Right after surgery experience please

[mindyandy]

Could you please tell me what your 1st thought was right after surgery and how did you feel? Did you have translab or retro?
I did a search and found some post op stories that have helped. Some people say having wisdom teeth pulled was far worst than brain surgery and others say gallbladder surgery was far worst.
I'm just trying to get a feel for right after surgyer.

Thank you
Mindy

[Cheryl R]

My first words were always "I'm going to throw up"      I did some but not large amt and then was given nausea med so never was a big issue from then on.         You might be very sleepy that whole first night.      I never had much pain but some do.        Then for my self was just feeling weaker and getting myself feeling slower stronger.        I was never dizzy but some are.  I did not have double vision but my sight was blurry some.    I have had 4 surgeries due to NF2 each time has had it's own little different ways.       So really does vary and just make sure you tell your nurse how you feel so meds can be given if needed.                  Cheryl R

[Jim Scott]

Mindy ~

As you well know, everyone's experience will differ a bit but here's mine.

When I woke up (in the ICU) following a 9-hour AN debulking surgery I was very 'groggy' and fatigued but didn't feel much nausea.  All I really wanted to do was sleep, which I did, intermittently.  Sometime after I woke up, probably around 8 P.M., my neurosurgeon visited me and declared that I looked great and that the surgery went very well.  I hadn't thought to check for facial movement but he had me smile, blink, wink and basically demonstrate that I had full facial movement.  He also checked my eye movement and my hearing in the 'AN ear' (it was and remained defunct). Shortly after, my wife visited me (she hadn't left the hospital since I was admitted at 6:30 that morning).  I was happy to see her and she said that the doctor was thrilled with my apparent good outcome from the surgery.  She informed me that she planned to spend the night at the hospital.  I was unable to dissuade her but was touched by her concern and dedication.  The next 24 hours are a blur of nurses poking me, talking to my wife and sleeping, a lot.  I recall having some mild double vision during that time (I had trouble reading) but it cleared up within a few days, on it's own.  I started eating, lightly on my second day, post-op and my appetite returned by Day 3 following my surgery.  Also on Day 3, acquiescing to my pleas, my doctor removed my hot, heavy head dressing.   By Day 4 I felt much better, my catheter was removed and I was walking the hospital halls with my wife - and anxious to go home.  By Day 5, I 'passed' a PT nurse's test to prove I was safely ambulatory and my doctor discharged me.  Once home, I basically sat in my recliner and read, dozed or watched TV.  That lasted about 3 days.  As my strength returned, I wanted to get out - and did.  It was June and my wife and I did a lot of walking at a nearby park (to help my balance) and I slowly but surely got back into my normal routine.  I resumed driving approximately 2 weeks post-op, with my doctors permission, of course.  He said I was 'breaking all the records' for AN surgery recovery but he said it with a big grin, so I know he was pleased.  So was I.    

My recovery continued apace but you only requested accounts of how it was immediately after the surgery.  Again, others will offer different accounts, of course, but this one is mine.  I trust that it'll be helpful.

Jim

[alabamajane]

Mindy,
I had translab and it lasted in stead of 6 hrs about 11hrs.. of course I knew nothing during that time, it was my husband and family that were anxious and concerned. I am about 13 weeks in recovery and doing very well. I remember "waking up" in ICU and wondering WHAT time it was,, seemed awfully dark in the room for afternoon! It was about 8PM,, I had gone in for surgery at 7 AM( actually got to hospital at 5:30AM)  So I was disoriented right at first, and like Jim said,, all I wanted to do was go back to sleep! I remember some about the recovery room,, not much. My husband was in the ICU when I came around and it was awfully good to see him. He could not stay that night in ICU but did stay in there the next three nights I was in it.. that was Thursday and I had to have another surgery Monday for facial  graft.. so I ended up staying in ICU over the weekend. Mostly that first night I was in and out ,, and it was a time of adjusting pain meds..and all the rest of the "stuff" nurses etc. do in ICU.. I really did not have much pain except that first night.. I ended up with a pain pump which was most helpful. I was on Morphine, and dilaudin and loratab.. I think the pump was for the dilaudin.. but it made me hallucinate so badly, or the combination of meds, that I did not "hit"the pump very often they said... anyway,, that is the initial responses I remember.. it was really nice to have family be able to stay in ICU with me,, very comforting.. I was just weary, tired, and somewhat "shell shocked" feeling as the surgery had been so long and the facial nerve had to be severed so I "awoke" to all of that and it was a very difficult few days... BUT,, like Jim said,, you just asked for initial feelings and that was "WHAT TIME IS IT??" best of luck to you next month,, I am sure you will do fine and probably wonder what time of day it is when you "wake up" too as "we" have the easy part of sleeping through it all!!!!  Jane

[mk]

Mindy,

remember what most people say that the first 2-3 days don't count - the first thoughts are not really representative of the outcome, as you may be confused, nauseated, fatigued etc.

My main issue for the first couple of days was the nausea from the anesthetic - when I woke up in the post-op room, the nurse asked me how I felt, to which I answered that I felt like throwing up. She also asked me what the date and year was - I got the date right, but I distinctly remember scrambling to remember the year. I remember the nurse reporting some readings and my doctor coming in to see me and telling me that "you probably feel like you have been hit by a muck truck".
After I was moved to the ICU, and I couldn't keep my eyes open, but I kept thinking to myself "I made it". My mom came to see me, and even though I kept my eyes closed I could make conversation with her. I was almost crying out of relief. She told me that it had been raining all day, but now there was a magnificent rainbow outside the window - I couldn't see it, but the idea of the rainbow felt comforting.

If I was going to summarize what was my main feeling these first few hours after I woke up,  I would say "huge relief".

Marianna

[Rivergirl]

I would take a few wisdom teeth and a few gall bladders out in place of brain surgery.  I definately remember my first few days and I wish I could forget them.  The road that must be taken but for some it is no walk in the park, we are all different.  My advice has been, be in good health exercise, walk as much as you can, do some weights, eat well, get your nutrition up, loose some weight if you can, I went in as a sloth and that was not helpful in my case, I don't know what I was thinking.  Just train like you are going to the Olympics be fit and I know you will do better than me.

[mindyandy]

Oh goodness....I love to hear the stories. I understand that everyones is different. Some had an easier time than others. This does help prepare me.
Thank you!!!!!

Mindy

[lrobie]

Thanks Mindy for asking the question.  I also wondered what it would be like.  I've had a couple of short surgeries, including gallbladder removal, that I did pretty well with.  I wondered if being out for so much longer would cause the nausea or if the anesthesia just hits people differently.

Lisa

[mindyandy]

You bet Lisa. I understand your doing your homework. Thats wonderful. Keep us posted on your decision.

Mindy

[cindyj]

Very nauseous...but was expecting it as I have had numerous other surgeries and am always nauseous after anesthesia.  Told them to turn the morpine off as it added to the nausea.  I kept thinking about everyone here on the forum and the ones I was fortunate enough to actually meet in person (my LA gang buddies ) and knew that I would get through it as they had before me.  I just clung to that thought and knew I'd be ok.  You will be too!

Have you decided to go ahead w/ the surgery or wait til after your next MRI?

Cindy

[Syl]

Mindy,

The first thing I did when I woke up right after my retrosig surgery was check my face. Facial paralysis was my biggest worry. But all was good with that.

I kept my eyes closed most of the time for the first 2 days. One eye felt as if it was bouncing & the other like it was spinning in circles. I was so dizzy & nauseous. I didn't eat for about 4 days because of the nausea. Just moving my eyes made me vomit. For this same reason I didn't move around much, either. It didn't help that my neck was stiff & it hurt.

I didn't feel much pain at the incision sight. I think the staples helped numb that pain. I stopped taking the pain meds on day 2.

On day 3, after I was moved out of ICU, the physical therapist came by to get me out of bed & have me sit up on a chair for about 20 mins. That was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do in my whole entire lifetime. After that, I was able to get up with a walker & go to the bathroom. But the first time I did call the nurse to help me to the bathroom.

On day 4, the physical therapist came by again. This time she wanted me to walk the hallway. I was using a walker & she was holding on to me. After that, everything was so much easier to do.

I would say that the pain was not the worst part of this surgery. It's the headaches that began a couple of weeks later that made me very miserable.

I had surgery 1 year before this to remove a golfball-sized lump of fat from the side of my neck about 2 inches below my left ear & slightly to the back. This was a very simple procedure, but I had so much more pain. I was taking meds for pain a little longer that time.


Syl

[mindyandy]

Cindy I honestly don't know. I'm feeling much better and hate to have surgery to find out all is now stable or better yet shrinking 

[stephSF]

I said, "were there any surprises?"....

[james e]

Let me tell you about me...I am a planner. I don't like things to just happen to me, so I make plans. I read here about people vomiting right as they wake up, and I made a plan to try to direct my vomit using my lips so I would know if my face was working. Right when I woke up I looked straight up, and the room was spinning around and around in circles, and I heard a nurse say " he is going to throw up." They already had me sitting up in ICU and had some large pan around my shoulders and face, because they planned ahead also. I looked like the space shuttle...and I remembered to use my lips to change the direction, and it make me one happy camper. The vomit went where I directed it. I had translab, and gave up my hearing to save my face. My face worked and I feel asleep very happy about that.

I woke up a very short time later and some motherly nurse just cradled my hand and I felt like I was in my mothers arms just like a little boy...very comforting. I had no pain from the surgery, but the doc had tied a VERY tight bandage around my head, and the knot was pressing against my skull and it hurt.

I had a full breakfast 12 hours following a 10 hour surgery, and started walking right after breakfast. No pain ever...except for that knot.

I made plans how to fill my time in the hospital. They let me get out of bed as I pleased, so I set goals to see how far I could walk using a hand rail in the hall. Changed it to walking without the rail. Took a shower by myself.  Talk to people in the hall. There were several doctors watching my surgery, and they all came to visit me, and we had long conversations...they were training...right from med students up to residents.

I just made as much fun of it as I could. Not saying it was a party, but life is what you make of it. Overall, it was pretty easy for me.

James

[lizzie1hoops]

Hi Mindy!

My first thought when I woke up was "I can hear" and I cried I was so happy, given that I'd been given odds as low as 10% of hearing preservation, and I was so relieved to be on the other side.  Like Cindy, I thought about everyone on this forum and how comforting it was knowing others who had been through the same thing. 

After that things went downhill and I'll confess my time in the hospital was like a bad dream I'm working to forget.  I don't say this to scare you, but I now wish I'd prepared a little more for how bad I'd feel.  I was so nauseated and I didn't find the medication helped much (and the dilaudid for pain added to the nausea, but it wasn't easy to pass up since the incision was painful).  Being awakened every hour in the ICU was hard, I didn't want to open my eyes at all.  I didn't feel well enough to eat more than two or three bites of food until after I was released.  I had a really hard time doing anything the physiotherapist asked of me.  I was pretty miserable.

Recovery has been tough to be sure, but it's been three weeks and I can truly say I feel good now.

I hope this is helpful and would be happy to provide any more specifics you're interested in.  Feel free to PM me.

Best, best wishes,
Liz