Hospital Stay

Well it is done!  Tuesday we arrived at the hospital about 5:45 am.  We went to admitting and signed some forms.  We were then taken upstairs to the Surgical waiting room.  This is where they had me change, take some medication to aid in the recovery process.  

Next we moved into a small little private room where the surgical nurse came to chat, the anesthesiologist, surgical resident who all went over what we were about to do.  

Then I walked into the operating room and was introduced to my team (there was a lot of them).  I lay on the very narrow table that didn't even have room for my arms to be beside me!  They had to attach arm plates.  

The anesthesiologist had quite a hard time getting my IV in place but after a few tries finally got it.  The main surgeon came in and asked if I had any questions.  Then he turned to chat with the two residents that would be assisting him.

I had the ECG leads put on my chest to monitor my heart and mask put on my face and slowly fell asleep.  

The surgery lasted 5 hours with my parents and Reg waiting for me the entire time.

Upon waking in the recovery room I found out that I had lost a lot of blood and they then decided to give me a blood transfusion.  My hemoglobin had dropped to 68 (very low).  

They did a few x-rays at this point by lifting me to place the film under my pelvis.  Quite painful.

My mother came in to do some healing touch therapy.  After about 15 minutes of this I started to have a panic attack (not sure why) but I couldn’t get a breath in and it was very scary.  My nurse (Chris Brown) along with the rest of the team got me settled down with my Mother in the waiting room.

They had me in the recovery room for 4 hours.  After a cardiologist gave the okay they finally moved me up to my room for the night.

My roommate had been in the hospital for a week and was a very sweet woman.  Unfortunately I didn’t get much rest that first night as it was pretty loud.  Tons of people coming and going from the room all night long.

Wednesday was interesting.  I felt very out of it and groggy but able to articulate things a bit better.  They had me sit at the edge of my bed, then use a walker to move a few steps to my left, sit back down and get back into bed.  This was tough as I was very nauseous and light headed.  Later in the day the physiotherapist came back to give me a set of exercises to do daily while in bed.  They were tough but easier than getting up.

Later on Wednesday I did a second round of the sitting, walker, sitting and lying down.

Wednesday night I had my room to myself and got a much better sleep even though they were still coming in every 2-4 hours to give me my meds and check my vitals.

Thursday was a better day.  They took out my catheter very early in the morning and therefore I was forced to get up a number of times throughout the day to use the washroom.  Smart people!  I was getting stronger and feeling a bit better although still very nauseous.

Thursday evening I got another roommate.  So the night was rough again as not only did we have the same issues of multiple nurses coming and going but the patients mother stayed the entire night (as is seems she will do again tonight).

Today I had much more energy, was able to get a lot more food to stay down, did more exercise and was very grateful for the upper body strength that I have!

My hemoglobin levels are still down so they are trying to decide what to do about that but there has been a lot of talk of me going home tomorrow (Saturday).

So that’s the technical update!  

We are currently getting the condo suited up with gadgets to help me at home and I am looking forward to a good nights sleep!!!