It has been a long time since I've written. So much has happened.
My surgery was on Friday, March 22 - exactly a month go! It went well and I'm doing great!
But let me go back, I started the liquid diet 10 days before surgery. It was tough but I made it through. The liquid diet consists of protein shakes and water, Powerade or Crystal Light. That is ALL I had for 10 days leading up to surgery. During that time I lost 8 pounds. A week before surgery, I got a call from the surgery scheduler. She was calling to tell me that Dr. Jones, my surgeon, fell and broke both his wrists. I was in shock. What did this mean? I mean I had already been on the liquid diet for 4 days. I had to have it when scheduled because I needed Spring Break to recover...so as not to use any sick/personal days (the few I had left). She asked me if I could do surgery on Wed of Spring Break. The first thing that came to my mind was that I wouldn't have enough time to recover without taking time off. The next thing I realized that was that I would simply have to continue the liquid diet since surgery would still be 10 days from that day....meaning I would have been on liquid diet for a total of 14 days! That was overwhelming. I asked her if there were any other times and she said no. She said that Dr. Svendsen was taking almost all of Dr. Jones surgeries and had already even scheduled one for Saturday. I asked her if I could do Saturday? She said it was a possibility but she wouldn't be able to ask him until Monday, since it was already 5PM on Friday. I begged her and begged her to do whatever she could to convince him to get me in....even telling her that if I couldn't go by that Sunday I would have to postpone until June.
Well, Bernadette called me back at 7AM on Monday to give me the good news! Dr. Svendsen agreed to do my surgery on the original day but at 7AM instead of 1PM. I was so grateful! Chris and I had been praying all weekend that it would work out!
So, we were all set for Friday, March 22nd. I was to arrive at Methodist Hospital at 5AM to check in. It was easier than I thought to sleep that night since I took some sleeping meds. Chris and Sarah (his daughter who didn't have school) arrived at 4:15AM to pick me up. We got to the hospital right on time and checked in. I didn't have to wait even a minute and a lovely volunteer took me up to the pre-op area. Chris and Sarah would be allowed up to see me before surgery about an hour late. Got upstairs and got comfy....the IV hook-up went so much better than I hoped. I always seem to have trouble getting IV's put in. Everything went smoothly, the only surprise was that I would be getting a heparin shot - not though the IV but in my stomach! Ouch! Probably more painful than a tetanus shot - and you automatically bruise at the site of the injection. Oh well.
Chris and Sarah came up once everything was hooked up. We only had about 20 minutes to sit together. During that time Dr. Svendsen came in as well as the anesthesiologist. Everything was on schedule. I said goodbye to Chris and was off. The last thing I remember was scooting on to the operating table and my arms being strapped down.
I woke up in recovery feeling very thirsty...but of course was allowed nothing. No pain at all. I was transferred to my room - which was a blurry trip. Chris, Sarah and "Mom" (Kathy) came in - they had been in the waiting room the whole time. Chris asked me if anyone told me what happened. I said no. He proceeded to tell me that during surgery, one of the sets of staples/sutures had misfired. The nurse said that the operating tool was removed and sent off to the company to see what happened. Another one was used to finish. Dr. Svendsen wanted to be sure that everything was closed so he went in and hand sutured that portion just to be safe. Because of this, a drain had to be put in which might cause additional discomfort until removed.
I slept a lot the first day, on and off. The worst part was that I was not allowed to have ANY liquids all day. The only thing I had was the water swabs....which were essentially useless. Saturday morning came soon enough and brought with it liquids. I was allowed water and liquid meals. Liquid diet meals at the hospital include soup (were weren't good), tea and jello. Not much of any of that was eaten but it was better than nothing. Visitors included Chris - of course, Tanja, Tammy & Tom and Joyce! Just enough to make the day go quickly yet not too much to over do it. I am grateful for their visits.
Late Saturday brought back pain (from laying only on my back) and some pain from the drain. I had walked a lot during the day and that was the only thing that seemed to help, so I kept walking up and down the hall whenever I could. It had been a long day so sleep came easily...I barely woke up each time the nurses came in and then fell back to sleep right away.
Sunday, Chris arrived early and it was wonderful to have him sit with me. Surprisingly the nurse came in and said that a doctor would be in soon to assess if I could go home. The doctor came in and she said that it looked like I was good to go. My nurse came in to remove the drain - which had been giving me cramping feelings the whole time. The second she removed it, it was like I had my left lung back and could finally really breathe. The pain and discomfort was gone! Chris and I took a walk in the hall, packed up my stuff and I got ready to go.
