Remembering Day 1

Video of Day 1

Video of Day 1 (Walking after surgery)

Trying to remember Day 1…

I was never hospitalized before this. Never experienced any significant physical pain. The worst pain I had felt prior to this was probably a sprained ankle. So when the doctors mentioned the pain scale rating with zero being no pain and ten the worst pain, I didn’t have much to go on. Assuming kidney stones and birth were at a ten, I had no idea what real pain was. They said that people usually rank this type of surgery at a four and that pain meds would bring it down to a one or two. Seemed very reasonable. When my nurses would ask me how I felt, I would just say it was a three or four.

The pain wasn’t that bad, really. It was all the drugs that did me in. I'm 26, 5'1" and weighed about 112 before surgery. My size definately influenced the way the anethesia affected me.

Swabbing with a green sponge-pop

When I woke up after the operation around 1 or 2:00 in the afternoon, I had no abdominal pain whatsoever. Of course, I wasn’t really moving all that much, but still. The lack of pain came as a surprise to my nurses talking over my swollen and drugged-out body. The only pain I was experiencing came from the breathing tube they put down your throat. One of my first memories afterward with my eyes open was swabbing my throat with a lime green sponge-pop only to find it covered in blood. They found some chloraseptic for me somewhere. I swallowed some which made my empty stomach upset. That was the extent of my pain until later that evening.

By 8 pm, I had gotten 3 shots of 1 mil morphine from my pain pump. I had only pushed the button once. The other two shots were preventative measure taken by the staff in anticipation of the pain. That is not a lot of pain meds for this kind of surgery. This was due to the effects of the anesthesia which totally kicked my butt. I could hardly open my eyes for about 24 hours, was incredibly groggy, felt a little sick to my stomach, but not in much pain from the incision until about 2 am. Even the next day, they had to put me on a morphine drip instead of the pump because I was too groggy to use the pump and would let the pain get a little tough.

I remember the transplant team coming into the recovery room to put a green bracelet on my swollen arm. I remember being very upset that I couldn’t open my eyes and discussing the possibility with my nurse Joe of not needing morphine entirely. (Ha!) I remember being so hot though my teeth were chattering. Someone tried to close a window because it felt cold in the room with the breeze from the window and the fan. I snapped at them, “If your cold, put on a sweater.”

The most difficult experience of that first day was walking, which they have everyone do the evening of the surgery. I felt so drugged up that I thought I was incapable of moving. They managed to get me up to walk to the door, but it took me a ridiculous amount of time (5 minutes? see video link) and was very uncomfortable. I could barely keep my eyes open.

That morning I remember being so calm. It was crazy how good I felt. No worries. No jitters or anxiety. Everyone with me was trying to hide their nervousness. Some didn’t do a very good job at that. It was funny to me that they were so worried and I was okay. I joked around with the doctors and asked to keep the purple marker they used to mark my side. ( The staff was great all through my stay.) They asked me a bunch of times what my name was, what I was doing today, did I have any allergies, and which kidney was being taken.  I had to do one, final pregnacy test before they could take me in. The last thing I remember before surgery was the shot of anesthesia, then being wheeled away into some cluttered room that I thought was a storage area. When I woke up, I told everyone that they wheeled me into a dirty storage room. (Ha!) Not the best memory.

The surgery was hand-assisted laparoscopy, so there were two one inch incisions for camera equipment and tools, one near my hip and one about 3 inches above my belly button. Then there was a 4 inch, question-mark-shaped incision made vertically around my belly button that the doctor would stick his hand in and take out the kidney. In order to move around in there, they pump you full of CO2.  This is partially what made me look so swollen in the face/neck. After surgery, the air rises into your chest and shoulders and usually causes a little bit of pain. Instead of staples or stitches, they glued me back together.

Pre-op photo shoot