Remembering day of and day 1 after surgery
I wrote a post about this at the Make me heal forums, so I figured I'd put it here too... interesting to compare the memories I had from 7 weeks after... also nice to write things down.
I remember waking up in recovery and not being in any pain, looking at the clock and being surprised at the time. They came and talked to me about how the pain pump worked, and then gave me a dose with it. (didn't need it at all) I felt all warm and relaxed and like I had had a good sleep. Very dry mouth and slightly sore throat from the intubation.
Once my hospital room was ready, they wheeled me out there and my guys were there waiting for me. (yay!) I remember sitting holding Nick's hand and being given little sips of water. The pain started at some point, and I didn't use the pain pump button as much as I should have. They said to wait til it got to a 4, and I didn't consider "4" to be pain that went away when I didn't move.
We had fun ordering food off the hospital menu, because I was allowed to order whatever I wanted. I got ice cream and yogurt and congee and chocolate milk and it was mostly terrible. Gah, low quality ice cream, not worth eating. I remember taking a walk at about 11PM (IV pole, catheter bag, in tow... ow) I got really dizzy and nauseous and they had to give me more anti nausea meds by IV. Had a hard time sleeping, so many noises (nurses station beep beep beep) and when I did get to sleep someone would come in and take my blood pressure. Of course surgical pre-rounds and rounds are at o'early o'clock, so not much sleep there. Another attempt to order some kind of food, because I was maybe a bit hungry, but nothing was good. At lunch time we got a chicken breast, baked and breaded, carrots, and rice, and that was pretty tasty. Switched to oral percocet, and the pain was well controlled and then it was time to go home.
I think the most painful part was when the percocet had worn off ... right when I was waiting in wheel chair before getting into the car. Getting into the car HURT, the drive was SO AWFUL, I was crying because every bump and jostle (Boston, potholes!!!) made everything hurt so much and I couldn't control when it happened. And it happened often. Got home, took another percocet, and sat in my recliner in front of the computer to write about the experience. I thought I was pretty coherant, but I was told that I would occasionally nod off and then wake up and go back to typing like nothing had happened. There are some pictures of me sitting in chair looking totally zonked, because evidently my boyfriend thought it was adorable. *sigh*
I remember waking up in recovery and not being in any pain, looking at the clock and being surprised at the time. They came and talked to me about how the pain pump worked, and then gave me a dose with it. (didn't need it at all) I felt all warm and relaxed and like I had had a good sleep. Very dry mouth and slightly sore throat from the intubation.
Once my hospital room was ready, they wheeled me out there and my guys were there waiting for me. (yay!) I remember sitting holding Nick's hand and being given little sips of water. The pain started at some point, and I didn't use the pain pump button as much as I should have. They said to wait til it got to a 4, and I didn't consider "4" to be pain that went away when I didn't move.
We had fun ordering food off the hospital menu, because I was allowed to order whatever I wanted. I got ice cream and yogurt and congee and chocolate milk and it was mostly terrible. Gah, low quality ice cream, not worth eating. I remember taking a walk at about 11PM (IV pole, catheter bag, in tow... ow) I got really dizzy and nauseous and they had to give me more anti nausea meds by IV. Had a hard time sleeping, so many noises (nurses station beep beep beep) and when I did get to sleep someone would come in and take my blood pressure. Of course surgical pre-rounds and rounds are at o'early o'clock, so not much sleep there. Another attempt to order some kind of food, because I was maybe a bit hungry, but nothing was good. At lunch time we got a chicken breast, baked and breaded, carrots, and rice, and that was pretty tasty. Switched to oral percocet, and the pain was well controlled and then it was time to go home.
I think the most painful part was when the percocet had worn off ... right when I was waiting in wheel chair before getting into the car. Getting into the car HURT, the drive was SO AWFUL, I was crying because every bump and jostle (Boston, potholes!!!) made everything hurt so much and I couldn't control when it happened. And it happened often. Got home, took another percocet, and sat in my recliner in front of the computer to write about the experience. I thought I was pretty coherant, but I was told that I would occasionally nod off and then wake up and go back to typing like nothing had happened. There are some pictures of me sitting in chair looking totally zonked, because evidently my boyfriend thought it was adorable. *sigh*