My surgery was at 7:30am on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008, which meant we needed to arrive at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue WA at 5:30am for check-in. Tia’s surgery would follow at 9:45am. Tia, Tedi, Rick, Deborah and I arrived at the appointed time.
What surprised me was how fast everything moved once we got there. We checked in at the main desk, and then headed to the pre-op check in on the next floor. There they had us sign some papers, put our wrist bands on and were immediately escorted to our respective prep rooms next door to each other. Our gowns were on the bed. They gave us bags to put our clothing in and told us to get into the gowns and inventory everything we put in the bag. We had already been told not to bring wallets, jewelry or any valuables, so basically it was just clothes. The only other things we brought were driver’s license and insurance card, which we handed off to Tedi. They bring in a scale. I weigh in at 361lbs in just my hospital gown.
So within what seemed like 5 minutes, I went from the parking lot to lying mostly naked aside from gown in the pre-op room, getting ready for surgery. Thoughts at this point? Mostly fear. Am I really gonna do this? Am I gonna wake up tomorrow or is this the last day of my life? I was also still extremely nervous about the anesthesia as I’d never had it. The nurse there, Caroline I believe, was very nice though. She saw I was freaking a bit, sat next to me, had me take deep breaths, touched my hand, and reassured me everything will be fine. More paperwork. Tia comes in in her hospital gown to try and calm me down too. I look up at the clock and it’s 7:00 already. Man, why is time moving so fast? Then came in the anesthesiologist – Dr Yang. She was very, very nice and very patient. Answered all of my questions and calmed me down (a bit). Next Dr Lauter (surgeon) shows up. He basically does a quick check, then goes out to get ready.
Next are a series of memories that each feel about 10 seconds in length.
I get wheeled into the operating room. Lots of lights, machinery and about 6 or 7 people (with no doctor even in yet). I remember Dr Yang (anesthesiologist) saying “Here’s the mask we talked about. I’m going to press it firmly down on your face”. Gone. Out.
My eyes are closed. I’m hearing voices “Come on Mark, wake up buddy”. Other words and conversations but barely discerning them or realizing that they are words. Finally I think “recovery room” and I feel nauseous. My mouth is like sludge and I struggle to say the word “nauseous”. The “wake up buddy” guy says “you need to help yourself” and slides a little tray on my chest so can use it to puke I guess. I gag a couple times. Gone. Out.
I awake in my regular hospital room. I think Tedi was there, plus Rick and Deborah. I remember Rick tells me that if my mouth feels like gunk I can use these little green brushes sitting in ice water next to the bed. I grab one and rub it all over my lips and inside my mouth. God that felt good.
Over the next few hours, I lapse in and out of sleep. Each time talking a little better. Still very weak. Not really in a lot of pain though, which is interesting. That’s one of the big reasons we wanted to do this laparoscopically rather than an open gastric bypass. Tedi tells me that Tia made it through okay and is in her room. This is great news. Tedi got me a gecko in the gift shop and puts it on my bed to keep me company. I vaguely remember people coming in and out, chatting with Tedi, Rick and Deborah, then I think they all left. It feels like a have a very large gas bubble in my stomach – the remnants of the CO2 they use to inflate the abdominal cavity during the laparoscopic surgery. Not really too painful, but definitely uncomfortable.
Surprisingly, Tia shows up later that night! Walking already and wheeling her IV stand into my room. It’s great to see her. Dr Lauter checks in. I learn my operation took about an hour and ten minutes, Tia’s about a half hour longer than that. When I ask him why, he was kind vague, just saying it was tighter quarters, just took longer to get things done, etc.
Next comes the absolute worst thing about the hospital stay. Every single hour of the night and day someone would come in, turn on the lights, check my vitals, and leave. Man, all I want to do is rest. A fitful night.
Wednesday comes. Tia stops by and I have my first walk around the ward. A “short lap” and we’re back in our rooms. Strangely, I actually feel pretty good as the day goes on. Gas bubble seems to be a bit smaller. Still uncomfortable, but not painful. I last used my “self pain med button” at 11:00 am and didn’t need any after that at all. We both do a “drink test” where we get a scan of our digestive tract as we drink some nasty liquid so they can check for leaks. Both are fine, although mine is a bit of a slow drain due to the swelling. As the day goes by, Tia is developing a bit of a fever, which has me worried.
One unexpected thing was that they are always checking our blood sugars. For me (diabetic) that’s understandable, but they’re doing Tia too (who’s not). And the weird thing is that they’re giving us insulin. What I later learned from Dr. Lauter was that with surgery, your body’s blood sugar can go high, which is very bad for healing. There are studies that show that anything over 150 can seriously impact your healing rate, so they give us insulin until it gets below that point consistently.
Tedi stops by and so does Dee, Tia’s sister, which is great for her morale. I hear them laughing like crazy in the next room.
Wednesday night is extremely uncomfortable. Even though it’s a bariatric bed for larger patients, the length feels like it’s about 5 ft 8 inches and I’m 6 ft tall. I absolutely cannot stretch out. The small couch in the room is useless. So that, plus now being awakened every two hours, has made me extremely grumpy. A very, very fitful night of sleep. Man, don’t they know that patients need rest to heal?
Thursday – our expected check-out day. Dr. Lauter had warned us about this at our pre-op meeting last week. Invariably, he said, when a couple does this surgery one will go through fine and the other will have a tougher time. I think both Tia and I expected that it would be me, but it turned out to be Tia. She’s running a fever and her white count is up. After a chest x-ray, we learn that she has some pneumonia and fluid in her lower right lung. IV Antibiotics are started. Dr. Lauter is concerned, but doesn’t seem overly so, which calms us a bit.
Dr. Later gives me the option of leaving or staying another day to be with Tia. I definitely decide to stay. Tia and I take walks through the halls and nap. Later, Dee shows up again sans Tedi, who apparently has the flu or some stomach ailment. We later learn it’s hit Rick and Deborah too. Just about our entire support system is now sick.
Friday – I’m freaking exhausted due to yet another night in the short bed (which is also hard as a rock). Tia has a different bed that inflates when she sits on it.
Not good on the fever front. Still up there but showing some slight signs of improvement. Dr Lauter again gives me the option to be discharged and we decide I should, just so I can go home and get some real sleep. I’m discharged around noon, and Dee shows up with the keys and my driver’s license so I can drive home. Everyone else is sick, so I’ll be driving myself. Dee ends up staying the night with Tia and the nurses tell me the entire ward could hear them laughing.
My hour and a half drive home was not fun, by the way. The gas bubble felt like it got bigger the longer I drove, I assume from the jiggling and vibration in the car.
I was now on a pureed diet as per the Dr. Tedi made me some tomato soup (which tasted fantastic and went down well). I had about ¼ cup then went to bed. Oh man, a real bed to stretch out on!
Saturday. I was planning on leaving in the morning to go to the hospital to hopefully discharge Tia, but Dr Lauter shows up early to Tia’s room while I'm actually on the phone with her, sees that things are slowly improving but still not great, and decides to see how things go through the day and will check in with us between 3 and 5 pm. I head down to the hospital around noon and patiently wait for the Dr verdict. He says things are looking better, but he’d really prefer that we err on the side of caution and stay another night. We both agree and I spend the afternoon/evening with Tia and drive home.
Sunday. I drive down early in the morning. Tia’s looking much better. The IV antibiotics are doing their thing. The nurse tells Tia that if she’s taking a shower, to change into her street clothes when she gets out. Yay! When Dr Lauter arrives around 10:00, we’re packed and ready to go. He says things are looking much better and gives Tia a prescription for some liquid antibiotics to continue taking, but we’re discharged!
We get the prescriptions filled at a Walgreens nearby then head to pick up our beagles at Mystic Mountain Retreat in Monroe (they love it there). It was a fiasco getting three dogs into the SUV while still moving gingerly, but eventually we were on our way. Tia dozed on the way home once the dogs calmed down.
It was nice to be done with the hospital.
Random general observations:
- Overlake has done a great job with their remodel – it’s a beautiful hospital now. I can’t believe how uncomfortable those beds were though!
- After all the nervousness on my part about the anesthesia it turned out to be a non-issue. FYI: There’s no sense of time spent under it at all. One second you’re having a mask on your face, the next in recovery.
- The lack of ability to sleep due to all the interruptions in the hospital was really surprising. I was freakin’ exhausted by the time I left.
- The lack of pain was also very surprising. By the second day I could swing my legs in and out of bed like nothing every happened. I asked myself a few times – did I really have surgery?
So that’s it. Probably way too much detail, but I want to remember it. By the way, I'm already down to 347lbs!
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