Well, here I am with surgery behind me and on the mend. The operation was about 8 1/2 hours! Quite a bit longer than initially expected. A complication was that I had 2 hernia's fixed, 1 in 2002 and 1 in 2006, and the meshing used to fix the hernia had been grown over by the outside wall of my bladder. So, the doctor had to spend quite a bit of extra time to disentangle the mesh from my bladder wall. Then the reconstruction surgeon, who happens to be the wife of my primary surgeon, took some extra time to get the new bladder in a good position with the inputs and outputs all lining up, as it were. All in all, surgery day was a long day.
It started at 4:15 AM when we left home, arriving at the hospital just before 6:00. I went in the OR about 8:30 and came out just before 5 PM. I came-to in recovery about 8 PM and saw 3 of the 4 faces I care most about, in front of me and I knew I'd made it. Sue and Frank, stalwarts that they are, having gone through breakfast, lunch and dinner, were there and Ritchie, who came later, was there. Dominic, had visited just a week or so before surgery was of course in Chicago though in constant contact - text and phone- with Sue all day since we arrived at the hospital. Anyway, the trio finally left the city I think about 8:30 PM that evening. Some experience for us all.
Generally, my recovery is going quite well. I had a minor little setback last weekend, on Saturday, when I had a build up of stomach gas and acids. I had to have a thing called a Nasal-Gastric tube put in place. Here's what they do -shove a plastic tube up your nose and down your throat and into the stomach. What a lovely experience that was -it took me a day and a half to stop gagging on the tube. The tube came out Wednesday and I started on a liquid diet Thursday. Quite a milestone to be able to resume drinking fluids again after 9 days. And today I actually had solid food! Wow, it's only been 11 days since I last ate a meal. Reckon I might have lost some weight... Actually I have lost about 10 lbs so far. And I'm told once I go home and am off the IV, I'll drop more since I wont have the fluid build-up and my appetite will not have come back. All par for the course.
I want to make a mention the staff at Sloan-Kettering who were all very nice, efficient and friendly yet professional. I never had a problem with any of them, but then I am a bit more self-sufficient than some others and do things for myself to get in and out of bed. I had a roommate who complained constantly and they eventually moved him to a private room, gratis, proving the squeaky wheel syndrome.
Anyway, if all goes as expected it's looking like I should go home on Saturday (tomorrow) -it will be great to get back to my own familiar surroundings and I think I'll recover better there too. Though I know recovery will be a rather slow process over the coming 2 to 3 months and I'll keep this blog updated as I go.
Be well to All,
Chris
It started at 4:15 AM when we left home, arriving at the hospital just before 6:00. I went in the OR about 8:30 and came out just before 5 PM. I came-to in recovery about 8 PM and saw 3 of the 4 faces I care most about, in front of me and I knew I'd made it. Sue and Frank, stalwarts that they are, having gone through breakfast, lunch and dinner, were there and Ritchie, who came later, was there. Dominic, had visited just a week or so before surgery was of course in Chicago though in constant contact - text and phone- with Sue all day since we arrived at the hospital. Anyway, the trio finally left the city I think about 8:30 PM that evening. Some experience for us all.
Generally, my recovery is going quite well. I had a minor little setback last weekend, on Saturday, when I had a build up of stomach gas and acids. I had to have a thing called a Nasal-Gastric tube put in place. Here's what they do -shove a plastic tube up your nose and down your throat and into the stomach. What a lovely experience that was -it took me a day and a half to stop gagging on the tube. The tube came out Wednesday and I started on a liquid diet Thursday. Quite a milestone to be able to resume drinking fluids again after 9 days. And today I actually had solid food! Wow, it's only been 11 days since I last ate a meal. Reckon I might have lost some weight... Actually I have lost about 10 lbs so far. And I'm told once I go home and am off the IV, I'll drop more since I wont have the fluid build-up and my appetite will not have come back. All par for the course.
I want to make a mention the staff at Sloan-Kettering who were all very nice, efficient and friendly yet professional. I never had a problem with any of them, but then I am a bit more self-sufficient than some others and do things for myself to get in and out of bed. I had a roommate who complained constantly and they eventually moved him to a private room, gratis, proving the squeaky wheel syndrome.
Anyway, if all goes as expected it's looking like I should go home on Saturday (tomorrow) -it will be great to get back to my own familiar surroundings and I think I'll recover better there too. Though I know recovery will be a rather slow process over the coming 2 to 3 months and I'll keep this blog updated as I go.
Be well to All,
Chris
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