Angie? (Amused One)

anyone heard anything from her?

Not since she posted on Monday. I am sure she is fine. Just trying to get used to her new life.
 This angel is for Angie.

Did she have an angel? If so who was it? I hope she is ok....I will keep her in my prayers..


                                                                                     Julie

I corresponded with Angie on Tuesday. She is home recovering, following instructions. She said the pain was getting better each day and she was cutting the frequency back.

She was very happy to be home. Not all of her experiences at St. Agnes were happy ones, although she remains pleased with Dr. A, not as pleased with St. Agnes, particularly the regular floor. There was a mix up with her meds and monitoring that landed her in intermediate care. Fortunately, they were great to her there. She got the care she needed to improve and go home. 
I am sure she will pop back online as she feels up to it.

Debbie

I am here :)
Slowly recovering and discovering what I can and cannot do yet...  Getting more and more bored, but cannot sit on this darned computer because I have discovered I leaned onto my stomach to much to get closer to the monitor?  I don't know why, but every time I get off I have a red mark and it hurts.... so spending to much time in front of the TV and wandering aimlessly around my house!

Feeling a whole lot better however, trying to find ways to get my water and protein in each day.  Hating protein shakes more than I did pre-op and they are now making me gag.  But I will make it and get all of my protein in before my 2 week check up on April 1st!

I am going to venture out today just to get out of the house, I drove the other day to get dinner for Lee and more bottled water, but it was less than 2 miles, I am determined to hit a real store today, thinking Rite Aid in hopes that thier GNC section has IsoPure protein drinks... 

I hated St. Agnes.   I am not sure you could pay me to go back.  If I god forbid have a complication I might have to reevaluate that, but I would truly find another surgeon if I had "time" and the need knowing I would end up inpatient.  I HIGHLY reccomend anyone who will be going there to have a family member who can stay with them during their hospital stay.  To say mine was bad, is an understatement...  The hospital is horribly understaffed - I won't say the nurses aren't great, they run their butts off, there are just to many patients vs. staff in my opinion.  And when the nurses page a resident doctor for new orders and they don't bother to call back for 2-3 hours (with multiple pages to different ones) I have a real problem with that.

At times while I was in the intermediate unit, I cried and wondered what I did wrong, but have come to realize *I* did not do a damn thing wrong.  I still have no idea of my pre-op weight, no one weighed me that day unless it was in the operating room.  There are so many things that I thought should have happened and reading others accounts of arrivals the day of surgery, etc.  I wonder if I should have done more research.   

I do however still love Dr. Averbach and his staff.  They have been wonderful through the whole process...  If only they worked out of another hospital, would be my only complaint.

oh Angie,

I'm so sorry you had a bad experience.

I had planned to stay with Brian the night of his surgery and I will now!  and i will have my MIL stay with me the night of mine (bri is too passive to be of any help)

I hate that you love the surgeon but still would find a new hospital.  that is sad.  and scary to me. but I truly think you will find it at any hospital.   I know when Bri had his GB out he was at Northwest and it was ALL I could do to get help.   He was sent back to his room covered in blood from recovery because no one bothered to clean off his face from where they had to do an emergency intubation.

That is a part of my problem - everywhere has shortages... but it was the contradictions - no one seemed to be able to get my meds straight.  Then why have me bring a list??

I did not get given ANYTHING my entire stay other than pain meds and IV meds except coverage insulin.  My discharge papers show they have me all sorts of stuff they did not. 

I am sure that when they gave me dilatid the afternoon after I was stable it was ONE pill.  At bedtime that night it was TWO, and I passed out like a light.  Within 20 minutes it was all I could do to get my CPAP and sleep.  The next morning she gave me one and I asked about it and was told "I must have been tired" they only gave me one.  This was of course my last night there and Lee was with me, not my mom who stayed the night before as I screamed and cried... 

My CPAP for instance, upon admitting I handed it over and was asked if I wore it.  I was totally honest and said "I put it on every night and use it for a few hours until I wake up and can't breathe and then don't put it back on if i get back to sleep"  Therefore it was assumed I didn't need it?  I don't know, I was supposed to wake up in recovery with it...  I never seen it again until I was moved to INT care... I was unable to effectively think the entire time I was on the 4th floor, and my parents did not know enough to speak up (Lee is like Brian and too passive) so I never used it.  Because I did not have it, I nearly died from CO2 build up.  It took my parents coming back to the hospital (They went from St. Agnes to the NCC and back only) to realize I couldn't be roused and that my oxygen wasn't on, nor did anyone hook up the monitors to watch my sat levels...

I got to INT and lo and behold respiratory care brought my CPAP and sort of got it hooked up, but when we went to use it, the hose leaked - and of course since I was not on pain meds I was told I did not need it because there was "no risk" of me falling too deeply asleep.  At this point, I am relying on my mom's recount because I wasn't in my right mind yet after a code, etc.

The next night they managed to get it to work perfectly with a different resp. therapist whose log never even showed anyone trying the night before...

And since I had such strong reactions to the pain meds (which I had mentioned to Dr. Averbach at the beginning and was assured then it would be monitored and also stated again at pre-admitting and to the pre-admissions nurses who called. - all reassured me they would closely watch my levels of pain, and how my body reacted.) I was not up to being able to even really know how bad it was...

There were just too many inconsistencies for me to be happy with my level of care..

Just my experiences...

Angie,

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. I do not go into this level of detail with others when I posted because i felt it was not my story to tell. However, I do feel that the information you provide can help other prepare and protect themselves from similar experiences. Again, thank you so much for sharing.

I am most grateful to know that you are OK now and recovering. I am sorry that you are getting bored. it happened to me too. I cleaned out closets, got caught up on mail and mending, went shopping (alot), even if only to walk around. I even made a bottle holder to tote my water bottle - LOL!

Hugs and Best Wishes!

Debbie

Glad to know I am not the only one not so good at relaxing...  What sucks is I am still pretty sore and having trouble doing a lot of things that require bending over.  (I am guessing because of my BMI and the fact I have six incisions...)

I got new carpet the week before surgery and we cleaned EVERYTHING before returning it back, so I don't even need to clean LOL The most of I have really been doing is dinner each night.  And since I planned fast easy meals, turning them in pureed food has been the most complicated thing I have done! 

I wanted to be sure everything was done so I had nothing to do this week - now I am bored, bored bored - but what if I hadn't been up to doing anything...

I am going back to work on Monday however...

Angie

Wow! Back to work already! Some folks do really well with this. I went back to work early too, although I did it from home for a bit before I actually went back to the office. Some folks experience a dip in energy before it zooms back up. Be careful of this just in case. The more prepared you are when you go back to work, the better as far as having things available to eat/drink. Also, until you know more about your pouch and what it likes and does not like, I would not recommend experimenting with new foods at work.

Hopefully, the soreness will continue to decrease each day and will not be as much of a problem. Still it is a good idea to be careful with the bending and stretching while you are healing.

Debbie