When I woke up, the first thing I saw was a clock on the wall that said 5pm. 5pm?? I had told my sister to be back at 3pm. The surgery should have been done hours ago. I looked around, feeling quite confused and groggy, and noticed that I was in a large room that was mostly empty of people. There was a nurse sitting next to me, and I asked her if they had gone through with the surgery. She replied, looking a little confused at my question "yes, you had the surgery". Then I overheard her talking to another nurse - they must've been switching off or something because she told her that I had had a hysterectomy and my sentinel nodes removed, and she said I had a bladder repair. They were just waiting for clearance to bring me up to my room. She asked if I needed her to contact anyone. I said that my sister would be in the hospital somewhere. She asked if I wanted to call her, so I gave the nurse my sister's phone number (which I can't believe I was able to recall in my condition), and she dialled her for me and handed me the phone.
I somehow managed to tell my sister that they would be bringing me upstairs shortly and I would be on the 7th floor. I guess she was already up there waiting. I have no idea what I was talking to the porter about as he drove my bed upstairs, but I can assure you that they must hear some pretty confusing stories in their jobs.
Although I had requested a private room since it was covered under my insurance, that made the nurses laugh. They were so over-capacity that people were actually in the halls. I was VERY lucky because I had a window view - the only one in my room with 3 other people.
My sister came in to drop off my stuff to me, but she didn't stay long. I was in no condition for company, and it was already getting late for her to drive back to Nanaimo. It had been a long day for her, as well.
Normally they get you up the same night, to get you moving pretty early, but I had low blood pressure, so they left me in bed. They showed me how to use the pain medication button - it's nice that they let you control your own dosage. The anaesthesia must've been pretty strong because I actually couldn't feel that much pain the first night. The nurses came in all through the night to check my catheter, take my blood pressure and blood oxygen levels. Each time they ask you to give you a number between 1 and 10 for your pain level. Mine never got higher than 3 or 4 ... until the first time I stood up. My blood pressure just wasn't coming up, and my catheter didn't seem to be working quite right, so finally a nurse came to make some adjustments. Suddenly the catheter started working, and some of the pressure in my stomach was relieved.
It took many days for the gas to dissipate. I guess they removed the sentinel nodes laparoscopically, and that requires them to inflate you with gas ... then you feel like you're going to explode in the days following the surgery. The nurses always asked if I had farted yet. It was a very important question and I wouldn't be released until that happened. It didn't happen until Wednesday ... and even then, it barely helped to alleviate the amount of bloating I felt. One of the surgeons checked on me each morning, and one of them said my stomach sounded like a drum.
Apparently they removed 14 sentinel nodes. I wasn't aware there were that many in the human body... let alone just in that region. The surgeons asked if I was surprised to hear that the surgery went forward, and I said I was both surprised and grateful. They sent the tissues and nodes off to the pathology lab and they would call me to review the results in about a week.
I was lucky to get some visitors during my 2 1/2 days in the hospital. A close friend of my sister's is a nurse in the hospital I was in, so she stopped by each day to visit with me before her shift. I also had a short visit from a colleague and she brought some letters from some of the other team members. It was a great distraction, since I was mostly just being poked and prodded by nurses and care aides for most of the day. I have to say that the nurses and care aides were pretty incredible. I even had a student nurse give me personal care for two shifts, and she was awesome. She helped me get up to walk the first time, and man was that painful!
When I was all ready to roll onto my side and pull myself into a sitting position, the pain in my groin (where they had removed one of the nodes) was excruciating. For the first time, when they asked about my pain level on a scale of 1 to 10, I said 12. I've never experienced that level of pain in my life... and let me tell you, pleurisy is pretty painful! I really thought something was wrong and I had ripped something open inside of me. The closest way to describe it is to imagine someone with a red, hot poker stabbing you in the groin between where your leg meets your pelvic area. It burns. And the burn lingers for a very long time.
Anyway, I managed to get a couple of walks in the first day after surgery. I was exhausted and always had "Ivan the I.V." and my golden handbag with me. I shuffled around the ward like I was a 90 year old. Fun stuff.
Anyway, when the surgeon visited on Wednesday, he was happy to hear that I had farted, my incisions looked free from infection, and I was already weaning myself off the pain medication. I stopped giving myself doses of morphine in the afternoon on Wednesday. He said that he had discussed my progress with the other surgeon and that they thought I would expect to go home, but I said I was actually aiming for Friday. He said that if things went well through Wednesday, he would discharge me on Thursday morning. I just needed my blood pressure to go up a little.
Anyway, my parents came on Wednesday to visit. Well, they were both there, but my dad gets queasy so didn't stick around for too long. It's never fun hanging out in a hospital. I told them that I might be released in the morning, which would save someone a trip back from Nanaimo again. I was having quite a bit of trouble eating anything because I was so bloated and nauseous. Not to mention, I had no choice for my meals until Wednesday dinner and Thursday breakfast. Let me tell you that eating cream of wheat wouldn't be my first choice. Then they kept bringing me pudding - filled with sugar - which I couldn't bring myself to eat, although I tried. I also got a bran muffin and hard boiled egg at breakfast. Dinner was salmon with some rice and soggy veggies. Then they also brought me cream of mushroom soup, which I also tried to eat, but I hate mushrooms, so that was a fruitless effort. I was hooked up to an I.V. so there was no risk of starving anyway.
Finally on Thursday morning, the surgeon signed the discharge forms. I wasted no time in showering (for the first time since the surgery), and it was NOT easy, particularly with the golden handbag. Fortunately, they removed my I.V. on Wednesday afternoon after my blood pressure levelled out. Then they noticed that the I.V. shunt was missing the plastic protector which was not sterile, so they tried 6 times to find another vein to put a new shunt back in. I told them I was likely being discharged in the morning, so likely wouldn't need it in, but the nurse wasn't willing to take that risk. The morning nurse, however, told me she wouldn't have put it back in ... Oh well.
I also got a short training session on how to give myself an injection each day which helps prevent blood clots. It wasn't something I thought I would ever be able to do, but apparently, I have more fortitude than I thought because I've been giving myself the injection every day since my discharge, and have to continue for 28 days.
So, with my golden handbag paraphernalia, and my discharge instructions, I let my parents take me back to Nanaimo. I stayed with them for a roller coaster 7 days.
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