Had my hernia surgery on Monday. Turned out to be tiny, requiring only one stitch and no mesh. It was sore afterwards, but I only needed painkillers through Tuesday. Wish I could stop Gatito from poking at it, though.
This was weird: So many people (nurse, anesthesiologist, resident, etc., etc., etc.) asked me what i was there for and medically technical details I couldn’t answer. Finally I just said, "Don’t you know?" I don’t know if that’s standard procedure, but it’s a little off-putting because it makes it seem like the people caring for me don’t know what’s going on!
Anesthesiologist was a total bitch, actually calling into question the competency of my surgeon. (For the record, this made me question her competency, not his.) Then when she went to insert the IV, she kept up this running dialogue that went something like this: "Oh, you have such tiny veins. Hmm, this is going to be hard. I can’t find one. Hmm, here’s one, but I can’t tell where it goes. Oops, I think I blew that one. You have such tiny veins." During which I was crying in pain, so she says to the nurse, "Oooh, we better give her a sedative to relax her. She’s so nervous." I should have kicked her the hell out. The the nurse in the OR had to re-do the IV just before they started the surgery anyway because it was so painful.
After that, everything went smoothly. I was under a sedative and local anesthesia, I dozed for the first half of the surgery and then woke up and chattered away. I have this bizarre memory in which I bragged about and invited the surgeon at the end to check out my awesome (because it is practically invisible) c-section scar. Why did I do that? Was it completely out of context? How embarrassing!
Anyway, anesthesiologist aside, no big deal, easy recovery, and now I don’t have to worry about the hernia getting worse. I was bummed to learn that I will not get an outtie if I get pregnant again. I kind of liked my soft, soft, outtie, and how easy it was to clean!
Wow! You handled that fast! I have had it with f’ers who can’t find a vein. Ridiculous.
Glad it went so smoothly.
Wow! You handled that fast! I have had it with f’ers who can’t find a vein. Ridiculous.
Glad it went so smoothly.
You had surgery without telling us? Probably a good idea. I would have worried about you all day. Glad it all ended well.
I’m glad that it went well….but the running commentary sounds awful!!
Eek. I just hate hearing stories like yours. Health care professionals should not be treating their patients that way! But I’m glad it is over and all went well, despite the vein butchering.
Eek. I just hate hearing stories like yours. Health care professionals should not be treating their patients that way! But I’m glad it is over and all went well, despite the vein butchering.
You’ll recall that under sedation, I ranted about whores and porn! At least it wasn’t an episiotomy scar you were showing off!
When I had my lap they asked me over and over who my doctor was and what I was there for. I felt like you, shouldn’t someone other than ME know since you’re sedating me? I think they do it as a system of checks.
I’m glad it went well and that your recovery has been easy. Stop poking, Gatito!
Glad it went well!
Glad to hear all went well.
Glad to hear all went well.
I’m sorry about the crappy anesthesiologist but glad everything else went well. I’ve often wondered what all I said while under sedation for my IVF retrievals. I’m sure I had some good ones like that, too, but I never could remember.
Oh that is GREAT news. I am so glad it was so minor. The anesthesiologist can suck it though.
Glad that’s over & went ok. Turns out I’ve got one of those, too (umbilical hernia, not awful anasthesiologist, yet). I wonder if it will go away on its own after baby’s out, or if I’ll need surgery as well…
What a bitch! Every anesthesiologist I have ever had were smooth operators, easily poking my hard to find one vein with very little pain at all. Quack.
Glad to hear the surgery went well. You could have said something worse to the doc. I am sure they hear it all when people are on those drugs! Good stuff!
Oh, and it seems that G is just bursting with new words! How fun!
That is the BEST part of pregnancy – the easy belly-button access!
I loved that!
Good to hear that all went well with the surgery – the things we say when we are ‘going down’.
When I had my surgery (2 weeks today for ectopic pregnancy) my anast. kept asking me questions about my kids. Still bugs me that I could not remeber their names as I “went out”. I wish he would have just let me count backwards from 100 instead of asking me about my kids. That was mean…
It still bugs me. My kids are my life, and I feel horrible that I had no idea which of my kids was the oldest…
That is the BEST part of pregnancy – the easy belly-button access!
I loved that!
Good to hear that all went well with the surgery – the things we say when we are ‘going down’.
When I had my surgery (2 weeks today for ectopic pregnancy) my anast. kept asking me questions about my kids. Still bugs me that I could not remeber their names as I “went out”. I wish he would have just let me count backwards from 100 instead of asking me about my kids. That was mean…
It still bugs me. My kids are my life, and I feel horrible that I had no idea which of my kids was the oldest…
I’m so happy this is done and over with and things went well. I’ve got my own war stories about anesthesiologists and I keep reminding myself that doctors are scientists and that maybe that medical yin is what keeps their bedside manner yang from being much better. No excuse though.
I’ve had some bad anesthesiologist experiences, too. Maybe they don’t get the bedside manner classes in medical school because no one thinks they’ll need them. But I’m glad you came through the surgery so well. Happy healing!
I’ve had some bad anesthesiologist experiences, too. Maybe they don’t get the bedside manner classes in medical school because no one thinks they’ll need them. But I’m glad you came through the surgery so well. Happy healing!
Glad everything went well! I know your pain with dealing with incompetant doctors though, isn’t it just sad.
When I was being prepped for my c-section they had started sterilizing my abdomen and the nurse told me that she was now “exposing my abdomen to clean it” well silly me decided to tellthe whole room that she was “exposing ALOT more than that” since my gown was lifted completely up. The whole room of 5 “teams” of doctors/nurses had a great laugh. Ahh… gotta love those drugs.
SO glad it all went relatively smoothly. Did you end up with a nasty bruise from the stupid IV?
My pregnant outtie went in and out when I laughed…
Glad to hear the repairs went well, and wishing you a speedy recovery, without too much more ppoking from Gatito. =)
You wrote:
“So many people (nurse, anesthesiologist, resident, etc., etc., etc.) asked me what i was there for and medically technical details I couldn’t answer. Finally I just said, “Don’t you know?” I don’t know if that’s standard procedure, but it’s a little off-putting because it makes it seem like the people caring for me don’t know what’s going on!”
I remember the same kind of thing after I had my son by c-section. Obviously, they knew why I was on the maternity ward – and on the whole, the care I received was marvelous – but some of the nurses would come in and ask questions along those lines. For instance: Nurse: Oh, you want your IV port out? Me: Um, no, the doctor told me last night that he was giving me my last dose of IV pain meds, and that this morning, I should buzz the nurse to have the port removed. (I didn’t just DECIDE to ask you to take it out.) Granted, in isolation, that’s nothing: and I’m sure that each time, they were just making sure we were all on the same page. But that particular one was the last in a string of frustrating questions along the same lines (Oh, you get how much aldomet? When was your last (whatever)? Etc.?). It made me feel like people weren’t paying attention, and like one shift of nurses wasn’t talking to the next, and I felt like I had to be hypervigilant. Not that vigilance from patients is bad – even the best nurses and doctors are human. But there I was, recovering from a hard induction, pre-eclampsia and c-section…and getting really frustrated at having to tell people how to take care of me, or having to explain what the doctors told me the night before, or how the nurse from the night shift said to ask the morning nurses to do X. I wondered if I’d be getting more help if I actually didn’t take as much responsibility for my own care – if I started answering questions with, “I don’t know. What does my chart say?”
And I’m sorry about the anesthesia experience. The guy who did my spinal was FABULOUS, and very pleasant to talk to during the c-section, even if it was a bit disconcerting to have him lean over me upside down from where he was sitting at my head. At least he was trying to be polite and look me in the eye when he talked with me, right? =)