My Sleeve Experience.... LONG
by
, 10-29-2013 at 04:58 PM (1414 Views)
So thought I should finally sit down and tell everyone about my adventure to get sleeved....
I had my bag packed for a week ahead of time, didn't want to worry or stress about forgetting something important like my cashiers check or birth certificate since I was going to Mexico. Left home close to 1pm on 10-18 so I could enjoy the leisurely 3+ hour drive to pick my son up, and then another 45 min to check-in at the hotel we were staying at by the airport. They have a free 14-day Park-N-Fly program and shuttle to the airport, so that was really convenient and airport parking would have cost the price of the outbound stay so it was a good value too!
Picked up my son and then we went and did a bit of shopping at WalMart. Got my son some snacks and me some protein shots I could stick in my 3-1-1 bag. Just in case... One of my son's teachers owns a restaurant (well, his wife does) so we went there for dinner. Its an Asian Fusion place, great decor and I had my first Pho which was DIVINE! Pho is a Vietnamese soup Pho - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and this was my first experience eating true Vietnamese cusine. It was the most divine broth I have ever had. My son got to eat the shaved beef and noodles that were in my soup. My son had a variety of egg rolls and some sweet/sour type pork. I apologize but cannot recall the name of it, but he said it was divine too. For less than $30 we ate like a king/queen and I will definitely go back when I can actually eat again!!
We left, got gas and made our way to the hotel. Unloaded our bags and went to our nice and comfortable room to relax before our flight. It is almost 10pm, and we have to leave for the airport about 5-5:30am in the morning. I realize my carry-on bag is nowhere to be found! Yikes! I don't care about the clothes, but that is where my cashier's check and birth certificate are! I could pay with my plastic and pay the 4% surcharge... but not certain I can get back across the border without my birth certificate. I just want to physically become ill Back in the car I got, to head back home.... Thank goodness I had filled the gas tank after dinner after all!
I was able to contact my neighbor (who would be dog sitting for my babies) and see if she could grab my bag and meet me part way. Through a comedy of issues she was able to meet me in a small town an hour from home, which was fantastic because it cut 2 hours off my driving and I don't think I would have made my flight without her help! Got my bag and turned around for the 3 hour travel back to the hotel. We get back at 4am, so my son crawls into bed and I attempt to take a nap for 20-30 min before I have to hop in the shower. I 'thought' I would go right to sleep, because the night before I had slept less than 2 hours. Yeah right. After 15 minutes I give up and hop right in the shower and get dressed. Then I get my son up to do the same. Off to the airport we go!
Being a seasoned traveler, we breeze right through the check point, although I can see my son is suffering from lack of sleep. And flying from Boise there are NO direct flights to San Diego, so we have a lay-over as well. He has never flown on a commercial flight before, only on a small charter flight over the coast watching seals, sea lions and scouting for whales. So I make sure I book window seats for all the flights. That means I am stuck in the middle seat both directions, yuck! The things we do for our kids As we buckle in, I am immediately grateful for the close to 18 lbs I lost pre-op! He was amazed with the views and we were both able to take a nap on the plane. We land in Phoenix, deboard and drag our carry-ons to the next gate. He gets a Starbucks Vanilla latte, I sip on one of my protein shots mixed in some water. I am allowed clear liquids until I land in San Diego. The Profect Fresh Citrus Berry are gross straight, tolerable when mixed in a 16oz bottle of water. I brought these with me because they are 50gms protein per vial, and are 3.2oz so they can go in the 3-1-1 bag! The New Whey ones are 3.8 oz, so cannot go in a carry-on and I had NO desire to check my bags. Flight from Phoenix to San Diego is short, I think maybe 50 minutes so soon we land in San Diego.
We navigate the concourse and walk outdoors to the waiting area for our ride. Ahhhh warmth, its about 78F and sunshine. Beautiful day to start MY new life! Marcia picks us up and we travel across the border. I am glad she was driving because it seemed like there was tons of construction and multiple hairpin curves to get across. Its a few more minutes to Hospital Nova, but when we get there a sweet gentleman helps with the bags. His name is Alex and he is the taxi driver assigned to Hospital Nova. I get Alex's card because I have plans to go to the beach on one of the days I am in the hotel.
We go inside and I register to check-in. After a bit, my son goes out and gets some tacos which he said were wonderful and the portions were very generous. I meet Dr Kelly, get my chest x-ray, blood drawn, meet the cardiologist and have my EKG. Dr Kelly stays until after I see the cardiologist (and he helps translate about my valve replacements.) I think now it is about 3pm, and he tells me he will be back and my surgery is scheduled for 5pm. I get my IV and compression stockings, and before I know it... it's 5pm and off to the OR I go, exactly on time! I remember getting in the or suite, meeting everyone, Dr Kelly coming in as they are strapping my arms down, playing some 'happy sounding' Mexican music and that's it. I'm out...
Next thing I remember, its after 9pm and I am back in my room. Not sure how I got back there, but I am back and there are 3 or 4 people in the room. My son is there and so is Dr Kelly. Dr Kelly proceeds to tell me about the horrible adhesions (scar tissue) I had inside from my previous surgeries and how it took about 3 hours of dissecting that down until he could get my anatomy to look the way it was supposed to be. I was not really surprised since I previously had 8 separate abdominal surgeries. My stomach was flipped and adhered to my liver. No wonder I seemed like I had the stomach flu every 2-3 weeks, my insides were a mess from the adhesions! Glad Dr Kelly took his time and put everything back where it anatomically should be, and removed my appendix as well (I had previously arranged for this.) I did not want any possibility for another abdominal surgery down the road!
I have some nausea and a bit of vomiting. After I dispose of the blue contrast material and the couple of blood clots that had been sitting in my stomach I had no more nausea and by 1am Oct 20 I was walking to the bathroom on my own. I have to admit... before I got that crap out of my stomach I uttered the words "What in the hell did I do to myself" but that feeling lasted only moments and after my stomach was empty I was off to the races! My poor sweet son, I would wake him up every time I needed the nurse and he would go out and get them because I didn't know where my call light was. It was still attached to the wall, neatly coiled up! I would have been fine, but was SO thankful he came with me and saw that I was fine. He would have been so very worried if I was there by myself. I slept off/on between walking in the halls and my son going out to the taco vendor again. He said the cafeteria food was good and he had breakfast there, but really enjoyed having tacos outside. He was excited about McDonald's being close-by, but I am not sure if he ever went there or not.
Dr Kelly came by in the morning, and came back by mid-afternoon to check on me and at that time said I could have ice chips! Yay, they were delicious and I have to admit I even had the tiniest sip of water as well. By that point I had been up and showered and was walking around feeling good. I easily could have been discharged home, and in the US would have been shoved out the door. They had to restart my IV that evening, which is normal and I can seldom keep an IV site for 24 hours. My son went out that evening, got some dinner in a restaurant close by and a beer (he is 23) and then listened to some of the music. It was so nice because I could hear the music inside the hospital, and at some point they had fireworks too but they were not visible from my room. I made a couple postings here between 2pm and 9pm to check in and let you know I was fine, and am pretty sure I was back asleep by 10 or 11pm.
Saw Dr Kelly again the next morning as he told me about the leak testing at Hospital Angeles. After I showered, washed my hair, did my face and got real clothes on we were discharged from Hospital Nova and off to do my leak testing. Dr Kelly's wife took us, she is a beautiful and sweet woman and I really enjoyed her. I think her name is Cici? Anyway, Marcia was there as well to take us, but Cici did and brought me some juice so I could mix with the contrast for the leak test. It does not taste that great, so was glad to have the juice that I could continue to sip on to get the bitter taste out of my mouth. When you do your leak test, evidently they want you to drink the entire cup of contrast material at once. I did not, but even with 2 drinks Dr Kelly was able to see that my sleeve was functioning perfectly. YAY, I was approved for broths and clear liquids!!! And off to Hotel Tijuana for my 2 days of R&R (rest and relaxation!) That will be a separate post!
I received excellent care, much better than I have ever received in a US hospital. I have no doubts that this was the PERFECT answer for me and best location I could have gotten sleeved at. I would have no doubts to go back tomorrow, and I would not hesitate to have Dr Kelly work on my child if they needed this surgery. I cannot say enough positive things about him!