- Joined
- Mar 13, 2010
- Messages
- 751
Hi Everyone,
I had my surgery on 4-15-10 as planned from 9am to about 2pm. I wanted to give you all an update finally.
I ended up needing 4 units of blood - that surprised me a bit. Dr Bauer (the surgeon) said it was a bit tricky, probably from all the nasty inflammation. I had a Proctocolectomy, so my entire colon an rectum and removed. And the anus sewn shut. I hope my experience will help someone else down the road.
So how did it go you ask? I would say very well. The Doctors say that too. As you may know, I was afraid of the post surgery pain, and they did not disappoint me. When I woke up, I had no pain and was really groggy. I think they really loaded me up with pain meds! I had an epidural too.
I was in the recovery room from about 2-3pm until 10pm. It was only extended because they had to wait for my room to become available. I did not mind when I was loaded up with meds, but it got a bit annoying later on when my head was clearing up. The Mt Sinai recovery room is big and noisy.
When I finally got to my room at 10pm I could not sleep anyway. It was due to a bunch of things, itchy from the fentanyl, hot, the leg pressure cuffs, and the loud beeping from my neighbor's pump. But it was still much better than the recovery room. I think I finally fell asleep around 6am. The nurses and techs started coming by at 4am for blood, vitals, etc.
What a difference a day makes. The first half of the day was miserable. My pain was not well controlled the nurse wanted me sitting up in the chair. Pretty aggressive stuff! I felt like a got hit by a truck. I did get into the chair from 8am to 10am, but it was horrible. I had pain from my bottom incision and a touch of nausea. Can you believe they wanted me to walk and get cleaned up? I could not. So finally I crawled back into bed feeling very painful and tired.
One nice thing I noticed was that they have a pain management team. That resident came by and loaded my epidural up with some cocktail that removed the pain. So I was finally happy with the world.
My roommate and I are getting along great, which makes a big difference to me. We seem like old friends already. With spirits improved, I wanted to try for that walk. But, the pain was coming back and I wanted something more permanent for pain relief.
I think my epidural dose was too low and the fentanyl was not agreeing with me. My roommate was on a Dilauded self administered pump. So my mission was to convince the docs to switch me. They did, but they are stingy with it compared to my last emergency surgery. But, I think that will be a good thing. Getting hooked on it last time was not fun!!
The Dilauded PCA pump was set to .2 mg and I could hit the button every 8 minutes. When I had my last surgery, I was getting 2mg every 2 hours. This dose took a while to build up in my bloodstream, and I was finally ready to try for that walk. They are really big on that here.
Just getting on my feet and starting the walk was difficult. But, by the end of 2 laps, I was actually feeling better. When I got back to my room, I started unpacking all my toys, you know, laptop, Ipod, Blackberry, etc. Of course I ended up overdoing it. The Dilauded was wearing off and I could not hit that button fast enough.
So I had some pain, but my mental state had improved greatly. My bottom incision stopped hurting and now the belly incision was hurting. But that is better because I was worried about sitting on that painful bottom incision. With that not hurting, it was another mental boost.
My stoma started producing noisy output sometime today, and I was happy to see that. It looks like a good stoma to me, from what I have read. It is big and fat and protrudes about an inch. I know that it will shrink over the next few months. It seems higher that where my stoma nurse marking, but I guess the surgeon just get as close as he can.
It's now almost midnight on the 16th, and I'm feeling pretty darn good. I know this may seem obvious, but I have not had to use the toilet!!! Of course not, my anus is closed for business. My stoma has been noisy and I write this so maybe I'll get some soft food tomorrow.
Sorry for this long post, but it really helps to post my experience, and hopefully it helps someone. My fellow ostimates out there have really helped me (you know who you are) , and maybe it’s the drugs talking, I this stoma is not bothering me "mentally" at all.
I think every day will get better and better and I will let you know. My ostomy bag training is not until Monday, so I get a free weekend not having to deal with emptying it.
The nurses here are first rate. I'm definitely having a better experience than at my local hospital.
I'll try to get some more sleep now. One thing that is a life saver is my Bose noise reduction headphones. Yes, they are pricey, but so worth it. And you can buy used on eBay. I like the Quiet comfort 15 model. Previously the QC2 model. I use them with my Ipod and a "Ping noise" sound track I purchased cheaply on line. It's actually called the "PINK NOISE ALBUM" and I just checked and it’s still available, just search on Google. I would be so frustrated without this little system.
Bye for now.
I had my surgery on 4-15-10 as planned from 9am to about 2pm. I wanted to give you all an update finally.
I ended up needing 4 units of blood - that surprised me a bit. Dr Bauer (the surgeon) said it was a bit tricky, probably from all the nasty inflammation. I had a Proctocolectomy, so my entire colon an rectum and removed. And the anus sewn shut. I hope my experience will help someone else down the road.
So how did it go you ask? I would say very well. The Doctors say that too. As you may know, I was afraid of the post surgery pain, and they did not disappoint me. When I woke up, I had no pain and was really groggy. I think they really loaded me up with pain meds! I had an epidural too.
I was in the recovery room from about 2-3pm until 10pm. It was only extended because they had to wait for my room to become available. I did not mind when I was loaded up with meds, but it got a bit annoying later on when my head was clearing up. The Mt Sinai recovery room is big and noisy.
When I finally got to my room at 10pm I could not sleep anyway. It was due to a bunch of things, itchy from the fentanyl, hot, the leg pressure cuffs, and the loud beeping from my neighbor's pump. But it was still much better than the recovery room. I think I finally fell asleep around 6am. The nurses and techs started coming by at 4am for blood, vitals, etc.
What a difference a day makes. The first half of the day was miserable. My pain was not well controlled the nurse wanted me sitting up in the chair. Pretty aggressive stuff! I felt like a got hit by a truck. I did get into the chair from 8am to 10am, but it was horrible. I had pain from my bottom incision and a touch of nausea. Can you believe they wanted me to walk and get cleaned up? I could not. So finally I crawled back into bed feeling very painful and tired.
One nice thing I noticed was that they have a pain management team. That resident came by and loaded my epidural up with some cocktail that removed the pain. So I was finally happy with the world.
My roommate and I are getting along great, which makes a big difference to me. We seem like old friends already. With spirits improved, I wanted to try for that walk. But, the pain was coming back and I wanted something more permanent for pain relief.
I think my epidural dose was too low and the fentanyl was not agreeing with me. My roommate was on a Dilauded self administered pump. So my mission was to convince the docs to switch me. They did, but they are stingy with it compared to my last emergency surgery. But, I think that will be a good thing. Getting hooked on it last time was not fun!!
The Dilauded PCA pump was set to .2 mg and I could hit the button every 8 minutes. When I had my last surgery, I was getting 2mg every 2 hours. This dose took a while to build up in my bloodstream, and I was finally ready to try for that walk. They are really big on that here.
Just getting on my feet and starting the walk was difficult. But, by the end of 2 laps, I was actually feeling better. When I got back to my room, I started unpacking all my toys, you know, laptop, Ipod, Blackberry, etc. Of course I ended up overdoing it. The Dilauded was wearing off and I could not hit that button fast enough.
So I had some pain, but my mental state had improved greatly. My bottom incision stopped hurting and now the belly incision was hurting. But that is better because I was worried about sitting on that painful bottom incision. With that not hurting, it was another mental boost.
My stoma started producing noisy output sometime today, and I was happy to see that. It looks like a good stoma to me, from what I have read. It is big and fat and protrudes about an inch. I know that it will shrink over the next few months. It seems higher that where my stoma nurse marking, but I guess the surgeon just get as close as he can.
It's now almost midnight on the 16th, and I'm feeling pretty darn good. I know this may seem obvious, but I have not had to use the toilet!!! Of course not, my anus is closed for business. My stoma has been noisy and I write this so maybe I'll get some soft food tomorrow.
Sorry for this long post, but it really helps to post my experience, and hopefully it helps someone. My fellow ostimates out there have really helped me (you know who you are) , and maybe it’s the drugs talking, I this stoma is not bothering me "mentally" at all.
I think every day will get better and better and I will let you know. My ostomy bag training is not until Monday, so I get a free weekend not having to deal with emptying it.
The nurses here are first rate. I'm definitely having a better experience than at my local hospital.
I'll try to get some more sleep now. One thing that is a life saver is my Bose noise reduction headphones. Yes, they are pricey, but so worth it. And you can buy used on eBay. I like the Quiet comfort 15 model. Previously the QC2 model. I use them with my Ipod and a "Ping noise" sound track I purchased cheaply on line. It's actually called the "PINK NOISE ALBUM" and I just checked and it’s still available, just search on Google. I would be so frustrated without this little system.
Bye for now.
