One week down...

What a tough week it has been. Last Wednesday I was in the hospital drifting in and out of consciousness...I would like to recap last Wednesday for you finally. My check in time was 6 a.m. and we did all that. I got my little "bay" if you will (it consisted of a sorta nook with a bed 3 walls and a curtain for a door), where I changed into my hospital gown and patiently awaited the nurse to start the I.V. So, he got the iv started and everything started happening at once. The nurse (who started the i.v.), Dr. Danielson (OS), anesthesiologist, and OR nurse all came to explain what would happen and take my history one more time. The anesthesiologist said she would give me something to help me calm down and I said why do I look scared? and she said yeah a little, next thing I know she said she gave me Versed (sp?) and I don't remember much after that. My husband said my last words to him were I love you and see you on the other side. I woke up 4.5 hours later in recovery with the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. Leah described it right when she said it feels like a huge weight on your face. Well you know what I looked like. I also woke up with the catheter in and remember thinking I was peeing my pants and asking the nurse if she would help me to the bathroom. She said hon you have a catheter in and your bladder is empty. I said well how can my bladder be empty if I feel like I'm peeing myself? And when can I get this thing out? She said as soon as we get your pain under control we'll take it out before we move you to your room. Four hours later the pain is under control and the catheter is removed (hallelujah), seriously it wasn't too bad. I wanted to be as independent as possible so I could go home the next day. I was brought to my room (private) where ice packs were immediately tied to my head and a morphine pump was set up and a clicker put in my hand along with a suction tube to remove blood from my mouth (which I used through the night and the next morning when the bleeding stopped). The nurse looked at me and said now don't try to be a hero if it hurts hit the button. I said well I don't plan on being a hero, this clicker is going to be my friend for the night. Then we got out the zip and squeeze bag and I asked the nurse for ice water. They had never seen the bags and thought they were just the greatest thing. So I gave them the website and they said they would look at it. I fell asleep after the nurse brought me the water and woke up every single hour to go pee. By the way, I didn't have a lot of nausea throughout this whole thing, phenergan took care of it. So anyway, every hour I had to hit the call button and have a nurse help me get up to go to the bathroom. They must have been clapping when I left the next day. I kept apologizing to them but they were like no, we understand, the i.v. does that to some people. The next day I gave myself a sponge bath (the LNA offered to wash my bottom if I couldn't...I declined of course after blushing profusely) and that went off without a hitch; I dressed myself too. My nurse came by around 1 pm and went over the meds I would be taking and I was discharged at around 1:45 pm. The ride home was a little rough because there is a lot of road work going on and some of the roads are just plain rough. Plus it just seemed so long because we live an hour and 10 minutes away from the hospital. We got home around 3:30 and I went straight to bed. You pretty much know the rest so I'll end it here. I have more pictures to post from today but I'm tired so I post them tomorrow. Well, I'll talk to you tomorrow, take care.