'd doze right off again haah. It was nice getting to my room and seeing them. My heart lit up when I saw my boyfriend and he held my hand for what seemed like forever.
Then the pee saga set in.. again! When I was finally feeling like I had to pee and felt I was conscious enough to get up, I did. Well I tried, until the nurse gave me this "hat" in which hangs on the toilet and you pee into so that they can measure it! Oh god, not this again. I'm in horrible pain, have to pee and now have to deal with this :( So once again, couldn't pee. For hours. Finally I plead with the nurse about the other bathroom being too noisey (I have 4 people in my hospital room, ALL bearing guests at that moment) She finds me a private empty room with a fresh clean bathroom. I feel much more at ease.. Still can't pee though lol. After 30 mins I finally do, but only a little drop. I know I have to go way more than that though, so I wonder if it's mind over matter. It was. No sooner do I take the hat out, I unleash lol. It felt great and I figured the nurses would rather I actually pee than hold it for a day cos of my pee anxiety. I walk out and see the cleaning crew come dashing in, I tell them no no the nurse needs to come in and measure it (I didn't flush, so she could see the evidence of the rest). By the time I see the nurse, I see the cleaning lady leave the bathroom.. She flushed the toilet and dumped the hat. This effected me so badly, I started to break down in the hospital room. I was so stressed about the situation anyways, and then this, I was afraid if they didn't document it, I wouldn't be able to go home. I have a feeling the medicine and anethesia wearing off played a factor in my freaking out over this trivial matter.
I calmed down and the nurse was very understanding and just had me guesstimate the amount. After that I kept using the bathroom and ignoring the hat altogether. I didn't need to stress more about that. I was slightly displeased on my room situation. 1 bathroom and 4 people all in the same room. There was just a half wall dividing the room, and each section was real small. I always had to rearrange the room to manuever my IV tree around as I walked by. What killed me was right next door and like everywhere else were bigger 2 person rooms, and even private rooms! With big TVs! I got a 9 inch tv that was attached to my bed. I'm so glad I brought my laptop and some DVDs. And I was able to use the WIFI so I went onto netflix and watched The Office all night :) I dozed for about 20 mins a few times but that was about it. It was just weird being in a hospital. And to make matters worse, some guy kept screaming in agony... ALL NIGHT LONG. That freaked me out. I did A LOT of walking and standing/pacing in my room. I felt so much better when I was up and walking around and could feel the gas pockets move up and I was able to belch. That always felt nice. So Rob left around midnight, it was nice that he was able to stay past the 8pm visiting hours. The nurse who was ending her shift warned us that the night crew were kinda sticklers for visiters staying and would make a big deal about it so we decided it was best for Rob to go. I missed him but did just fine on my own, better than I thought I would have.
My surgeon just paid me a visit, told me I did fine, and everything is great. He said I was a model patient because I'm doing everything right, including walking- even though no one urged me to. That made me feel good. Right before he came in, I felt great. I feel like this is the best decision I ever made, I can't believe it's finally happened, all my worrying is done now and I can go on living life. Living a new and improved life :) I'm so ready to start the next journey in my life. I'm 25, full of life, and positive outlooks. I can go home today around 10am too, yay!
Anyways, that's that! I lost 16.2lbs prior to surgery, solely due from the liquid diet, and I'm ready to keep the weight loss coming! I can't wait to feel GOOD in a bathing suit this summer :)
13 comments
Right when I got to the hospital at 10am, I was admitted for the iv and all that jazz, when they told me I needed to pee in a cup for a mandatory preg. test. OH NO!! I truly wished I had known this in advance.. When you haven't drank anything since midnight the night before, and it's 10:30am, AND you peed right before you left the house, there's truly nothing left in your bladder, at least not mine :( I have a nervous bladder anyways and always find it hard to pee in a cup, so I always need to know in advance to mentally prepare myself and make sure I have to go, real bad lol. That's been my trick. So anyways, they put in an IV after I spent 40 mins trying to pee, and pumped me full of 2 bags worth of liquids.. to no avail, no pee. :( I was so upset thinking my surgery was going to be postponed because of this. The nurses were so sweet and understanding, especially one named Kellie. What a coincidence!! She told me if worst came to worst she would put in a catheter and get the sample that way. She promised to use numbing gel and that no men would be in the room, and stuck to her promise and got it that way. I was so grateful and relieved that she did this. Never once did anyone make me feel bad for being a "dud" lol. They did this right in the OR so I was able to scope out the joint. That's when my nerves finally set in. I was so nervous about the peeing thing that I was never able to worry about the surgery itself haha. So for about 5 mins prior to giving me anethesia, I was shaking like mad. It was uncontrollable I was so scared. Then right when it hit me that it was about to start i started to cry. My eyes welled up and I tried to hide it as I don't normally put my emotions out there for anyone aside from my close family and boyfriend. Then I was told they were giving me medicine to make me feel good and then the athethesia. Well within 20 seconds of them saying that I felt like I had boozed the night away in the bar haha. I even said that and they all laughed. I don't remember a single thing after that statement. Which is just fine by me :)
I woke up in recovery, and just kept dozing on and off. They kept me there till I seemed fully awake which wasn't until 4. The whole time I kept feeling bad for making my family wait so long to see me and then I'd doze right off again haah. It was nice getting to my room and seeing them. My heart lit up when I saw my boyfriend and he held my hand for what seemed like forever.
Then the pee saga set in.. again! When I was finally feeling like I had to pee and felt I was conscious enough to get up, I did. Well I tried, until the nurse gave me this "hat" in which hangs on the toilet and you pee into so that they can measure it! Oh god, not this again. I'm in horrible pain, have to pee and now have to deal with this :( So once again, couldn't pee. For hours. Finally I plead with the nurse about the other bathroom being too noisey (I have 4 people in my hospital room, ALL bearing guests at that moment) She finds me a private empty room with a fresh clean bathroom. I feel much more at ease.. Still can't pee though lol. After 30 mins I finally do, but only a little drop. I know I have to go way more than that though, so I wonder if it's mind over matter. It was. No sooner do I take the hat out, I unleash lol. It felt great and I figured the nurses would rather I actually pee than hold it for a day cos of my pee anxiety. I walk out and see the cleaning crew come dashing in, I tell them no no the nurse needs to come in and measure it (I didn't flush, so she could see the evidence of the rest). By the time I see the nurse, I see the cleaning lady leave the bathroom.. She flushed the toilet and dumped the hat. This effected me so badly, I started to break down in the hospital room. I was so stressed about the situation anyways, and then this, I was afraid if they didn't document it, I wouldn't be able to go home. I have a feeling the medicine and anethesia wearing off played a factor in my freaking out over this trivial matter.
I calmed down and the nurse was very understanding and just had me guesstimate the amount. After that I kept using the bathroom and ignoring the hat altogether. I didn't need to stress more about that. I was slightly displeased on my room situation. 1 bathroom and 4 people all in the same room. There was just a half wall dividing the room, and each section was real small. I always had to rearrange the room to manuever my IV tree around as I walked by. What killed me was right next door and like everywhere else were bigger 2 person rooms, and even private rooms! With big TVs! I got a 9 inch tv that was attached to my bed. I'm so glad I brought my laptop and some DVDs. And I was able to use the WIFI so I went onto netflix and watched The Office all night :) I dozed for about 20 mins a few times but that was about it. It was just weird being in a hospital. And to make matters worse, some guy kept screaming in agony... ALL NIGHT LONG. That freaked me out. I did A LOT of walking and standing/pacing in my room. I felt so much better when I was up and walking around and could feel the gas pockets move up and I was able to belch. That always felt nice. So Rob left around midnight, it was nice that he was able to stay past the 8pm visiting hours. The nurse who was ending her shift warned us that the night crew were kinda sticklers for visiters staying and would make a big deal about it so we decided it was best for Rob to go. I missed him but did just fine on my own, better than I thought I would have.
My surgeon just paid me a visit, told me I did fine, and everything is great. He said I was a model patient because I'm doing everything right, including walking- even though no one urged me to. That made me feel good. Right before he came in, I felt great. I feel like this is the best decision I ever made, I can't believe it's finally happened, all my worrying is done now and I can go on living life. Living a new and improved life :) I'm so ready to start the next journey in my life. I'm 25, full of life, and positive outlooks. I can go home today around 10am too, yay!
Anyways, that's that! I lost 16.2lbs prior to surgery, solely due from the liquid diet, and I'm ready to keep the weight loss coming! I can't wait to feel GOOD in a bathing suit this summer :)
Bleh
Jan 18, 2009
I wrote a blog a few days ago.. real top notch one too, then all of a sudden with a click of the wrong button my browser went backwards and I lost it all.
Note to self.. Start writing blogs in notepad!
Anyways, it's Sunday night.. my surgery is Friday morning... Only 4 more days now!
2 comments
Note to self.. Start writing blogs in notepad!
Anyways, it's Sunday night.. my surgery is Friday morning... Only 4 more days now!
Got my surgery date!
Jan 03, 2009
Well, a couple of weeks ago I got the call for my surgery date! January 23rd 2009! Wow, time is flying now! I was so busy around the holidays that I barely had anytime to truly let it all sink in. I'm having lapband surgery in under 3 weeks, wow. It seems so surreal. My nerves are starting to kick in, but I'm sure that's normal. I'm just looking forward to starting a new life and a new way of living. This coming Thursday kicks off my 2 weeks of liquid diet. I may start on Tuesday/Wednesday though, just to give myself a couple of extra days to ease into it. In case I need to cheat during it, I'll do it during my first 2 nonobligatory days. ;) Good thinkin, huh?!
Anyways, just a quick update on that. Now off to my brother's house to pick up an ab lounge to borrow for a while. Work out my core before the surgery!
-Kellie
0 comments
Anyways, just a quick update on that. Now off to my brother's house to pick up an ab lounge to borrow for a while. Work out my core before the surgery!
-Kellie
Waiting on confirmation...
Dec 17, 2008
Well, so I went to my original info session on my birthday, October 9th 2008. Got all the info and decided I definitely wanted to go through with the Lap Band surgery. Since then, I scheduled my appts with the Surgeon, the Nutritionist, the nurse, and the appt for a psych eval test. By the end of November I completed each appt and went to my first support group meeting (there's a mandatory 2 prior to surgery). Went back to the Surgeon for another followup and he said I was good to go on getting a surgery date! First he said he didn't see why not for January, but then I got a call from the woman in charge of the Bariatric Surgery Program and she said another woman would call me in 2 weeks to schedule, but she didn't see it happening until February. I was kind of hoping for the New Year to get it done right away while I'm still on winter break from college.. But I'll wait my turn!
This coming semester all 6 of my classes are online, so whenever I have the surgery should be just fine, since I can still do school work from home. I'm nervous and anxious all at the same time. I can't wait to just get it done now and go on living my new and improved laptastic life!
So Christmas is chugging along ever so quickly this year... I just finished up what would be the worst semester in my 8 year long college career! Gained almost 10 pounds the last couple of months of school because I never had a free minute to actually cook food. I would literally sit down for 12-14 hours STRAIGHT at my PC writing papers, lesson plans, assessments, etc. It was madness. I barely had enough energy to go to class after pulling all nighters, let alone go to the gym. It was quite depressing to not have any time for any outlet of enjoyment.
Now though, I just (2 days ago) turned in my last assignment and am ready to have a month and a half of freedom! First thing in the morning I'm hitting the gym and getting back into a more healthful routine. That makes me happy just thinking about it. Oh I also was able to finally finish wrapping my Christmas presents and cleaned the apartment! A good clean, not a half-assed in between writing thesis papers sort of clean!
In other news, I'm a new and first time Auntie. My brother and his wife just had their first child last Thursday, so I've been overly consumed with being the highly involved Aunt. I love kids and babies especially hold a place in my heart, so I've been gushing for a week over him. I'm already planning his college graduation- I haven't even graduated yet! But anyways, so that's that.
Anywho, I'll try to keep up on myself and blog with some sort of frequency.
Until next time!
-Kellie
2 comments
This coming semester all 6 of my classes are online, so whenever I have the surgery should be just fine, since I can still do school work from home. I'm nervous and anxious all at the same time. I can't wait to just get it done now and go on living my new and improved laptastic life!
So Christmas is chugging along ever so quickly this year... I just finished up what would be the worst semester in my 8 year long college career! Gained almost 10 pounds the last couple of months of school because I never had a free minute to actually cook food. I would literally sit down for 12-14 hours STRAIGHT at my PC writing papers, lesson plans, assessments, etc. It was madness. I barely had enough energy to go to class after pulling all nighters, let alone go to the gym. It was quite depressing to not have any time for any outlet of enjoyment.
Now though, I just (2 days ago) turned in my last assignment and am ready to have a month and a half of freedom! First thing in the morning I'm hitting the gym and getting back into a more healthful routine. That makes me happy just thinking about it. Oh I also was able to finally finish wrapping my Christmas presents and cleaned the apartment! A good clean, not a half-assed in between writing thesis papers sort of clean!
In other news, I'm a new and first time Auntie. My brother and his wife just had their first child last Thursday, so I've been overly consumed with being the highly involved Aunt. I love kids and babies especially hold a place in my heart, so I've been gushing for a week over him. I'm already planning his college graduation- I haven't even graduated yet! But anyways, so that's that.
Anywho, I'll try to keep up on myself and blog with some sort of frequency.
Until next time!
-Kellie
