Surgery day 1 & PO day 2

Day 1 & 2 I finally had some time to sit down and decided I better get everyone caught up on my surgery (and to write it all down before I forgot). Tuesday Jan 22 - Surgery day - Day 1 I got to the hospital at 8am. Surgery was set for 9am and there was lots to do in that hour before. I got an IV started in my left hand but was informed it would be moved to my foot shortly after I went to sleep. The doctor marked my stomach & arms. Then I talked to the anestesiologist about the type of pain medication he would use - an epidural in my back for the stomach, but there was nothing he could do for the arms. I wasn't expecting much pain, so I wasn't too worried... boy was I wrong! They wheeled me into the OR and got me all set up and then put the mask on me and I was out.... it seemed like only a few seconds and then they were waking me up. I had an itch on my face, and when I moved my hand to itch it.... INSTANT pain! I told the nurse & they hooked me up to a morphine drip for the pain. It was then that I was informed I would not be going home that night (as planned) due to the pain. And on top of that, I would have to stay in that recovery room for 4 hours before being transfered to my regular room... and I couldn't have any visitors even my husband in the recovery room. I was very upset, all I wanted was to see my kids. The first 3 hours in that room passed by pretty quickly because I wa sleeping most of the time. Any time that I did wake up, I was nauseaus and they would not allow me to drink anything. At about 4pm, they told me that my husband suddenly had to leave - they said he could not wait until 5:30 for me to be transfered and that I can call him when I got to my room. I got a new nurse shortly after that & since no one else was in the recovery room with me (everyone else had come & gone from that day's surgeries), she asked if my husband might want to come in, but since I was informed he had left, I told her that. So the last hour passed by very slowly. They moved my IV for a 3rd time... this time from my foot to my right hand. Finally at 5:30 they were able to call for someone to transfer me to my room. As I was wheeled out of recovery & passed the waiting area- who should appear but my husband. he had been sitting there the entire time and had been constantly asking when he could go in & see me. Apparently he had gone to the cafeteria at 4pm and the nurse thought he was leaving for good. They brought me to my room where they wanted me to "scoot" to my bed using my arms.... the arms that had just been cut open. So I scooted & screamed in pain. The pain I felt in my arms was worse than childbirth. I still didn't have any feeling in my stomach so I had no idea what the pain down there would be like. They made me get up to use the bathroom (very unsteadily) and then got me comfortable back in bed. They ordered me dinner which was a delicious looking chicken salad sandwich, angel food cake & a roll, but I was only able to eat about 1 bite of before I threw everything (and more) up. It had been over 24 hours since I had eaten anything. I was starving, but unable to keep anything down. I asked the nurse for anything soft - jello, sherbert, anything! she brought me jello & I was finally able to keep that down. And I was finally able to talk to my kids before Mark left. That night, I was poked & prodded every hour on the hour. My IV alarm decided to start going off every 5 minutes starting at midnight & one of the night nurses would just turn off the alarm and not check what was wrong.... only for it to come back on 5 minutes later. that lasted about an hour before a different nurse came in & adjusted the bag and it finally stopped! Just when I thought I might finally fall asleep, my wacky night nurse decided that 1 am was a good time for a conversation about my surgery. She was obsessed with seeing the "results" and kept saying she wished she could see the results. And then she brought in half of the night staff into my room at 5am so I could tell them my story too. So my night that was supposed to be spent recovering with minimal interuption did not exist. I could not wait to get home the next day. But once I had the morphine drip in me, I was not feeling any pain. Thank god for that drip. boy would I miss it! Day 2 - Wed, the 23rd. It was so kind of them to bring me 1 whole slice of french toast and a small banana for breakfast.... after almost 40 hours without any real food in me, that sure filled me up. *eyeroll* As the morning passed by slowly, I was starting to lose hope that I would get to go home that day. Until my doctor came in at noon & said I looked well enough to go home - happy day! I asked him how much skin he took off my stomach & he said about 3 pounds of skin. I didn't ask about the arms & he didn't mention them but I'm guessing about 1 pound between the two of them. It was a little disappointing, I reall thought it would have been alot more, but I guess 3 pounds is a good amount? I called my husband to come get me & by the time he got there about an hour later, I was ready to go home. It took awhile to get dressed and ready to leave by finally, I was free! When I first arrived at home, Alex & Hayley were very timid to come near me. Alex held onto my grandmother's hand and peered shyly at me. I quickly put on my bathrobe to cover the ugly drains I have for my stomach. After questioning the drains, but realizing that I'm ok, he came over and took my hand. I was tired & starting to hurt so I went right to the couch to lie down. Hayley slowly snuggled up next to me where she ever so gently held my hand and told me (in a very serious tone) that she had to take care of me! I dozed in and out for a few hours and at one point, when I looked over at her, she was starting to doze off with her eyes closed, so I told her she could rest her head on my leg, which she did. That afternoon/night I continued to keep up with my pain meds (also taking an antibiotic) and slept most of the time. My hands started to swell (mostly my right side) and the bandages around my upper arms became extremely painful & tight.