My surgery and other musings

Dec 29, 2010

Wow I haven't written in awhile.  I haven't felt like doing much of anything but I thought I would try to get some words on paper (so to speak) since I want to have a record of this entire journey and what was happening while I'm going thru it...

Let's go back to the day before surgery.  I had some problems with the surgeon's office about my financing which got resolved.  I was hungry.  And I was pretty nervous.  By the time that 11:00 pm rolled around I had not heard one word from Ray.  I was furious that he said he would call and didn't .  So I called him and blasted him (I was crying at this point since I had been weepy all day).  He apologized and said that he had been in the hospital for one of his headaches.  I said I'm sorry to hear that but you weren't too ill to get online and screw around there.  We had a serious conversation about our "relationship" and where it is going and where he wants it to go.  He knows how I feel about him and right now the ball's in his court.  There was another issue but too lengthy to go into.  So we talked awhile and he said he would call and talk to me after my surgery. 

The next day, I got to the hospital an hour early - I live on the 95 corridor and with rush hour traffic you never know how long you will be sitting in traffic.  That day there was no traffic - it was weird.  So I got all ready for surgery and had my IV started and they came and took blood for typing.  They gave me my first heparin shot. (I am still bruised but more on bruising later).

Then we (my mom and I) sat there waiting.  I was trying to hold it together so I actually didn't say much.  My phone rang and it was Ray!!!  It was so sweet of him to call me and he helped calm me down alot.  He said he would call back later and talk to my mother to find out how surgery went.

So my doctors come in and say hi blah blah blah and I'm all let's get this party started.  He said we'll take you in there in 20 minutes.  WOOHOO!

Twenty minutes came and went.  What is going on I'm thinking to myself!  My doctor came back in and said that there was a problem with the operation rooms and they overbooked the OR that has all the equipment to do my surgery.  It will be another 45 minutes.    I was like say what?  Tell them to get out!  (Yes I did say that)

But I had to wait another two hours - yes TWO MORE HOURS!!!!  I was thinking, I could've slept in later...

So they finally wheel me into the OR.  And the doctor is standing next to me waiting for everyone to get everything ready -- I guess he was just as ready as I was to get this going!  Then one of the nurses asks 38 or 40 bougie.  He says 38 and I said that's a great number!  The last thing I remember after that was getting a shot of anesthesia in my IV that made me scream. Yup I screamed.  Then I was out.

This next part of the story is mostly from what I was told by my mother and a little by Ray since I was passed out.  My surgery was finished at 2 pm and Mom said I was in there for 1 hour and a half.  The doctor came out and told her that I did great and that I would be in recovery for an hour and then taken to my room.  The weird thing about the recovery room in the hospital that I was in (I've never had surgery there before) is that no one, not even family is allowed back there.  Unless you're my mother, who had Ray egging her on to make it even worse.

You see I was in recovery for 6 hours total.  Not because there was something wrong with me but because they didn't have a room for me.  So my persistent mother bugged them constantly to find out what on earth was going on.  Finally she said, take me back to see my daughter at once so that I know that she's alive!  My understanding is that Ray called during this time and my mother had been nervous and asking if she could go back and Ray told her to flip out on them I guess.  I know she would have gotten there on her own but his nudge moved the process along faster.

So she got to come back and see me for a few minutes until another patient came in.  The only thing I remember from that time was that my mom came in to see me and then when I woke up again I was calling for her, not knowing where I was.  The nurses were yelling it's okay Kelli we're getting you a room.

Then it turned out that when they finally got an empty room, there was no one to get me to the room.  So now my mother is sitting in my room waiting for me and an hour later, I'm still not there. 

-- Just as a side note, don't joke around with loved ones that the hospital might lose you.  It really just makes it worse...

So Mom goes to the nurse's station and starts flipping out and they call down to recovery and say get her up here now!!!!

I got to my room sometime after 8:00/8:30 pm. 

God was I miserable!  I know I got another shot of heparin and I just kept saying "pain medicine now" all night.  My mom stayed with me at the hospital that night.  She was going to go home but she didn't trust anyone at that point.

I do remember waking up that night and going to the bathroom and saying that I needed to start walking the halls.  I couldn't get from the bed to the bathroom at that point...  Drugs do strange things to us.

The next morning after the night from hell, a new shift came on.  I actually don't know how many shifts there were during the night except that the nurse the first night was so great - she kept giving me pain medicine! 

But the next day I had one nurse all day long.  That day was terrible.  I was in so much pain!  

So they sent me down for my leak test.  Let me just say that I thought I was going to throw up since the gal that took me was "driving" so fast.  And I think they could have found a straighter path than we went.  I felt like I was on a roller coaster -- hence the wanting to throw up.

Then to get on this machine when you don't have good balance to begin with and drink that stuff that again makes you want to throw up is horrible.  BUT the worst part is turning you sideways on the machine!  

Honestly I don't remember if they told me they were going to do that and I didn't hear them or they just did it but I screamed again. (I honestly do not scream this much in my life but shit hurt so I've started screaming)

Everything was fine and back to my room via the roller coaster ride again!

Then they tell me I can order some "food".  I just said how about you go and get me some nausea meds and some pain meds and keep them coming and we'll call it a day.  That didn't work....  So I ordered a Popsicle, jello, tea and water.  None of that went down.  Ice chips please!

In between all of this fun, my phone starts ringing and since the pushed the table across the room I can't get to it.  It was Ray leaving me a message.  Once my mother got there, I called and left him a message.  Apparently I sounded very bad...  He called later and I sounded very bad some more...  He didn't tell me this until later...

Then it was time to get up and walk the halls.  I'm just happy there are no pictures of this adventure for the first half of the day...  I had a death grip on the IV machine and I was hunched over taking tiny steps. 

So the day just wore on with me feeling nauseous and demanding pain medication and nausea meds.  When the first doctor came in to see me and how I was doing, he said I have made sure that you can take your medicines.  A couple of them are important to be on schedule and not miss more than a dose.

What I didn't know is that he had started yelling at nurses about it.  That's okay that shift deserved it.  My nurse sucked!  She would give me one kind of pain med and then when I needed more she would say you can't have that for 2 hours but I can give you this other one.  Yeah okay whatever let's keep a steady stream of pain meds in my body here!!!  I was on an ordered dose of nausea meds so I got that every 6 hours.

When my surgeon came to see me, I was in bad shape at that point of the day (the day went up and down).  He told me not to worry about the liquids since my stomach was still swollen and to concentrate on ice chips and any water I could get in.

I had hoped that I would have a quiet night on the second night.  Nope.  Every 2 hours someone was in my room doing something and at one point I said if there isn't pain medicine or nausea medicine in your hands, don't come back!

Oh My Gosh!  How could I forget that I got my period 9 days early?  And I thought my insides were coming thru my vagina at one point!!!  I had my period for 7 days... 7 DAYS!  Of really bad bleeding...  I've never bled like that in my life.

The next day I was able to get cleaned up and change into a new hospital gown just in time for my doctor to come in and check me.  I said I don't like it here can I go home and he said yes!  Woohoo!!!!  He removed the drain...

-- Side note about the drain.  That damn thing caused me so much pain.  And it was draining stuff too.  When he took it out, it felt like a snake was being pulled through my abdomen.  I almost threw up.

Once they removed the IV, I couldn't get out of there fast enough.  I went home in my pj bottoms and the tshirt (Navy one from Ray) and my coat.  Can you believe a nurse actually wheeled me down?  I thought it was weird but she was going to her car and said I'll take her.  Um okay thanks.

So that is the story of my surgery.....

I'll write more later about the past week...

0 Comments