One Month Post-Op {part one of two!}

Ok, ok... It's well past time to make a blog entry. I haven done so since before my surgery. I have a bunch of excuses for you, though! For the first 3 weeks, as I was off work recovering, I was just exhausted and frustrated and didn't have anything positive to say. LOL. And our activity on the computer at work is now monitored. I uses to do 99% of my blogging during down-time at work. But my boss doesn't know what kind of surgery I had, so I haven't wanted to use the office computer for it. I'm currently blogging from my iphoe for the first time ever. So far, it's not as cumbersome as I had anticipated. We'll see. So let's see if I can recall all of the thoughts i've wanted to share over the past month. The surgery went smoothly. I started to freak out as they wheels me to the OR, so I prayed the whole way. That calmed me a lot. My husband, parents, mother-in-law, and best friend (who is about 7 years post-gastric bypass) were all there the whole time. The anesthesiologist came to give me a shot to calm my nerves, but upon seeing that I'm allergic to Valium, she wouldn't give it to me. The blood thinner shot really burned, though. Once I was in the OR, my first thought was that it looked just like on tv, lol. Some more praying and it was time to begin. Staring up at the big round light, they administered the anesthesia and immediately I told them my vision was blurry, but they couldn't understand me. So I repeated, with very slurred speech, "I have double vision". And then I woke up! I remember drifting in and out of conciousness after they woke me up. I think I asked, "are we done?" about 3 different times. I kept falling asleep. The patient on the other side of the curtain in recovery kept having their vitals monitor go off, so that woke me up repeatedly, but I'd immediately fall back asleep every time. Eventually my family got to come in, one by one. I asked my mom what had I done?! She said she didn't know and laughed. She dissent want me to do it in the first place. I wasn't in pain, just felt weird. The hospital stay went pretty well. I walks 12 laps of the medsurg floor my first day! All of the nurses were stunned. I basically only used my morphine pump once per hour (it allows you to use it every 12 minutes). I'd wake up, push it, an fall back to sleep right away. But in the middle of the night, I was so itchy I couldn't sleep, and my whole body was about to get raw and bloody from the scratching. Four doses of intravenous Benadryl didnt help a bit. Apparently I'm allergic to morphine. The wonderful nurse gave me a sponge bath with ice cold washcloths to ease the itching. So I was left with only vicoden for the pain, which made me so instantly nauseas, they had to immediately follow every dose with IV anti nausea meds. Truth be told, I was in more pain from the hospital bed than the procedure (except while coughing, in which case it hurt a lot). After the X-ray, for which you swallow some vile chalky poison-tasting sludge, (they watch you swallow to make sure you're not leaking), I got discharged. I checked in at 6 am Tuesday and left at 7 pm Wednesday. The first couple of days home, all I did was sleep. Several times, I wondered what I had just done to my body, why I had done it, and whether I was dying. My body was just absolutely exhausted. But still, I had more back pain from laying around than I dd abdominal pain. By the 4th day, I was running short errands with my husband. The first two weeks were brutal. I was allowed water and protein shakes ONLY. Other surgeons allow broth and jello... Not mine! I got the strict one. Which was probably a good thing- better too attract than too lenient! But it was really, really rough. I was supposed to get 80 oz of fluid in my one ounce stomach every day! For about 3 weeks, every single sip I took, wether cold, warm, or room temp, BURNED in my stomach. Within a minute of swallowing, I had these really intense stomach cramps for just a few seconds. Every time! TMI disclaimer! If you're squeamish or dislike talk of bodily functions, skip the next paragraph!!!For the first 6 days, I had constant liquid bowelmovements. My dr said this wasn't normal, but that he wasn't concerned unless it lasted more than a week. Whaddaya know, it stopped right before the one-week mark! Unfortunately, that's the same time the urinary problems began. Intense, 24/7 burning, urgency, and even passing blood. Tests showed zero infection, but signs of kidney distress. Essentially, due to my difficulty drinking and constant diarrhea, I was so dehydrated my kidneys were shutting down. So I spent the night in the ER getting IV fluids and antibiotics. They also removed the surgical tape over my incisions, as I was having a serious allergic reaction to the tape and it was so itchy I couldn't bear it. After that, I forced myselfTo have better water intake. In order to preserve your sanity and interest, I'm going to pause here and create a "part 2" to this entry, so you can break up your reading if you wish :). Go grab your sugar free vitamin water and get cozy for round 2!