3 days to go HELP

I am almost there. I am most nervous about the hospital. My husband says when I wake up I will have a breathing tube. Is this true? I have never had one before. Will I wake in terrible pain. The doc wouldn't give me an epidural because of possible complication with that. I will have the pump, but how long does it take to work? How long until I will be able to eat again. If I eat very lightly this weekend, will the fleet enema be much easier. HELP!

To answer your questions, I didn't have a breathing tube when I woke up. I think they usually take it out once you are stable before you wake up and you usually won't know anything about it. The whole anesthesia things sounds so scary doesn't it, but the experience of it isn't scary at all. Usually they will give you something to relax you before you get to the OR. Once they transfer you over to the operating table, they'll wrap you in a nice warm blanket. The operating nurse or anesthesiologist will place an oxygen mask over your nose and mouth, a few breaths, and you'll be sound asleep. Next thing you know, you'll be waking up in recovery (and you won't really want to wake up and will probably sleep off and on for a couple of days.)

I remember some pain when I woke up, and I remember moaning and asking the nurse for something for it. But it wasn't too bad. And to tell the truth, I can barely remember the pain now at all. They'll usually give you an injection of pain meds before you leave recovery and then hook you up to the PCA pump. It works immediately. I remember waking up, pushing the button, getting relief and drifting back off to sleep.

You'll probably be on a liquid diet for a day or so. I was unfortunate in that my pain meds made me nauseous, so even when they brought my tray, I wasn't interested in eating at all. I didn't even really want to eat until my third day in the hospital.

You may want to eat light the day before surgery, but I'm not sure if doing so now will help with the enema any at all. You want to make sure to eat enough to keep up your strength and not get dehydrated.

Read some of the surgery stories for an idea of what to expect. (Click on the WWW button at the bottom of my post to read my story. The surgery story link is at the bottom of my bio.)

Just hang in there, okay. You're almost there!! Soon you'll be on the "better" side and will look back and say, "The waiting WAS the hardest part!"

My thoughts and prayers will be with you.

s,

Lisa

There is no normal circumstance where you would wake up with a breathing tube. If you use general anesthesia you will probably *have* one, but it should be put in after you're out, and removed just before you wake up. You could have a little sore throat from it, but otherwise you shouldn't know a thing about it.

You *may* wake up with a clear tube running around your ears and over to your nose - that's just oxygen, and doesn't get inside you - it just delivers oxygen to right in front of your nostrils, so you can breathe it in. So don't worry if there is *a* tube there... not the same thing.

I have had general an. several times, and didn't realize until recently that I had a breathing tube every time. I asked at my last pre-op testing and they explained that they remove it in recovery once they see your eyes open, but you are still too out of it to even know. I was soooo nervous and afraid of waking up with it down my throat too, but I woke up only with the little oxygen hooked up to my nostrils. I felt silly that I had obsessed about it for so many nights before the surgery, but it was a very real fear and I understand your concerns. Please relax and trust that you will not wake up with it. I promise!

Jittery, you will probably not be aware of being intubated. Like the others said, they do this after you are out, and pull it out before you really wake up. What your DH may be thinking of is a nasal cannula. (SP?) You might call it a breathing tube. The first 24 hours after my Hyst I wore this "finger" thing which is just a little light sensor that somehow measures the amount of oxygen in your blood. I believe they called it a pulse ox. My oxygen was measuring too low, because of the morphine, so they put a little breathing thing up to my nose. They gave me a choice of the nasal cannula or an oxygen mask. I chose the nose thing because the oxygen mask covered my mouth, too. The next morning after surgery, they took me off the morphine pump, let me get up and walk around, and I no longer needed the nose thing. It wasn't bad at all, just a little annoying. I don't think most people have to have oxygen after they wake up; I think my lungs got a little lazy from the morphine.

Good luck to you in your surgery.