The pre-auth was finally done and the review completed - 18 hours before surgery. I’m filing a formal complaint with the hospital about that whole process as their staff dropped the ball on numerous occasions.
Surgery went well - roughly 8 hours total not counting prep time in the OR, or wakeup time after. They took me back just after 7:30 and I was forming memories in PACU by 4:30.
3 nights in the hospital. I was allowed solid food the first morning, gotten onto my feet, got rid of catheter shortly after that, and the rest was observation.
“Food” was a bad joke. Thankfully @Typo_Knig stayed with me all 3 nights and procured edible food from the cafeteria and/or the Subway in the lobby. Home on the Friday: i was threatening to leave AMA because the staff wouldn’t do stuff like removing my IV until formal orders were entered by the doctor, and he didn’t do so immediately. He’d already said it was okay to go home that day. Fortunately the orders were done by late morning. Then the only delays were getting my prescriptions from the hospital pharmacy , and waiting an hour for transport. I’d have left on my own two feet bug I genuinely could not have walked that far.
Jusssssst getting past the “what the hell have I done to myself” stage. The pain is only bad when I do stupid stuff like coughing (and the traditional hold the pillow does nothing). I’m sleeping in a power lift recliner - hoping to be back in the real bed in a week but in the meantime that thing is not just The Bomb, but the Whole Nuclear Arsenal.
Had my first shower Sunday- was allowed to by Thursday but it didn’t seem worth it. Showered and washed hair yesterday - bliss.
The one thing I’m pushing back on is doc wants me to wear an abdominal binder when up and about but it’s taken 3 tries to find one I can tolerate and even that hurts the drains. I’m hoping that at least one (out of four) will go tomorrow and that will help.
One thing I’ve been doing is trying to come up with the best way to make drain holder lanyards - I did a couple with paracord and cobra knotting, but that requires a thicker paracord (more expensive) and takes 3+ hours to make one - might improve with practice. Then I went with with trying to crochet one - using a couple different types of yarn or a thinner paracord, and numerous techniques.
Every one of them will have “doorknob insurance” - a cheap plastic C-shaped clip that can help catch up a little of the slack.
Once I get a material and style that I like, I plan on donating them to the doctors’ offices if they’ll take them.
Yeah on the hysterectomy though I’m sorry you needed one. I had mine last year, followed a few months later with a lift and reduction. Doc had said that drains were not likely for that one but I woke up with them anyway - and they never produced more than a few drops a day, so they were totally unnecessary.
I was stuck with Old Faithful, the last of the 4 drains, until just 3 days ago.
I look at last year’s surgeries as dry runs for this one, though kind of like breaking a foot bone is a dry run for a compound tib/fib fracture…