The First Day of Forever

Friday October 17 was my big Sleeve day. The first day of the rest of my life.

My mom and I arrived in San Diego around 11am on Thursday October 16 and we were picked up shortly after by the HMN Hospital driver. There were 5 patients on the bus, myself included. After about a 25 minute drive into Tijuana and another 15 minutes from the border, we arrived at HMN Hospital. I was incredibly nervous, even though I knew that this wasn't the actual day, but I knew this was the official start of my new life. Each of us patients had to get some blood drawn and have an EKG done. After that we headed to the beautiful Hotel Ticuan. I was told to expect a phone call later in the evening to let me know what time I had to be in the lobby to be picked up the next morning for surgery. At around 4:30 ish in the afternoon we heard from a woman who was on the same bus, had already been told her pick up time. So after picking up some water and other snacks for my mom at a nearby convenience store we immediately went back to our room to call to find out when my pick up time was. It was 10:00!

After a restless nights sleep, I woke up around 8:30. I was nervous as can be. I was even doubting whether or not I was making the right decision for myself. After a quiet morning of getting ready we made it down to the hotel lobby. 15 minutes early, and we were the only ones there. I thought that was a bit weird. Then right at 10:00 a fellow patient made it down and we all started talking. The driver didn't arrive until almost 10:30! We made it to the hospital and after about 15 minutes of waiting myself and the other patient that rode in with me, were called to a room with beds in it to change into our incredibly fashionable hospital gowns. Our legs were wrapped up and our IV was put in and we were told we had an hour. An hour and a half later our surgeon Dr. Almanza came in and greeted us. He was super nice and told us about our procedure and took pictures with us. We were dying to know who was first up, so we asked. It was ME! Ahh! My nerves on a scale of 1-10 went from 10 to off the chart! I think I was even shaking a little. This was my first surgery EVER.

A nurse held onto my arm and escorted me up this small elevator onto the surgery floor. She left me in this recovery room where 2 other patients I had met the day before were in recovery. I saw one of the patients had a tube down her throat, I already knew I wasn't going to like that, but I was gonna be knocked out so I was hoping I wouldn't even notice when it came to my recovery time. After about 5 minutes another nurse came and escorted me to the actual surgery room. I walked in and was pointed to my surgery gurney/table thing. I climbed up and laid down on the table. At this point I was so scared/nervous that I was almost in tears. They pulled my arms out and wrapped them with gauze so I couldn't move. The anesthesiologist came over and tried to make light conversation but because I was a sentence away from full on tears, my words were short. He asked where I was from and I said Rialto, and that was it.

I barely woke up in the same recovery room, and from what I saw earlier.. I knew I had a tube in my throat. I didn't like it and wanted it out STAT! I could barely open my eyes and couldn't talk so I decided to make make as much noise as I could muster up. After what seemed like a few short minutes a nurse came by and took it out. Next thing I knew I was being wheeled back to my room. I was really out of it but I knew my mom was there so I felt better knowing she was right beside me. My chest was hurting a lot more than I ever imagined. I was told it was gas pain, so my mom immediately started feeding me Gas-X Strips like they were candy. I burped a little but not nearly enough to subside this awful pain. I'm not sure how much time had passed but it was time for me to get up and start walking. My mom and I walked the halls on and off until she was forced to leave at 10:00pm. I got up a few more times throughout the night and walked on my own but this pain was out of control. Everytime a nurse would come in with pain meds I asked to make sure this was normal. When I had come back in January with my mom, the gas pains was something she feared the most. But when it came down to it, she didn't experience the gas pain like I had. So needless to say my expectation was more like what my mom had gone through. I didn't fully prepare myself as to how bad it could possibly get. And this? this was the WORST.

After what seemed like the longest night of my life, with the worst sleep Ever! It was finally morning. We were told we would be leaving at 9:00 to head back to the hotel. So I asked for some extra nausea medication for the van ride back because I was super nervous to get in a car at this point. I slowly got myself dressed and ready to go, but fell back asleep waiting for our time to go, and I apparently missed out on an otter pop! When we got out to the van I asked the driver to please go nice and SLOW, and thank goodness he did. I made it up to the hotel room and was exhausted. I drank a little bit of water with a couple Gas-X strips and went to sleep. After my nap my mom insisted we go walking to help relieve some of this gas pain I was still experiencing. The walk helped but didn't make it go away.

Sunday was the leak test day. Something else that was weighing on me. We had to drink this dye early in the morning, it wasn't TERRIBLE, but it wasn't good either. But once we made it to the X-Ray place we had to drink this Barium solution, and this was DISGUSTING. BUT I did it and passed my leak test! In my X-Ray there was this cloudy/fog looking mess all over it.. turns out, this was all the gas that was giving me trouble since surgery night! So my goal for the day was to walk as much as possible, and to burp as much as possible. I was OVER this gas pain. We walked a total of 3.5 miles up and down the streets of TJ looking for a pharmacy for friends who had placed a medicine order prior to the trip. I was exhausted by the end of it all,  but I was also proud of myself for sticking it out and not giving up.

Finally it was Monday morning, time to go home. I was again nervous about being in the car. But LUCKILY we waited a total of 3 minutes at the border! Bumps were not fun but we made it to the airport in what seemed like record time. I put a pillow in the backseat of my car for the 2 hour car ride home. This definitely saved me when going over rough patches and bumps. We made it home in 1hr 45 min. I was at first scared to go home fearing my pets would be all over me. But once they got over the initial excitement of me being home, they were fine and it felt SO good to be home.