The past few weeks have been relatively normal. I am no longer working. My employers and I decided that it was best for me to stay at home and gain as much strength as possible before my upcoming surgery. The last few weeks of work had become really difficult for me. Between the blacking out, the dehydration, the headaches, the chest heaviness and feel weak, it was all becoming too much.
I met with my anesthesiologist and surgeon on August 25th for pre-op. We covered everything from the blacking out and high pulse rates to my dehydration and issues with finding veins on the day of surgery. We talked about the whole "cleaning out" process. Before he had mentioned drinking two gallons of Golytely but luckily he changed his mind. We talked about it and I told him that I'd try it but I just didn't think that I could physically fit all of that liquid into my stomach since you drink it in fifteen to twenty minute increments per gallon. When I did a gallon of Golytely for my colonoscopy, I could not do the entire gallon because it literally would not fix into my stomach due to the slow emptying of my stomach. Tests later showed that I had trouble with liquids.
He came to the conclusion that I would do a round of magnesium citrate then switch over to the Golytely. Just knowing that I don't have two gallons to drink makes me feel so much better. I asked about my diet after surgery; when would I be starting liquids and solids? He told me that he was leaving everything up to me (THANK YOU!).
This brought me to my next question; a feeding tube. We have talked about having a J-tube which is a feeding tube that is put in your small intestines put in. He said the only issue with having a J-tube is that I will be sick.... every darn day. If I start my feedings at 10pm, by 2am I will be up sick. I have spent enough time in the bathroom, I'd like to take a break. I told my doctor I didn't want that. He said that it would be a continual thing and that I'd never get any rest. He would contact my GI doctor to discuss other options being either a G-tube or TPN.
We were finishing up the appointment and my doctor said there was one last thing, there was a conflict with the surgical date. He needed to reschedule. WHAT?!?! I automatically started thinking about dates. This is a surgeon's office at a hospital who is very, very busy. I. AM. IN. BIG. TROUBLE!! Luckily he came back in the room with date, September 20th... thirteen days away from the previous surgical date. He apologized, it was out of his control. When we got out of the office I looked at Jacob - SEPTEMBER 20!! I've been cleaning out for fifteen months and waiting on surgery since March. Yes, it's just thirteen more days but I was ready then.
Needless to say, I got over the anger and frustration. There was nothing I could do about it. It gave me thirteen more days of being pain free. Who wants post-op pain right? The time is going by quicker than I thought it would. I can't wait for September 20th to get here, I'm ready to have it behind me. Everything right now revolves around this date. I'm just ready to start the recovery process and begin to feel better even though it will be a struggle at first.
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