Discharged from Vanderbilt

6-13-2011

I was discharged this morning from Vanderbilt. I have a follow up appointment on Wednesday morning to have an in depth ultrasound and staples removed. If all goes well I will be cleared to head home. After I return home, I will need to begin to be followed by a Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor at Froedtert as St.Mary's is not equipped to deal with as high risk of a pregnancy as I current have. From what I understand I will also be one of Froedtert's first fetal surgery moms.

For the other moms that may have the surgery- the first 3 days are definitely the hardest and then it gets much better. Listen to the doctors and your nurses. Take the sleeping pill when offered during the first nights- your brain will be so active with weird thought after weird thought that it is hard to fall asleep (I talked with the anesthesiologist regarding the overly active thought process and he reassured me this is normal after general anesthesia). Take all of your breathing treatments and regularly use your incentive spirometer- keep a pillow within reach to hold against your abdomen when you need to cough (changing positions will encourage your body to cough out the junk- cough it out- keep tissue near by to spit out the junk you cough up- I imitated my grandma and kept extra tissue in the front pocket of my hospital gown). Do not hesitate to call your nurse for anything - keep up with your pain medication and anti-nausea meds- after the PCA is dc'd you need to ask for your pain medication. If you start to have heartburn or indigestion- tell your nurse- they can get an order for pepcid for you (I needed this and it made a huge difference with the first dose). I had bleeding and spotting for 3 days after the surgery. They have the "lovely stretchy panties" and pads there that you can use. Take all of the stool softners, laxatives and suppositories they offer (I know it is totally embarrassing for you but you do not want to end up with a bowel obstruction). The first time one of my nurse's strongly encouraged me to get and walk- I thought she was crazy and that I wasn't ready but it was one of the best things I did and really helped me to get my "sea legs" back under me. The care the entire staff gives you is excellent - they all genuinely care about how you and your baby are doing. Bring your own pillow from home. The chair in your room for the dads is very uncomfortable with no neck support. My husband had a lot of nervous energy the entire time- encourage your guy to bring with some type of entertainment - send him on missions to get you things. One of the things my husband enjoyed doing was walking around the grounds of the hospital and taking pictures for our girls who were unable to come with and he liked trying to get video of the helicopters taking on and off. If you bring a laptop- they have a number that you can call to get internet access (you most likely will not need to call as both of our laptops picked up the network right away) The internet is fast enough that you could watch Netflix without interruptions. There was not much on t.v. unless you enjoy watching 3-4 hours of shows about people that hoard or the weird food addictions or Nascar. Speaking of shows - Baby's First Day on TLC is/was filmed at Vanderbilt.