 TAH - My Crowning Moment |
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TAH - Princess ET's Crowning Moments
Abdominal Hysterectomy - TAH/LSO - Princess Betsy's Lovely Crowning
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...come to get me and I would head back to get ready for surgery. This would take about a half and hour and then my husband could come back. Only one guest at a time is allowed in this area. Fortunately or unfortunately, my preparation took longer and my husband made it in there just as I was headed to surgery. Back to the preparation. They had me strip down-still bleeding so I was to keep on the underwear until right before we were to leave and then leave the maxipad in between my legs until I got to surgery. They put on another ID bracelet and then took my blood pressure and inserted the IV needle in my hand to get it ready for the anesthesia. All my clothes, etc. were placed in a plastic bag and given to my husband.
It was time to wheel on out of there so they grabbed my husband and father-in-law and they walked by my side until we got to the operating room. I said my tearful “see ya laters” and in I went to wait. My feet were freezing and luckily the nurse covered me in those wonderfully warm blankets that feel like they just came out of the dryer. Ahhhhh! Definitely ask for these if you get cold. They are happy to give them to you. This was about 8:50am.
The Anesthesiologist came in and introduced himself. He asked a few questions and chatted cheerfully about the surgery-said he’d be getting me ready. I don’t really remember the IV going in. My doctor came in to say hello and that we were going to take me into the operating room. I was already getting fuzzy at that point. They wheeled me in and the last thing I remember is having to move to a smaller table covered with a white sheet. I was out!
I barely remember recovery, I have to say. I remember seeing the clock, but it didn’t quite register. I think it was around 11:40am. I was in a big open room with a few other people in their beds. I don’t remember being cold or anything-just out in space! I also vaguely remember being shown the picture of my lovely fibroid, but it too was blurry. It was like looking at a picture of the planet Mars. I’m sure the doctor talked to me but I don’t remember that conversation at all. Surgery went well-it began around 9:30am and I was done by around 11am, when the doctor came out to talk to those in the waiting room. All had gone smoothly they heard. My husband was also shown the picture of the fibroid but wasn’t too keen on that! LOL
They wheeled me up to my room with the entourage following-at first I was assigned to a roommate room, but as we arrived to the 5th floor (2nd floor was full) we found out there was a private room ready! I was soooo happy about that. I hardly remember the faces of those there, but heard their voices cheering me on and telling me how great I had done. It was pretty much like that the whole day. The catheter was in, so I didn’t have to worry about getting up. People were in and out, but I don’t remember them being there. I had the air massagers on both of my legs. Every so often they would come on and massage my legs-that felt good. I also had on the abdominal wrap, which kept everything tucked in. Underneath it was the biggest band-aid I ever saw in my life. They had shaved half of me, I learned later, but she used stitches and no staples. Each stitch was covered by a steri-strip. I was given my button to push. It was attached to a machine that had 2 IV’s along with the Demerol for pain. One IV bag was my food, and the other was an antibiotic. I do remember one dear friend visiting later on in the evening and she and my hubby were getting a kick out of me because I would wake up, look at them, smile at them, click my button, and be off to lala-land once more! That was pretty much the routine for that first day. Every so often someone would come in and take my temperature and my blood pressure (my blood pressure was quite high for the entire time I was in there). This went on through the night as well. Once in a while the machine would beep because an IV was getting low. Unfortunately this happened during a shift change and we had about 3 different nurses come in and finally someone took care of it. I thought that the large IV bag was my pain medication and so I was nervous. But that actually was in the front in a large syringe-looking tube, locked up in a box. Once I learned that I knew that was the one to keep my eye on! J
I believe that it was in the first night that a male nurse came in with this contraption that I would come to know as the breathing toy of despair. It has a handle and a cylinder with numbers kind of like a measuring cup. Attached is a small hose with a mouthpiece that you use to inhale as big as you can. Inside the cylinder is a disk that rises as you inhale. He set it to 3500 and made me inhale 10 times. I could barely get to 2000. I finally did make it to 3500 one time and he moved it to 4500 for me to practice on. (I still can’t get it to 4500 even after 2 weeks!) J This happened several times throughout the night. I remember that they would tell me to do it 10 times and I would swear that I had done it ten times and then I’d hear. Okay 4 more to go! I just knew they were lying. LOL My husband was told to give me the toy every hour while I was awake and he did. By the last I was doing pretty good-he said I even did more than 10 of my own free will. I do encourage everyone to stick with this. It really helped to clear out my lungs.
Because the Hyster Sisters had so strongly encouraged us to get up and walk as soon as possible, I was a little anxious. Even though it was the last thing I wanted to do, when I woke up at 3am for my next IV change I asked the nurse when I could try walking. She kind of looked at me funny, like she hadn’t ever been asked that before. She said it would be later on in the morning. When she came in at 6am I asked again and got the same response. At 7am the changing of the guards occurred. Oops, I mean nurses! LOL My 7am-3pm was a male nurse-for some reason I didn’t quite click with him, but almost became competitive about things. Like I had to prove I wasn’t a wimp. At 7:30 he came in to check on me. I asked him when I could walk. He, too, looked at me like I was from another planet). J He told me that he needed to check the other patients and then would be back for me at 9 or so. A second later he said, “no, if you’re ready to walk, let’s get you walking!”. So there I went. You use the stand that has the IV on it as your walker. There is a circle handlebar on this stand. Hubby helped me get over the bump in the doorway and then we walked-very, very small steps, but I made it down about 4 rooms and then came back. That day I walked 5 times, about every two hours. And I made it further and further. But, for me that ended up being too much because by late afternoon I felt sooo tired and miserable. Course, I had had way too many visitors that day. We had to turn away people who came that evening. I just was not up to it. By the way, the leg massagers came off the first time I walked and stayed off.
I did begin to get food on Thursday-lunchtime was my first “meal”. Up until then it was ice chips. There was one point where I was munching down on those ice chips cause I was soooo thirsty. The nurse told me not to eat too much at once. My lunch, dinner on Thursday (and breakfast on Friday) consisted of broth, jello, Popsicles(I didn’t eat these because I was afraid of too much cold stuff at once) and fruit juice.
Before this nurse left at his 3pm shift change, he did remove my catheter. It didn’t hurt-he just shrunk the balloon, I’m not sure how, and removed it from inside me. He told me it would probably be a while before I would have to pee. But, just like before surgery, I had to go to bathroom all of the time, so within a half an hour I was dying to go. He seemed concerned. They put a measuring cup thingie in the toilet for me to pee into. It would measure how much I went. To begin with it was under 200ml and I needed to get it above 300-350 or they would be concerned that I had a bladder problem. He said if it didn’t go above 300 then they may have to put the catheter back in. Since I was knocked out when they put it in the first time, I really didn’t want to have to have it done while I was awake. I still had to go every 15 minutes or so and it was driving me crazy. At first we called the nurse every time I would go and they’d come in and record it. Finally they told us that we could do that, so when I’d go my hubby would record it and then empty it. There were times I’d go and would get close to that point, but rarely. The night nurse was a lot more help. Since I was going so much (which also didn’t help wearing me out, because getting in and out of bed was a chore), I was concerned that I might be wetting the bed at night. I asked if they had any Depends or something like it. She said they did but that she really didn’t think I’d have a problem. And I didn’t. She did tell me that I needed to retrain my bladder, so if I could hold it for at least an hour before going again that would be helpful. It was an up and down night that night, but I made it through without wetting the bed! I still had the frequent nurse visitors for temperature and blood pressure throughout the night, but I think the breathing toy people gave me a rest (except for hubby).
There was a concern too, that I hadn’t passed gas yet and I knew I felt like I was ready at any time. But it was driving me crazy because I knew until I did that I would be in the hospital-plus I’d be eating broth and jello until then! The Thursday night nurse was a little concerned that I hadn’t passed gas yet too. It wasn’t until Friday at 11:15am that the blessed event occurred. Boy, it was sooooo exciting! J Around 1pm, since I hadn’t had a bm, the nurse gave me a suppository (spelling?). What a joy! But, within a half hour I was on the toilet—like I said earlier, that Lysol would have come in handy then-course, I used my body spray as a freshener.
I only walked about 3-4 times on Friday and one time I couldn’t get very far. I also spaced those walks out a little further instead of every 2 hours. By the end of the day, though, I was making the entire loop around the floor-still very slowly and very small steps. It did help a little when the catheter didn’t have to be loaded on to the walker anymore.
The doctor came to visit that day and said they would be sending me home on Saturday. Everything had gone according to plan-very smooth and she was pleased. She could tell there were a lot of people praying for her, she said.
For dinner I got solid food. It wasn’t too bad for hospital food. I even got a sweet potato pie slice with whipped cream for dessert! From then on there was no trouble with my bladder and bowels.
I also got to take my first shower that afternoon. I am very timid, even now, when I am in the shower-can’t stand to look at my incision (course, right now I can’t even see down there thanks to the Buddha belly that I have LOL) Hubby helped with that shower and got pretty wet himself. But it felt good to feel fresh.
On Friday night, we watched our Texas Rangers play baseball and kept score in our homemade scorebook. That helped time go by. Watching TV was about all I was good for. I couldn’t read, but when someone brought magazines that worked pretty well for my short attention span.
On Saturday we anxiously awaited the visit from my doctor to give me my walking (or should I say wheelchair riding papers! LOL Unfortunately, that didn’t happen until around noon. It sure didn’t take me long to change into my going home outfit once she did give us the okay though! That’s probably the fastest I moved the entire time I was there. J
Being home was wonderful. I have kept my coughing pillow close by my side. One thing that helped when I had gas or was needed to go #2, was to take the pillow with me and press it on my tummy as I went. Because I have no pushing power when it comes to that, the pillow added just enough pressure to help things move on out.
I walk a lot around the house and try to get outside each day even if it is just to check mail. Some days I feel better than others. The last few days the pain has been pretty severe, but I’m sure it’s just healing and the insides re-adjusting themselves. I would say that the first two weeks I was in bed quite a bit. Sometimes I slept, sometimes I cross-stitched or read.
One thing that did hurt terribly was laughing out loud! My mom and dad made me laugh so hard that it almost kept me out of my stitches. It really hurt later on. Almost like sneezing or coughing but because I couldn’t quit laughing it really made it worse. So don’t let any of your funny friends and relatives come over for about two weeks! J
I did stick to chicken casseroles and soft solid food for 2 weeks. Today I had my first slice of pizza, after my 2 week visit to the doctor this morning. I have stayed away from meat and cheese up to this point. My favorite is white cake with white buttercream frosting and luckily, doctor said that that was okay from the beginning-just shouldn’t make it my whole diet. It did help to have one of my favorite foods on the list. I tried to eat as much fiber as I could too. Hubby made me some delicious bran muffins. Also had Cheerios and fruit. I tried to drink as much water as I could, but for some reason water was not appealing. Maybe it’s after all of those ice chips I endured. But I have had a lot of juice and some milk. I had no greens that would make me gassy. I’ve used quite a bit of Gas X to help with the gas I do have.
I wasn’t able to get on the computer for about 5 days, and even now can only sit here for about 30 –45 minutes at a time before becoming too tired. But all in all, I feel better than I did before surgery and am so thankful to be able to be on the flip side and writing to you about my experience. It is definitely true that the waiting was the hardest part. So for all of you LIW’s, hang in there. It’ll be over before you know it. There are many, many crowned princesses that are cheering you on and wishing you the best. It helps to know so many who have been through this surgery, did not die (cause I was just sure I was going to) and now feel better than ever! I hope this encourages you all.
By the way, my two week visit was great. The ride was a little bumpy-I had my cough pillow on my tummy and a big pillow over it and under the seatbelt for extra support. Doctor checked incision, they weighed me and took my blood pressure and that was it. I remembered to ask about driving, baths, etc. No driving or baths for at least another week she said.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it! Sorry that it is so long, but I tried to answer all of the things that I had questions about before my surgery. I know it is a lot to soak in at one time too! Course, I know before my surgery that I was reading everything I could get my hands on. So I really hope this will help any of the LIWs!
Verrrrrry gentle hugs, ET (Ellen)
Related Titles
TAH - Princess ET's Crowning Moments
Abdominal Hysterectomy - TAH/LSO - Princess Betsy's Lovely Crowning
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