Day 1 - Day After Surgery Retrospective

On the morning of August 31st, the day after surgery, I was "freshened up" (the hospital's euphemism for a sponge bath), changed into a fresh hospital gown with some pajama bottoms, and was pronounced awesome enough to move out of the ICU (That is the technical term for not having a fever, having pain under control, and drinking enough fluids.)

That meant I got to get up and go pee for the first time and take off all those sticky electrodes they sneak under your hospital gown to monitor heartbeat, breathing, etc. Having a catheter was something I was not looking forward to but, in the end, it was one of many things that I just couldn't muster the energy or sense of indignation to care -- modern medicine is great that way. And in truth, it wasn't until they removed it that I could even tell it was there.

So, I went from this:

Notice the many many tubes and wires.

To this:

Notice the many fewer tubes and wires.

It also meant that I got a "real" meal for the first time since the evening of the 29th. I didn't get any pictures of my meals, but they essentially consisted of: Beef or chicken broth, a little plastic carton of juice, warm water for tea, and some jello.

Doesn't this meal look filling? Meal time actually made me really happy. 

I am a simple creature.

All of which I consumed using a giant (needle-less) syringe with a helpful tube at the end:

One for food and one for meds. SO much easier than a straw for the numb-of-lip.

The jello was incredibly difficult to get into the syringe, so I resorted to melting it with a bit of my tea water. I am nothing if not resourceful... and determined to eat my dessert.

Anyway, the day after surgery was a series of naps and brief visits with my parents, Costa, and a good friend.

Since the previous day I had been wearing leg circulation pads, which wrapped around my calves and contracted and expanded to keep blood moving in my lower extremities. Once I started to be on my feet a little, they removed them. I was encouraged to get up and walk around as much as I felt able, so I did a few treks down the hall and gradually upped my path to a full circuit of the wing. I had to roll around my IV stand, but it was nice to get out of the bed.

Being up and about also means that they start making you pee in an upside-down hat-shaped container so they can measure your liquid intake/output. (Sorry for all the pee-talk, just though interested parties might want to know... I'd never stayed overnight in a hospital before!)

Pain again was pretty manageable for me. My throat and ear bothered me the most at this point. The throat pain, again, was residual from the breathing tube. The ear pain was the result of general congestion and stretching/swelling caused by the surgery. I started having pre-sleep falling sensations which weren't fun, since I inevitably would jerk my head and tweak my jaw. Also, this is when my neck started really hurting - probably from sleeping at funny angles so as to keep my cheeks from banging around on the pillow. Ice and painkillers definitely helped - so say yes to them if you're uncomfortable.

I found Stanford hospital beds to be pretty comfortable as far as hospital beds go. They are designed to minimize bed sores, which is a little surprising at first (especially to any guests foolhardy enough to sit on the edge of your bed), since various portions of the cushion inflate and deflate sporadically. 

The staff also switched me from an intravenous to an oral pain killer and I was able to start taking my usual medications again - some of which they had liquid forms of and some of which they did not. There is a reason we generally swallow pills whole. Bleh.

One thing I found very odd was that the hospital happily provided me with all my prescriptions EXCEPT birth control. So ladies, you can leave any other Rx at home, but if you want to keep taking your BC on a regular schedule, you have to have someone smuggle it to you.  One of my nurses may or may not have been kind enough to crush it for me (wink, wink), but if you don't feel comfortable asking - just have a friend or family member use the pill crusher they leave near the bed and mix it with some juice in your medicine syringe. This is frowned upon by the pharmacy, but smiled upon anyone with some common sense. 

(EDIT: Before you start self-medicating - check with your surgeon about taking your birth control after surgery. I had already asked Dr. Li whether I could continue taking birth control and he told me it was not a problem. HOWEVER, I take the mini-pill: a progestin-only form of contraception, which does not carry as high a risk of blood clots as estrogen-based birth control. Your doctor's instructions will likely vary based on your doctor's philosophy, the type of birth control you're taking, and your overall health.)

Dr. Li visited me at some point during the day and asked if I felt like going home the following morning. My response was a resounding thumbs up, so he told me he would have me discharged the next day and that I should stop by his office on my way home.

So, one more night in the hospital - this one a little more quiet with just one roommate. All of the nurses continued to be unbelievably nice and responsive, and I got another surprisingly good night of sleep, considering the intermittent interruptions for dosing with pain meds and antibiotics.

I'll try to think if there was anything that really surprised me about my hospital stay, but the only thing I can think of that really didn't match my expectations was my boredom level. I guess I had thought I'd be pretty bored bumming around the hospital for two days straight, but I didn't even once flip on the TV or try to fumble through a few pages of a novel. I was pretty exhausted and my attention span was just long enough to visit briefly with my loved ones. So instead of dragging, the time went by pretty smoothly.

I'll post about my first few days at home and start adding some smoothie and soup recipes that have been my much-beloved sustenance. Also, I'll be working on a few posts about how I (finally) got diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and why I chose surgery over other treatments. I feel pretty strongly about the last couple subjects, so it might take me awhile to organize my thoughts.