Surgery Week In Review

This has been a life changing week for my wife. She had her gastric by pass surgery on Monday and is now home recovering. She's on the first phase of her new diet (clear liquids).

The surgery itself was probably the easiest part of her hospital stay. The procedure only took an hour and a half. Paula was in the recovery room nearly twice as long. That should have been sign to me that the anesthesia would be the most difficult part of her initial recovery. It would take two days for her to completely recover from it's effects.

Another unexpected complication was that she developed a fever. It spiked at 102 early on Monday afternoon and hung around until Tuesday morning. The nurses said that the fever was connected with the congestion in her lungs from the anesthesia. Paula had to frequently do breathing exercises with the plastic breathing gauge given to every surgery patient. She also had several breathing treatments to help clear her lungs.

On Tuesday a tornado warning for the Nashville area required that the nursing staff move all the patients in the hospital away from the glass windows in their room and into the hallways. This was very difficult for Paula because she was still in a lot of pain, having trouble sitting up and hadn't completely come out of the anesthesia. It was a long 45 minutes for her.

Now the typical stay after surgery is 2 days with the patient going home on the 3rd. The fever and a low red blood cell account in her blood work warranted Paula to stay a 3rd day.

Tuesday night I decided to come home to Smith's Grove and get some rest. Theresa, Paula's sister, stayed with her each night of her stay. She was a very valuable help to her sister and I will forever be grateful to her for her help.

When I arrived at the hospital on Wednesday it was a 100% turn around for Paula. She was alert and talking. She got up out of bed and started walking to the bathroom and around the halls. By the time I left early Wednesday evening her IV was removed and she was watching movies on her laptop computer.

Thursday morning she was released and got home about 12:30. She was very tired and slept quite a bit the first two days she was home. However she's doing very well. She is walking about the house and even out to the mailbox to get the mail.

Her liquid diet is going okay but she's finding that not all the protein powders agree with her. She's still finding out what does and doesn't work for her. Her fluid intake has been wonderful She's gotten down as much as 90 oz of fluids in a day.

So now it's a matter of time before she makes it through her 2 liquid phases of her initial diet and moves on to some "solid" foods. Right now she's dreaming of her first spoonful of cottage cheese and anything that doesn't have a fruity taste. Of course she's looking forward to losing weight on a regular basis as well.

Just want to let everyone know that we want to give God all the glory for watching over Paula through her entire hospital stay. I'm the first to say that the whole thing didn't go as smoothly as I thought it should and I was a bit frustrated at times.

But then God doesn't promise to do things the way we expect Him to do them. He does them the way he knows is best. We just have to have faith and trust in the knowledge that He loves us and we are always in His hands. It's my prayer that I grow into the kind of Christian who can fully trust God no matter what the circumstances.

All things said and done; once again, God has come through for us and we want to make sure we give Him all the Glory and Honor.