Down Hill From Here
It is Tuesday Wednesday morning (okay, almost afternoon) and I’ve been up for about an hour and a half now. There’s nothing like a few little white pills to send you off into the best night’s sleep of your life. 🙂 This is day two post-op and I’m feeling pretty good. I’m very sore and little weak, but nothing intolerable by any means. It does feel a little funny staring at the computer screen. I’ve never had to use backspace so much in my life and the text looks 3-D. Anyways, I want to thank you for all of your prayers, emails, and comments of encouragement. Everything went well on Monday. We arrived at the hospital at 10:30am, as instructed. I think it was about an hour before they even called us back to take my vitals and bring us to our “holding room”. This holding room was basically a regular hospital room. The nurse gave me my lovely hospital gown to change into and once I got situated in my rolling bed, she attempted to put my IV in. Her first two attempts failed and the top of my left hand is now puffy and green. Luckily, her first attempt in my right hand was a success or I would have let Josh give it a try…he couldn’t have done any worse! From there, it was a waiting game. The nurse gave us the remote control to the TV and left. We watched almost an entire movie before they finally came and got me…by now, it was about 1:30pm and I was FAMISHED! I had not eaten since 8pm the night before and had lost at least a few cups of blood from the two failed IV attempts! If they didn’t hurry, they wouldn’t even need the anesthesia for me to lose consciousness!
Down a few blue and green hallways that resembled an insane asylum, they backed my bed into the furthest corner and several people, all dressed in scrubs, came into my surgical cubicle to ask me the same questions over and over…What is your full name? What is your date of birth? What procedure are we doing today? Wait a minute! What?? You don’t even know what you’re doing to me?? I know it is just a question to make sure the patient fully understands what procedure is being done, but come on! After the fourth and fifth person asks, you begin to doubt if anyone really knows what’s going on! I could tell, by this point, my sweet, starving husband was getting nervous. The moment finally comes when we have to say good-bye. He gave me a kiss and headed off to find food. I remember them wheeling me into the operating room…once again, more blue and green. I remember seeing lots of blue heads and someone with VERY cold hands began sticking leads all over me. They were telling me to take deep breaths…and then I was gone…ten seconds later, or so it seemed, I woke up in recovery. The first thing I remember saying to the nurse was, “Oh, I forgot I was having surgery.” I couldn’t hold my eyes open, but I remember starting to cry as the pain set in and it was far worse than I had expected. I think I had quite a “tough guy” mentality going into this. I can handle this…I’ve had three kids for goodness sake! Well, let me tell you, this was a LOT different than childbirth. As I lay there in the recovery room, crying, someone appears to my left and tells me that they have to do another scope. Up my nose and down my throat with a camera to make sure my vocal chords are working correctly after surgery. It was uncomfortable, but they were quick and everything was working fine. The nurse then gave me some morphine in my IV and I think I faded in and out from there. I can remember her shaking me several times, telling me to breathe because my respirations were getting too low. I felt out of control, and out of my mind, but the pain never seemed to fade. I don’t remember them moving me back to my room, but I do remember waking up and telling them I had to go to the bathroom. I can’t believe my legs worked, but they did, and somehow I made it to the little reclining chair in my room. Josh was there, but I don’t remember anything else. Each time I closed my eyes, I would fall alseep immediately. I remember feeling like, if I could just go home, I’ll feel better. I opened my eyes and grabbed the nurse button. When she appeared, I asked her if I could go home. She smiled and said, “Sure!” Within 20 minutes, I was in the van, on our way home…with a quick stop by the pharmacy for my meds and a new ice pack.
I did feel much better once I was home in my own bed. I ate a popsicle and took my medicine. Josh helped me make a little mountain of pillows that I was required to sleep on for the first week and I slept from 11pm to 7am uninterrupted. Tuesday was good. I was pretty sore, but it was absolutely beautiful outside. I opened most of the windows, lit a few candles, and just relaxed. One of my girlfriends came over around noon and fixed my lunch. We watched “The Secret Life of Bees”. It was a great movie, I highly recommend it. The day went by fast, and soon I had visitors at my door with dinner. My dear friend Anna came by after work and brought me some bath fizzies. They look like giant scoops of ice cream and they smell divine! I haven’t used one yet, but I plan to tonight. I’m still not quite sure how in the world I’m going to wash my hair for the first time. My neck is stiff and sore, but I suppose I can do it carefully standing up in the shower.
It is difficult to swallow. I can’t successully clear my throat because I can’t use those muscles. I can’t blow my nose or cough either. Thankfully I am sleeping well at night. The pain is tolerrable enough for me to only take my pain medicine at night. Today I decided to make bread. It doesn’t take much effort on my part, my house smells great, and I needed to use that flour by today because it was milled in Sunday afternoon. Ashley had taken the big boys to the park this morning and Owen was content playing out back for a little while. By the time she returned with Joshua and Jesse, I was ready to feed them lunch and put Owen in bed. Another friend is picking the big boys up in a little while to have a play date and take them to church tonight.
I’m sure I’ll feel better and better each day. This weather certainly helps! I think I will take a nap now.
~audrey