Surgery Day--Day 1

Okay, I'm going to be quite slow typing out the last 4 days.


I got up at 5am and showered. The first time the nerves ever hit me was on the drive to the hospital. When we got there I checked in (after a little wait) and a nurse took me to get my lovely, attractive gown and slippers on. Then I sat on a bed and another nurse spoke to me and filled out all my forms. On the computer I noticed I was put down for a Lefort 3. Wow. Anyway, filling out the forms took forever, They were most interested in getting all my meds allergies down (can't take any of the 'cillin drugs, which is what they usually give).

Then Dr. C came in to see me. He told me what to expect in the OR. He said it looked just like Grey's Anatomy, which got a smile out of me. He said it should take about 2 hours. My hubby seemed more scared that I was so they talked mostly to him. Haha. After Dr. C left, the anesthesiologist came and asked me questions. He was very nice. After all these visits, another nurse came to get me. We were going to walk into the OR. I gave my glasses to my hubby, which turns out was a good thing because I couldn't see any shiny instruments or saws in the OR when I walked in. They gave me a warm blanket and told me to climb up on the warm bed. There were lots of doctors and nurses with masks on, and this cheerful nurse said "I know what Rebecca will be doing this weekend! Recouperating." Yeah, no duh.

I climbed up onto the table and they attached those little sticky things to my chest. The anesthesiologist was at my left side and was sticking me with my IV before I could even think about what was happening. He said something like, "Now I'm going to give you some of the feel good stuff". The last thing I remember is someone asking me how old my kids were, and by the time I said "9 and 5", I was out. The next thing I knew, nurses were shaking me awake, saying my name. It all happened very fast. Right away I was iced up with a humidifer mask on. Someone rubbed something on my lips. Then the next thing I knew my husband was there, holding my hand. I gave him the thumbs up. Surprisingly, I could breathe very clearly through my nose and I felt good, just a little nauseous.

Then they were rolling me to my room after about an hour or so in recovery. There was a guy there helping the nurses to push my bed into the elavator, and they almost forgot to tell my hubby we were going. I kept hearing this one nurse say how sweet my husband is (I so agree!). So there we were in my room and I tried to communicate with my hubby a little bit, writing notes to him, asking how I looked, how things were at home, etc.

The next thing I remember is throwing up. I had tons of blood in my stomach and I can't tolerate that (I did the same thing after my wisdom teeth). I had a suction catheter wand thingie at my bedside and I used that a lot. I just felt really nauseous. I was on strong antibiotics and there was still blood in my tummy. I threw up one more time that night. The poor nurses.

My roomate was an elderly British woman who'd had hip surgery. All she did was burp, fart, moan and groan. But that's another story. LOL

With the IV pumping fluids into me, I needed to pee. A LOT. I was up to the bathroom every hour or so. A doctor came by to look at me during this time, listened to my chest. They kept checking my vitals every two hours. The nurses were VERY nice and helpful.

I don't remember sleeping much that night. I did get a shot or two of Gravol and morphine, so I was pretty dopey.