Re: Getting closer..about waking up in recovery

May 5, 2005

Hey i can field a couple questions here... first the catheter deoends on your

age. I mentioned it to my preop nurse and she said she has never seen a

catheter used for any type of jaw surgery. She said they never take such a

length of time to require a catheter, and since I had no history of problems

down there adn that I was young and healthy it wouldnt be nesicary unless things

happened int he operation that were unforseen.

About waking up in recovery.. I had the same fear..huge fear of waking up,

panicking and causing damage or getting sick. Let me telly ou all I rememebr

from recover y is the nurse remopving the stomach tube (which was no sweat at

all, woudlnt have known it was happening unless i saw them actually doing it)

and I also rememebr a lady telling me to breth more. No pain, no panick,

nothing really just those two things, so to sum it up i think if you recall

anything from recovery it will be sketch at best and you will be too drowsey to

panick.

Hope this helps

if you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask

kev

sweetpearl862003 <no_reply > wrote:

I ordered my Zip and Squeeze bags and head wrap yesterday for my

surgery on June 14th. I am counting down the days to this

surgery...and i am very happy to be under the 6 weeks away mark!

Although I am starting to get a little nervous. I have never had

any type of surgery before under general anisthesia. What is waking

up in recovery like? Do you even know how bad you feel or are you

too drugged? How many of you had a cathater and did they put it in

after you were out? Is there any way to prevent throwing up after

surgery...cause i have a major fear of it (like i start shaking and

crying whenever i do...which i havent thrown up since my wisdom

teeth 2 years ago..which is also what scares me!) And last...do

people still recognize you after surgery..but just wonder why you

look a little different? or do you have to say who you are to

people?

Also, I am a dance teacher so I spend every night looking in the

mirror lol..and I have always been self conscious of how i look. And

now that my surgery is coming closer, I am getting extremely self

conscious of the whole thing and I feel like I am starting to get

depressed a little. I dont even wanna go to dance cause I always

feel horrible about how I look after. And not to mention we have

recitals (I'll be on video) and pictures and all this month. I dont

wanna take the pictures till after my surgery but my mom is making

me now. Does anyone have any advice to get through these next

6 weeks without getting totally depressed about how I look pre-

op??? Thanks....just not feeling good tonight cause Im sick and I

had to vent!

~

---------------------------------

May 6, 2005

Kev, I don't think you have this one quite as figured out as you

think.

I did have a catheter, which would support your ideas about age.

But my doc uses them for all his patients, I think. Not because of

the length of time he's in there doing the surgery, but because the

chemicals he uses -- the steroids and anesthetics -- make one have

to " go like a racehorse, " and he doesn't (or didn't -- I had surgery

in 2002) want us bumbling around to the bathroom. He had us all go

to a post-anesthesia-recovery-unit, which does indeed have

bathrooms, but it was much, much simpler for everyone just to have a

catheter. And for me, it involved no discomfort and no embarrassment

at all.

And no. I had no nausea at all. But I do think that if you have a

history of it, it's important to tell your doc, and tell your

anesthesiologist, as others have stressed. I, too, went home with

suppositories, which I never needed, to deal with nausea if it hit.

C.

> I ordered my Zip and Squeeze bags and head wrap yesterday for my

> surgery on June 14th. I am counting down the days to this

> surgery...and i am very happy to be under the 6 weeks away mark!

> Although I am starting to get a little nervous. I have never had

> any type of surgery before under general anisthesia. What is

waking

> up in recovery like? Do you even know how bad you feel or are you

> too drugged? How many of you had a cathater and did they put it in

> after you were out? Is there any way to prevent throwing up after

> surgery...cause i have a major fear of it (like i start shaking

and

> crying whenever i do...which i havent thrown up since my wisdom

> teeth 2 years ago..which is also what scares me!) And last...do

> people still recognize you after surgery..but just wonder why you

> look a little different? or do you have to say who you are to

> people?

>

> Also, I am a dance teacher so I spend every night looking in the

> mirror lol..and I have always been self conscious of how i look.

And

> now that my surgery is coming closer, I am getting extremely self

> conscious of the whole thing and I feel like I am starting to get

> depressed a little. I dont even wanna go to dance cause I always

> feel horrible about how I look after. And not to mention we have

> recitals (I'll be on video) and pictures and all this month. I

dont

> wanna take the pictures till after my surgery but my mom is making

> me now. Does anyone have any advice to get through these

> op??? Thanks....just not feeling good tonight cause Im sick and I

> had to vent!

> ~

>

> ---------------------------------

>

May 6, 2005

Hi ,

I got sick with my wisdom teeth removal also. Between that and my

jaw surgery, I had cancer and had 5 surgeries (I'm well now, 6 years

after cancer). I did not get sick with any of my surgeries after my

wisdom teeth. In this email, you don't say what kind of surgery you

will be having, but I think true general anesthesia is a little

easier to take (probably because of anti-nausea drugs they give you)

than the stuff they give you for wisdom teeth.

I had my surgeries in different hospitals, so I think my experience

should hold true, at least for most hospital surgeries. When you

wake up, you will be very groggy, and the nurse will be right there,

and however you feel, you won't remember most of it anyway, because

of the IV drugs. The nurses I have had in recovery have been

universally wonderful. They will take very good care of you, and you

will be a-ok. The best thing to do ahead of time is to try to relax

and believe that you will be fine. When you wake up, just remind

yourself where you are, if necessary, and relax. However you feel,

there is a drug that they will give you that will make you feel much

better almost immediately, and they will make sure you get it.

As far as the catheter goes, I'm sure it depends. However, I can

tell you this . . .if you have one, you won't care and you won't

notice. The only time you will notice is when they take it out, and

that is TRULY not bad. Weirder than the catheter in the naso-gastric

tube I had after my jaw surgery. Even that was not a big deal.

How will you look? Depending on the surgery you are having, you

might be very swollen and black and blue. The way you deal with

that, is you don't look in the mirror for a few days, and you make

darn sure that whoever is going to the hospital with you knows how

you might look so they are prepared and make sure that they will not

say a darn thing to you about it. IT GOES AWAY. The thing that got

me through it was I kept remembering the picture of Miss America in

my OS's office. My OS had done her surgery when she was a young

teenager, and she wrote to encourage others by saying that the

results were worth it and the swelling would go away. I figured if

she could recover and win Miss America, I would be fine. Everyone I

know recognized me. After surgery and after the swelling went away,

I still look a little different in a good way. Still, everyone knows

me and most can't quite figure out what is different. You will like

the results.

Hang in there!

---Kathleen

> I ordered my Zip and Squeeze bags and head wrap yesterday for my

> surgery on June 14th. I am counting down the days to this

> surgery...and i am very happy to be under the 6 weeks away mark!

> Although I am starting to get a little nervous. I have never had

> any type of surgery before under general anisthesia. What is

waking

> up in recovery like? Do you even know how bad you feel or are you

> too drugged? How many of you had a cathater and did they put it in

> after you were out? Is there any way to prevent throwing up after

> surgery...cause i have a major fear of it (like i start shaking and

> crying whenever i do...which i havent thrown up since my wisdom

> teeth 2 years ago..which is also what scares me!) And last...do

> people still recognize you after surgery..but just wonder why you

> look a little different? or do you have to say who you are to

> people?

>

> Also, I am a dance teacher so I spend every night looking in the

> mirror lol..and I have always been self conscious of how i look.

And

> now that my surgery is coming closer, I am getting extremely self

> conscious of the whole thing and I feel like I am starting to get

> depressed a little. I dont even wanna go to dance cause I always

> feel horrible about how I look after. And not to mention we have

> recitals (I'll be on video) and pictures and all this month. I

dont

> wanna take the pictures till after my surgery but my mom is making

> me now. Does anyone have any advice to get through these next

> 6 weeks without getting totally depressed about how I look pre-

> op??? Thanks....just not feeling good tonight cause Im sick and I

> had to vent!

> ~

>

> ---------------------------------

>

May 8, 2005

Just a quick two cents worth. I'm 32 and in good health. I didn't

know until I was in the OR that I was going to have a catheter. It

freaked me out and I'm glad I didn't know sooner. My surgery (upper

and lower) took about 4 1/2 hours. They kept the catheter in until

the next morning, late, to make sure I was going to be capable to get

up and use the bathroom. For me it was embarrassing more than

anything ... but I can't imagine having gotten up ... so I guess it

was worth it.