My surgery was originally scheduled for June 23, 2011 at 10:30 a.m. but they called the day before (I think... my mind is not so clear on this anymore. Hum!) surgery and changed the time to 7:30 a.m. This meant that I had to be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m. Wow! That was really early but well worth it since it was the first surgery of the day. I felt like my surgeon would be fresh and ready to go.
Because I had already registered and was ready to go, they called me an express patient. My husband and I only had to wait about 20 minutes and they had a pre-op room for me. The room was a normal hospital room...nothing special. Except the bed! You know, you always think that you will come out of the hospital with back aches and such from the bed. Not this time! The bed was made specifically for bariatric patients. It felt like a gel bed. I don't think that's the best description but it was so soft and conformed to my body when I laid in it. The bed would rise to a sitting position and the foot of the bed would bend to your liking under your legs. It was awesome! Then when you needed to get out of bed, the entire bed would lower about a foot and it would deflate. So, no it was not a gel mattress but it sure did feel like it. I wanted to take that bed home with me. Ha!
So as I wait in my pre-op room, many nurses come in and out. Taking my vitals, giving me a blood thinner shot in the tummy, trying to put IVs in....ughhhhh....you would have thought they'd never done that before. I've never had a problem with them finding a good vein. They poked and poked on me with those horrible needles and no luck! The only thing I could think of was that I had been taking a prescription vitamin K to thicken my blood for the 5 days prior to surgery. The last nurse that came in told me that she would try one more time in my fore arm where the veins are real deep....WHAT??...she said that she probably wouldn't be able to hit it but would try anyways. Oh my goodness, it was so painful. I sobbed! Then she announces that not only did it not work but that the vein had collapsed. And now, she would leave it up to the anesthesiologist. Okay, so why not just let him handled it after the first and second try. Why make me go through all that pain? Ugh!
Finally, they start to wheel me down to the pre-op room...which by the way was also the recovery room. I have to laugh thinking back because the lady that wheeled me down there was running my bed into walls and doors. I could see my husband's frustrations with her and especially when she asked him to walk behind her so she didn't run over him. lol He just looked at me like, what the heck! Then as we were entering the elevator and she was crashing into the doors, she told us she was blind in one eye. She said that back in 1980-something, they gave her 2 weeks to live because they discovered a brain tumor. She had the tumor removed and the only thing she ever had trouble with again was being blind in one eye. Wow! Now, I understand why she's crashing into everything and I was okay with it. She was a survivor! How awesome! Now, I don't know that I would have been so happy with that after surgery. Ha!
Okay, I will break this up a bit in a few post. I hope I'm not boring anyone.
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