I have been feeling very compelled to share my cystectomy journey in the hopes of helping others who have to go through this! Honestly, I had NO idea what to expect, and with me usually being a planner I discovered there were a LOT more things I could/should have done to prepare myself for this crazy journey ahead! I plan on doing this for 30 days straight, and then we'll see after that. I'll be writing some of this in arears, so to speak, as I catch up to my current time of 10 days post-surgery. But I will date my entries with the date I am writing about, and once I'm caught up, it should be current date. So here we go!
Today was surgery day. We arrived at Tampa General Hospital at around 9:30am for robotic surgery (supposedly consisting of 4 holes in my stomach) scheduled at 12:25pm. This was supposed to be about a 5 hour long surgery, with 3-5 days in the hospital and then a 4-6 week recovery. After checking in and waiting around a LOT, surgery finally got underway sometime after 1pm. I think the surgery lasted right about the 5 hours long it was expected to, and the surgeons came out and told my husband and daughter that everything went great and that I'd be in recovery for a bit and then they could come back and see me. Evidently, they kept being told it would be 'just a bit' before they could come back and see me, and I think over 2 hours later they were finally let into the recovery room. I had an ng tube coming out of my nose - didn't expect that! I also had what is called a JP drain which is a tube with a bulb on the end of it coming out of the left side of my belly - didn't expect that either! And I was vaginally draining like a waterfall - didn't expect that as well! I was mostly out of it so I don't remember very much of this day. They finally took me to my room and what would become my lovely abode for a bit longer than we expected. Stay tuned!
Today was surgery day. We arrived at Tampa General Hospital at around 9:30am for robotic surgery (supposedly consisting of 4 holes in my stomach) scheduled at 12:25pm. This was supposed to be about a 5 hour long surgery, with 3-5 days in the hospital and then a 4-6 week recovery. After checking in and waiting around a LOT, surgery finally got underway sometime after 1pm. I think the surgery lasted right about the 5 hours long it was expected to, and the surgeons came out and told my husband and daughter that everything went great and that I'd be in recovery for a bit and then they could come back and see me. Evidently, they kept being told it would be 'just a bit' before they could come back and see me, and I think over 2 hours later they were finally let into the recovery room. I had an ng tube coming out of my nose - didn't expect that! I also had what is called a JP drain which is a tube with a bulb on the end of it coming out of the left side of my belly - didn't expect that either! And I was vaginally draining like a waterfall - didn't expect that as well! I was mostly out of it so I don't remember very much of this day. They finally took me to my room and what would become my lovely abode for a bit longer than we expected. Stay tuned!
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