I had to be at the hospital at 6:30 yesterday morning. Once I got there, Jon filled out all the paperwork while they had me shower and shave my stomach area. (I didn’t have any hair there anyway, but I guess it’s protocol.) When I showered, I also had to wash my stomach with a betadine sponge which smelled pretty gross. After that, they got me in a gown, gave me an injection of a blood thinner in my stomach (which hurt), and started an IV on me. They also gave me two Valium.

I spent the next couple hours chilling in bed. Nurses came by to give me more injections in my IV and one gave me something to calm my stomach acids which tasted really nasty. The anesthetist and my P.A. both came in to check on me and finally around 9:15, they took me in to surgery. They strapped me to the table, put a cap on over my hair, and the anethetist gave me a shot of something that he said would make me light-headed. At that point, I blacked out.

I woke up in severe pain with a whole bunch of people standing over me. My P.A. asked how I was doing and my response was “I. HURT.” He was nice enough to let me use his hand as a stressball and I was polite enough to not stick my fingernails into it. He went and got Jon who held my hand for awhile and then went and got a female parishioner who was sitting with him. A held my hand and talked to me while they tried to get me back to full consciousness and manage my pain. I know they gave me morphine and they put me on an IV drip for liquids before sending me back to my room. Once there, two nurses got helped me to the bathroom, gave me back my underwear (they made me take it off before going into surgery as they were cutting into my lower abdomen), and helped me get comfortable in bed. They thankfully also brought me some 7-UP and I ended up napping for a bit while hooked up to a monitor that was taking my vital signs and tracking them.

2 hours later, one of the nurses and her aide came and took me for a short walk. While we were walking, I asked how big my gallbladder was. They offered to show me the amputated organ and I was amazed at how small it was. Apparently, it had shrunk quite a bit and in addition to removing it and the gallstones, they also had to remove some scar tissue from my liver because the inflammation had gotten so bad. They took me back to bed, gave me some more morphine, and I took a nice nap. A little later, they came into check on me, took me for another walk (this time, I made it through all the hospital corridors without a problem), gave me more morphine, and told me that if I would promise to drink the 7-UP and apple juice, they would take me off the IV fluids. Our parish nurse came to visit a little later as did one of my WELCA ladies who happened to see me walking while she was in the clinic.

They decided to keep me that night because my bowels were refusing to move, so I got some soup for dinner as well as some really nasty jello. My nurse spoiled me rotten and checked on me frequently. (This was mostly due to the fact that I wasn’t being obnoxious like the person across the hall from me was. I think he was having some kind of joint surgery and he was being really cantankerous.) She brought me some ice water and even gave me a back rub when she brought me my Toradol shot before I went to sleep.

I woke up at 3 a.m. to the sound of my hallmate trying to fight with the nurse. About 2 hours later, she came in and gave me some more Toradol (a painkiller). I then slept until about 7 when my hallmate started screaming “HELP! HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY COME HELP ME!!!” (I was thinking, “Dude… visualize using your call button.” His cries for help were over when he was going to get his breakfast.) They gave me some pudding (which I couldn’t eat) and some cream of wheat for breakfast. Then, they let me shower, a good thing because I was feeling pretty gross and when I finished showering, Tom (my P.A.) came in and took a look at me. He said I could go home and gave me instructions on what to take and all that jazz.

They let me out around 10:30 and we got my prescriptions from the pharmacy. I have some Toradol pills, some Darvocet (since I’m allergic to codeine), and some Zofran in case I get nauseous. As for the state of my stomach… I have 4 pieces of gauze covered with adhesive plastic on my abdomen and one of them is completely covering my navel. Apparently, I have dissolving sutures and 4 staples in each incision. I’m not having much pain unless I change positions. I also have pain in my shoulder from the CO2 they had to use to inflate my abdomen.

So… that’s the story and I’m heading back to bed now.