JANUARY 15, 2013 - TUESDAY - DAY 1I arrived at Knox Community Hospital (in Mt. Vernon, Ohio) at 11am. They took me back to a bed to wait. I had to change into a surgical gown, they told me I wasn't even allowed to wear underwear! Thank goodness the gown had a back cover! I was trying not to cry from being nervous. A lady came in to take my blood, then the other nurse put in my IV. At about
1pm I was beyond nervous and antsy. The surgery was scheduled for 1pm and I felt like sitting in the little room was torture! The girl in the room next to me was getting a hysterectomy and I over heard she was born in 1993! I felt so bad for her :( That put my surgery into perspective though!
At about
1:15 my surgeon, Dr. Taiganides, came in to talk to me. I'd have to say he has the best bed-side manner I've ever encountered. He came in and sat down, asked how I was feeling. I told him very nervous. He gave me a big hug and told me everything would be okay that he would take great care of me. We talked for about
10 minutes. He said he had already done 2 other LINX surgeries that day. He gave me his personal cell phone number and told me to call him if I need anything. He warned me he will be at a conference friday, so if he doesn't answer then he will call right back. The nurse before him did tell me Dr. Taiganides will be in Miami to teach 15 other surgeons how to perform LINX. I thought that was pretty cool. Here I have the best LINX surgeon in the country and he's also teaching others about
it. That made me feel better, safer.
I wasn't allowed to get any medicines for the anxiety until I was wheeled into the operating room. I was so nervous going into the room, seeing everything!! The hospital is remodeling, that is why I had to be in there before the meds. The anesthesiologist was very nice and gave me something to calm me down right away. I had to move onto the operating table and stuff started to get a bit hazy. The one nurse remembered me because of my dog and she's a dog lover. I guess I had to count? I have no idea LOL I was out into lala land! I woke up in recovery and just wanted to keep sleeping. I had no pain, they had already given me pain meds in my IV. I stayed in there for about
45 minutes and then got wheeled back into the room I started in. My husband came in and gave me kisses and asked how I was. I was still pretty darn out of it! They wanted me to wake up so I could go take an xray. They like to be extra sure and get xrays of the positioning of the LINX. I was too dizzy and nauseated to get off the bed, so they had me do the xrays while on there. They did put a patch on me for nausea while I was in surgery. It's a 72 hour patch. I get very very sick from anesthesia so I wasn't shocked. I didn't want to "test" out the new LINX and throwing up!
I went back to the first room and we went over all the healing, paperwork, etc. I do have a card that I carry with me that says I've had the LINX procedure done, just in case I need it at the airport or any other esophageal work. All of the nurses at Knox were super nice and very helpful. They gave me a prescript
ion for vicodin for the pain. They wheeled me out and I got into the car. Once at CVS I got into the back. I have a boxy Honda Element and we had the seats in the back out and mattress pads and memory foam - so it was bed :) I laid back there for the 3 hour drive home. I had some pain starting so took a pain pill. We finally got home and I just laid down and watched tv. I didn't sleep so well though. I have 5 incisions and the one on my bottom left was stinging a bit. Overall it wasn't that painful, just what you would expect from getting surgery. I do feel like I did 10,000 situps! Jeez!! I do have to say so far no gas bubbles in my shoulders or body. He did a great job sucking out all that air they pumped me with! My voice was a bit hoarse because of the tube down my throat during surgery.
foodI wasn't too hungry from all the meds. I did have 2 packets of crackers, a chocolate chip shake and tortilla chips.
That's it for day 1, I'll try to update each day :)
updateI have 12 of the magnetic beads in me.
If you want to see pictures of what LINX looks like inside I have three. Two are of the LINX, one is of the LINX sizing device and then there is a photo of the incisions. The password is linx1234 (in lowercase) .. it looks kinda gross but figured some of you on here may want to know :)
s247.beta.photobucket.com/user/amynxdx/library/random/LINXFEB. 11, 2013 UPDATE - THE BILL & INSURANCE COVERAGEI just checked www.myuhc.com to see if there were any updates and FINALLY there were! It looks like United Healthcare covered everything according to my plan. Here's the break down:
Total Amount Billed: $24,940.93
Plan Discounts: $5,821.74
UHC Plan Paid: $17,072.28
Total amount you owe to the providers: $2,046.91
I think I can deal with that! Add that onto all my 9 tests from before the surgery and I'm at about
$3,000 out of pocket. It still STINGS since I don't exactly have $3,000 to just pay things off but $3,000 to not have heartburn again? DEAL!!!
Under "Type of Service" for the surgery it just says "OP MISC. SERVICES" So I assume that's the LINX part? The other part of the bill just says "Type of Service" "SURGERY".
Needless to say I'm about
$400 shy of meeting my deductible for the year...
Post Edited (NoDoubtLove) : 2/11/2013 7:04:54 AM (GMT-7)