SURGERY

October 3rd, 2017

4:30am: Wake Up

  

I got ready and had to drive over to my sister's where my parents are staying.

5:15am: My parents and I left my sister's house and drove to the hospital.

5:45am: Check in at the hospital.

6:00am: We went up to the 3rd floor and checked in with surgery. We waited about 2 minutes before they called us back to our pre-op room. 

6:05am: These rooms were tiny and on the bed was my gown, hospital socks, bag to put my clothes I came in with and another urine sample. They do one last urine sample to make sure that you are not pregnant.

6:15am: By this time my sister, brother and sister-in-law had shown up. Over the next hour or so a few different people would come into the room and have me sign my life away on different documents, check vitals, explain what would happen.

Because the operating room is cold they give you this (what looks like a pool floaty) pillow that is connected to warm air. It keeps you warm and they transfer it over to the operating room when you head back. It was pretty cool.

My anesthesiologist (who happened to be the department chair) came into my room and introduced himself. He explained that they would be giving me 3 different drugs through an IV and what each one did. He then asked if I had any questions. Everyone in my family just looked at me and kinda started laughing because I had only one request during this entire ordeal... So when you go under anesthesia they typically tape your eyes shut because they don't want them slightly opening and you drying out your corneas or have some foreign object get stuck in your eyes, so they tape them shut. I looked at my anesthesiologist and said "I am so sorry this is going to be really high maintenance of me but I just got my lashes done yesterday and is there anyway you can put something over my eyes before you tape them shut so my lashes don't rip off?" He laughed and told me that he would take great care of my lashes. This is him below showing me how they will take great care of them! haha

The next person to come in the room was the resident anesthesiologist (who I LOVED) he is nicknamed  "Muscles" around the hospital and is a patient favorite. He walked in the room and said, "So I'm here to make sure your lashes stay in place!" Glad the message was relayed. Muscles took my blood pressure, started my hand IV (didn't feel a thing). He was seriously so good at his job and had great bedside manner. 

7:15am: Muscles wheeled me back and had already started some sort of drug in my IV that almost instantly made me totally relaxed and slightly sleepy. I remember being wheeled into the operating room and looking around. I think I have watched too many hospital, ER, doctor shows because the operating room was not at all what I had expected. I expected to be in this all tin room with a bright light up at the top. It was a pretty big room but definitely not metal. At this point a nurse came over and took my floaty off me and replaced it with SUPER warm blankets. Muscles put an oxygen mask over me and told me to start taking deep breathes. I was then scooted from the bed I was on over to the operating table. After that I just remember Muscles saying "Take 5 deep breathes, good job Amanda, you're doing soo good. Now take just 5 more big breathes." And that was it.

10:30am: Wheeled into recovery. They took my catheter out in recovery. I was actually their first patient that they decided to take the catheter out this early, because usually the donor keeps one in for a day.

11:45am: I woke up in recovery. I remember being super thirsty, which is expected because they put a breathing tube down your throat during surgery. My mom was back in recovery with me and the nurse gave her a cup of water with a straw to sip on for me that she held.

12:00pm: I was pretty much awake and not in any pain, mostly just really sore. The feeling like I just worked my abs out reeeeallly hard, or just got kicked in the stomach. The nurse told me I had a pain button and to press it anytime I needed to. We looked at my stomach and surprisingly I wasn't grossed out (I don't handle blood and injuries well). Muscles walked past at one point and I said "Hey, thanks for taking care of my lashes." And he came over and said "we covered them before taping them but when it was time to take it off, we noticed that your lashes at been squished and looked kinda clumped, so the anesthesiologist (the head chairman) called his daughter on the phone to see how to fix them. She told us to use tweezers so we were able to fix them."

YOU GUYS. HE CALLED HIS DAUGHTER TO ASK HOW TO FIX MY CLUMPED EYELASHES. THE ANESTHESIOLOGIST. MY FREAKING EYELASHES. THERE ARE ANESTHESIOLOGISTS AND THEN THERE ARE ANGEL ANESTHESIOLOGISTS WHO GO ABOVE AND BEYOND. SERIOUSLY, WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT, I WANT TO CRY. THAT IS WHAT SEPARATES THE GOOD FROM THE GREAT. THAT IS WHAT THIS WORLD NEEDS MORE OF. MORE PEOPLE WHO DO MORE THAN THEIR JOB REQUIRES. WHO DO THINGS WITH LOVE. I LOVE HIM. 

I was told that surgery went well and that I had a beautiful kidney! My mom stayed with me for a while, and then switched out with my brother, sister and sister-in-law since only one person was allowed back at a time. My nurse brought me some vanilla pudding to have, which tasted sooo good. Before surgery even started I was starving.

The pictures of my stomach don't really do it justice. It was SOOO lumpy and it looks like they sewed my belly button closed. This was in recovery.

Because I was doing so well I ended up staying in recovery until like 4:30pm and they would give a room that opened up to someone else who needed more attention. Which was fine. I LOVED my nurse, Jen, in recovery. She was awesome. We just chatted about everything and she told me about her kids and her job and some of her worse patients she has had. Jen was seriously so so so great. I was sad to leave her when I got my own room. 

4:30pm: Some guy wheeled me up to my room on the 5th floor, which was across the hall from my dad. Lots of people came in and introduced themselves and I don't really remember much. I still was feeling pretty good.

7:15pm: I had to pee. Getting out of bed was soo hard, omg. I don't think I expected or really even thought about that being so hard. My sister helped me and the nurse came in and unhooked me so I could walk over to the bathroom. Walking was not a problem at all. I came out of the bathroom and was surprisingly feeling really well and asked if I could go on a walk. The nurse said I could, so we walked over to see my dad across the hall. I was standing next to my dad's bed for about 30 seconds and I instantly felt light-headed. I remember leaning on my sister and my mom hurried and grabbed a chair for me to sit in. I got SOOO hot and my hospital gown was instantly drenched in sweat. My mom just held me as a nurse held a bucket in front of me and I threw up 4 times. Throwing up is terrible, throwing up after just having your stomach operated on and stitched shut, is.so.painful. That was the most excruciating pain having your stomach muscles contract. After I finished throwing up they grabbed a wheelchair and wheeled me back over to my room. I had just overdone it and still had the anesthesia in me which causes nausea. So they gave me a Zofran once I was back in my room. I almost instantly felt better though after throwing up.

7:45pm: My best girlfriends came and visited me. They were a good distraction and it was so fun to have them there. We visited for a while. They are just the best of friends.

My angel sister stayed the night with me in an uncomfortable couch in my room. I remember being woken up all night long to be checked on.

9 hours post surgery:

Still never pressed that drug button though :)

Post Op Day 1 coming up next!