Monday, July 26, 2010

My new magic number

Yesterday, I took another step towards my weight loss surgery goal. I had an upper GI endoscopy done at Vanderbilt. I have to say first off that Vanderbilt is a phenomenal hospital and that overall they really have some great facilities, great staff, and they really want it to be patient center. I can totally relate as my world is student centered and holistic so I jive with the place. My husband drove me to my appointment in Nashville and there the real journey began. Vanderbilt is huge and up till then I had not been to the main hospital but one of the other centers in Nashville. The garage parking was better than any event or airport parking I've seen and they have free valet parking. [side note: our first valet parking as a married couple was at a hospital!] the check-in process complete I begin the wait.

I brought along my hello kitty along because let me be honest I needed my anxiety helper. I hadn't been allowed to take any anxiety meds for going on 12 hours and I was extremely anxious, my blood pressure high, and I was incredibly thirsty all that makes an unhappy Lissa, but I'm making the best of it until the vampires got me. The nurse that was assigned to my pre-op was not the best in finding IVs. Now, in all fairness of this next piece - I did tell her that I was an extremely hard stick and that it would be a challenge. This usually scares them and they get someone who can actually do that job, but yesterday this was not the case. 6 yes 6 pokes later I finally get an IV (thank you charge nurse) and the experience was horrible. I had an attempt in my fore finger on my writing hand, another try for a regular hand iv in my writing hand, a try in my left fore finger area, and one if my left forearm where then the anesthesiologist stepped in and was like let's try your foot. It wasn't like I was getting a tattoo (and even if I ever had a dream of a foot tattoo it is now gone the experience was unpleasant to say it nicely).

The anesthesiologist was prepping my foot and I had a major anxiety attack. All of the prodding and poking to get an iv to be able to take blood to test for a pregnancy test prior to an endoscopy because urine wasn't good enough. I was overwhelmed, this nurse was hovering and trying to cool me down when I'm in a full blown out loud, crying, heavy breathing meltdown of an attack scared the doctor! If it hadn't been for my husband I don't know what I would of done. He is so used to grounding me and all I remember is me crying, my muscles tensing, and then remembering his eyes. I must have watched his eyes forever [ kinda reminded me of the day we got married...those were the actual thoughts going through my head ] and here he is getting me to breathe, relax, calm down, while all the trained medical personnel were no help at all.

IV is finally in and 6 might be my new magic number. Here is the catch THEY DIDN'T EVEN TAKE BLOOD FOR A PREGNANCY TEST AFTER ALL THAT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aside that everything else was okay overall. The procedure went fine and my surgeon is phenomenal. I found out that I'm officially 285.0 lbs even and that makes me feel great. My sugar was also 115 on fasting which is GREAT! My surgeon encouraged me and told me about the light at the end of the tunnel and that we are moving along. He has great bedside manner and this makes me more excited for the future procedures for that aspect alone. The procedure only took about 10 to 15 minutes after I was asleep, but you would of never known that since I spent 10:30 to around 4:30 at the hospital. It was an experience. One step closer to being a healthier me.

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