Hospital

This is basically to continue my story from the "Emergency!" post because it was getting incredibly long for one post.

The day of my surgery, I was pretty out of it. I know my mom, Dan, and Brian & Annie came to visit (and I think the first flowers showed up that day too). I remember talking with people, and maybe even talking on the phone. I was worried about the kid I was supposed to be tutoring that day, so I tried to get someone to call him to tell him my plans had unavoidably changed. The nurses brought me oxycodone, and finally someone brought me a bendy straw so I could drink the water to take the pills. I still had an IV - in my left hand, I think. The IV in my right elbow was gone. Every few hours someone came in to take my temperature, take blood samples, and take my blood pressure. It was incredibly hard to lift my arm enough for the blood pressure cuff to go around it. Mom and Dan talked, Dan used his computer, Mom talked on the phone, and time kind of drifted by. I remember at one point we decided that Dan would stay with me in the hospital, and the hospital staff brought him in a cot so he could stay right in the room with me. Brian & Annie went to get my car from work too (either Tuesday or Wednesday, I don't quite remember). My strongest memory of that first day is that in the evening a nurse came in and insisted that I had to sit up. I was laying on my back, and I couldn't even roll over enough to reach the left grab bar with my right hand; so the nurse helped roll me onto my side (ouch) and then propped on an elbow (OUCH!) and then they got me sitting up on the side of the bed - oh my goodness it hurt so so so bad it felt like things were tearing and ripping into my stomach right then and there and it was grey and woozy and I said I felt faint and I was saying something or crying or making noises that said it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and they helped me to lay back down and it still hurt and it gradually faded a bit and I felt less faint. I really truly at that point wished I had never woken up from that surgery.

Wednesday morning I was still pretty out of it. The hospital staff and nurses had taken blood pressure and temperatures and blood samples all through the night, so when my blood count went below 20 (it hit 18) the doctor came to say a transfusion might be a good idea. I think they made me sit up that second morning too - it was just as bad as the first time, with the same results of tons of pain (worse than pre-surgery) and feeling dizzy and faint. Since I was so faint and my blood count was so low, I received two units of blood. This was a little awkward, since my IV's kept bursting my veins (in my left hand, right and left elbows, left forearm, and left wrist). The fifth IV (inside of my left wrist) held long enough to get the blood into me. When we switched back to the fluids, we lost that IV too, but I begged the nurses, saying I would drink however much fluid they wanted if I could just not have another IV. I was drinking pretty well at that point, so they let me go without another IV. Phew. I think the next spot would've been my feet!

The nurses brought in a breathing machine to help me practice breathing steadily and deeply. At first I couldn't even hit the 500ml mark (later I found out my normal breath can hit the 4000ml mark). This at least provided some amusement, even though breathing deeply was yet another thing that hurt - it hurt more like when you are out of breath while running, which wasn't so bad at that point.

Also on Wednesday, they removed my catheter. I thought they had to be kidding - I couldn't even sit up and I was supposed to use a bathroom? After a couple tries with a bedpan, I realized that wasn't working for me, so we moved to plan B - the bedside commode. Sitting and standing were incredibly painful - with my breath coming in gasps I would stagger in place to turn my feet 90 degrees so I could sit on the commode. But somehow, luckily for me, I didn't hurt once I got there. I couldn't care for myself at all, and I was not at all impressed by the help the nurses gave me in cleaning up either. Read into that all you want - it's probably too explicit already. Wednesday night, I tried walking with a walker, and I made it to the doorway and then I started to figure out how to step only on my left toes and mostly use my right leg and turn and limp just right, while leaning most of my weight on the walker through my arms, so that I could walk without the bad pain. I mad it halfway around the floor (maybe 50 yards) and back into my room. Momentous occasion on Wednesday - they stopped taking my blood because my blood count stabilized. This meant I wasn't losing more blood, and I had enough in me that I wasn't dizzy and faint. This was especially momentous because they were running out of easy places to draw blood - the back of my right hand was all used up, as were both elbows, the left hand and the left wrist. The last blood samples were from a finger and then from my right wrist.

Wednesday night I set my own alarm clock so that I could remind the nurses to give me my pain medication regularly. I'm not sure if this worked, since the real pain was when I sat up and then stood up, and this continued into the next week. Thursday I started to eat a little more of my meals, and I had visitors. My boss and his wife came by, and two of my awesome friends came too. Annie & Brian came back every night I was in the hospital, and so did my mom. Dan stayed with me the whole time. Friday morning, the doctor came and told me I was going home that day. I was nervous about that, since it still hurt to sit up, stand, and walk, and I was using a walker. But the hospital had someone (maybe from physical therapy) who helped me to try out a cane, and she arranged for me to get a cane that I could take home with me. Thursday I took my first shower, and Friday I took my second. The hospital showers are so tiny, with a bench in them. This was perfect, because it meant I wouldn't be able to fall over even though my balance was poor. Dan went to the pharmacy, where he picked up pain medication for me. A lady came wiht a wheelchair and took me down to the lobby Friday evening, where my mom pulled up in her Explorer to drive me home. The bumps on the road didn't feel too good, and I still had to have help to roll over and to sit up and to stand up and to start walking for the next several days.