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    Sunday, April 15, 2007

    Connect The Dots

    Hey everyone!!! I've missed you all! Thank you so much for all the kind words and thoughts. I know this is what helped me get through the day effortlessly.

    I thought I would give you blow by blow details of my adventure.

    • Friday the 13th, 3:00 am wake up call. Finally get Mr. Sign to haul his butt out of bed at 3:45 am.
    • 5:30 am, get to the hospital after missing the the road it's on.
    • Register just ahead of 10 other people. Yay, no waiting for me.
    • Give a urine sample (hooray, I'm not pregnant!)
    • Receive the largest gown the hospital has. It looked like a strapless gown since the neck hole was so large.
    • 6:30 am, I'm taken to the surgical holding area where I watch the rest of the room fill up.
    • The nurse, EKG tech and the surgeon all decide to come talk to me at the same time. The surgeon wins. He explains that he will be doing some exploratory diagnosis while he's in there. He even draws me a picture. I ask him if I can keep the gall bladder. He says that it's no longer allowed because of bio hazards. He says he can only imagine what I would do with it.
    • 7:20 am, nurse tries to start an IV. I've had at least a hundred IVs in my day and show her where she will be successful. She picks a different spot. She says the new catheters are not sharp and it hardly pokes through my skin. The vein rolls and she has to call in enforcements. The new person tries a different spot and fails. I show her my spot. She doesn't like it but tries and gets it in. Yay! I only have one black and blue arm.
    • The nurse anesthetist comes in to talk to me and she has the most comforting voice. She explains exactly what will happen and then gives me some "la la juice".
    • She rolls me to the OR. I slide over to the operating table (which feels much bigger than it did last time) and she tells me we are just waiting on the anesthesiologist. We waited for 10 minutes. I got to have conversations with everyone, including the surgeon who was joking about letting the Physician's assistant do my surgery.
    • Finally, the anesthesiologist shows up and says that he was trying to drink his coffee in peace but the OR kept interrupting him. I'm assuming he was kidding because he laughed.
    • The nurse told me to think about Hawaii and drift off to sleep.
    • 9:15 am (I can see the clock). My eyes are open and I finally figure out where I am. I'm shaking violently and I hear the nurse say, "give her (fill in the blank [I was on drugs, I can't be expected to remember this stuff])". They also piled 5 warm blankets on me and I was in heaven.
    • The nurse gave me ice chips and I called her a goddess.
    • 10:30 am, I'm returned to where I started, only there are differnt patients. I'm doing better than all of them. The rest were grumpy.
    • 11:30 am, I'm told to get up to go to the bathroom. They get my clothes and tell me to get dressed. I have a feeling I'm being kicked out.
    • 11:45, a little tiny old lady comes with a wheel chair to try to escort me out. She hits 3 walls and can't get me into the elevator. I told her I would walk so I got out of the chair and onto the elevator. I turned around to thank her and she was already gone. Hmm..the Little Old Lady From Pasedena just sped away.
    • 1:00 pm, we arrive home. I'm in total disbelief that I had surgery just a few short hours before and now I'm home lying on my couch. It's amazing that you can lose a body part and still be sent home in a matter of hours.
    This surgery was so much easier than the last. Pain has been minimal. I still have some pain where the gall bladder was, but it's no worse than it was before surgery.

    The surgeon took the time to look around in my abdomen since he was there. He was able to use two of my old incisions but had to make two new ones (for a total of eight beautiful scars. I didn't think I'd ever be a bikini model anyway). He checked on the previous gastric bypass surgery that he had performed. He shot dye into my liver to check the ducts for gall stones. The last thing he did was to check on my intestines for hernias. He said everything looked excellent. I'm so relieved. he also said that it was definately my gall bladder that had been causing me all the trouble. He told me all of this in recovery and said I wouldn't remember any of it. I guess I come out of anesthesia easily because I remember everything in vivid detail.

    The doctor did say he would like to see me take 2 weeks off work but I'm going to see how well I do after a week. I can't lift anything for a while which won't help me at my job.

    Thanks again for all of the comfort and support. It really meant a lot to me.

    26 comments:

    G-Man said...

    Yay!!!!

    G-Man said...

    What a Grand and Glorious day indeed!!
    Jenns OK..
    The Sun is out..
    Jenns OK..
    I'm in my proper spot!!!
    Jenns OK..

    ...Gall Bladder?
    We don't need no stinking Gall Bladder!!

    G-Man is soooooooo happy!
    xoxoxox

    javajazz said...

    awesome adventure, Jenn!
    at first i was afraid to read the gory details, thought i might yack, so i read it backwards (you know, its a Crab thing) and then when it was more funny than gory, i read it forwards again...very amusing take on your exciting adventures in surgery....i especially like the surgeon's and anaesthetist's senses of humour (yes, that was all in canadian spelling)...they're always suitably wacko those geniuses in surgery...and i love the process of finally getting to the vein that you KNEW worked...sheesh...oh well, add that colourful arm to your list of battle wounds, why not!
    you are a trooper, and your upbeat nature and humour is why you were in better shape than most after it was all over...and everyone is glad its not friday anymore, and you are officially recuping...all the best, Jenn! you did it! xo lisa

    terry said...

    hooray! i'm so happy to hear it all went so well.

    here's to a pain-free future.

    MilkMaid said...

    Ah...all is well in the world now. Glad you are home and on the mend.

    barman said...

    I knew it would go well... thank goodness.

    Wow, lifting restrictions I did not expect that fro so long and off for 2 weeks. I know you need to get back to work but think about yourself too. I went back to soon but was just a little tired is all.

    Glad all is well. Take care and no more surprises for a little while, OK?

    Anonymous said...

    Glad to hear it went well! Hope you have a smooth recovery :)

    We were sending you well wishes from our Dallas gathering on Friday night!

    lime said...

    so glad to hear things went as well as they did and that all exploration showed positive things. you're on the road to recovery now. just don't rush it. take things easy and feel beter soon.

    wmy said...

    I am sooooooooooooo happy you are ok!! I knew you would be, but...I am soooooooooo happy! lol

    I agree with you on that whole...rip out a body part and ship you home in an hour thing...it is cool and a little scary all at the same time! lol

    Oh well...welcome back!!

    Monkey said...

    Woot! Woot!

    That is good news indeed.

    Good Lord. I felt like I was there. "Think of Hawaii" and off to sleep you go.

    Thanks for the update. You are awesome.

    G-Man said...

    hehehehehe...Jenns back!!

    Unknown said...

    Welcome back! Glad everything went smoothly, and I wish you a speedy recovery! :)

    p.s. Meghan turned 2 on Friday the 13th! :)

    Mouthy Girl said...

    Yippee! So glad to hear that although it was drive-thru surgery, you've come through swimmingly well!

    I'm pissed that they wouldn'thand over the organ. I say if you have to hand over a co-pay, you should be able to take home the souvenir of your choice!

    Big Pissy said...

    I'm SO glad everything went well!

    Take it easy now, Jenn.

    Don't do too much too soon. :)

    ell said...

    so glad you came through it all ok.

    kimmyk said...

    Glad to hear all went well and everything looks good. Good news for a Friday the 13th indeed!!!

    Hope you're feeling better today!

    *Rae* said...

    I am glad your feeling good and the rest of your insides are good too lol..Take your time like the Dr says no rushing I didn't think you would be out the same day but I am glad your ok...ALso I changed my blog name and addy-Rae's World
    http://inraesworld.blogspot.com/

    The Savage said...

    Glad to hear you are doing well... Yay you!!!

    Craig D said...

    Hey - congrats on a smooth 'n' successful surgery.

    When my wife had her gall bladder out we, too had to be at the hospital by 6:00 am. The hilarious part of the story is that she wasn't wheeled into the operating room until 9:15 pm! Them bastiches made her lie around with that IV in her for, oh, fifteen hours!

    Sounds like you're on the fast-track recovery-wise. Please accept my best get-well wishes...

    Crabby said...

    YES! I am soooo glad you are almost all the way back to good and feisty.

    I meant to check on you sooner but I was disconnected from the net most of the weekend because we were moving my office.

    Amazing what they can do now, huh?

    jillie said...

    Well it sounds like you had some great Dr.s and nurses in the hospital. I just hate it when people don't listen to you when you're trying to help them out. You know, after all, we've lived in our bodies for HOW LONG? Thank you very much...haha

    I've always asked patients when they've come in for blood draws if they have one spot better than another. It only makes sense...right?

    So happy to hear that things went smooth and you'll be up and atom in no time ;o)

    Suze said...

    Jenn, in your case the phrase "better out than in" is fitting.

    It's good you got to go home so quickly. I hate staying in hospital any longer than I have to.

    You take things easy and don't rush back to work.

    Sending gentle *hugs*

    Anonymous said...

    jenn I'm so glad to hear everything went well and you are doing fine.
    Take care of yourself.
    hugs
    tc

    SIMON said...

    Glad it went as ok as it did sign don't do too much too soon and it will all be ok.

    DZER said...

    good to hear that everything went so swimmingly :)

    Team Kitty said...

    Glad you are feeling better, Jenn. What is this obsession with Hawaii that anesthesiologists seem to have? I was saying my last prayers, and the dude was trying to get me to imagine that I was spending my possible last moments sweating in the sand. And I hate to sweat!

    *S*