Surgery // Day of Surgery & 7 Day Post Op Check-up

4/16/2014

As a pre-warning, any posts from here labeled surgery may contain graphic images from surgery or post operative photos that some readers may not want to see.

The last week has been rough. Reaaaal rough but I'll get into that when I've gone over everything else. This is just gonna be a quick (or quick as) post about whats been going on over the last couple of days.

So, I had surgery scheduled for the 10th April last week. Me and Phillip stayed in a hotel the night before. I wasn't nervous at all about the surgery until the night before when we were in the hotel and I ended up completely freaking out and crying.

The day of Surgery, we were awake at 6 am and had to be admitted to the hospital at 7 am. I wish I'd woken earlier, water restrictions were from 5 am.

I arrived at the hospital at 7 am, was taken to my room by 7:20 am and then had to wait. I had a gown and stockings to change into, I was visited by an anesthetist and a doctor for bloods.

I was supposed to be going into surgery at 10:30 am but surgeons change their schedules and I ended up being marked up at 2:30 pm and in surgery for 3 pm. It was tough waiting for surgery, not only because I had been fasting from the night before, but also because it gave me pretty much all day to be freaking out, which wasn't great.
I don't remember much after getting out of surgery or that night. After that it got rough, I ended up loosing a lot of blood and my body was not building back up its hemoglobin levels quickly enough.

I was very weak and didn't have the energy to even get myself out of bed. I fainted the first two times I tried to get out of bed to use the toilet. I had a catheter (that ended up not working as it should have done) and when they tried to redo, it was too painful so I ended up going without.

I was in hospital for a total of 5 days instead of the usual 2 night stay. I had 3 blood transfusions during my stay for the lost blood and I'm now on iron tablets and need routine checkups for my hemoglobin levels at my GP.
I think to say that I had a bit of a rough time after surgery would be an understatement of the century, however, I cannot thank the doctors, nurses and my surgeon enough for the support that they gave me during the rough time. Everyone was brilliant (bar one nurse as she was horrid, but I wont delve into that any further).

I'm day 7 post op currently, I would have updated about everything sooner if it weren't for the problems that I had. I hardly used any internet whilst I was in hospital. I had my first post op appointment this afternoon and was able to get a proper first glimpse of everything.

I've provided some photos that also include before's of my body so you can see the differences. I'm also still very swollen, so I wont see the full affects of the work until the swelling has gone down.

So, as you can see, everything seems to be well. The nurse is impressed and says that the scars are healing nicely.  I had my drains pulled, that was a weird experience, felt SO odd and uncomfortable, but over within a couple of seconds.
Before and After picture of Stomach
Dressings were taken off and replaced with fresh ones. I was able to get photos of everything in between the change. The nurse was fantastic at the Cambridge clinic. Very professional and patient when she knew I was in discomfort.

All in all, my experience so far with The Hospital Group has been fab and I'd recommend the company to anyone.

I think that's all for my update. I'm sure I'm missing something, but also sure this post is long enough!

But before I end the post, I want to say a massive thank you to Phillip, who has been so supportive and caring of the journey that I've taken and has been there to help me when I've needed it over the past week.

My surgery posts will probably only be every week unless there's something major to discuss. I know that this topic isn't to everyone's interests.

Like this post?
Other places to find me:

You Might Also Like

4 comments

  1. So sorry to hear about your complications after surgery, glad you're doing much better. Props to your Phillip for taking care of you and being a good guy. Your results look AWESOME!! Even though it was a rough couple of days, I know you're glad you had the surgery.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Yeah, I'm definitely glad I got it done and can't wait to see the end results after swelling has gone down :)

      Delete
  2. Oh my goodness - sounds like you had a rough surgery! I hope you are feeling better this week. Looks like the results will be fantastic :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Feeling much much better this week! Thanks :) No pain a majority of the time and only a little bit of soreness, seems to be going well :)

      Delete

Like us on Facebook