My Update - warning! LONG!

[Guest guest]

Okay, here it finally is! I was going to do my update yesterday but

started feeling bad and had to retreat to bed early.

I arrived in the morning on Monday about 9:00am and was taken to the

pre-op room. The curtains were extremely inadequate for privacy,

considering I was stripping to the buff, but that's a minor

complaint. I got onto the gurney and they put in the IV, which was a

little uncomfortable at first, but no big deal. They put in the

second IV in my wrist and that one was almost painless. My mother

came in and we chatted for awhile until the anesthesiologist came in

to talk to me. (Is it me or do all these guys have faces that

resemble angels?) Anyway, they gave me something to relax me and

then my mom was asked to go to the waiting room. I was wheeled into

another area where the nurse put a cap on my hair and told me to wait

a few moments. The next thing I remember after that is being woken

up after surgery. My post surgery pain was worse at that time than

any time but not completely unbearable. (When they asked me what it

was like on a scale of 1 to 10 I said 9. They sounded surprised.)

What was worse was the oxygen mask they had on my face. I felt like

I couldn't get a normal breath because the mask was blowing air into

my face. I begged them over and over to remove it. They would

remove it for only a few seconds and put it back on again. I kept

begging and finally they removed it long enough for me to calm down

(I was pretty panicky) and once I calmed down, they put it back on

and I was fine. In fact, I passed out again shortly after that. I

woke up in my room and my mother told me that she thinks I vomited

during surgery because of something she overheard Dr. K say. Also,

there was a " code red in surgery " during my operation time. My mom

had been moved to my room to wait and a nurse suddenly came to the

door and said, " It's just a fire drill " and shut the door to my

room. My mom started to cry because she was sure something had

happened. Dr. K came in shortly after that to tell her I was fine

and came through the surgery no problem. But, then she overheard him

say something about " she vomited during surgery " while he was at the

nurse's station and was convinced it was me. We spoke to Dr. K later

who assured us I was fine and had no problems during surgery and

that, in fact, it really WAS a fire drill. Would have been nice if

they'd warned my mom about that! Anyway, the first few days are very

blurry but I remember being visited by Anita, JJ, Elle, Sharon, Liz,

and Tia. Thank you so much to all of you for being so thoughtful and

stopping in to say hi! It meant so much to me! I apologize all over

the place if I've forgotten anyone! The demerol really had me in a

haze. Also, they were giving me breathing treatments for my

arthritis that had me so shaky I could barely wipe my nose! All of

that contributed to making me pretty groggy during that time so I

don't remember a lot. I do remember the pain was hovering around an

8 the first couple of days and I hit the pain switch often. On

Tuesday there was a support meeting and like a moron, I insisted on

attending! I thought they would let me walk over but they put me in

a wheelchair and my insides got tossed around everytime we went over

a crack in the sidewalk. Ouch! I went to the post-op meeting, which

was just before the regular meeting, and only lasted about half an

hour before I had to give it up and go back to my room. I was

getting pretty dizzy. But, still, I'm glad I was able to go for a

little bit! Meanwhile, back in recovery, I was roused to walk every

four hours (even in the middle of the night). My mom walked with me

the first time they woke me after midnight but after that she just

slept through it. Can't blame her! I don't remember exactly how far

I went on my walks but I remember the nurses praising me a lot so I

guess I did pretty good. I was doing " the loop " by about the third

afternoon which is kind of a right of passage for us DS'ers under Dr.

K's care. It seemed the nurses were taking my temp, BP and pulse

every 15 minutes. I did get just a little annoyed at that but was

too drugged to complain much. I think I got the NG tube out on the

third day. It hurt just a tiny bit coming out but more than anything

it just felt weird and looked completely gross! I was so happy to

have it out! The catheter was my mortal enemy by day 3! If anyone

just picked up the bag to measure my output I was having stinging

pains in my most personal area! After about 24 hours of that I

BEGGED them to take it out. They agreed since I was getting in and

out of bed pretty well by that time. (I'd developed a trick that if

I bent my right leg beneath me as I got into the bed I could pull

myself up a lot easier and then just needed the trapeze bar to adjust

myself. The nurses seemed to get a kick out of it.) Now, I won't

lie. The catheter hurt coming out! But, it was only a few seconds

and the relief was SO worth it! I probably wouldn't have even been

in so much pain if the thing hadn't been irritating me prior to being

removed. I was probably a little swollen. But this time I had

learned to punch the pain button more regularly so my tummy pain was

really under control. Probably around 6 or 7 most of time. (HINT!

If you know your walk is coming up, try to plan your pump push for

about 5 minutes before so you'll have plenty of pain meds running

through your system before your walkies.) I think it was the 4th day

that they removed my IV's. My hand had become sore in the last 24

hours at the site of the IV and on that day my hand started to swell

up pretty bad so they removed it. They put me on vicodin at that

time. It was a tough switch from the demerol, but by making sure I

stuck to the schedule, it was still manageable. Probably around 7 or

8 that day, then around 5 or 6 by the 5th day. Oh, by the way, I was

allergic to the morphine which is why they put me on demerol. They

gave me morphine at first but it caused a red rash on my wrist. No

biggie. I don't remember what day it was but at some point I got my

first bath. Carmen is an angel when it comes to that! She's so

gentle and so respectful. Don't let ANYONE else bathe you if you can

help it! She bathed me twice and it was so wonderful to feel clean!

Ruth gave me my third bath and made me do all the work myself (even

washing my hair) and though she wasn't purposely unkind, she

obviously did not want to be there. I wanted to get out of the

hospital by then but hadn't pooped yet and they wouldn't let me go

until I did. OH! Speaking of bodily functions. Watch out for those

burps! Those hit me really hard and most often when I was doing my

walkies. That was when I think I experienced the most pain during my

recovery. OUCH! Anyway, Sheri, a very kind nurse, gave me a

suppository on the morning of the 4th day to help me poop. That

evening, I had a movement and I can't remember ever being that

excited about using the bathroom in my whole life! Dr. K came by

that evening (he came by twice a day the entire time I was there) and

said I could leave that evening if I wanted to but I wasn't really

prepared at the time so we waited until the next morning. Dr. K came

by early in the morning to see me and gave me the go ahead. He said

Dee would be in to give me some last minute instructions but

somewhere there must have been a miscommunication problem because all

she did was drop in and say hi and ask me if I had any questions.

But, again, no big deal. I was ready to head for the hotel! The

next few nights in the hotel were, frankly, miserable. The only

bright spot was that my next door neighbors were Jackie and .

Jackie had surgery three days before me and had been across from my

room. Also, Liz and her husband Art came by to see me a couple of

times and brought me some mashed potatoes and egg flower soup.

YUMMM! (Liz had surgery <not DS> the Tuesday after I left the

hospital and finally got to go home yesterday. I don't know what the

complications were but I was so relieved when Dee told me!) Liz was

so wonderful as my Angel! I want to publicly thank her for

everything she did for me! The reason I hated the hotel stay had

nothing to do with the people at the Shilo. They were all wonderful!

In fact, my mom and I bought them flowers on the day we left. We

also bought flowers for the nurses in the Surgery Pavillion. The

reason I hated the hotel was that I got almost no sleep. I

absolutely despised the recliner! It hurt my back and wasn't

comfortable at all. I couldn't sleep on the bed and the other,

smaller recliner didn't have enough room for my long legs. I was

miserable every night! But, the hotel staff were great about being

supportive of my walks, they gave us everything and anything we asked

for, and were just generally fantastic! One staff member named

Marlo, even took my walks with me at night. She was such a sweetie!

I went back to Dr. K's on Tuesday afternoon to have my stitches and

drains removed. Oh, the drains!!! I hated the drains!!! I wanted

them out from the very first day in the hospital. I was soooo ready

to have them removed. I was even willing to deal with the pain and

took 2 1/2 vicodin before the appointment in preparation for this

incredible pain I'd heard about. Even Dawn Keshishian warned me

about the it. I don't know if the vicodin made a big difference or

not but even though there was some pain when Dr. K pulled the left

drain out part way, it wasn't the kind of pain I was expecting. My

mom was planning on leaving the room because she didn't want to see

me in such pain but Dr. K assured her it wouldn't be that bad. He

had me take a deep breath in and then breath out as he pulled the

left drain out the rest of the way. There was a stinging sort of

pain as it came out but it only lasted about one and a half seconds

and then it was over. No lingering pain of any kind. Then he had me

do the same thing with the other one. This time it was a deeper kind

of pain but it lasted only about one second and then it was over.

Again, no lingering pain. I was very surprised and pleased! Pulling

the staples out was nearly painless. There was the ocassional tug

and a little pinch if the staple was stubborn, but mostly it was kind

of fun to watch him pull them out with this oversized staple remover

thing. (Oh, I forgot. He removed the pinrose drain-the one just

above my belly button-while I was still in the hospital. That one

caused a little sting too but it was out so quick I barely noticed.)

Then he put bandages over the staples and drain holes and I was ready

to go. I gave him a hug and thanked him for taking such good care of

me. He's very sweet and kind of shy about that sort of thing but

accepted my hug graciously. I spent one more unpleasant night in the

hotel chair, got up early and had breakfast at Perko's (poached egg

on toast - yumm!) and left around 9:00am by limo. Ed Berreth is a

great guy to call if you need a ride home within the central/southern

california area after your surgery. We changed our schedules several

times and he accomodated us each time without complaint! And for him

to take me home all the way to San Diego (which took almost 6 hours)

and then stop for dinner with my mom and go on to Oxnard (they got

home around 8:00pm due to heavy L.A. traffic), he only charged us a

total of $500. Considering the 11 hours and that another limo

company probably would have charged us for the additional hours to

drive back to Delano, it could have cost us $700 or more.

So, now I'm with my hubby again and it is so wonderful to be home!

Sorry this was so long everyone! If you read this far without giving

up, I applaud you! You are awesome!

Tracey in Santee (San Diego)