Jo's Cafe

The time was 5:45 am and we had just parked the jeep in the underground garage and made it to the information booth of the main lobby in the hospital. There I got my hospital bracelet and was instructed to go to the 1st floor – Out Patient Surgery Floor.

Get up to 1st Floor and the nice nurse puts us in a room and tells me to undress “as you came into this world.” The only accoutrement I had on was a tie in the back gown and polish on my toes and fingernails. No jewelry, not even my wedding band, was allowed. They did have a TV in the room thankfully, so we were able to at least watch Fox news. After a while, the nurse came back in and checked my blood sugar (179) and took my temp and blood pressure.

7:00 am rolled around and my ride arrived to the OR staging area. Here I’m given some green half socks with non-skid strips on them. Made me think I had frog’s feet. In the staging area I met with the anesthesiologist and this nice cute kid who put my IV in. Can you say “baby”? That’s me when it comes to needles. When he finally decided which vein to go for, I tensed up to the point where the vein went away. He called it “fight or flight response.” Didn’t know that happened with veins. Once he got the needle in and the contraption taped on me, he gave me some “I don’t care” juice and left me alone. I laid there in a drugged haze without my glasses on looking at fuzzy blobs walking around. Another nurse finally came up and rechecked all my information: name, DOB, surgery, etc. Then I had to sign something — lord knows what cause I couldn’t see where I was writing.

Finally they came and got me for surgery.

On down a long hallway through a few sets of double doors, until we hit a set where the temperature dropped about 20 degrees – and I knew I was in the OR wing then. It’s a good thing I had my green frog feet on They moved me from that gurney to the operating table and the cute IV guy was there, along with the anesthesiologist. The nurse brought me a right-out-of-the-dryer blanket that was heaven when she laid it over me. I remember the 3 discussing wrapping the blanket around me and how they were going to do it. The nurse said she’d have to wrap it under me because I was so tiny. Tiny?!? That made me feel good. Then came the oxygen mask. I think this is where they tricked me, because I remember about 2 seconds of the mask, some more talk about me being tiny and the next thing I was in recovery.

This room is full of people who have just come out surgery and we’re each assigned a recovery nurse who has attached all sorts of stuff to us, including the damned electric BP cuff. I could tell she had taken my blood sugar, because my finger hurt, so I asked her and she said it was 169. I remember blabbering about whatever came to my mind. Had to have been the good drugs they had me on — I was numb. I had to stay in there about an hour and as the time wore on the numbness started wearing off. I wanted to look at my stomach, but there were so many blankets on me I couldn’t — but after a short while I knew where they’d done the cutting. After an hour I was off to my private room in the day surgery wing. Really, I had my own private room. I figured I’d've been in with at least one other person. Enroute to the room my surgeon stopped by and asked me how I was feeling and told me that everything went well. I also asked that they find the CSM for me and they had already sent someone to the waiting room to tell him.

It really was a nice room, with a window and a chair that pulled out so the CSM was comfortable. I finally got a look at my stomach. I have four incisions: one in the belly button, one below my breast plate and two right under my rib cage. The ones that smart the most are the belly button and breast plate ones.

I dosed off and on for a couple hours and then they brought me lunch. It was actually very good. Beef stew, collard greens, pears, cottage cheese, corn bread muffin and unsweet tea.

About four o’clock I had had enough of the hospital and wanted to go home. The nurse came in and I told her I wanted to go. Of course I had to give the obligatory sample in the bathroom She left and I did what I could and the CSM helped out a bit with a water bottle. Yippeee!!! I can go home now.

The release nurse came down and went over all my restrictions — no lifting anything over 10 pounds for four weeks and no driving for 7 days (ouch). That one is going to be tough since I need to go back to work on Tuesday. But right then I just wanted to go home. They came with the wheelchair and off I was. The ride home was a bit bumpy, but I was going home and that’s all that counted.

I’m still very very sore and sitting up for any extended period of time is tiring. Throughout this the CSM has been amazing and I am reminded why I married him. The boys were at first upset they couldn’t see me, as we blocked them from going into the bedroom with the baby gate. After a couple hours, we let Bubba up on the bed, as he’s the moste gentle and I got to rub on him and Otis stood by the bed so I could rub his head. That made them feel much better about it all.

Overwhelming was the well wishes from everyone that stopped by my blog, and from my in-laws and friends. Thank you to everyone that prayed for me and kept me in their thoughts that knew about this ahead of time.

Time to go rest a bit before I attempt a shower!