I'm going to spank anyone that told me that this surgery wasn't that difficult. I woke up just crying in pain - the poor nurse didn't know what to do, because he had maxed me out on the dosage of morphine that he could administer. I just kept saying oh, god and begging him to help me - I feel bad now - but that was the worst pain that I have ever felt and it just wouldn't stop. This was so much worse than my tonsillectomy. What made it worse is that they thought my gallbladder just wasn't functioning, but not only was it not functioning, I had a lot of tiny gravel-like stones also that they didn't discover until they had the camera inside of me. So, I ended up with an extra incision below my breasts where they had to inject a dye and flush all of the stones out. Supposedly, I am now stone and gallladder free. My stomach looks awful - it's blue in a lot of places, swollen, scabs, glue sticking the incisions together - it's just gross. They told me to arrive at 5:45 a.m. instead of 6:30 a.m., because they had told me there was a cancellation; however, I spent that entire time just sitting in the waiting room. I was really nervous by the time I got back there. Then, I got to the back and the first nurse was super nice but I glanced at her name tag and it read "new employee." This wouldn't really bother people with *normal* veins; however, I have very small veins that virtually disappear when I'm cold and/or scared. I've had a nurse try to get an I.V. in 5 times before they finally got a head nurse to do it. I tried to very nicely warn the nurse that my veins are very hard to get an I.V. into, but she wouldn't listen and failed at the first attempt. She went to get the next nurse, and he promised to just stick me once (no pun intended...ugh), and he got the I.V. in but it wouldn't run. Thus, a THIRD attempt at an I.V. This time he numbed my other hand with lidocaine (another stick) and then got the I.V. in - I was pretty upset at this point. I don't like needles (I know I have tattoos, but it's just not the same thing). One assistant was super nice and kept rubbing my shoulder while I was bawling.
I'll never forget the pain that I woke up to though - never - and I hope there isn't pain worst than that - b/c I was given all the pain medicine that they could give me. The nurse told me that the amount of pain medicine that I was administered would usually knock someone into a coma-like state. Of course, this scared me b/c he mentioned something about normal people wouldn't even be able to breathe with that amount of morphine, and the one thing you should never tell me is any story about breathing problems. I have a lot of anxiety about not being able to breathe. Once the morphine had gotten the pain down from a 10 on the pain scale to a 7, I started teasing the nurse about how I was fine until he mentioned that some people wouldn't be able to breathe on that amount of pain medicine. I kept teasing him - b/c he was one of those people that I could tell was a smart ass and a "distancer," until I finally broke him and got him to smile. I'm apparently witty on morphine - who knew? When he finally wheeled me to my mom's car, he finally made a sarcastic, teasing comment back to me - and, I told him - see, I knew that he would miss me when I was gone ;)
So, I ended up with 3 valium injections, one Versed injection (causes temporary amnesia), an antibiotic injection, an acid medicine injection, and an ungodly amount of morphine. I wasn't feeling quite right when I got home - how I still felt anxious I'll never know. I kept drifting in and out and then waking up feeling like I couldn't breathe. It's just amazing pain, because you don't realize how many activities require your stomach muscles. The most difficult part is getting out of bed and getting to the bathroom. I've been trying to sit up a little and walk around but it pulls at the incisions so badly. I woke up every 2 hours last night, and then would have to wait another hour to take pain medication. Hopefully, today will be better - I'm keeping my fingers crossed. At least my mind seems lucid. People that tell you that gallbladder surgery doesn't hurt are just on crack. Don't listen to them.
People surprised and disappointed me before my surgery. Some of the most unexpected people were really supportive of me and then some people that I thought were friends - didn't even really contact me. I guess this is a good way to see who cares and who doesn't. Although, I know sometimes people don't know what to say - but saying something is better than saying nothing.
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