after the surgery

I hate needles.  I have grown to accept shots, but giving blood is the worst.  To me an IV isn't quite as bad as giving blood.  But it was what I was most scared of.

The IV was over in no time.  I told the doctor I will wake up sick, please be ready with drugs.  He said no problem.  They then gave my IV some drug that felt like hot fluid.  I could feel it move up my arm and to the rest of my body.  They then began to push me down the hall.  I told the doctor last time I had surgery I wanted to fight off the sleepiness.  He smiled and said "we always win don't we?" ;-)

Next thing I know a nurse is whispering in my ear we are done.

I was told I could not have any moisture in my mouth until I had a leak test the next morning.  My mouth was as dry as sand paper.

I was sick, and a few time tried unsuccessfully to throw up.  The nausea medication was worthless however I found the pain kills did stop the nausea.  I think my gutted stomach was interpreting pain as sickness and the pain kills worked to stop that.  So every few hours I asked the nurse for more pain meds.  They always give it without question.  Don't feel guilty about the narcotics, you've been gutted like a fish.

One problem for me was my Chinese.  Due to the drugs I kept sliding in and out of English and Chinese.  The second day the nurse asked my wife if I could speak english!!!  Then they took me to due the leak test along with the other patients.

Wow!  all of the other patients looks worse than me, all nauseous!  They had and swallow a table spoon of contrast (not bad tasting) and snap three photos.  Then back to bed thank God!  20 mins later they said I had to drink water.  This changed everything!  Within 5 mins I went from never wanting to leave my hospital bed and IV to thinking about heading home.  They water made me feel good!

By the third day I was back to 99%.  It was on this day they let me see my stomach.  I was shocked!  It was and is the size of a pencil!  No wonder I am on a liquid diet.  I thought I could start sneak drinking blended soups.  No way a chocolate milk doesn't want to go down.  They said it will take a month for the stomach to repair itself and become strong.  Then my stomach should look like a hot dog.  However they warned me pushing my stomach in the next month could result in death.  I want to avoid that.

I have found that two table spoons for now fills me up.  However I can get twice that much water by my stomach.

I still don't know how to read my stomach.  It is like the feelings from before don't match up with what makes it happy.  Oh well it will Probably keep changing.

Today I was 205.