Well, I had my surgery! Check in time for it was at 6am, so I was up bright and early along with my whole family. My anxiety level was through the roof as expected. The first nurse then called me in and took me back to registration and I had my mom come with me. At that point I had changed into my gown and was on the hospital bed with an IV line in me. It was all happening so quickly and I was so scared that I started crying. Oh and of course I am the youngest patient in there... But my nurse Jenn at that time was super nice and helped me out and so did my mom.
Then I had to say goodbye to my family and go down into pre-op and OR. I started crying again during pre-op cause there were so many weird noises, oxygen tanks, needles, and bright bright BRIGHT big lights. My anxiety was even higher. So after I met my anesthesiologist, I was given a calming medication (aka "happy juice") and right after they inserted that into my IV. After that moment, I blacked out and don't remember a thing. (YAY)
When I woke my throat was pretty darn sore from the breathing tube that was put down there and I had an oxygen mask and I became really confused. Once I came to terms and they checked my vitals I went up to my private room. My doctor who performed the surgery said that it went so smoothly that I didn't even need to be in the ICU for the night which made me one happy camper! Once I got to my room, my assigned nurse for Monday, Ann, gave me some very ver nice medicine and called my family in. I was in a very decent amount of pain, but morphine and oxycodon were most definitely doing their job. I also throughout that first day and night got a muscle relaxer and a nausea tablet. Monday night wasn't too bad, but Tuesday was definitely my worst day.
Oh Tuesday.. My pain was very hard to control. It was also the first time I tried to walk with the PT, and they also took my catheter out. I also really wasn't eating much. I had a bunch of visitors that day and I felt so bad because I could hardly keep my eyes open. My mom was right: the second day is definitely worse than the first. That night I woke up about every hour and had to make the trek to call a nurse, get up to go to the bathroom, and then try and get comfortable all over again. It sure was a doozy.
Wednesday was a 360 degree turn for me. I was walking better, I was more alert, my pain was in control for the most part, and I wasn't as unbalanced. When Dr, Delashaw made his rounds to see his patients, he said I was doing so good that I could go home later that afternoon, if I was feeling up to it. CRAZY AWESOME. Hospitals aren't all that fun, so even though I was scared to leave, I was discharged at around 2:30pm after getting my own neck brace and walker. That night at home I still woke up often in the middle of the night, but sleep just felt better being in my own bed without a ton of IV lines everywhere. Then on Thursday, I was feeling pretty darn good. I started to become pretty itchy on my head, but that's just due to the fact that my bald spot is growing back hair. It was a pretty chill day with pain in controlled and I had a decent night's sleep!
I woke up this morning (Thursday) feeling pretty darn good for just having major surgery. At 9am, Oliver was going to be officially adopted by the Strode Family and I desperately wanted to go. So my mom and I went and all was fine and then I get inside and its super noisy and my head begins to go nutty. I felt awful. I sat through his beautiful adoption in the courtroom and then went straight home. However, my mom needed to go Target and I thought I would be good to go to hold onto the side of the cart and walk around. Turns out that was a bad mistake and I am paying for it as I type this out. My incision site keeps having surges of pain and my entire head in general has a bit of built up pressure. Clearly I overdid it with my activities for the day, so no more for the next few days at least! (The hot weather definitely doesn't help me out either.)
I'm sorry it took 4 days for me to write an entry, but from here on out I should be better at it :) thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers! #CMstrong
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