I can understand that for someone who has never had surgery this is a very strange thing to be considering. Unfortunately, I have had 5 surgeries in the last 2 years
Two outpatient, three with hospital stays. Of course, things are always different in each hospital, so I won't repeat things that are the same. For me, the preparation for the surgery sounds much like the other ladies, except after they had about 3-4 people come and ask me all the questions (nurse, surgeon, anaesthesiologist...) they had me walk back to the operating room and get on the table by myself. Very strange thing to do! I was nervous, of course, but then they piled heated blankets on me and that was nice and relaxing, and they joked around a bit. They put the mask over my face and I was out within seconds. When I woke up in the Recovery Room, I was dry heaving, very scary, but I went back to sleep almost immediately. They let my mom in to see me, I remember, and I had to be in there for awhile since they had no room yet. I eventually had a private hospital room and was in there for 2 days. My dad came and stayed with me much of the time. The first day I slept most of the time -- would slip away into sleep in the middle of conversations, LOL! I was able to get up and dress myself in loose pyjamas after the cathetar was taken out, which was a relief. They hook you up to all sorts of monitors, and the leg squeezing cuffs, so every time I wanted to get out of bed, I'd yank my main plugs out so I could walk around, then plug myself back in when I got back in bed. Sometimes floor nurses are
super nice, sometimes they treat you like furniture, and sometimes they forget about you. Don't be afraid to press the "call" button and ask for what you want! That's what it's for.
One thing that was different with me -- I did actually have a bit of pain post-op. I just thought I should tell you that since everyone else said they have none. Didn't want you to be unpleasantly surprised if you end up with some pain. My surgeon stitched my left side up super tight -- so tight, my belly dipped way in where the port opening was! It was a bit alarming. I had a LOT of pain right there. For two weeks afterward, when I walked around, I had to actually press my hand there it hurt so bad. It didn't help that I tried to overdo it and ended up pulling a muscle right there. The surgeon said that since it was pulled so tight and the muscle fibers had to heal and relax slowly on their own, because I tried to be too active, I pulled some of those muscle fibers before they were ready...or something like that.
After that initial pain, I've had a great recovery. Very few vomiting spells, and none since 2 months out. I'm really lucky! Best of luck to you!
(as of 11/15/08)
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