 TAH - How I Learned to Hate Lemon Jello |
From the Abdominal Hysterectomy Stories Articles List |
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What I learned and experienced with LSH
TAH - Lesson Learned
Lessons Learned from my LSH
TAH -The MOST important thing I learned
TAH - Oh, Nurse -- More Jello, Please! My TAH/Panniculectomy Adventure
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I had been diagnosed with fibroids eight years ago, and had taken the conservative wait and see approach. The waiting had gotten worse and the fibroids had gotten progressively bigger and more painful until it felt like I was carrying around a bag of rocks inside me. Appointment at the castle was for Wednesday morning. Report there at 6:15 am. Yikes Too early! Tuesday he day before would be bowel prep day. My doctor had given me written instructions, and the hospital had given me a duplicate set of them at my pre-op appointment. Tuesday all day, just a liquid diet. Soups, clear liquids, popsicles, jello. Ok, I can do that. I even really like jello. I got hungry early in the day and made my self a big bowl of jello. I thought I would be different and make some lemon. Everybody makes the cherry, I'll have some lemon to help me through the day. Three pm. It's time for the citrate of magnesium. It's a 10 ounce bottle. I was supposed to drink it all. I think I know why it's in a 10 ounce bottle. So you will at least get 8 ounces of it down. I chilled it throughly to make it go down easier and tried to gulp it all down at once. It had a slightly carbonated feel, but the overwhelming taste was lemon. The company had added a bitter lemon flavor to kill the taste of the magnesium and it was overpowering. I got all down but the last tiny bit in the bottle. My stomach was rebelling, So I followed this up with several glasses of water. All done. Not so bad really. Now how about some jello? I wish I had made any flavor but lemon at this point. Every bite reminded me of the citrate and made me sick. Seven pm. After much intestional rumbling and bathroom time it was time for the fleet enema. This seemed redundant as the citrate had worked, and worked again. I had done this Fleet thing before, just sit on the toilet and put it in, let it flush through. Nothing left after the citrate had done it's job anyway. Nothing to eat or drink after midnight also. Not even a sip of water. I'm not a morning person and was way too nervous and keyed up to sleep, so just stayed up all night. I figured I'd sleep plenty the next day anyway. Spent the night on Hyster-sisters reading the posts. Woke up H so we could leave by 5:15. H and I had seperated this summer and I was back on a temporaty basis while getting my health straightened out. Things are very tense between us but he would come to the hospital with me. Got the the hospital promptly at 6:15. Signed in and was directed to the women's surgery waiting room. No sooner than we had sat down, a nurse was calling my name to take me back. She told H he could see me before surgery. I went to the little pre op area which was partioned off into sections. The nurse went through my chart, asked me if I knew what surgery I was having and put a bracelet around my wrist. Also a red drug allergy bracelet. I had stuck my left wrist forward and she asked if I was right handed. I said yes, and she told me that I would want the bracelets on my right hand, so they wouldn't get in the way of my IV in my left arm. Makes sense to me. She then took another duplicate bracelet and put it on a patient's belongings bag and told me to take off everything and put it in the bag and put on the hospital gown. She also gave me a blanket to wrap around myself and little slipper socks with the non skid pads on the soles. No surgical hose or moon boots. I had read so many posts about these, I even asked the nurse about them. She said I didn't have any condition that would warrant them and they weren't normally standerd procedure at this hospital. I would be given exercises to do with my feet and legs to prevent clots. She then explained the time line of the morning to me. How the anesthesiologist gets there about 7 am and the surgeon about 7:30. I was the first scheduled surgery of the day. She said that was a good thing. I wouldn't have to wait around. She took my temperature and blood pressure and said she would go find H in the waiting room so I could see him. She then turned a little TV on that was on the wall. I was watching the early morning news when H came in and sat down. Just a few minutes later the anesthesiologist came in along with her nurse anesthesist. She went though my chart with a fine tooth comb, asked me many questions and said I was lucky to have made it through 45 years without having ever had a surgical procedure of any kind. She congratulated me on having lost 100 pounds over the past year and a half and told me that would make my recovery easier and lesson the chance for complications. She then gave me the usual scolding about smoking. She explained throughly everything that would happen with the anesthesia. I had inquired about an epidural but since my uterus was very enlarged and up rather high they would do general anesthesia with an anti nausea drug. She was getting ready to start the IV when I had them make H leave the room. He would have freaked out or fainted at the sight of the needle and he was glad to make a speedy retreat. I have great veins for blood draws and IV's. When I was in college I even let friends of mine who were nursing students practice drawing blood and giving injections on me. I suppose all those allergy shots as a kid will rid you of all fear of needles. The nurses came in to admire my veins. It was a funny moment that calmed the terror that I had been fighting off. The anesthesiologist had her choice of veins, and her assistant put the IV in the back of my left hand. I heard my doctor's voice in the pre op room about this time. He poked his head in to see me, asked me if I was ready to go and I said let's do it. H came back to see me one last time, and I gave him instructions on waiting for my parents what to tell them etc. They were arriving from out of town and would be getting there mid norning. As I lay back on the gurney and felt the paper hairnet being put on me, I got my first attack of real fear. It didn't last long, I remember seeing the operating room and thinking that it was smaller than I had expected. The next thing I remember was a terrible pain in my bladder. I was mumbling about having to pee. I kept hearing someone telling me, "It's ok, you have a cathater". Then back to sleep. Then I heard my parent's voices and the doctor's voice. I seemed to wake up all at once and asked how it went. The doctor told me that it all went fine, he wanted to watch my bladder as I had a lot of blood in my urine immediately after the surgery. He said it was looking better now. He also said my uterus was much more enlarged than any of the tests had shown. I knew I had two fibroids about the size of tennis balls, along with a number of smaller ones. What hadn't shown up was one around on the back side he said was around the size of a grapefruit. He couldn't get everything out intact, and had to take it all out in pieces. I asked about my ovaries. He said they looked fine and he left them in. Thank goodness. Talked to my folks, talked to H before he went home. Looked at the clock, it was about 2pm. Hit the button on the morphine pump and slept most of the day. I did wake up for the dinner tray to arrive. Chicken boullion, iced tea, grape juice and LEMON JELLO. I was extremly thirsty and drank what I could. I was in a women's health care unit of the hospital. The rooms were beautiful and ALL private rooms. Nurses were in and out of the room to check on me constantly. They had me wiggling my feet, pointing toes, flexing my ankles and making circles with my feet from the time I woke up. It was to prevent blood clots I know, but also kept me from feeling so weak and numb legged. The first night, I woke up on my own every couple of hours. The overnight nurse told me I had been sleeping like a log during her last round and she didn't want to bother me. Wake and hit the pain pump, then back to sleep. The phlebotomist came in at 5am to do a morning blood draw but I was already up. Doctor came in very early. Said everything was going well. Another liquid breakfast. Beef broth, coffee and milk. I don't drink coffee or milk so nurse brought me some juices. After breakfast the catheter was to come out. The nurse explained everything she was doing, showed me how she was using a syringe to deflate the little balloon that held it in place in my bladder. Then gently seemed to twist it and it was out. I never even felt it. It was time to stand up. She had me pull the bed rail, roll on my side, and sit and dangle my legs off the side of the bed. After a few minutes I stood up. Just as I had been warned, it felt as if my guts were going to fall out on the floor. Holding my stomach I straightend up and took a few steps. She helped me to the bathroom where I got a sponge bath, a clean hospital gown and felt better already. My parents arrived and I was able to sit in a chair to visit for a while. Still goofy from the pain medicine but no nausea or sickness at all. Stayed ahead of the pain and felt pretty good actually. I took a walk in the hall and pushing the IV pole with my morphine drip was a pain. The nurses asked me when I would like to get rid of the pump. They told me my pain management was really up to me and all my choice. I chose to keep the pump until bedtime. More liquid meals, ate lots of lime sherbet. My urine volume was being measured when I went to the bathroom. That was the only good thing about the catheter, not having to get up. I was encouraged to move, walk, wiggle my legs and the more I did the better I felt. Made it through night two without my pump. The nurses told me I could have pain shots or pills. I picked the pills. They told me that it was up to me to ask for the pills, they wouldn't just come in automatically with them. Took two percocets before bedtime and slept fairly well, but developed a bit of an itchy rash. Nurse gave me a benedryl and called the doctor to get the pain med changed. I could have solid food now that the IV drip was gone and had toast and Special K for breakfast. Got up and did my own bathing, walked the halls, had roast chicken for lunch and started to get bored. Doctor came in and asked me if I would like to go home. I told him of course and he said he would set up for home health care to take my staples out. I was going to be staying at my parents home for those first couple of weeks and they were about 2 hours from the hospital. H would pick me up and they would get me from there. The discharge went as smoothly as the rest of it. My nursing care was excellent throughout. For instance, I was trying to figure out the TV remote which had a nurse call button on the same box. I accidently hit the nurse call button, and had a voice asking what I needed on the intercom in seconds. I never needed to use the call during my stay though because someone was looking in on me all the time. My pain was never unmanageable at all, and far less than I had expected. At five days post op I still have my zipper of 18 staples, they'll come out in two more days. I have quite a lot of bruises around the incision line from the doctor wrestling my huge mess of fibroids through, but I'm glad he did it that way, rather than make the incision larger. I'm sore and swollen but feel better already. Wish I could have done it years ago.
Related Titles
What I learned and experienced with LSH
TAH - Lesson Learned
Lessons Learned from my LSH
TAH -The MOST important thing I learned
TAH - Oh, Nurse -- More Jello, Please! My TAH/Panniculectomy Adventure
Jessica Vaught, M.D.
21 W. Columbia St Suite 101
Winnie Palmer Hospital
Orlando FL 32806
321-841-6060 |
Casey Sprague, M.D.
3960 Coon Rapids Blvd. #101
Allina Women's Health
Coon Rapids MN 55433
763-236-9236 |
Ruslana Kadze, M.D.
5525 Etiwanda Avenue
Suite 228
Tarzana (Los Angeles) CA 91356
818-343-1717 |
Bruce Pierce, M.D.
2 Princess Road
Lawrenceville NJ 08648
609-896-0777 |
Ranae Yockey, M.D.
800 Biesterfield Suite 750
Elk Grove Village IL 60007
847-981-3698 |
Reza Askari, M.D.
1101 Madison St
Suite #400
Seattle WA 98104
206-505-1300 |
Liza M. Colimon, M.D.
21 W. Columbia St Suite 101
Winnie Palmer Hospital
Orlando FL 32806
321-841-6060 |
David Mainman, M.D.
Desert Bloom Obstetrics & Gynecology
6452 E. Carondelet Drive, Suite A
Tucson AZ 85710
520-885-5300 |
Kym Boyman, M.D.
1775 Williston Rd., Ste. 110
South Burlington VT 05403
802-735-1252 |
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