Surgery is tomorrow! SO NERVOUS!

Oh sweetie.. that is all so normal. I sat and rocked hugging my knees like a crazy person the night before my sigmoid colectomy surgery. You've got great support with your family and they will help you through it.

Will be thinking of you and hoping it all goes well. Make sure you ask the nurses and docs for anything you need and keep the pain meds topped up.

You will be just fine and in a few weeks look back on this and be grateful you did it.

Good luck hun! big hugs x

Good luck tomorrow, Ali!

Thanks everyone! The prep is taking a little longer than I would've liked to get down, and so far haven't had much movement. I'm a little over halfway through drinking the 64 oz. and I just took my second 2 dulcolax tabs. I have been eating extremely lightly the past few days AND taking dulcolax, so I don't think there is much in me to clean out. I'm just waiting for one of those GOOD movements with the prep so I can feel a little better about its effectiveness!

I do have a major headache now though, probably just from a combination of no food today, stress, and WAY too much sugar in this gatorade!

Post Edited (Alibee) : 11/7/2011 5:12:16 PM (GMT-7)

everything well be great! I just had my surgery 4 weeks ago (omg diddnt even know itsbeen that long seems like yesterday). it will go well REMBER THIS: after surgery have the bed sitting up since they will be putting gas in you if not somethingwill hurt someone told me to do that and iforgot tell your mom so she can rember after my surgery my neck has been hurting so much.
ask for an epidurl to i diddnt want one but im glad they gave me one i had my chest down numbed although i couldnt move for two days it was worth it i couldnt imagine what they pain would be like ifi diddnt have it (IT DIDNT HURT COMMING OUT EITHER ) and ask to have it when they put you to sleep. i probally wrote way to much just fyi stuff oh have your mom write the stuff u say after surgery it will be so funny :) EVERYTHING WILL GO PERFECT! jackie

Best wishes on your surgery. I will be thinking of you tomorrow! Last year at this moment in time I was doing exactly what you are with the prep. I went into surgery at 8 a.m. on November 8th, 2010.

Hey Alibee....prayers for you tonight sweetie. Hope to be hearing from you by the end of the week. Take care.

Saying prayers and sending hugs Ali. Please keep us updated as you can.

Val

Hi everyone...well I made it through the surgery ok! I went in at about 8:30, got put on oxygen and got my epidural placed and said bye to my family, and then waited in the pre-op ward forever. I finally had to ask them to give me something for the anxiety.

I remember going into the OR, and then the next thing I knew I was waking up but very out of it in the recovery room. The epidural only worked on one half of my body. I was in a TON of pain and extremely nauseated but also very thirsty. So they couldn't have my parents come back and see me until they got that under control.

I don't remember much of that night, except that I did pass a bit of blood/bile here and there. I had a catheter in the first 2 days, and then they took it out. I could not pee AT all after that, so they did bladder scans which showed my bladder was WAY full. So they cathed me because I was sobbing and in agony. Then by later that night I couldn't go again, and they inserted a catheter and left it in overnight. It was very uncvomfortable but it did release the pressure I was having. They took it out this morning, and I was finally able to pee!

What I am pretty worried about is: I have had hardly any bowel movements, aside from the few that I had the day of and morning after. I had surgery on Tuesday and today (Friday) I only had a TINY bit of dark colored liquidy stuff come out when I felt like I had to pass gas. But that was it. I thought I would be going SO much but I haven't yet! The surgeon says it's normal since everything is still waking up. I am just worried. I have eaten hardly anything since the surgery: a couple of saltine crackers, lots of ice chips, cold water, one bite of mashed potatoes and one bite of pudding. I feel gassy every so often but have not had to go to the bathroom yet. When will I start going?! I am really worried They are planning on discharging me tomorrow and I am scared. I thought I'd be going a lot more. I do need to walk more, and I'm sure I need to eat more, could that be why nothing is really moving out of me? When should I expect to be going more? I feel I am drinking plenty.

LASTLY,
I have 2 incisions on my left side, one on the righ and one very low in my pubic ares. I have terrible edema on my left side, especially in my "lady" area. One side is HUGE.. My belly is also pretty swollen

Other than pain and boredom..mainly I am just worried about going to the bathroom in general!

Thanks Hodaya - I am not passing gas...it's about 2:30 here and nothing yet. I told the doctor I was not comfortable going home yet so he said I could stay another night. But the doctors don't have any suggestions when I ask them what to do about the lack of bowel movements. My parents think I should go home but I told them I didn't want to until things were working.

Everyone keeps telling me to eat and drink, even though I feel nauseous...they say the only reason things aren't moving along is because I'm not eating/drinking enough. What's worse is that the hospital's "bland" menu is crazy, they keep bringing me things like meatloaf and vegetables, things I KNOW I should not be eating right now. My family keeps telling me to stop going by things I see on the internet. My mom is "sure" I'll go tonight so they haven't even booked a hotel room for the night, I would love to go home but only if I can go to the bathroom!

The room I am in is TINY (barely enough room for the bed and one chair) and the night nurse I've had for the past few nights is about the same age as me, and she's mean to me. Every time I ask her for something I can practically hear her rolling her eyes at me. And she says things like, "why don't you just tell me all the things you need at once so I don't have to keep coming back." She acts like I'm interrupting her free time or something. Plus, my parents have been staying in a hotel mostly, so I am by myself all night which is no fun when you're scared and don't feel good.

I'm trying to drink what I can but it seems like a couple of sips of anything makes me feel pretty barfy. I am praying things start really moving soon, please cross your fingers for me!

i think so far everything is good i wasn't to worried when it was time togo home and i should have lol i think meantly (something i diddnt do ) prepare yourself for changing your ostomy bag and also maybe some leakege if you freak out (mostlikely to happen ) no that it's normall i thought something was wrong with me when i first leaked at home thing is i still freak out. one thing that also helped me accept the body change was taking pics of my stoma and also having my face in the pic smiling because everything is okay :).
ps have you named your stoma??

Ali, i don't understand HOW can they release you if you havn't even passed gas yet!!!! that's totally crazy!! they MUST make sure your system has waken up before sending you home. tell the dr they just cannot do that!!

so sorry about that nurse. as if going through major surgery is not enough....

and i know.. it's always like that in the hospital - they always give you the wrong foods. they don't inform the cook, i guess... stupid. don't eat all the things they give you.

your family has no idea about this surgery and what we're telling you is from our own experience. experience of dozens of ppl who went through this surgery and KNOW what they're saying. most of us had really bad experiences with trying to eat the wrong foods, esp fresh vegies so early after a surgery like this! tell your family no one knows better than the ppl who went through it themselves! and it has nothing to do with how much you're eating!! but if you're not hooked to an iv, then you MUST drink A LOT!

i'm not so worried about the lack of movements. it happens this stage after surgery. i'm more worried about they wanting to send you home like this!!

Jackie, she doesn't have an ostomy. they removed the colon, but kept the rectum + a bit of the sigmoid and attatched the small intestine to the rectum - no stoma.

hang in Ali, praying for you! ♥

     You certainly won't feel like running a marathon for quite some time..lol.  Try to walk without being hunched over.  I know it feels better that way but my friend told me to walk straight to heal properly.

     The best of luck to you and hope you feel better with each passing day!