For the first two weeks after surgery I was to have a "liquid" only diet. This consisted of 4 tablespoons of yoghurt for breakfast, a glass of diet milk for morning tea, 2 tablespoons of soup for lunch with 2 tablespoons of fruit puree, more milk for afternoon tea and another lot of soup for dinner with custard or yoghurt for dessert. Another total of 4 tablespoons. Of course all the yoghurt had to be strained so it didn't have any lumps etc.
As you can imagine this regime got pretty boring pretty quickly. I actually wasn't feeling very hungry at all following the operation and these staples were enough. We had a production line of plastic containers, measuring spoons and teaspoons to eat with.
I was only meant to be on this diet for 2 weeks but it ended up being 3 for reasons I will discuss in the next post and I was well and truly sick of it by the time it was over.
Weight Ticker
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Surgery
I know, I know. Where have I been? Well, where do I start? Surgery day (4th March) went well. I was at the hospital by 7am and proceeded to go through all the admittance paperwork. I was then shown in to this little holding bay where all the day patients go before they go into surgery. I met with the anesthesiologist first. He was very friendly and made me feel at ease. He reassured me that he'd give me some drugs to help with nausea so I didn't feel too sick when I woke up. He asked various questions about my history etc. Next stop was the surgeon. He proceeded to freak me out a little as he mentioned that he "wanted to try a new band" on me. Apparently this one is Swedish and has a new kind of locking mechanism and the port is stapled to the skin rather than sutured. I wasn't too keen on trying something new but he assured me that it had been used many times before. Next stop was a nurse who took my blood pressure, measured my calves for the compression stockings, weighed me and put my stockings on for me. I then had to change into a white hospital gown and blue dressing gown and very sexy blue cap :) I waited in the holding bay for awhile. Can't tell you how long as I had to take my watch off. After a short wait I was escorted to another holding bay with beds. I was setup in one of the beds and my surgeon came to see me after a while. He asked how I was doing and I told him I was very nervous. He reassured me and told me he'd chat to me in recovery even though I probably wouldn't remember it (I don't). Sometime after that the anesthetist came to see me again and wheeled me into theatre. He took me into this strange room that seemed like a cupboard which led into the operating theatre. I was getting quite anxious as I didn't know what to expect. The anesthetist put an IV into my left hand which was quite painless. I've had much worse with butchers trying several times to get needles in. Several assistants hooked me up to monitoring leads and made small talk while waiting. Eventually I got wheeled into the theatre. I had to scoot across the bed onto the operating table which had these arm rests that they extended out from my body in order to get access to my IV. The last thing I remember was the anesthetist telling me he was giving me "the jungle juice" and asking me how my boyfriend knew so much about anesthetics. I mumbled something about him having an operation for his sleep apnoea and then I was out. Hopefully I didn't say anything else too embarassing.
Next thing I remember was waking up in recovery. I felt quite fuzzy and had trouble keeping my eyes open. I remember the nurse kept asking me every 5 minutes how I felt and all I could do was kind of grunt in what I hoped was a positive tone. She rattled off a number of drugs that they had given me during surgery. I seem to remember something about fentanyl and tramadol maybe? She also said that Colin (the anethetist) had done a great job on his girls today as none of us were feeling sick. My mouth was so dry when I properly woke up and all I could think about was ice chips. I had an oxygen mask on which was a new experience for me. At one point I managed to say that I felt fuzzy and the nurse reassured me and told me that was just the anesthetic. I think I spent about 30 mins in recovery. The nurse arranged for me to get transferred to a ward and someone came to take me up. Once we got to the ward they found someone had already taken the bed arranged for me so they just seemed to take whatever was available (a 4 person ward). I never did end up getting a name tag over my bed. It's a wonder anything ever found me in there. My bed had the most amazing views out to the Dandenongs and was spectacular at night when the lights were twinkling.
My boyfriend appeared out of nowhere soon after I arrived and I'd never been so glad to see someone I knew. Apparently the surgeon had reported to him that everything had gone very well and he had repaired a small hiatal hernia while he was in there. I think I was given a shot of heparin (blood thinner) and some morphine at some stage even though I can't remember being in that much pain. We spent the afternoon dozing off the anesthetic. I was so glad when they finally took off the mask and gave me a nose oxygen feed and I was able to suck on some ice chips. I hadn't eaten or drunk anything since midnight the night before so I was very thirsty.
Going to the toilet the first time after the surgery was scary. I asked a nurse if she could assist and she acted quite surprised when she realised I hadn't been out of bed yet! I'm sure this was only a couple of hours after I came out of recovery. This was the first of many incidents with nurses that made me hate the place. Unfortunately for my boyfriend he had to accompany me into the toilet to help me get up from the seat. It's a strange thing when you can't even do something so basic for yourself.
So I stayed in hospital for two nights. Gastro graffin test went fine the next morning and I was finally allowed to eat some lunch. Almost 2 days since I'd eaten anything! Mind you it was only 2 tablespoons of potato and leek soup. Not the most appetising thing ever.
Before I was allowed to go home a nurse took out my staples and replaced them with steri-strips. The steri-strips were to stay on until they came off by themselves or until I saw the surgeon. I'm sure I only took those strips off a couple of weeks ago. They seemed to hang on for dear life! :)
Next thing I remember was waking up in recovery. I felt quite fuzzy and had trouble keeping my eyes open. I remember the nurse kept asking me every 5 minutes how I felt and all I could do was kind of grunt in what I hoped was a positive tone. She rattled off a number of drugs that they had given me during surgery. I seem to remember something about fentanyl and tramadol maybe? She also said that Colin (the anethetist) had done a great job on his girls today as none of us were feeling sick. My mouth was so dry when I properly woke up and all I could think about was ice chips. I had an oxygen mask on which was a new experience for me. At one point I managed to say that I felt fuzzy and the nurse reassured me and told me that was just the anesthetic. I think I spent about 30 mins in recovery. The nurse arranged for me to get transferred to a ward and someone came to take me up. Once we got to the ward they found someone had already taken the bed arranged for me so they just seemed to take whatever was available (a 4 person ward). I never did end up getting a name tag over my bed. It's a wonder anything ever found me in there. My bed had the most amazing views out to the Dandenongs and was spectacular at night when the lights were twinkling.
My boyfriend appeared out of nowhere soon after I arrived and I'd never been so glad to see someone I knew. Apparently the surgeon had reported to him that everything had gone very well and he had repaired a small hiatal hernia while he was in there. I think I was given a shot of heparin (blood thinner) and some morphine at some stage even though I can't remember being in that much pain. We spent the afternoon dozing off the anesthetic. I was so glad when they finally took off the mask and gave me a nose oxygen feed and I was able to suck on some ice chips. I hadn't eaten or drunk anything since midnight the night before so I was very thirsty.
Going to the toilet the first time after the surgery was scary. I asked a nurse if she could assist and she acted quite surprised when she realised I hadn't been out of bed yet! I'm sure this was only a couple of hours after I came out of recovery. This was the first of many incidents with nurses that made me hate the place. Unfortunately for my boyfriend he had to accompany me into the toilet to help me get up from the seat. It's a strange thing when you can't even do something so basic for yourself.
So I stayed in hospital for two nights. Gastro graffin test went fine the next morning and I was finally allowed to eat some lunch. Almost 2 days since I'd eaten anything! Mind you it was only 2 tablespoons of potato and leek soup. Not the most appetising thing ever.
Before I was allowed to go home a nurse took out my staples and replaced them with steri-strips. The steri-strips were to stay on until they came off by themselves or until I saw the surgeon. I'm sure I only took those strips off a couple of weeks ago. They seemed to hang on for dear life! :)
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