Day of Surgery

Well, the day had finally come. The morning of surgery. A day full of nerves and excitement. It was finally here after all my waiting. I often wondered if I was just dreaming.

 Nothing by mouth was hard. I already had dry mouth by the time we left the hotel. I knew it would only get worse. I still had so much head hunger from the liquid diet. I just wanted something normal to eat but I knew I couldn't.

My days of eating like I used to were over.

My biggest nemesis, carbs, wouldn't be there for me anymore like they used to. I was about to embark on a journey towards health. I was happy to say good riddance to the food I used to eat, if it meant getting healthy.

I was never really a sweets eater, though I did endulge form time to time. I was more of a salt person. I knew I wouldn't be able to anymore, or at least for a very long time. And I was okay with that; I accepted it. I was ready for my new chapter, my new life.

Numbers

 My highest weight was 320lbs, and my height is 5'3", giving me a BMI of 57.

Before surgery, I got my weight down to 311lbs, giving me a BMI of 55.

The Hospital

We got to the hospital super early. I had to show up in a wheelchair because I couldn't walk very far. They had me undress and get into a purple gown (my favorite color!) and the socks. My feet and legs were swollen and so the socks fit a little tight. They also had me do a pee test to make sure I wasn't pregnant.

Due to the mobility issue, they deemed me a fall risk and had me put on an extra bracelet.

After waiting around for a little while, in my own room, they had me get on the bed and wheeled me into a big room where other people were waiting to go into their surgeries. I started to get flutters in my chest from nerves. Surgery is really happening! In just a few minutes I was going to get cut. I was mainly worried because the last surgery I had was a living hell. It was lap gallbladder surgery and I was in so much pain for weeks. I'd hoped it wouldn't be like that again.

My surgeon came in to see me and asked me how I was doing. I just blurted out nervous. I wanted the good stuff to help with anxiety lol. He also asked which surgery I was having to make sure I knew and I was in the right place. I stuttered my words like someone already drunk even though I wasn't given anxiety meds yet. I was just really nervous. The anesthesiologist made me put on the cool hat and he set up the IVs. I got 2 IVs in my hand. Ouch! He said he was glad he didn't have the nurses do it because I had really tiny veins. Must be my child-sized hands. :) He then had me walk into the operating room. I had to hold my breath I was in so much pain. I prayed I would make it there. My nerves were all over the place so I don't think it hurt like it normally did.

When I entered the operating room, it was very cold; just the way I like it. The first thing I saw, however, was all of the tools to be used during surgery, layed out on the table and several people looking at them, making sure they had the right one. My eyes grew big and I felt my jaw start to drop.

I was freaking out. Surgery was really happening and those tools were going to be used on me!

My attention was taken away from that by someone calling my name. It was the PA from my surgeon's office. She was there, helping me lay down on the table, dressed in scrubs. I had no idea she helped with the surgeries. I felt at ease that she would be there, too.

I asked for some pillows because I had a bad back and they got some. We adjusted a few times. I again asked for the anti-anxiety medication as I was almost to the point of a panic attack. I started to wonder if I would actually wake up or not. Was I really healthy enough? I was super morbidly obese with lots of co-morbidities. Either way, I had to give myself a fighting chance. This was my last resort.

I'm not sure when they gave me the medication but I suddenly noticed I felt really good. The anxiety was none. I felt like I could accomplish anything. I think I was even telling jokes. Then I remember my breathing slowing and my chest heavy. There was something over my mouth. Maybe that was making it hard to breathe? I tried to take it off but then went to sleep.

Waking Up

I remember talking with other people about their surgery experience, before I had mine and remember them asking the operating room nurse if they were skinny yet, when they woke up. I always thought that was silly. They pump you full of IV fluids in the hospital and you are swollen from just having surgery, so how could you have lost 100% excess body weight? I didn't understand it. I knew when I woke up, I wanted to say something else.

When I woke up, I didn't feel any pain.I was surprised. Before I was even aware that I was waking up, I remember hearing voices, or rather one, asking me questions. I ended up muttering out, "am I switched? " not just once but several times due to the dopiness. I guess I was nervous of waking up with just a sleeve after reading horror stories of that happening the week before surgery. The nurse responded that I was. I was happy. I also remember waking up in a different gown than I went in with. Strange. Maybe it was the drugs, though.

I never really felt pain in the recovery room. All I really felt was drugged, kind of like that feeling I used to get eating pizza and ice cream as a diabetic, making my blood sugar jump to 300-and-something. The nurse kept asking me if I was in pain and I said no. He said I was doing really good. I was a bit out of it but I remember just smiling, so happy to be on the other side of things, to be on the loser's bench, as weight loss surgery patients call it (or the dark side as DSers call it). But I did find some drool later so I was probably just smiling, with my mouth gaping open like some mental patient.

I'm not sure when the morphine stated, nor when my husband picked up my iPhone to take a photo but he did.

The surgery took 6 hours. It was way longer than usual because I had a lot of adhesions on my liver from my previous surgery from when they took my gallbladder out. My liver was trying to attach to my abdominal fat! My surgeon removed all that he could. He also removed my appendix and did a liver biopsy.

I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything until the barium swallow test the next day, to make sure there was no leaks. That day, when the nurses came in to check my blood pressure, I noticed it came down heaps. Before surgery my BP was as high as 148/128. They also gave me insulin shots. I had never had one before. They said it was routine for diabetics when they are in the hospital. It wasn't too bad, of course that could have been the morphine.

I still couldn't believe I had had the DS. I felt like the same ol' me, only not starving all the time. In fact, I wasn't hungry all day. I loved it. My magnesium was low but they gave me some to fix it.

I was even chatting it up when they had put me in the room after the recovery room, telling my husband all about it. This, I do not remember, either.

I did end up walking that night. It was the first time I had walked in a really long time.

This was a huge milestone for me.


That first night it was hard to sleep because, even though I had my own room, other patients were arguing with nurses and loud. I was glad to have my iPod. The music helped me drift to sleep but unfortunately didn't stay asleep. I kept having a weird pain like a burp was coming up but it got stuck, only nothing happened. I don't remember it but I was told I was sitting up talking to everyone (probably due to the morphine). I kept getting up trying to walk but the nurses were telling me no, you have to rest. I was ready to go but that was probably just the morphine. At least the first night was over.