Back from Surgery & Doing Fine! [suddenly turned into a long email! :) ]

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

It is so nice to be home and sitting up in my bed right now!

My surgery on Monday went as well as I could expect. This website,

especially seeing everyone's pictures and hearing all the stories really put

my experience in perspective. I'd have to say, aside from a few little

blips, there was nothing unexpected, which was wonderful!

I am finally feeling a little better and have some energy, so I guess I will

post my short surgery story...

Not sure if anyone remembers, as it was a while ago, but I had posted that I

was petrified of the IV, sincei I have never had one, and have serious

needle phobias. That was really the scariest part going in for me.

Everything went well surgery day, and they wheeled me back into the

operating room, and then layed me on the operating table, and started

putting my IV in. I told them beforehand that I was afraid I was going to

have a panic attack, and sitting rigid on the operating table with bright

lights and people running around, the situation just hit me hard and I

started to get very upset. I think normal people would not freak out, but

alas, I did. But as soon as I started to calm down... the next thing I knew,

I was awake and it was done!

I woke up in the recovery room, and ALL I even vaguely remember is turning

over, throwing up blood, and that was it. That sounds bad, but it really

wasn't, as this is the only hazy experience I had in the recovery room. Next

thing I knew, I was being wheeled up to a regular hospital room, and my real

first conscious experience was waking up to see my parents right in front of

me :)

I actually had a ton of energy as soon as I woke up and was in no pain at

all! My face felt swollen, but I didnt know how swollen, and I couldnt talk

because my throat was sore, but I was feeling great!

I had a roommate that was clearly in a lot of pain through the night, so I

didnt get much sleep at all. My nurses through the day were fabulous, but I

wish I could say the same for my nurse through the night. I wasnt able to

get up on my own, and it took her a long time to help me up to go to the

bathroom, and she didnt even notice that my IV fluids were dripping all over

the floor. I couldnt talk, and she was ignoring my attempts to point them

out, so I had to walk right through it! Then, when I came out of the

bathroom, she had left, so I had to plug everything back in myself and get

myself back into bed. Of course by that point, I was too exhausted to be

upset, and just passed out!

The next day went well. I was supposed to be discharged at 10am, but because

x-rays got pushed back, I wasnt discharged until about 6pm. The tough part

of that turned out to be that my nurse disconnected my IV and morphine pump

at 10, thinking I would be discharged asap. I was not even hitting the

morphine that much, but a few hours later, at about 12, I started feeling

intense pressure and a huge migrane coming on. My nurse gave me tylenol...

but tylenol/morphine? Big difference I found out. They had to wait a while

to give me percocet, but it was a long few hours!

All and all, I am so so glad to be home! My experience, like I sad, besides

a few little blips (which happens to everyone I'm sure) went just as I

planned. As long as I am good about taking my pain meds, I am feeling great!

I took some pictures and will post them on the site maybe tomorrow.

Hope this story didnt scare anyone, and it shouldnt! Everything went great.

I am swollen, yes, but looking forward to it going down. Glad to be on the

other side!

Hope the other Early October/Late Sept. Surgeries went well, and I'd like to

hear from anyone what to expect w/in the next few days. Most posts on here

are about lower jaw surgeries, and I had upper and wisdom teeth taken out.

Thanks again to everyone, and sorry this turned into a long email, I am

clearly just excited to be be done!

Clare (!)