Notes from the other side

Surgery sucks, period.  Surgery while pregnant is a whole ‘nother ballgame.  You can’t tell if what you are feeling is surgery related or pregnancy related.  And the less said about post-surgery pregnancy constipation, the better.

All in all, things went really well.  Of course, I never want to go through anything like last Wednesday ever again. As is normal for surgery prep, I wasn’t allowed anything solid after midnight. They did allow me to have clear fluids until 5:30 (8 hours before surgery) because of the pregnancy. At 11:30 Tuesday night, S made me a big fruit smoothie with protein powder in the hopes that that would carry me through. Then, I set my alarm for 5am to get up and have a cup of the broth from my homemade veggie soup and some apple juice before the deadline. If you’ve gotten accustomed to eating something every two hours or so, you will find going 8 hours absolutely miserable. I was so hungry, and I have been battling allergy stuffiness for weeks, which makes me breath through my mouth, so I was thirsty as well. That gave me a headache and made me a joy to be around.

We got to the hospital, checked in, got changed into my gown and had the first of hundreds of vitals checks. The nurse who admitted me asked if anyone had ever commented on my high heart rate (my blood pressure was great, my pulse was racing). Um, no, did it occur to you that I’m pregnant which raises my pulse and I’m terrified? This would not be the last time someone commented on my heart rate. HELLO!!! Going into surgery!!!

Once I got taken back to the prep area, I met my anesthesiologist who made it his personal duty to try to distract me anytime he thought I was getting too weepy. He chatted with me while the nurse worked with my crappy veins to get an IV in. He chatted with me while I waited and waited for my surgeon to arrive. He was a life saver, as was the surgical nurse who showed up a little bit later. She would come over and pat my hand and make sure I was warm enough and talk about how much fun her twin grandchildren were. My surgeon got there, stopped by to check on me and then we were off. I had one last teary breakdown as they got me settled on the table and prepared to put me under. The last thing I remember was the surgeon fussing that between the two of us there were just too many hormones in the room and if I wasn’t careful, she would start crying too.

I only have one real problem with anesthesia. I get so relaxed, I stop breathing very deeply, which lowers my blood oxygen levels. The first time this happened to me, I ended up being put into the ICU just so someone could monitor me constantly. This time, it got me a night in the hospital on a face mask. That’s what I woke up to. I hate those masks. After a little wait, and an incredibly patient post-op nurse who kept feeding me ice chips…did I mention the dry mouth before? Can you imagine what it’s like after being on a respirator for a couple of hours? Where was I? Oh, right, after waiting awhile, someone showed up with the sonogram machine and checked the babies. My surgeon stayed through the entire thing, which took close to 30 minutes, and held my hand. I couldn’t see the screen since my glasses were in the waiting area with S, but I heard the heartbeats and I’m almost positive she said they were measuring 18 weeks…a whole week ahead. I was drugged though, so take that with a grain of salt. Afterwards, my surgeon told me about the surgery. There were 7 big stones, some marble sized! It’s a good thing we didn’t wait. I’m amazed I made it through the interim between diagnosis and surgery without another attack!

My surgery started around 1:30. I had a LOOOONG wait for a room, since I wasn’t supposed to stay overnight. I got to my room around 7pm. At 9pm, I begged and pleaded for something, ANYTHING to eat and drink and something for the pain. Other than ice chips, I went 14 hours without food or water. Sometimes jello and graham crackers can be the best tasting thing in the world.

Hospitals are miserable places to be if you just want to sleep and be quiet. Between the bed killing my back, the incisions and tubes keeping me from rolling on my side, the constant vital checks and respiratory checks and blood sugar checks, I never got more than an hour’s nap at a time. Then the peeing started. Got to love those saline IVs. Every 60 minutes, I pulled myself out of bed, removed my oxygen mask, removed the inflatable massaging boots from my legs (I’m in love with these, by the way.), unplugged the IV, waddled to the bathroom, spent 15-20 minutes trying to remember which muscles actually worked my bladder, waddled back to the bed, plugged in the IV, put the boots back on, put the mask back on, re-adjusted the bed, and tried to sleep until the next round. I tried calling the nurses the first few times, but it was hard enough trying to get my bladder going again without having someone outside the bathroom waiting for me.

What is it with hospital food? Are they trying to kill their patients? Honestly, I know they are cooking a lot of different meals for hundreds of people but when even TOAST tastes bad, something is really wrong.

In order to go home, I had to prove that I could breathe on my own, so once I got the IV taken out Thursday morning, I spent my time practicing taking deep breaths (not so easy with three inciscions just below your rib cage) and letting S walk me around the wing “to get things moving.” I passed my pulse-ox test and headed home shortly after lunch, where I doped myself on vicodin and slept for close to 12 hours.

Now, I’m feeling pretty good. I get tired out fast, but all my systems seem to be back to normal. The incisions aren’t sore anymore. I do have the most awful case of contact dermatitis from the band-aids that were put over the incisions. Around each cut is an angry, red, blistered, itchy rash in the exact shape of the band-aid. Imagine the worst case of poison ivy you’ve ever had and concentrate it to four areas of about 2 square inches each. Ice packs are my friend. Hydrocortisone seems to help some. Cutting my fingernails to the quick helps too…can’t scratch if you don’t have claws!

I really want to thank everyone for their kind words and support. This was such a stressful thing for S and me and it really meant a lot to know we had all the good vibes of the internet behind us. I’m looking forward to some uneventful weeks now!

I’m off in a couple of days for a long-awaited family gathering. I hope everyone celebrating this week has a wonderful holiday!