Well, it’s done. I do, occasionally, think that I must be crazy, but it’s a done deal now, so, ONWARD!
Ok, flew into San Diego on Sunday. Got picked up and taken to the Grand Hotel in Tijuana. Had soup for dinner, got to bed early. Being on Eastern time is very handy since they like to get started early.
Monday, head to Hospital Florence. It looks a little skeevy on the outside, but it’s fine on the inside. Meet the patient coordinator ladies, get settled in the room. They bring you compression hosiery to put on. Then here come the vampires for your blood. Y’all know how wound up I get about needles. The girl that did it was AMAZING. It didn’t even BLEED. I didn’t even bruise! That is a first!
So then they do the EKG. Interesting experience! They put these clamps on your wrists and ankles along with the electrodes. It takes 5 minutes. Fun!
Then there’s the chest x-ray done by a little old man named Miguel Angel. Very sweet.
Then they come to get your IV going. UGH. Of course they are bound and determined to use my left hand rather than my arm. Fine. It took two nurses and a vein finder (very much like a stud finder for the wall!) to finally get a vein. Not too painful, either. Too bad it didn’t work and my hand swelled up. So now this poor kid Luis comes and tries to find a vein. He as looking literally everywhere: wrist, forearm top & bottom… I finally said, honey, please go get someone to help you! So here comes two more nurses with the vein finder. They stick me in the middle of my left forearm. Nothing – except a huge bruise. I’d been telling them all along that they’ll end up using this one vein that I know is a good one and guess what? That is the one they used, which is in the bend of my left arm. What I told them TO BEGIN WITH. Why do people not listen?
Then the parade of Drs comes in: the internist, Camelo the surgeon (cute!) and Reyna the floor Dr (VERY cute!). I could look at Dr Reyna allll day. ;)
Then they haul me off to surgery. It took about 45 mins then about 45 mins recovery. I felt amazingly well right after surgery. I figured I’d pay for that, and I have. :P
Day two, Tuesday, I’m sore, of course, and don’t do much other than sleep and be prodded by nurses. I did have the leak test where you drink barium. Again, administered by the sweet old man Miguel Angel. I never had too much gas pain. I burped some, but not too much gas. Mainly it’s just SORENESS, which makes sense. Expect to feel like you’ve been beaten with a baseball bat.
Day three, Wednesday, we go back to Grand Central hotel rather than the Hilton SD because I don’t feel well enough to be that far from the hospital. I threw up a lot on Wednesday. Throwing up is actually much less of a production w/out much of a stomach. It’s like BLECH, VOILA! No pain, at least. Hilton refused to cancel my reservation and charged me for the room. Letters will be written to those fuckheads. That would have never happened with Hampton Inn, but sadly, I’m foregoing all Hilton properties because of this treatment, so I guess I’m a Marriott girl now. [update: Hilton did rescind the charges AND gave me a shit ton of points that will cover a one night stay.]
Thursday we come back to SD for the flight home. I am very sore and moving slowly, so Nick gets me a wheelchair. This apparently pisses off the TSA to no end. I didn’t do the nudie scan because a) it violates my rights and b) I couldn’t raise my hands anyway. Therefore I had to get a pat down, which is fine, as long as the agent is not a midget with an attitude. I told her exactly where all the incisions were, even SHOWED her and she manhandled me like I was meat. She SLAPPED my incisions in the pat down! When she hurt me, I grabbed her hand by reflex and she freaked out because I touched her. Fucking cunt. There were FIVE TSA agents called over, so I yanked up my shirt and said WHAT PART OF FIVE INCISIONS DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? I was also dizzy from dramamine and percocet, but they make me stand anyway. So they bring another bitch over who also manhandles me then they all walk away. ?? Letters will be written, but since they conveniently separated me from my husband and my phone, I have no pix. FUCK THE TSA. [update: I wrote an email of complaint and got a response. Then: nothing. It’s been almost two months, so I doubt anything else will happen. Time to write the politicians!]
So, that’s it. It goes by extremely quick! The coordinators Veronica and Azalia are amazing! The hospital liaison Rosa is very sweet, too. Really, everyone there is awesome and the care is top notch. Just a coupla caveats: the hospital had no hot water in the rooms one day and the wifi is fairly useless. The Hotel is NOT quiet, so don’t expect it. It’s loud with slamming doors and our last night there was a party at the pool right below us. At least the music was good! Photos of the hotel and hospital:
They send you home with a bag of meds: prilosec, pain meds, antibiotics, mylanta type stuff, dramamine, dressings and antibiotics for your incisions and whatever else you need. At this point you have to open up the capsules and take the powder or bbs, which sucks ass. Cephalexin smells like feet. Prilosec is little bbs that have a weird taste. Learn how to hold liquid in your mouth and toss in the meds. You don’t want to taste that. Ick.
I’m now on day 4, Friday, and I’m up early. Didn’t sleep much. I am having Nick pick up a bed wedge for me today, I think that will help. Since there is a drain hole on the left, I have to sleep only on my right, so my neck is jacked up from that. ALSO: make sure to practice your deep breathing! Anaesthesia is very hard on the lungs. The bed wedge will make it easier to sleep on your back and help clear out your lungs.
Today I woke up extremely dehydrated, so my main task today is to follow the 4 oz every half hour rule. So far, so good. I’ve had gatorade, Silk Vanilla and some weak tea + Silk.
Just checked my weight. Pre-surgery it was 239.8; today it’s 242.2. ? Anyhoo, it won’t be that for long. :)
