Bye Bye Gallbladder

In preparing for my gastric bypass surgery, I needed to have an endoscopy done so my surgeon could have an look at my gut before he won’t be able to anymore. I also had an ultrasound to see if I had gallstones because I’ve been having unexplained but suspected angry gallbladder attacks and my suspicion was right, so I was scheduled for gallbladder-ectomy (I made that up, obviously). Thank goodness I didn’t have to be at UAB at the crack of dawn and I was able to see the kids before they went off to school. My mother spent the night with us the night before to help us get the kids ready so we could leave the house on time. My mother is awesome by the way. I got there and checked in, went up to the 7th floor and waited for only 15 minutes or so and was called back to get ready. I got my gown on and those things are not just any hospital gown. You can hook up a hose to the gown and either blow cool air or warm air in your gown. How cool is that? Of course, I chose cool air because I was little hot.

So, after poking me 4-5 times in my hands, they finally got an IV started......or so they thought. I’m given some Vicodin in my IV, start talking about floating air biscuits, moved myself over to the operating table, the mask goes on, the lights look funny and I’m out....until......I wake up in recovery, my foot hurts, I’m wondering why, I have the oxygen tubes in my nose, which I hate, my oxygen saturation keeps dropping, I’m getting agitated very quickly, not feeling any pain in my belly, which is good, my foot still hurts, something is connected to it. I look down and there is an IV stuck in my foot. The nurse asks me if I remember waking during surgery and I said no and asked if I did and she said maybe but if you don’t remember, that’s good. She gives me some pain medicine to relax me because I’m getting pissy and that helps. Later I move in the second stage of recovery where they start removing all of my IVs. I find out that the IV in my hand quit working, which is why they asked me if I remember waking up in surgery. I’m not freaked out by this at all, I think it’s a little humorous. I had a approximately 12 sticks where they were trying to find a good vein. They even tried to give me an IV where my shunt tube runs down the side of my neck. It looks like a good vein, but it’s not. I think they quickly figured that out. I’m sure they were freaking out trying to find another place to put that IV.

I CANNOT wait to talk to my surgeon next week! 

I was finally able to get changed and go home and I actually didn’t feel bad, just really tired and ready to get home and have some spaghetti that Mom had made and see my sweet babies. I wanted them to know Mommy was okay! They were real curious and wanted to see the boo boos on my belly right after I got home. I had some dinner, took some pain medication, sent my wonderful Mother on her way home and I rested and eventually went to bed.

I actually slept pretty good with very little pain. I got up on Thursday, helped get the kids ready for school, Mike took Maggie and on his way home, got me some Starbucks and 2 movies, The Help and Flight. I enjoyed my coffee, napped, watched the movies, had left over spaghetti and took a shower. Pretty much a repeat on Friday and starting to back down on the pain meds. On Saturday, although it was FREEZING outside, we ventured out to Costco, then went to Mike’s mom’s house and had dinner with her. On Sunday, no pain meds at all and I did all of the laundry, cleaned up our den, swept sand off the driveway, and had a big ole bowl of mac and cheese for dinner. I probably did a little too much, but I took something before bed and rested pretty good. I went to back to work on Monday feeling pretty good, just a little slow but feeling better every day! 

I go back for a follow up in a couple of weeks and can’t wait to talk to the doctor about what happened with my IV. I’m sure he will not find it as humorous as I have.