So I’m writing this post from my bed at Santa Monica Hospital (let it be known, I’m on lots of drugs at the moment – LOLZZZ)…
So I was admitted into the hospital yesterday morning around 8am. Needless to say, I was freaking out. I’ve never had any sort of surgery (minus wisdom teeth) in my life, so I was really on the fence about what to expect in terms of pain and recovery.
Once I was admitted, my parents and I were escorted upstairs, where I was given a hospital gown and a pair of comfy socks to change into. Once I was all changed, the nurse brought me a WARM blanket and left me to sit there for a little while. I tried to distract myself with Candy Crush and Instagram – but of course, it’s impossible to ignore what’s going on and push it out of your mind when you can literally hear people crying on the other sides of the curtains. Gah.
Finally, my parents were allowed to come back to me and we sat there and they were patient with me as I proceeded to bawl my eyes out – out of fear and stress and nerves. Then, my doctors came by and it was time to get started. My surgeon is the Chief of Surgery at Santa Monica Hospital, so in that sense, I knew I was in good hands. It was still comforting being able to talk and clear some of the tension. My surgeon then introduced me to the other doctors and nurses that would be in the operating room with me throughout my procedure.
Then, my anesthesiologist came over and, after asking a series of questions, FINALLY gave me something to sedate me and just take some of the edge off. Then it was time to go.
My parents gave me good luck kisses and hugs (and snapped the above picture!), and then they wheeled me off into the operating room. I honestly don’t remember too much after this. We were in the operating room and then – I woke up. I don’t even remember falling asleep, or being instructed to count backwards or anything like that. One second I was in the operating room, and then the next I was slowly waking up, several hours later, in a recovery room.
Overall, the surgery went really well. As you can see, they made five separate incisions on my torso (which I have been told are TINY – I haven’t had the guts to investigate them on my own. hah!) The surgery lasted about two hours – and then I was passed out in recovery for several hours after that.
My surgeon explained to my parents that when they went in there, they discovered that it was worse than they thought. My stomach was up by my thorax, so they had to pull down my stomach and then perform the wrap of a part of my stomach around my esophagus. Additionally, they had to repair not only the hiatal hernia, but also had to add some additional stitches to close up a large, empty space that they discovered around my esophagus.
In terms of recovery, I’m suffering slightly. It does hurt. I feel bloated and uncomfortable. A friend from High School reached out to me after my previous post and said that when she had a laparoscopic procedure done, the worst part was the gas that she had to deal with after the fact. I was fine yesterday, but NOW I’m beginning to understand what she was talking about. Everyone keeps saying that it’s because I’m coming down from all the drugs and craziness from yesterday, and that my body is starting to settle in to its “new normal”.
Overall, recovery isn’t quite what I was expecting. In my head, I feel like I made it out to be worse than it actually is – but it has only been one day and only time will really tell (especially with the long term effects). I do feel incredible sleepy and find myself dozing off ALL THE TIME (seriously, I’ve dozed off twice since I’ve been writing this post!).
I’m really enjoying my special button, where I can hit it every time it starts to hurt and then it gives me some special magic juice that makes it all feel better ;). My mom keeps telling me to hit the button again and to get as much use out of it as possible before they take me off of it.
I’ve been on a liquid diet, which is something that I have to maintain for the next week, as well. I’m surprised at how easy it is to “eat” – I had been freaking out since the majority of the testimonials that I had read online made it seem like eating would be excruciating – and I haven’t encountered this, yet. I’ve had a lot of chicken and vegetable broth, some popsicles and jello and then this morning, they graduated me up to cream of wheat and coffee! (Hospital food is surprisingly tasty…)
In terms of emotions, I’ve been pretty good. My mom and I spent a great deal of time last night talking (she stayed the night with me last night), but I had a pretty major break down this morning. I successfully freaked out my nurse, prompting her to run to get me an oxygen mask, which did help. She keeps checking in on me now to make sure I’m okay.
I’m surrounded by my family who have gone above and beyond to help make this process easy and as stress-free as possible. I keep getting wonderful texts and messages of support from friends, coworkers and extended family members – and that’s what’s keeping me going.
I’ll keep you all posted about how this progresses.
As I mentioned before, I want to be really open about this – because I was so desperate to talk to or read something by someone who was in the same demographic as me (24 year old, relatively healthy, female). I’m hoping that maybe someone will come across this while they’re freaking out and desperately trying to find information that they can relate to – and that I can help provide even a little bit of peace of mind.
