The morning of surgery was crazy I for the life of me could not stop shaking because I was so nervous and jumpy. I could not believe that by the end of the day I would have crossed over finally to being a post-op and that all the struggling that I had went through to get this surgery would be over. My mom, step-dad and I left the house early to get to the hospital early. We got there before 8 am and met Jennifer who came down from the twin cities to sit with my family while I was in surgery. When we got there we checked in and were sent down to the lab so I could get final blood work done. And then had to go and sit and wait for them to take us up to the pre-op are. Which they finally, we went up and they lead me into a room and told me to change into a gown and put my belongings in a bag. They also wanted my CPAP machine and so my mom had to go down and get it and also had to meet my grandparents and the rest of my family and show them where I was. Jen sat with me the whole time and talked with me and took pictures until a nurse said that we not supposed to be doing pictures. But it didn't much matter because they finally came to get me on a
gurney to take me down to the holding area just before they take you into the O.R. It was weird because after I got on the gurney all of my family gathered around me to give me hugs and kisses and to say they loved me. I started laughing because they all looked like they were going to cry (some of them were). I laughed out loud and said, "Ya all are acting like I am going to die or something." but they didn't think that that was too funny. So anyways I was taken down to the holding area where the anesthetist guy came and talked to me and took a look at my throat and neck and told me what they were going to do and explained the epidural and that when I woke up I would have tubes coming out of my neck and stomach and other places. Nurses kept coming by to ask me questions and so did a couple of other people. They finally took me into the operating room and had me get off the gurney and sit on the operating table so that they could put in the epidural. I had to lean forward and a nurse held my hands and talked to me while they jabbed me in the back. Once that was done they had me lay down and sprayed some really nasty stuff down my throat to numb it so that they
could intubate me while I was awake. I really hated it, then they knocked me out. I have been told that when they opened me up and were doing my surgery they discovered that I had stones lodged in my gallbladder and so they removed them and my gallbladder they also found an umbilical hernia which they repaired and while doing so they stole my bellybutton (HAHAHAHA). But otherwise things went well. My step-dad said that my surgery took about six hours and that I then spent about three hours in recovery before they took me up to ICU. I don't remember anything from the time they intubated me Friday until Monday. But I have been told that I gave one of the night nurses a run for his money to the point where he ended up having to put me in restraints because I was trying to pull everything out. I was also told that I was having problems with my blood pressure and that they had to give me meds for it. My step-dad also told me that one time when he was in there that I grabbed a hold of his hand and wouldn't let go when he tried to leave so others could come in to visit. He said that it took an hour before I would let him go.
