Hospital Day 2 (Jan 4) and Coming Home (Jan 5)

My Sister came right after work on the same night as my surgery.  It was nice to have her there with me and I really appreciated it because she lives about an hour away from her work and the hospital was WAY out of the way for her. She and several others sent so many beautiful flowers, cards, balloons and my room smelled amazing. In the evening it was just she and Terry.  Terry stayed the night with me in the hospital that first night.  It was comforting to have someone be right there with me, even though I had the nurse call button at my fingertips.  I didn't sleep very well the first night.  I think it was something like 10pm to 1am.  After that it was a constant stream of people in and out of my room.  Someone coming to draw blood.  Someone coming to give me a shot of Heprin.  Someone coming for vitals.  Getting up to pee.  Going for a 3am stroll around the Nurses station.

The next morning, they disconnected me from the fluids but left the IV in.  I wondered how I was going to get enough fluids in orally to produce the amount of urine they were requiring of me so I could go home.  Terry had to leave around 5:30am to go to work so for the first time, I was alone.  My Husband dropped the kids at school and came about 9am.  My breakfast tray arrived and it was 3/4 c beef broth and hot tea.  After the experience I had with food and the way it made me feel the previous night, I was a little nervous.  I had a few sips of both but the broth got cold so quickly and I was very apprehensive about feeling nauseaus, but I never did.  All the rest of the meals consisted of the same thing.  Broth for lunch, Broth for dinner.  Broth for breakfast again the next day.  If I never have broth again it would be okay with me.  Whenever the nurse would come to pick up my tray, she would always comment that I hadn't eaten much.  I wondered if I was supposed to be eating more, but I didn't want to.

To be honest, the second day at the hospital was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that my left hand swelled so much that I couldn't close my hand to make a fist.  No one could figure out why, but that is the same arm where I had my IV.  Finally, they removed the port altogether and advised me to keep my hand elevated.  Slowly the swelling went down and my hand returned to normal. Tim left around 1pm and My Parents and SIL came from about 3:30-5:30.  My oldest Son, Kyle came from about 7:30 and around 9:30pm I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, so we said our goodbyes and I tried to get some sleep.  I did pretty well until the vitals and the Heprin shots started again at 1am, but I was about to get back to sleep easily after asking for some warm blankets.  I slept until about 6:30am when the vitals needed to be taken again.  Around 7:30am Dr Vierra came in.  I was out of bed and sitting in my chair, trying to drink some tea.  That's one thing I forgot to mention.  You cannot eat or drink in bed at all.  You must be sitting up with your feet planted on the floor.  It has something to do with your esophagus being straight and allowing the food/liquid to get into your pouch.  It has been a challenge for me because I am used to sitting in bed while watching TV and always having a water bottle close.  When I wanted to drink in the hospital, I needed to get completely out of bed and into a chair.  Since the surgery I have been cold.  All the time.  It was a real production to get out of bed, get a blanket and shiver there for 15 minutes while trying to get a few ounces of liquid down.  Anyway, I digress...Dr Vierra came in and chatted with me for a few minutes to see how I was doing.  He seemed satisfied with my progress and said I could go home.  Yay.  The nurse came in and asked if I wanted to take a shower.  I definitely did.  My friend and hair stylist, Melissa had warned me before I went into the hospital that I would get a severe case of "bed head".  She encouraged me to put my hair in two braids to avoid this.  Sadly, I did not listen.  My hair was definitely "bed head from hell".  To anyone reading this that is going to be having surgery soon....please take Melissa's advice.  You will be glad you did.

The nurse said I didn't need to worry about my incisions while in the shower.  Just to be careful and pat them dry afterward.  The hot water felt good to my now-always-cold body.  I dried off and was happy to put on my own pajamas and not that ugly hospital gown.  When I came out of the bathroom, Tim had arrived to take me home.  I had my first emotional break.  I cried and cried.  I really didn't know why.  I think getting up, showering, getting dressed, etc was all just very overwhelming.  We packed up my room and got a cart to take down all the flowers.  A hospital volunteer arrived with a white wheelchair for me and before I knew it we were on our hour long drive home.

The car ride seemed like 5 hours.  I reclined my seat back and tried to sleep through it but everytime we would hit a rough patch of road, I would wake up because it hurt.  I didn't want music on unless it was very quiet.  I kept asking Tim if we were almost there.

Once we arrived in the house and I got into bed, I had another meltdown.  Just could not stop crying.  It was one aspect of the surgery I was not prepared for.  Geez, I sound like a total crybaby and I'm really not.  Okay-I am .  But, usually I KNOW why I am crying.  This time I had no idea.  Everything just felt extremely overwhelming.  The shower, the car ride.  Too much in one day.  Also, I was freezing, again.