April 11, 2007

Okay, so on April 11, 2007, I started out on a huge journey. I checked into St. Mark's hospital early in the morning and shortly thereafter I was put under anesthesia and operated on.

Gallbladder
The surgeon knew he needed to remove my gallbladder due to earlier tests (hida scan, ultrasound) so he went for that first. He went in with the laproscope and was amazed with what he found. My gallbladder was so inflamed and diseased that he was unable to pull it out normally. Every time he tried, it would start to disintegrate. He was forced to make an extra incision directly above the gallbladder in order to get it and the three very large stones out. It took him 3 hours to complete the gallbladder operation and he was tempted to stop the operation then and there but he didn't (fortunately) instead he continued.....

Gastric Bypass (RNY)
The gastric bypass portion of the operation only took a little over 2 hours. According to Dr. Sherman Smith, the surgeon, it went rather routinely. That's what you like to hear with a surgery... it went routinely.

Aftermath
I woke up in my hospital room about 6 hours after the operation started. I was extremely tired from the surgery and a bit sore but otherwise fine. I spent one night and the majority of the next day in the hospital. The nurses at St. Mark's Hospital are wonderful and they were very helpful. The first time I had to get up to go to the bathroom, I couldn't believe how weak I was. It was kind of fun though to take walks around the 4th floor as I was able. I was very happy to go home the next day but HATED... let me repeat HATED... having the drain pulled out. There is just no way to describe it. The best part of the hospital stay? The morphine pump that you control. Say it with me "Morphine is your buddy, morphine is your pal...."

And just so I never forget to tell anyone, I'm putting it in here. I forgot lip ointment and I was way miserable. You can't drink anything after this surgery and you are dying of thirst. Your lips get way dried out and if it wasn't for the nurses giving me some small sponges that I could dip in water and wet my lips with, I don't know what I would have done.