I would like to start by saying that I am not a morning person and 4:30 is an ungodly hour to have to drag oneself out of bed. I admire those of you who do this on a regular basis. I work evenings in a restaurant so I am more of a night person.
I feel like I haven't slept all night but I drag myself out of bed and prepare to go the hospital. I planned on wearing pj's so this wasn't too difficult.
Upon arriving at the hospital, "G" and I check in for surgery. Then we go sit in the short-stay surgery waiting area until we are called back for pre-op procedures. I was called back first and the last I remember is having my IV inserted.
I would love to share memories of gong to the operating room, but I have none. The next thing I remember, after the IV, is waking up in recovery and talking to Paul (he monitored my vitals while in recovery and was very good to me). I was a little stoned from anesthesia but I remember that my pulse/ox was 100 and Paul telling me that it had remained at that level, I must not be a smoker. He left me on oxygen briefly but felt that I would be fine with it removed. Yeah, one less tube in me!
I think they explained my "pain ball" to me again while in recovery. It is exactly that, a ball filled with local anesthetic attached by small catheters to the stomach. It takes about 6 hours to kick in and lasts for 3 days. It basically releases local anasthetic to the areas that were cut inside of you. Next, they shot some morphine into my IV for the pain and explained how to use my morphine pump. I thought this would be the greatest thing ever but I was wrong, as I will explain in my next post.
For some idea of the time my half of the surgery took, here is a little time frame:
My operation started at 8:13AM, was taken to recovery at 12:27PM and woke up around 1:30Pm. I was taken to my room by 3:00PM.
Next post: My morphine scare!
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