Well, I have been home for a few hours and finally have enough energy to post. I wanted to post last night from the hospital, but I was just feeling too worn out.
I went in yesterday scared out of my mind, but the surgeon gave me a good pep talk, and before I knew it, I was waking up in the recovery room. Shortly after I was moved into my own room and reunited with my fiance. The surgeon had 3 students observing the operation that I got to meet. Lord they looked 16!
Yesterday was not as bad as I expected. I know I was on plenty of meds, but I guess I expected more pain from surgery. The incisions are tiny, I have no idea how they do anything through holes that small. The surgeon said everything went perfectly, a textbook wrap, and to expect to feel worse the next day (today). Boy was he right, but I'll get to that later.
Most of my pain yesterday consisted of neck and shoulder pain and a bloated feeling in my abdomen. I also had a sore throat from what was probably the oxygen tube. I went for a few short walks that really helped with the neck/shoulder pain. Walking was difficult, but got better over time. I sipped water all day long as I felt very dry. Early evening I had some beef broth, and while I had no appetite at all, it smelled pretty good so I had a bit of it. I realized I really had to take it slow.. too big of a gulp and you could tell it was taking a bit of time to go down. I had one point while eating where I thought I may have had some reflux, but I'm not sure, it could have been I just was eating too fast and it wasn't making it down well. I do know that regularly I would never be able to just sip water all day long... I'd be refluxing like crazy. (my 24hr pH test showed I refluxed 40+ times in a day!) I was able to sip with none of that! That shows its really starting to work in there.
When the surgeon came by he told me to expect today to be worse, and probably my worst day overall. He said the swelling will start to begin today, and while I probably won't feel the swelling, I'll know because drinking and eating would get more challenging. I did not sleep well at all at night. I think I got 5 hours. So many interruptions by nurses coming in, machines making noises.
This morning I woke up feeling pretty lousy. I could feel the incision sites, the wrap area felt bloated and painful, and my neck hurt. I had a little more broth for breakfast, which went down okay. The surgeon came by to check on me (he was doing 2 more nissens today, busy guy) and told me I'll start to feel better tomorrow. They started me on the Lortab which I came home with. It helped me feel better enough to take a short walk outside in the hospital's garden. Felt amazing to get some sunlight. I walked quite a bit today, the garden, around the halls, to the cafeteria with my fiance, and some at home. Walking feels SO GOOD. I had a little more broth for lunch, but I overdid it and had too much and felt really bloated. Oh well, now I know to tone it down.
I went home around 1PM, and that's when I really started to feel even crappier. We were given a prescript
ion for the liquid Lortab (to take as needed), a nausea medicine, a laxative, and another pain medicine to be taken every 8 hours for a few days called Toradol that was in a tiny pill form, which the surgeon assured me would be fine going down. I took the Toradol and the Lortab (and the nausea med, even though I've had no nausea at all, just to be safe) and I do feel a bit better, but still not very good. Right now I mainly feel bloating and pain/irritation in the wrap area. I'm sipping water through the day to stay hydrated, and sometimes its not very comfortable and I feel some sort of spasm or weirdness. Not painful though. I'm sure my body is just dealing with everything that was done in there.
The other symptom I commonly have which doctors are pretty sure are related to the reflux is a globus feeling (what the surgeon calls it) in the throat and excess mucus that isn't post nasal drip. Its still there, though less pronounced, and he said it will take the longest to resolve as the throat needs to slowly heal from the reflux irritation.
I've needed to burp and have had a couple of tiny burps but I am making sure not to try to burp on purpose. The surgeon said he makes his wraps looser than many doctors, so I should have no problem burping in the future once everything heals up.
I'm going to try some more broth in a half an hour or so to make sure I get some more food in me. First full day after isn't very fun, but it really hasn't been horrible. I had no idea what to expect never having surgery before, but its definitely manageable. I am looking forward to slowly feeling better each day and healing up. I have my follow up with the surgeon a week from today where he will graduate me from clear liquids to mushy foods if all is going well.
Thanks everyone for your responses here. I was scared for about
a week before, and I really didn't need to be. Don't get me wrong, its surgery and doesn't feel good, but its definitely manageable. The surgeon is convinced this is going to do great things for me, and I believe it, I'm confident things are going to be getting much better!
Tony
Post Edited (bowecho) : 11/23/2011 6:12:05 PM (GMT-7)