- Jun 4, 2012
- 105
- 33
- 101
I can tell you what its like. You will go to a pre appointment where they will get a chest xray, an ekg, and draw some blood. If all is withing normal limits, things will proceed as follows: you will change into a hospital gown and lie on a gurney. A nurse will come and place a nameband on your wrist and start an iv. I would suggest you leave all jewelry and underthings at home, as well as contact lenses or glasses, and false teeth if you have them. They will hang a bag of iv fluids and connect this to your iv. The doctor will come and speak with you right before they are ready to take you in and answer any last minute questions. They may give you valium or some other calming drug through your iv on the way into surgery and you wont care whats going on after that. After the anesthesiologist administers the medication that makes you sleep through this, they will put a tube down your throat to keep you breathing. They might insert a catheter into your bladder too. You will wake up in the pacu with a sore throat from the tube and be very groggy. They will monitor you there for a few hours until you are stable enough to go to a room. You may have a pain med pump so that you can push a button and get pain meds through your iv. It will be hard to sit up, roll over, laugh, or do anything that involves those muscles. You may have a lap hyst which will leave you with three to four punctures in your abdomen that are glued shut and maybe a stitch in your belly button, or you may have open abd hyst which is when they cut you at the bikini line and stapled shut. For me, the pain was tolerable and I was up walking that night and discharged home the next day. They will remove the catheter in the morning and probably switch you over to oral pain meds. A few tips for you: DONT LET ANYONE PUSH THAT PAIN MED BUTTON BUT YOU. I have seen family members push it for them while they are asleep and almost overdose them. MAKE SURE EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE DOCTOR, WASH THEIR HANDS IN FRONT OF YOU BEFORE THEY TOUCH YOU. Secondary hospital acquired infections are not rare. REMEMBER YOU ARE A PART OF YOUR CARE. If a nurse doesnt ask for your name and date of birth before giving your medications, remind her. And if you dont know what a medication is for, ask the nurse what it is and why you are taking it. Hope this helps and I hope they get that cancer. I HATE CANCER.
