Good Morning Starshine

Hi everyone! I know you've been thinking about me and I'm very sorry for the delay. It's been such a fast couple of weeks that I've been putting off doing anything that I have to do, just so that I can enjoy my recovery time and heal properly. I'm doing great and I feel wonderful.

My parent's picked me up at 5:00 AM on the morning of December 14 and we all headed out to Pleasantons Valley Care Memorial Hospital. I registered, telling the woman that I was checking in to the Deluxe Suite with a view of the pool. We waited a bit and after about half an hour, a nurse came to get me. I changed from my pajamas into a hospital gown and got into a bed. (WARNING: THIS NEXT LINE IS ANOTHER "TOO-MUCH-INFORMATION" MOMENT!) As luck would have it, I had started my period just a day or so before, but I was assured that it wouldn't be a problem. I wasn't allowed to wear tampons, but they gave me a pad to place between my legs (since I couldn't wear underwear either). (YOU'RE SAFE AGAIN!)

I'm a lot like my dad and so of course, they couldn't find an appropriate vein to place the IV into. My nurse finally called her supervisor to 'dig' for one and they placed the needle on my left arm, on the right side crease of my wrist near the thumb. Not a comfortable place! Just as I began listening to Bing Crosby sing christmas songs with The Andrew's Sisters, they allowed my mom and dad to come and sit with me. My dad had brought his portable DVD player, so we watched Spiderman 2 and talked a bit while we waited. I was so tired (it WAS early) so I kept nodding off. Mom finally told me to go to sleep but I was so cold, the nurse came over and put a blanket over me. The blanket was inflatable with hot air and so very nice and warm.

I needed to have three liters of saline fluid put into me before surgery, so we waited. I met with the anesthiologist and the nurse who would be there during the surgery and suddenly, it was a quarter to nine and everyone was ready for me. I had been given some sort of relaxant so this part is a little fuzzy for me. I don't remember if I said good-bye to my parents or not, but knowing my mother, I'm sure one of us said something. I don't really remember being taken into the surgery room but I do remember being there. I Remember talking to the anesthiologist and mentioning that I work in a Medi-cal office. That didn't make him to happy and he was saying something about Medi-cal taking money away from the doctors or something. I was just about to say something in my personal defense when he asked if I was ready to go to sleep. I said yes and the next thing I remember is waking up in recovery.

Waking up wasn't as disorienting as I thought it would be. The nurse was there and I asked him if I could pee, knowing that I should have a cathater in. He said yes but despite how badly I needed to go, I couldn't make myself do it. I was getting frustrated and told the nurse my problem. He told me not to worry, that I was peeing just fine but with the catheter in, I probably couldn't feel it. I had gotten a green dye all over my face and someone came to clean it off of me. I don't remember much after that until I was wheeled into my hospital room on the second floor a little later. I asked where my parents were and the staff told me that they were probably up and that they'd been asking about me every fifteen minutes or so for the last 2 hours. I was later told by my parents that the surgery had lasted about an hour and a half, and the doctor had told them that I was a textbook perfect case with absolutely no complications. However, they had some trouble waking me up afterwards so they kept me in the recovery room an hour longer than usual, just to make sure. From something I remember hearing while I was just coming to, I think I was out for an hour and a half.

That first day was pretty fuzzy. I remember my parents coming to see me and my mom was worried because my face looked bruised from the dye. After about another hour, I was asked to get up and walk. I was told to roll onto my side and then sit up slowly. This was a little easier than I expected and the nurses were impressed at how easy it was for me. I held my IV in one hand and my dad took my other arm and he walked me around the nurses station twice before calling it quits. It wasn't difficult but I ached all over. I felt as though gravity was pulling me earthward and this is not a pleasant feeling when you're wearing nothing but a hospital gown and socks. I wanted so badly to be aware and to talk with my parents but I couldn't focus as the anesthesia wore off. I couldn't eat at all the first day so I needed to use a swab to keep my mouth from getting too dry. I didn't feel thirsty due to the saline in my system. When I had left the house that morning, I hadn't eaten a solid meal in two days and I was starving. After surgery, I felt fine.

I had five half-inch to an inch incisions on my abdomen. One had a drain still in it and twice a day, the fluid would be checked and emptied. It was a thick, red looking fluid that wasn't quite thick enough to be blood. I was assured beforehand not to worry, so I didn't. My other incisions were stitched and covered so I was unable to check them. I received an antibiotic through my IV at least twice a day and a blood thinner called Heprin (sp?) twice a day as well. You're not supposed to rub the injection site afterwards but the nurses did and I lived with those bruises for more than a week afterward.

After my first walk, I was walking again every three hours during the day and every four hours at night. By the end of the first night of walking, I was doing 6 laps at a time and no longer needed an arm to lean on while I walked. My parents stayed in a hotel near the hospital that first night.

At 8:00 AM the next morning, (Wednesday) a wheelchair came for me and I was taken downstairs to have a swallow test. The nurse or attendant who took me downstairs moved quickly and, combining that with bumpy floors and some tube pulling, I was completely nausious by the time I reached the x-ray lab. I was asked to stand up and squeeze between a wall and the machine, which were very close together. One of the techs tripped over my IV cord. The room was stuffy, the place they wanted me to stand was claustrophobia inducing and the liquid I had to swallow was nasty (but not as bad as I expected). I started to feel very sick and wanted to hyperventalate a little. The lead technician noticed my discomfort and thankfully finished quickly so that I could sit down again. I was wheeled into the hall and a nurse took me back to my room. At one point, she rolled over my catheter tube, which was not a happy feeling.

I was thrilled to get back to bed. Not long after my surgeon Dr. Lee came to see me. He said I had passed the swallow test and could begin having "meals" and drinking water. I also got to meet the other surgeon who had attended, Dr. Estakri. My first meal consisted of chicken broth, cherry JELL-O and apple juice. It tasted wonderful. I had to record my drinking rate on a chart, marking how much I drank in a fifteen minute period. My catheter was taken out and I was really happy about that. I was no longer going to be given my pain medication through the IV, since I could now take it orally. This I took every three hours, before walking. My parents came around 10:00 am and my mom spent the day with me watching Labryinth.

My parents had yellow roses delivered to my room with a card saying "Congratulations, Skinny!" That night after my parents went home, My friend Heather came to visit. She brought me some beautiful white roses with reddish tips and a bag full of magazines, a crossword puzzle book and bath essentials for hospital visits. She stayed and we talked for a few hours. My left arm started to swell where they'd placed the IV and I finally asked them to move it. One of the nurses tried once before asking her supervisor to do it. She tried once before calling in the pros. A nurse from the emergency room came and he did it quickly and so painlessly that I was duely impressed.

The second day (Thursday) my brother James and his girlfriend Andi came while I was up walking. I had planned on doing 10 laps but James made me do 12. The two sat and talked with me for a few hours before my parents arrived. Mom stayed with me all that day and we watched The Princess Bride. I didn't need a nap that day and was doing really well in all regards. My IV was taken out and I asked if I could wear my regular pajamas. After bathing with some warmed Wet Nap things and dressing, I spent most of the day walking, talking to my mom, watching movies and doing crossword puzzles. That night after my mom left, I watched a few movies on my own (Mean Girls, Lilo and Stitch and Mary Poppins).

The third day (Friday) I got myself up and packed up my things. I was told I could be released around 11:00, so I called my dad to tell him. When he arrived I was ready to go, but I needed him to go get some medication for me. He couldn't find it on his first trip and we soon discovered he'd gone to the wrong room. An attendant wheeled my outside and he loaded me into the car before running up to get my meds. I got to my parents home, happy to be there, and was promptly delivered to the couch.

Well, that was the hospital adventure! Tune in next time for what has happened in the weeks since then! Thanks to everyone who's been praying for me and I love you all!