Juli's Surgery

1st picture taken: Before my surgery (about 6:30am), and before they had to stick me in 3 different spots for an IV. The first two crumpled under my skin and it even made Thomas cringe.

2nd picture: After surgery, about 10am (yes, that's me smiling)

Picture #3: My incisions and a belly full of gas they 'blow" you up with. I look pregnant and my skin hurts, too, because of the stretching it did from the gas. I felt/feel like I have an elephant on my stomach.


Picture #4: My view from my nice, private recovery room. It even took off once and came back while we were there.

Latest update: We are home now after almost 16 hours in the hospital! I had a long recovery at the hospital (13 hours), but I was determined to go home the same day of surgery instead of staying the night like some nurses wanted. We were able to be discharged a 9:30pm. The nurse said that we must have had a very nice Doctor to let me go home "early" (rather than staying the night), because they usually don't discharge patients anywhere close to that late at night.

To go home, I had to be able to...

• eat and keep it down (I passed that task with eating a Gramcracker)
• handle just my pain medicine that I swallowed and not need additional pain meds through my IV (that was hard to "pass", but they were able to give me one more "shot" of morphine in addition to the pill I was taking a little before we left
• get up and walk, and also go to the bathroom. (I walked to the bathroom to accomplish both, but that was a bad experience).

I don't know if these are side effects from the meds, but I'm so HEAVY when I stand/walk that it takes so long for me to pick up one foot and move. We use a LOT of stomach muscles to move even the slightest bit! I also have bury vision with anything that is close to me. I can't remember the name of the pain meds I'm on, but I can't read that bottle right now because I can't see it - that is frustrating. I do know, though, that 1MG of my pills I'm taking is equal to 7MG of percocet. I'm taking 2MG of meds (it starts with a D) every 3-4 hours... doctor/nurse said to set an alarm to wake up and not miss a douse. I also have a patch (like a bandaid) on my neck behind my ear to help with nausea. They put it on before surgery and I have to keep it on until Sunday. It is helping a lot, though!

I'm trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but right now I'm still in a LOT of pain. My gallbladder not only had gallstones, but it was also inflamed. I experienced a lot of pain with my gallbladder attacks, but this is a different kind of pain. I just have to remember that it WILL go away and I'll be back to my normal self soon. The doctor told me that it'll be a good 1-2 week recovery (with a follow-up visit somewhere in that time frame), and I can't lift anything over 20 pounds for a month.

Thank you to all of you who are praying for me. If you know me well, you should remember I do NOT like shots, needles, or medical stuff. This was my 3rd surgery, and I'm actually proud of myself for being so brave. I just needed my gallbladder out so badly that I was willing to go through almost anything for relief. Hopefully the surgery pain will be gone soon, too!