On July 8th I woke up around 9 a.m. I was nervous, but nothing like I usually am when I have something new going on. I was still going to the bathroom every 45 minutes to an hour, and I was really sick of it!! My parents and my husband ate breakfast and then we sat down to watch some TV and we ended up watching the space shuttle Atlantis' final launch. We then got around and left to go to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital a little before 12:30 and checked in. I of course had to use the bathroom when we got there, and the admission clerk wouldn't let me go. She finally checked with the nurses and they gave me a little cup, so I could finally go. Around an hour later they called me back. They showed me to my bed, I was then asked a million questions and then the nurse told me to change out of my clothes and into my gown and then she left. I changed and then sat on the bed and waited for her to come back.
When she returned she brought warm blankets with her, so she covered me up with the warm blankets and asked me about the huge bruise that I had on my left arm. I explained to her what happened during my pre-op appointment, she said she understood, but she wouldn't be bruising me today. I was very relieved!! She then put a really tight band around my arm, found my vein, and gave me my IV. I was very impressed, she then told the other nurses that if I needed to have blood work taken, that they needed to do it during the surgery, because she wasn't going to "butcher my arm anymore." I also asked her how long the bowel prep took to leave the system because I was still feeling it's effects. She told me it depends on the person and their "evacuation history", but if I needed to use the bathroom to just let them know and they would come help me.
She then brought back my husband and my mom to hang out with me until I was taken back for surgery. My mom was asking a million questions, and kind of driving me crazy, but I know she was only doing it to keep me from thinking about the surgery. Finally my doctor and the anesthesiologist came back to talk to me about what was going to happen, and then the OR nurse came back and saw that I was really nervous. She put something in my IV to make me relax, but it just made everything around me fuzzy, I was still really nervous. A few minutes later the nurse anesthetist came with a box of tissues and dried my tears. She told me to relax and asked where my favorite place to be was. I pointed at my husband's shirt (Disney Cruise Line). She then said that she also loves Disney and that she goes there about twice a month. She OR nurse then told me that they call her Princess Heidi because of it. She then gave me some more medicine in my IV and had my mom & my husband kiss me and then we were on our way.
I remember a tiny bit of the OR (a cold room with a lot of machines and moving from one bed to another), but the next thing I remember was waking up in recovery looking at a clock. The nurse there then asked me how much pain I was in. I wasn't really in any real pain, but I was a little uncomfortable so I told her a 3 or 4. She then gave me some pain medicine and stared taking the sticky monitors off of my chest. She also took my blood pressure about 3 more times, and then rolled my bed over to the bathroom and said that in order to be discharged I needed to pee, so I went in. I was still really dizzy, so she left a pull string on my shoulder to pull when I was finished. She came in when I was done and helped me get to the sink to wash my hands and then to the recovery area to a chair where she asked me if I was hungry. I told her that I hadn't eaten since the day before at 2:30, so she got me some graham crackers and some Diet Coke. I wasn't really hungry, but I drank some of the Diet Coke and nibbled on the graham crackers.
Then my mom and my husband came back to see me. The nurse gave them some instructions for my discharge and then took my husband and showed him where to park to pick me up and then had my mom help me get changed. They also gave us a huge pad to put on, because of the bleeding. They then released me, I don't really remember being released or getting in the car, but I do remember taking some of the graham crackers with me to give to my dad.
No comments:
Post a Comment