On the "Other side"

Well I am on the "other side", sorry for the delay in posting. So much has happened but I will do my best to detail what went down with my surgery..

My fiance and I arrived at Hershey Medical Center on Thursday,Feb 2nd at 6:15 am to check in for my surgery. I remember very little once I was wheeled away back to OR. One second I was talking to the Anesthesiologist, the next second I was waking up in ICU with a tube down my throat.

Apparently, I had a lot of swelling due to the fluids and being on my face for almost 8 hours. Because of that, the doctors could not take the breathing tube out from my throat. I began to have trouble breathing, so they had to put me on a machine to assist me with breathing. I spent the entire night in ICU that night, sadly, my fiance was not allowed to stay the night there.

I spent most of Friday in ICU until I was finally able to get in my own private room. Thankfully, my fiance was able to stay with me from that point on. I spent a total of 6 days in the hospital. A lot of it was a blur so I thought it would be easier just to highlight certain points:

• Catheter
• I had a catheter until about 3 days post op. It didnt hurt and actually was quite convienient. They make you drink a LOT of fluids while you are there so I couldnt imagine how uncomfortable it would be to get up every time I had to go. Actually, I CAN imagine, because when they took it out Sunday morning it sucked getting up every hour to go. And warning, your bladder is extremely week after they take the catherter out...so when you have to go..do NOT wait, you will NOT be able to hold it like you use to. It took about 4-5 days for me to get my bladder strength back.
• PCA pump
• I was given morphine through a pumping device for my first 3 days. All I had to do was press a button every 6 min to get a dose of pain meds. 
The idea of this is great however the sooner you switch to oral meds the sooner you are able to go home. Personal care I can't stress enough for you to bring your own shower wipes with you to the hospital. The nurses can be unreliable when it comes to sponge baths, so make sure you bring your own so you can stay fresh. Thankfully I did remember to pack some and trust me, feeling clean and fresh is important to feeling good.