Surgery

I am officially on the other side. My surgery weight is 247. 

My husband Jim and I arrived at the hospital on the15th of November around 7:15 to get me checked in for surgery. Everything seemed to work as planned with my surgery time of 9:30 AM. Everyone was very nice and thorough and before too long I was being wheeled to the OR. Up until this point I had very little anxiety and in fact had not needed any medication to relax me, but once they put me over onto the surgical table, I did begin to feel some anxiety. It really didn't take very long from that point that they had me breathe in some oxygen and I was losing consciousness. 

The next thing I remembered was waking up in recovery, needing to cough and having a painful heavy feeling in my upper left side. A nurse was there, talking me through everything and giving me pain medications to ease my discomfort. She was great. My blood sugars were a whopping 389 though!  The nurse gave me a small chunk of ice to roll around n my mouth and it was heavenly.   Eventually she was able to assign me to a room on the 6th floor.  At this point it was 2:30 in the afternoon so I had spent 5 hours between surgery and recovery. 

I was still in quite a lot of pain, but the nurse had hooked me up with a pain pump so that I could self-administer pain medicine as needed. When they had to transfer me over to my new bed it was quite shockingly painful for a moment, but improved quickly. 

Jim was waiting in my room and after the nurses left him and I alone for a few moments he told me what Dr. Korn had shared about the surgery. It all went fine except for the fact that my spleen was connected to my stomach because it was sharing some blood vessels and tissue that had strangely developed, so they needed to remove some of my spleen.  Because of this, I was on total bed rest that day, and unable to start walking around or drinks no any water or food. 

I really am not in any way hungry and they did supply me with a small sponge and a cup of water that I can use to moisten my gums and tongue,and that has helped immensely. Plus, they provided me with an oral spray that hydrates my mouth as well. 

It was great to see my husband and visit with him. I am sure it was difficult for him to see me so highly medicated and in some pain.  Dr. Korn came in to fill me in the details of my surgery and indicated that because of the little complication, I would likely stay an additional day. 

Jim left for a couple hours to let me get some rest, and the groggy way I was feeling I soon did. He returned later with Trey and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Soon after that Brandon, Elisha and their darling little grandsons came to visit, also bringing another gorgeous bouquet of flowers. 

Jim said goodbye to me about an hour later and I have been in and out of it ever since. I am fortunate in that I haven't had any nausea so far. The gas pains have been minimal. I haven't had to swallow anything yet, so it's been a true day of fasting. The strangest experience so far is that I must be swallowing some air and my sleeve doesn't have the capacity to hold it, so I can feel it working its way back up with little burps. 

It's 2:14 in the AM as I am writing this so I should probably try to sleep some more. The nurses check on me frequently so there isn't solid sleeping as it is   I did want to mention before I end though is that they are giving me insulin and my last reading was 250. Crazy high numbers.