Day of surgery comes and I feel fully prepared.. I had surgery in 1981 for my gallbladder removal which was an open surgery back then.. cut from between my breasts to my belly button. In 2000, I had a partial hysterectomy (uterus only), which had to be done from belly button to just above the pubic bone due to the size of a tumor I had at the time. Due to these past surgeries, Dr. V was not sure she would be able to do a lap or if it would have to be done as an open RNY.
She was able to do it as a Lap RNY, but I have eight lap sites as it did end up complicated by past scar tissue and adhesions, which meant that in essence my internal organs became ‘glued’ together, making the re-routing of the intestine troublesome. She said she basically dissected me and put me back together. Also, my liver cracked part way through the surgery, so that was a problem as well. I was in OR for six hours.. arriving in the recovery around 2pm.. didn’t make it to a room till close to 9pm…
The hospital is a teaching hospital and I had nurses that were very green.. one didn’t have a clue as to how to help up an obese patient, and I paid dearly for that.. she was very timid and afraid.. sweet girl but just not good for my needs.
Second day, my roommate, a nearly deaf woman and her guest were blasting the TV and yelling over the TV to each other..… when I asked them if they would mind turning off the TV since they were not watching it (I had a splitting headache at this point *and* was wearing ear plugs already), her guest.. a young man of about 25 or so came and stood over my bed yelling at me to shut the hell up and quit complaining.. and if I didn’t like it I could get my ass up and move to some other room, he hadn’t seen his aunt in 5 years, etc. etc.... .. he was very menacing and I was scared of him.. his standing over me that way scared the bejesus out of me..
I rang and rang for the nurses, but only an aide came and she had become friends with the older lady by that point and was not going to say a word to her or her guest.. I was left alone with them again, and he spent the next 15 to 20 minutes in an awful harangue about how selfish I was being.
Unfortunately that was the day my fiancé, G and I had decided he would spend the morning running errands figuring I’d be too sleepy for a visit, so he wasn’t with me at the time. I called him on his cell and told him he needed to come *now*.. unfortunately I live over an hour from the hospital so “now” was still a ways away. As soon as G showed up though, this guy shut right up. G is a big guy.. tall, broad shouldered and not someone you want to mess with, even though he’s not a spring chicken!
I was never so happy to see someone walk through a doorway as when he arrived in my room.
Thankfully, this roommate ended up being discharged later that afternoon and my new roomie was just like me.. quiet and liked it that way.. we kept the shades drawn, the door closed and no TV.. I had asked everyone to not visit or call as I preferred to rest and heal, also because I figured I’d be out in two days anyway.. as it was, I stayed for five days.