Thursday night Bill and I made the trek to Peoria. We checked into the hotel, he ordered supper, I had broth and some Jello and we settled in to watch a movie. We watched Saw the final chapter. It was pretty good. We've been into the Saw movies since they came out. It's been quite a series of movies! The movie got over and I was tired. Bill and I both went to bed early about 10. at 3 a.m. I woke up to Bill crowding me out of the double bed. (we have a king here at home) he was almost on top of me and I had no room, so I got up and moved to the other bed. My back doesn't like strange beds well, so I was so stiff and sore from the hotel bed. By morning I had tossed and turned from 3 a.m. on. My back was KILLING me and I was in a pretty crappy mood because of that! I hate when my back aches. This motivated me to get in the spirit for this surgery. I knew I was doing the right thing. Hopefully no more horrible back ache episodes where I can't stand up and can't walk straight.
Mom, Grandma Trone and Carla Rodeffer rolled into the hotel parking garage about 9:30 a.m. We unpacked their car, showed them the hotel, and the room and then we all piled into the car to head to the hospital to register. They told me to be there at 11:30 and make sure I was all done and checked in by then. Here it was Noon, I was sitting in a room all by myself waiting on the surgery prep crew to come in and hook me up to the EKG machine, Pulse Ox, start an IV and everything else. I was in this room for an hour and a half alone, they made everyone go to waiting room, then finally Bill and Grandma came up. Then mom and Carla came up. Here it was 1:30 and I asked what time my surgery was scheduled for and the nurse said I was on the books for 1:30. Dr. Marshall was pretty mad at the surgery team because they were running so far behind with me. I think they all stepped out to lunch and left me back there all alone for an hour and a half. Here came in a whole swat team all to work on me at once. I am a very hard stick, they had 3 people trying to get an IV in me. One lady verbally talking to me asking me all sorts of pre surgical questions, and next thing you know within a couple minutes I was being wheeled down to a surgery room.
The room shocked me. It was really really small. There wasn't much room in there at all. One whole wall was laid out with surgical instruments and tools and supplies. Then there was the tiny little surgery bed. They had it all laid out with blankets and Styrofoam pieces for me to prop up on and lay down on . They got me on the table, put stockings on my legs, strapped my arms and head down and that was the last stuff I remember.
I remember waking up to Bill talking and showing me a purse cover mom got me from the gift shop. I remember carla rodeffer and gma trone coming in to talk to me, but I was so sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open. I slept. Through the night I kept getting the understanding that I wasn't in a "normal" room. I finally got the impression I was in ICU. I woke up, realized I was in ICU and wondered why? The nurse told me because of my sleep apnea the Dr thought it would be good idea to keep an eye on me over night? Umm okay. ?? I was a little out of it still so she gave me my pca button and I went out again. I woke up again in the middle of the night and was alone. I remember wondering where Bill and Mom were? I was worried. She came in and told me to go back to sleep. By morning I was tired of the bed. I was so stiff and uncomfortable. I made her come in and give me ice chips because my mouth was soooo dry. She didn't want to give them to me, but I yelled at her till she did. Then I asked again why I was in the ICU. Again she said it was because of my apnea? I couldn't imagine what that had to do with it unless something happened during surgery with my breathing? She never really answered. As I was going in and out of sleep through the night, I kept hearing nurses, Drs and interns talking over me. I kept hearing them say things about an allergic reaction. I wondered if this was me? Finally about 10 a.m. the Dr came in and said I could go to a normal room. When they started wheeling me to a new room all my visitors arrived and followed us upstairs.
When we got settled upstairs we were informed by a nurse that I had had an "incident" in recover that was the reason I was sent to ICU. I guess they gave me Leviquin antibiotic after surgery for infection. I guess I broke out in welt hives and so that is why they kept me in recovery for 3 hours and why I got placed in ICU in the first place. To make sure I didn't break out more or there weren't any more complications. Good to know. Don't know why the ICU nurse kept it such a secret. Going to talk to the Dr and find out why.
Saturday night was pretty eventful... I spent every two hours up going pee, walking the halls and trying to get comfortable. I was in so much pain. They had taken away my PCA pump and I just couldn't get on top of my pain. Even with the liquid meds, and the IV pain meds they could inject every 2 hours. I only felt good about one out of every four hours. It was awful.
Sunday mom, grandma and Carla headed back to carthage. Bill stayed with me to wipe my ass and push fluids on me. He was also the walking stalker! He made me walk walk walk. It was nice to stretch and I actually slept so good Sunday night. I enjoyed just having him there and he's pretty easy going, so I could just fall asleep and not feel guilty about it! It's sad when you have company and you are so flipping tired and you feel bad dozing off on them. I hate that. I just can't stay awake on these pain meds.
Monday morning I had the most amazing nurse. She was in charge of getting me set to go home. There was a student nurse that had my call light and she was responsible for all my meds and other care. I woke up and asked for pain meds at 7:30. I knew at 8 I was due for drugs and wanted them in there for my 8 a.m. dose. At 8 I asked again because they weren't there. by 9 I was hurting pretty badly. still no drugs. hadn't seen nothing of the student nurse. by 10:30 I was miserable... nauseous, and in so much pain I hadn't hurt this bad all the time I'd been there. IT was awful. I thought I was going to be sick. I flipped out on Bill, he flipped out on someone and finally my GOOD nurse showed up with my drugs, and she was almost crying with me. She didn't realize this was all going on. She had been working on my discharge and working with pharmacy to see why some of my meds hadn't been started yet and trying to figure out why I had only been getting 1/3 of the pain meds I should have been getting for 3 days! She said no wonder I was hurting. Pharmacy had made a BIG mistake and was only giving me 1/3 of the dosage the Dr. had ordered. NO WONDER I HURT!!! I was supposed to get 30ml and they had only been giving me 10ml. HUGE difference! Then my blood pressures hadn't been under control and we couldn't figure out why? I asked her what meds they had been giving me and they hadn't ordered one of my MAIN blood pressure medications back on my flow sheet. So once I took that med my pressures stabilized and everything went back to normal there too. What a mess.
At noon all the departments had came to talk to me about discharge. Dietary came in, Pharmacy was by, The Dr. The interns, my nurse was amazing. She packed me a pillow for home, a sharps container for my blood thinner shots at home, swabs to wipe before my shots, medicine cups, puke bags for the ride home, pill crusher, baby spoons.. she had us all set! She was a doll. We were loaded up and headed home finally.
Oh the joyful ride home. First mistake was getting behind on pain meds for the morning. I hurt bad. Second mistake is we had taken the truck because of the weather and lets just say it wasn't the nicest ride home. It was awful. Bumpy and the interstate between Galseburg and Monmouth is just terrible. I hurt so bad. There were three times I was crying to badly Bill had to pull over and give me a break. It was miserable. We made it home in 3 hours. I was exhausted and ready for sleep, but Nooooo Brody had other plans. He was clingy, fussy, and just rotten. Finally he cashed out and we did too, but he was up at 1:30 a.m. and mom couldn't get him to go back to sleep. She was afraid he'd wake up cole so she brought him downstairs and all he wanted was me. That was fine. He snuggled with me in the recliner. It was peaceful till about 3 a.m.
My belly woke me up in pain. It hurt so badly. I knew I was going to shit my pants if I didn't get up and to the pot. I got up and had my first BM. It was heavenly. I let out sooooo much of that gas that has been trapped inside me. I had been belching and tooting off an on, but nothing like this release! It was just the most amazing thing that has happened to me in days!
Today I began my FULL Liquids. I get puddings, strained soups, cream of wheat. I am NOT hungry at all. The nutritionist said that was normal. This next week is all about liquids, not nourishment. They want to keep you hydrated. I did eat 4 bites of pudding today. That was good. I am just FULL all the time. Nobody could begin to explain the concept of being full like this with only eating BITES of food off of a BABY SPOON. My bowls are some plastic shot glass medicine cups. My utensils are baby silverware. If you eat too big of a bite it hurts going down. This also keeps you from eating too much too fast. It should take 30 minutes to eat a shot glass full of food, but also you can't finish the whole shot glass. I get 1/4 of it down and I am STUFFED full feeling like I just ate an entire heaping plate of food. This is weird to me. Especially when I have been a quantity eater in the past. I didn't really eat bad for me food, just lots of food. It's hard to not be full when you have liquid meds to take, keep drinking and then try to eat on top of it. I am just full all the time.
I will try to do better updating from now on. I have just been so drugged and out of it it's taken me forever to get this all typed up and ready to post. I sleep a LOT!
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