danixbanani
Adios, LapBand!
Oct 16, 2012
SO I had the band removed on Friday the 13th (spooky). I had a call time of 7:30AM to be at the hospital. I got there at 7AM and they wouldn’t take me for all the pre-op stuff until my actual appointment time even though I was literally the only person there.
Once I got called into the back rooms of same day admitting the waiting started. I did the usual stuff like a urine sample, blood pressure etc but then just sat for a longggg time. At around 8:30AM my surgeon came in and said he hadn’t even started his first case of the day but was on his way in. Ugh! The waiting room they had me in was nice though and they gave me the remote for the tv in the room. I just sat with my mom talking through my nervousness. I’m not sure why, but I was nervous. I suppose it’s normal for anyone to be nervous before going in to surgery.
Around 10AM, the anesthesiologist came in to do the run down. He was nice enough but kept asking me why I was having the band removed. At first I laughed and was like “Uhm, because it obviously doesn’t work?” I received a blank stare on that one so I elaborated a bit and he was just very stoic and kept asking questions. I just wanted him to get on with it. He also kept pointing out things about my blood pressure and why I really need to lose weight. Yeah, no shit Sherlock! Thanks, Captain Obvious. After that, it was time to go back to the OR. I said bye to my mother and took the long walk back to the OR which was small and cold.
I’m a hard stick which means I have bad veins. It took the doctor FOUR times to get me with the needle for anesthesia and once they got it, I was OUT. They didn’t even tell me they were starting the medication but all of a sudden things got a little woozy. For some strange reason, I think I had a dream while I was under. When I came to, I was extremely disoriented and WHAM the nausea hit. I’ve never had a bad experience with anesthesia but this time was bad. I also know that the tube in my throat causes discomfort but my throat was on FIRE. The nausea plus the fire in my throat plus the disorientation immediately made me cry. I’m a big baby when it comes to pain and illness so crying was my immediate response. The anesthesiologist was actually very nice at this point. He held my hand and told me it would be ok, that he knew it was an emotional event.
Once in recovery, I also noticed my vision wasn’t clearing. Since I was a fire breathing dragon at this point, I couldn’t express this to my nurse very clearly. I told her “blurry” and she immediately knew what I was saying. Apparently they rubbed Vaseline on my eyes to keep them moist (never had that done before) and it would take a little while for them to clear. Well isn’t that just fun! The nausea or grogginess didn’t go away for a while until they finally gave me a shot for it. I came out of surgery at a little after 11:30AM and stayed in recovery until 3:30PM. After that, they moved me upstairs to the women’s ward in a smaller recovery room with 3 other women. Once up there, they got me out of bed and moving around. I jumped through all the hoops to get the hell out of there and go home and by 5PM I was on my way.
It was a long day and a hard recovery from anesthesia but I’m doing better and better every day. I forgot how hard/annoying it is to have wounds on the stomach but I’m becoming more and more mobile. After surgery, I saw my surgeon on the way out of the hospital. He said it took a little extra effort to get my port out so I’ll be more sore in that area. I expected that anyway. He also mentioned the dreaded “scar tissue” and said we have to talk more when I follow up with him. That follow up appointment is set for Monday so we’ll just have to see how it goes.
Overall, I’m glad to finally have the band out and start the process to get my sleeve. A friend asked me if I’m having second thoughts after the bad anesthesia experience or the soreness in my stomach area but I’m not. It will be a long road of recovery but I’m ready and prepared to do it and do it right this time!
-D
