Surgery is never simple or easy. They’re cutting you open. I did everything to prepare myself, but the fact is, my body was hurting. I woke up in the hospital room. My mind is completely blank from when they put in my IV and when I woke up in my room. I have no idea how much time passed.
Antonio was with me the whole time. I realized I had no concept of where he was while I was in surgery. I know he worries, and I worried about him worrying. He stayed with me in the hospital room after I woke up. I had my bed, and he had his bed. I swear he slept more than I did. That man works so hard. He needed rest!
They tell you to get up and walk every hour or so. It helps release the gas. The sleeve consists in removing most of your stomach. The body is used to creating the same amount of gas, but now the gas has no where to go, so you have to walk to release it. The first walk I went on, Antonio held me up and I trudged slowly down the hall, with my faithful little IV pole.
One thing that you know is going to happen, but you don’t realize what it actually means is that you can’t swallow anything that first day. Nothing. I found myself accidentally swallowing spit. Every time I did, I would dry heave until the spittle came back up. I carried around a spit cup with me to avoid this, but I was still in acute pain. A friend had told me that I would feel like I was run over by a truck. I didn’t realize how big that truck would be. Because I had been forewarned, I didn’t complain to anyone about the pain or the nausea.
To describe the pain, I will just say this. Every time I would dry heave, I would feel relief and distraction from the other pain. That’s how bad it was. Dry heaving was my relief.
That evening, I asked Antonio for a blessing. He blessed me that within hours I would find relief. Two hours later, a sweet nurse who barely spoke English came in and looked at me and at my IV fluids. She tutted and said, “Are you hurting?” I tried to nod. She fiddled with my IV and with the bags. “You’re not getting your pain medication or your antinausea meds. Here, I will fix it.” AND SHE DID!!!
Apparently, I was supposed to be on pain meds. Apparently, I was not.
We gave her a tip and thanked her profusely. She is my favorite person in the world.
The next day, I continued to feel better. I was walking by myself with my trusty IV stand. I took a ramp to the second level of the clinic and talked to the nurses and the custodial staff. One woman was singing so sweetly. I learned how to say, “I like your voice!” in Spanish. “Canto muy bonito.” By the end of the day, I noticed the nurses had put a heart next to my name on the patient board. This made me so happy!
They did the leak test to make sure the surgery was performed properly. Everything looked good. On Sunday morning, after two full days in the clinic, they removed my drain and IV. I finally showered, and they let us return to our luxurious room at the Marriott.
The Daily Observations of Genesis Eve Garcia 