Well…I have reecovered enough to post my surgery experiences. I intend to offer my most sincere “thank yous” to the doctor who performed my surgery. She allowed me to take total charge of my diabetes care while in the hospital. She disagreed with my endo’s orders to suspend all insulin delivery (no basal) for the duration of my surgery. I was also more comfortable with her orders and told her so at the time. All went extremely well considering all of my medical conditions. I remained in the surgical intensive care unit the duration of my hospital stay. I never saw so many tubes…infusion sites (an extra site in case the initial one failed) , heart moniter…pulmony moniter…blood pressure moniter…arterial gases moniter…beeping and alarming (no alarms from my PDM, though). The only problem that I had following surgery was a major fluctuation in BP very high to a low of 48/38 and my heart rate dropping into the low low 30s. My BG leves remained around 88!!
One amusing report–immediately following surgery, I had a nurse talk to me regarding the OmniPod. She had a daughter who was on a tradional tubed pump. She spoke with me for quite some time. Apparently I was very coherent; and as a result she’s seriously considering switching to the OmniPod. I don’t recall much of the conversation; but, the next day she came in to thank me for the useful information and to say that I seemed much more alert than most following a 3hr. surgery plus being on a morphine pump. Oh, I also mentioned that she should join us here at Tu.
Great to hear that your surgery went well, Janice, and that you remained your informative, cheery self!!!
God Bless,
Brunetta
I find it extremely funny that I managed such an in depth conversation about my pump and all of the groups here at Tudiabetes. My sister said that I sounded like my usual self. My only problem is that I remember very little detail of the goings on for several days following surgery. It’s as if I were sleep-walking through the days immediiately following my surgery. I drove my car yesterday–the first time since the 7th of December. It was liberating.
Glad to hear that your blood sugars were stable! Sounds like the surgeon made the right decisions!
It’s great that you can be an advocate even post-surgery 
It sounds like everything went very well. Wishing you a quick and complete recovery! Its great that you could educate a nurse while still semi-under anesthesia!
Gerry
I am glad that everything went so well with your surgery. It is good that you also had a doctor that recognized that you know more about how to manage your BS than someone else and allowed you to do that. I know if I had turned my basal off for 3 + hours, I would be sky high!
One of my sister’s was in the room at the time; she said that I sounded like a commercial for Tudiabetes. She was “amazed” that I could relay such knowledge of the operating of my pump. I’m amazed that I did so much talking and remember pretty much none of it.
Thank you for the well wishes. I remember that my initial thought was “you’re gonna take the advice of sedated patient?”
I’ve told my family that if they ever find themselves hospitalized, you need to be your own advocate. I had to be exactly that when a nurse tried to give me my usual BP meds when my BP was 48/38…what the heck?? Anyway, all is well…well, getting there. I still have some major restrictions for the next couple of months.
So glad to hear you are recovering very well and that you had a good post surgical experience. That is funny that you carried on an intelligent conversation but don’t remember much of it. Just think of the good impressions you made on the hospital personnel. I bet many of them haven’t seen an traditional insulin pump, much less the OmniPod. Stay strong my friend