Let's go back in time a lil bit ;-)

Since I am a late blogger I figured I should go back (before I forget...lol) and tell you about my surgery day. Before I start I am going to apologize for my grammar and sentence structure... It will not be correct ! lol When I start rambling I use "....................." a lot, it helps when you don't feel like writing with correct comma placing... and yep there will be misspelled words too... just over look them ! lol

I had my surgery done at Shands in Gainesville by Dr. Cendan. Although I KNOW that Dr. Cendan did not officially "DO" my surgery he was there...lol Shands is the University of Florida's teaching hospital....so I had a student surgeon... I know that is not the technical term but you get what I mean...lol But the surgeon that I did have was wonderful, very caring and was really interested in ME...

My surgery was on March 30, 2010 around 9am... the Dr said the surgery lasted about and hour and a half. I really only have one complaint with the surgery process... they wheeled me into the operating room AWAKE... YIKES !!! They gave me some meds to calm my nerves, I guess it worked but it is scary rolling in there then a dozen people around you and talking and hooking you up, but as soon as they said to "count" I don't remember ANYTHING ... which is a good thing. They had told me they would wake me in recovery to ask me questions and that I would have a tube down my throat, but I would most likely not remember it... and I don't . They WOULD NOT let me take my glasses in with me, and I hated that. I am blind as a bat... my vision is 20/400 which is VERY BLIND...lol and yes my glasses (which thankfully for contacts I dont have to wear) are thick, very thick ! Once out of recovery I asked them to find the person with my glasses and they said they could not find her... but she was there, I don't think they went and looked for her...lol I do remember that I did not have a catheter once I woke up, which I know some people do and some don't so I figured it was worth mentioning. Here is what I see when I don't have on my glasses.. so naturally I was bugging anyone that would listen about my glasses... whining to all about why couldn't I take them in there with me...lol But no one listened !


I was in my room by 2pm, and up walking by 3pm, and going to the bathroom by 3:30pm...lol I had a student nurse that thought I could not walk without her assistance... so I humored her and let her walk me around the floor one time. The entire time she was looking at her watch like she had something to do... so why the need for her to go with me? lol So when when we got back to my room she proceeded to walk in the door... I had to stop her and tell her I was going around 1 more time... she was dumbfounded, looked at her watch, and walked again with me...lol Everyone said walk walk walk walk to get rid of any gas so that is what I intended to do ! I let her off the hook after the second time around, I told her I was finished and sat in the chair in my room... but after she left I went for another walk...lol So gas was actually never a huge problem for me until I got home... about day 4 it was uncomfortable but bearable... the heating pad cures all gas in your belly !!! But you may want to buy 2 heating pads... gas tends to travel to the rear of your shoulder, so you need a heating pad for the front and back...lol

I was released the next day by 4pm. That morning I had to go for an upper GI so they could check for leaks.. all went well with that. About lunch time they said my potassium was low and was going to give me some through my IV... OOOOHHHHH MYYYY GOODNESSSSS ... potassium going through a vein in your hand is NOT FUN... it hurt so bad ... I handle pain very well and that crap HURT !!! It felt like my hand was on fire, I literally almost yanked the IV out of my hand ! The nurse came in and told me there was not much she could do but she could slow it down. She did that and it helped a little but my hand was still on FIRE, she wrapped my hand in a hot washcloth and that did the trick, but with the IV dripping slower I was going to have no use of my hand for like 4 hours. Dr. was ready to release me and I told him about it and he said "Just give it to her orally in liquid form" ... YAY, it did not taste good at all but was much better than via IV !!!!!

The ride home from Gainesville to Pensacola is about 5.5 hours... my fantabulous little cousin Hannah was my caretaker and she did a wonderful job ;-) She is so funny... while in the hospital she was so sleepy from our all night driving, so when we got to the room she crashed ;-) I had flocks of interns coming in every few hours... yeah just like on Grey's Anatomy... and she zzzzzzzzzz all the way through it. A couple interns even laughed a little... it was funny !

Pain was totally tolerable, once off my pain pump at 11am or so the day I was released I did not take any pain meds until I went to bed at home that night. Bed... well not really bed, I did not even attempt the bed for a few weeks. My stomach and body was in too much pain when in a horizontal position...lol so I sat up and slept in the recliner for a min of 3 weeks before even attempting to lie down flat...lol

Shands Hospital was great... the call button does not seem to work because it is anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes before anyone attends to your call, thank goodness it was no emergency..... but aside from the flocks of interns visiting it was very peaceful. I was in the new wing of the hospital, everything was super nice. Each room has a built in "sofa' that folds out into a bed so there was a crash place for Hannah to sleep and play on her computer... and yes they did have wifi ;-)

No, I did not take any pics... shame on me again !!! Just was not in the mood to deal with "before" anything ... I was looking to the future and still am... I know what I look like when I am FAT, no need to remind myself...lol Now when I lose the weight I will post a new pic for ya EVERYDAY !!!!!! lol