After being on a clear liquid diet (water, clear juice or soda, jello, & chicken or vegetable broth) for 2 days and fasting after midnight my husband, mother and I arrived at the hospital at 7:30 AM. My surgery was scheduled at 9:30. I brought a bag with my robe, slippers, and books (but wound up not using anything except a set of loose fitting clothes).
We were called back to the pre-op room shortly after we got there and only one person could accompany me. During this two hours many people came into the room (each one verifying my name, birthday, surgery, etc.). My vitals were checked, a urine sample was obtained, blood was drawn, some leg massaging devices were put on my calves to help prevent blood clots during and after surgery, and the anesthesiologist came in about 10 minutes before the surgery to ask a few final history questions and then take me down the hall for surgery.
I was told previously to notify the anesthesiologist of any history of motion sickness and made sure to tell her that I get significant sea-sickness. (I'm glad I remembered because I have heard of people having horrible nausea and vomiting immediately after anesthesia which would be very painful just having gone through abdominal surgery)
The case before mine went a little long so I didn't go back until about 10:15. My husband said the hardest part of the whole day was seeing me wheeled toward the operating room. The last thing I remember is starting to feel a little drowsy and seeing the OR around me and talking with the physician's assistant.
After about an hour of "set-up" the surgeon called my husband to say the robot was fired up and my surgery would be starting. I believe after that it was only an hour and a half of actual surgery time until my husband and mother were notified that the surgery had gone very well and I would be brought up to the surgical recovery floor where they could meet me.
When I started waking up my first thoughts were: "Wow, that was fast!" and "Hmmm, I don't feel any pain". I remember being told they were taking me up to a room on the 8th floor. The next thing I remember was hearing my husband and mom talking and then being aware of severe dryness of my mouth, throat and sinus passages. The ice chips my husband gave me helped a lot but I was soon begging for them to take the oxygen out of my nose each time I was conscious. Initially, I don't remember being in much pain but I wasn't moving at all. As I started to become more alert, I had a feeling like there was a large piece of tissue stuck in the back of my throat (which wound up being swelling of my uvula - the piece that hangs down in the back of your throat). I started slowly drinking some ice water and was able to hold it down. I had gotten the idea that I might be able to go home if I was able to hold food down and get up and walk around so later that evening I tried some chicken broth which didn't go very well. I vomited shortly after that which is pretty painful after a major abdominal surgery.
Later in the evening I was getting more pain and was being given oxycodone 1-2tabs every 4-6 hours and 3 advil every 6-8 hours. This worked okay until after I woke at around 3am with horrible pain across my chest, I felt panicky because the pain medication wasn't helping and I had to take very shallow breaths due to the pain. It was worse since I was alone after telling my family they should go home to sleep. My husband arrived in about 15 minutes and the nurse put me back on an IV and gave me morphine which finally relieved the pain. She told me the pain in my chest was from "gas" which I didn't understand at the time.
NOTE: the worst pain I had shortly after the surgery was from the CO2 gas that is injected during laparoscopic procedures. It takes awhile for your body to rid itself of this gas and it caused me significant chest and upper back pain. For the first few days, the more I got up to move, the more pain I would get in my chest from this gas. So getting up and around which can help speed recovery was a double edged sword the first few days.
Early the next morning my nurse tried to help me sit up and I vomited most of the fluid I had drank so I was put back on an IV for fluids. Later in the morning around 10am I was finally able to stand for a little while and then later I walked a short distance around the floor. I ordered a hard boiled egg and black coffee and was able to hold it down. My physician's assistant came to check on my incisions and make sure I had bowel noises and approved my release from the hospital. I was told my catheter would stay in for 1-2 weeks until my follow-up.
So I was wheeled downstairs and on the way home 1 day after my surgery.
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