Please ignore the previous post...its 12:05 am and I'm a little tired. Michele is doing fine at Riverside Regional Medical Center, on the fifth floor. The nurses who have been taking care of Michele are very familiar with Dr. Clarks patients' needs and there care has been very good. On the 30th when Michele had the operation, I don't think it could have gone anymore like clock work than it did. We arrived at the hospital at 6:15 and got checked in to a pre-op room. Our pre-op nurse Carol was an expert with starting an IV...Michele has very difficult veins and tends to require many sticks. At 8:30 Michele was taken to the operating room and the surgery started right at 9:00. I sat in the waiting room with my friend Paul and my son Eric and at exactly 11:00 Dr. Clark called to tell me Michele was done in the operating room and was in the recovery room and would be there for about an hour or two. Dr. Clark said that her gall bladder needed to come out, because it looked chronically ill, after removing the gall bladder, he performed the gastric bypass with no complications. Michele was transferred to her room after about 45 minutes in recover. She was very tired and did not really start to come out of the anesthesia until this morning (May 1st). If you are having the surgery done, you may want to consider having only immediate family visit on the day of surgery and others can visit the next and subsequent days. Today, May 1st, was pretty good. The oxygen, catheter, and pneumatic hose were removed today. I think they were removed mostly because Michele was sitting up in the chair yesterday and walking the halls today. You should have someone there to help you, because the nurses can get overloaded very quickly and if you are expecting them to get you up and moving, you find yourself waiting for quite awhile. Michele has been using the bathroom on her own and she finds that using an old, wooden spoon is very helpful for extending her reach. You will find that the IV's and the discomfort from the incision can limit your reach. Today Michele was doing "Sips and Chips" (read: water and ice) and will begin the Carnation Breakfast drink tomorrow. I'll provide another update tomorrow.
Jim