It's done!
2006-10-04 - 2:35 p.m.

The surgery was a success! Thanks to everyone who sent me good wishes, prayers and happy thoughts. They worked. :)

Here's how it went yesterday: I had to be at the doctor's office at 9:00 to get prepped for surgery at 10:00. B drove me there, came in with me for a few minutes to make sure they knew he'd be back later to get me, then he left and they took me back to start preparing. I got into a hospital gown, footie-things and a hair net and then spoke with the anesthesiologist and some other lady - I can't remember what her title was. They both went over how things were going to proceed with me and asked me a bunch of medical history questions and the like. Oh, I forgot, the plastic surgeon came to see me first to draw on me, and the first thing he said was, "For someone who has a low platelet count, you sure are a good bleeder!" In fact, he said my bleeding time was better than average. Go figure. So he said there should be no problem with bleeding. Whew.

I got hooked up to an IV, which was put in on the thumb-side of my right hand and not the top of my hand, thank goodness, then I was taken to the operating room. They tried to spray some kind of aneseptic stuff on me, but neither of their spray bottles would work, so they ended up just wiping me down with sponges. I layed down on the table and the anesthesiologist said, "I'm going to put such-and-such in your IV now, okay?" I'm not sure now what she said, but I said sure, and about a half second later I said, "Wow, I feel dizzy!" She said, "Boy, you are a lightweight, aren't you?" Then she put a mask over my face and told me to breathe deeply, and next thing I remember I was sipping ginger ale in the recovery room.

Unfortunately, I was in a lot of pain in the recovery room. My thighs were killing me, so they had me eat a cracker and take a pain pill. B got there at some point - not sure when exactly, because I was really out of it, and the plastic surgeon stopped in a few times to talk to us and told B everything went great. He said he took out 8 pounds of fat! Can you believe that? Wow! I was really excited to hear that. The more the better, I say. :)

I was still in a lot of pain when they let B take me home, so when we got home I went to bed and dozed for a couple hours. I felt somewhat better when I woke up and I've been feeling much better since then. It mostly hurts when I move, so if I stay still I feel fine.

They put me in a compression garment (big girdle) after surgery and it's a little uncomfortable because I'm swollen and it's tight, but it's supposed to be. The only thing is, they put the damn thing on me backwards! It's got an open crotch so I can go to the bathroom without taking it off, but B noticed that it was actually covered up my butt in the back and open in the front, where it didn't need to be. Duh. So today B called the plastic surgeon's office and asked if we could take it off and turn it around. We wanted to make sure because I wasn't supposed to take it off until tomorrow or Friday, when I'm allowed to shower, and then I have to put it right back on. They said that was fine, so we managed to get the garment turned around, but man was it a hassle. First of all, it's really tight, and second, there are pieces of foam stuck inside at various places to keep my skin from getting weird creases and they were really hard to keep in place while trying to squeeze back into the garment.

I did get nauseated a few times yesterday after I tried to eat, but so far today (knock on wood) I've not gotten sick. I haven't been real hungry but I've been drinking lots of water and juice and B made me some mashed potatoes. They really taste good, but I'm only able to eat a little bit at a time.

Even though I'm swollen, I can already see a difference, especially in my hips. B said I looked really tiny when I stood up to leave the doctor's office yesterday, but by the time we got home I'd already swelled up quite a bit, so B got a sneak-peek of what I'll look like once the swelling goes down for good.

So that's the scoop for now. I go back for a follow-up appointment on Monday and until then I'll just be taking it easy and trying to drink lots of fluids. Thank God B is here with me. He's been such an angel taking care of me. I really hated that he had to clean up after me when I got sick yesterday, but he didn't seem to mind too much. He probably didn't enjoy having to touch my disgusting garment when we turned it around earlier today, either, but he hid it pretty well. (It's all gross from the leakage I talked about.) It'll be nice to be able to take it off and wash it tomorrow or Friday.

Thanks again for the kind words and good wishes from you guys. It really means a lot!

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