Home from the hospital!

What a roller coaster that was! I got home from the hospital around 3:30 this afternoon, and it is sooo nice to be home. Here is a synopsis of the past few days...

Wednesday morning, my husband C and I woke up at 5am and made it to the hospital for check-in time at 5:30 (we left the baby monitor and a house key with the family downstairs so they could get my son, J, when he woke up at his normal time). After several more attempts of starting an IV in my arm--seriously, my bruises are OH-so-lovely--they finally got it in my left hand, I said goodbye to C, and then was wheeled into the holding area. The last thing I remember is signing something authorizing anesthesia, and then I woke up in the same place, with a CPAP machine on my face and someone saying my husband went to run an errand and would be back soon. Weird. They brought me to a tiny room, started taking my vitals, and C arrived. The rest of the day involved me getting up once or twice, making a few rounds of the little surgical area (sloooowly), and me snoozing and pushing the pain meds button quite a few times. C had to leave around 4 because he worked that night, so I think I just slept after that. It's hard to get good sleep in a hospital.

Thursday, I woke up and was taken downstairs to do something called a barium swallow (I think). I had to drink this gross stuff while they did an x-ray of it going down my esophagus to check for leaks. That stuff was gross--it was the first thing I had to eat or drink since Tuesday night...blech. Anyway, then I went back to my floor and did more watching TV and making slow rounds of the surgical unit. Once I got the approval to start "eating" and drinking, they removed my IV and started giving me liquid Lortab. Oh, and my sisters came to visit! That really lifted my spirits. They're both so fun :) They had to leave then, and by the time C stopped by on his way to work that night (K&R spent the night at our house to be there for J), my pain was pretty bad. I'm afraid I worried him a bit that night :( The rest of the night was really rough, honestly--they kept pressuring me to use the bathroom, since they had removed my catheter earlier that day and they needed to make sure I was "voiding my bladder" every so often. I just couldn't do it, so around 3am they did an ultrasound of my bladder and then did a straight cath. So not fun to have someone pushing on your stomach when you just had major abdominal surgery.

Friday was a bit better. I was pushing through the pain more and was more steady on my feet, although it was still really hard to get up and down. I finally peed on my own! Sorry, I'm sure you didn't want to know that, but it was a small victory. Oh, and the nurse gave me a sponge bath. You know, you really can't expect privacy when you just had a surgery like this--good thing I'd largely gotten over that when I had my son, which is a process that doesn't allow for privacy whatsoever. I felt better after that, and C and J came to visit that evening. It was so good to see both of them. The nurse took pity on me and offered me pain meds and some benadryl to help me sleep--I took her up on it and had a wonderful night of sleep (finally).

Saturday (today) was much the same as Friday, although I was really looking forward to going home so I was a little distracted. My surgeon was off for the weekend and the doctor who saw me wasn't familiar with the post-op diet for bariatric patients, so he told me he didn't want to release me because he didn't think I was hydrated enough. After thinking about it, I realized I was intaking exactly what I was supposed to, so I got the nurses on my side and they finally managed to get me released around 3pm. Yay!

So, current diet: 3-4 ounces of water every hour and 2 oz of cottage cheese, yogurt, or other full liquid three times a day. On Monday, I can start adding other things, such as refried beans, string cheese, and veggies. 70% protein, 30% vegetable--that is what I am looking at for the next few months. Everything needs to be basically pureed or really soft for about four weeks, and then I can start adding raw veggies and things like regular chicken.

It's harder than I ever thought it would be, but I'm so excited to finally be here. Oh, and another good note: I weighed myself the morning before the surgery, and I was down another 17 pounds--meaning I'd lost a total of 33 pounds on the liquid diet. Woot woot! So I was 404 lbs going into surgery, and I imagine I probably lost at least a little bit while in the hospital, so maybe I'm already below 400. Yay!

Thank you all for being so supportive and great about all of this! Love you!