Surgery Day 164 lbs

I weighed 164 lbs on the morning before going to the hospital.

The staff was great. I got in and got settled into my room. The Nurse numbed my hand before starting the IV. Got a shot of antibiotics. The nurse gave me the remote – something I never get at home. I flipped through to try to find something interesting. I stopped on a channel that was playing the theme to Lorne Greene’s New Wilderness - brought me back to my childhood.

The Doctor came in to mark me up and then I realized that Lorne Greene was actually dubbed in Spanish. The Nurse asked me if I really wanted to watch that – I explained that I was a remote virgin. Between the husband and the kids I never get to choose a show.

The Nurse referred to the Doctor as a frustrated artist – I soon found out why – he went nuts with the marker. Turns out that getting drawn all over your body with a sharpie marker is actually very ticklish – my kids would have died to find that out – I am a master of pretending that when they tickle my feet that it does not work.

Next the Sleepy Time Doctor came to visit me and gave me a shot to relax me – that is the last thing I remember. Next thing I now I was waking up in the recovery room. Sort of. I remember telling them I felt sick – seems to be normal for me – they gave me something and I went back to sleep. My Doctor stopped by to check on me but I have no idea what he actually said.

Eventually a Nurse woke me and said I could try to get dressed. It seemed to go ok. Next I had to go to the bathroom. OMG! I was not ready for that. She warned me that the pressure suit I woke up wearing was put on while I was sleeping so it may not be lined up perfectly and I would have to be careful or I would pee all over it.

She was right – about the alignment. It was off by about 4 degrees. She said that one patient had tried to pee and peed all over herself and had to go home and wash her suit right away. Another straddled the toilet while facing the tank and that seemed to work. Neither option sounded good. I stretched the opening wide and managed to pee without wetting myself. It was hard though – there was so much pressure from the suit it felt like I couldn’t empty my bladder. I remember feeling like that in the last month or so of pregnancy. You would go – stand up and have to go straight again.

Soon hubby was there to get me – I was so happy to see him. The nurse said I had to eat a back of four crackers before I was allowed to go home. I figured it would be no problem. My throat was sore from the tube, and I guess it must have been really dry too. As soon as I took one bite of the cracker it absorbed all the remaining moisture in my mouth and it felt like I had a huge lump of paste in my mouth. I had to take a drink of water with each bite to get it down. I managed to eat two crackers by the time the nurse came back to check on me, it must have been enough because she let me go.

I was wheeled out to the truck and helped in – so far not to bad. I managed to get in ad out of the truck ok. We got home and I waddled to the couch and sat down and packed myself with pillows. Lying on my side seemed to be very uncomfortable so I ended up leaning slightly to my side with pillow between my legs (again a lesson learned from pregnancy).

The kids got home from school –told them that I hurt my back – they were great about it.

The rest of the afternoon and evening I sat on the couch and tried to drink some water and started my meds. I was warned that the meds would make me sick to my stomach and I had nausea medication to fight that. The combination knocked me out and I dozed off and on.

After supper I took some more meds and ventured into the bathroom and took off the suit and re-aligned it. Much better. Until I started walking back to the coach and only got half way and had to get back to the bathroom and was sick as a dog. I went back to the couch, took the meds again, but this time I made sure no to move afterward – much better.

Later in the evening the Doctor called to check on me. He said I sounded better than when he spoke to me after surgery. “You spoke to me? I don’t remember that?” I said I felt great – very little pain. I was quite proud of myself. He reminded me that I was pumped full of a numbing agent, but it would wear off by the next day crap.

He also said that 3.6 liters of fat had been removed. Awesome! All I could think was – how much does a liter of human fat weight?

He also said to avoid caffeine since it is a diuretic and I had lost a lot of fluid today. Sure no problem as I glanced at the empty large mug (no dainty tea cup for me) of tea that had tasted so good a few minutes ago.

Oh well – eventually I was tired enough and I took all my meds and crawled into bed, again packed with pillows. The meds worked their wonders and I slept through to the morning.