I don't remember anything during the surgery...which is a damn good thing since I'm not supposed to and all. My husband will have to fill in all the details on length of surgery, recovery, etc. It'll be a while for that since he's in Korea right now without internet.
I woke up and the first thing I remember thinking was "Is it done? Did he really do the surgery? Is my stomach really smaller?" For some reason I had a hard time really believing the surgery was done.
I was in SOOO much pain and I was so nauseous. All I did in the beginning (or at least all I remember doing) was puking...constantly, and sleeping until I had to puke again or my pain meds wore off. It was seriously some of the worst pain ever. They put me on Phenergan which helps the puking, but it makes me so sleepy. The second biggest problem was my blood oxygen levels kept dropping so they were putting me on oxygen. It was because of this that I was placed immediately into the ICU. It wasn't until I was slightly coherent that I was able to yell (hahaha, hardly...my husband yelled, I mumbled at him in a frustrated voice and fell back asleep) at them about not putting me on my CPAP and oxygen when I was in recovery like my pulmonologist and I told them was necessary, a million times, and even face then my cpap before going into the room. Amazingly, once my CPAP was in place I didn't have O2 problems! Wow! Go Army!
The other problem I had that was the most annoying and aggravating thing possible was the dry mouth. This was only made worse by the snoring and the stopping breathing because I was not on the CPAP. If there was EVER motivation for me to get out of that bed and strangle someone it was due to them not letting me just swish my mouth out. It was misery. One nurse gave me this disgusting thing to suck on (God it was nasty) that was supposed to help, but it just made me throw up more. The night nurse was kind enough to give me a glass of ice (under the STRICT supervision and possession of my husband) and a little sponge thing on a stick so I could kind of scrub it around my mouth so it wasn't SO nasty in there. The reason they don't want you drinking is they need to wait for you Barium Swallow test in order to ensure that there are no leaks and everything is going down the right way. I understood completely, but honest!!! I would have just swished and spit!!! I wasn't thirsty, I was just miserable with the dry mouth!!
The pain was excruciating for me. I hit my button every chance I got and they ended up having to give me shots of Dilaudid intermittently in order to help control the pain. All I did the first week or so was regret EVER going through with the surgery. When I was coherent I just remember thinking, "Is there anyway for them to put it back?!" "Why did I do this" "This was the worst decision ever" "What was I ever thinking!?" "BLECH" (that was me puking all over the poor night nurse...I think I ended up giving him a bit of PTSD, the second night he came on shift he walked into my already armed with Phenergan, a puke bucket, and a change of clothes and sheets. Poor Captain Nurse :( )
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