Let me just start by saying thank God for amazing nurses; except for one and we will get to that later on in this story. My hospital stay is much of a blur, but there were definitely some funny moments I cant help but remember.
Friday Night
Oh boy was it a doozy (you'll see me use this word describing a lot)! I somewhat remember my parents and Michael leaving because the ICU shut down at 8:00 for visitors. This is the night I met my AMAZING nurse Fabiola and she was FABULOUS. I could hardly sleep and she never left my side. I started swelling majorly, so much so that they had to cut my wrist bands off and switch them to the other arm. I had 5 IVs and was annoyed with having to lay flat on my back, but Fabiola made sure I was as comfortable as possible.Before her shift ended at 6 a.m. Saturday morning she and another nurse got me up for the first time..... I was terrified of what was about to happen, but it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. Oh and all of the swelling I mentioned above, well I gained 11 pounds of fluid.
Saturday
This was the first time I really realized what had just happened to me. I felt like I had been hit by something much larger than a Mack truck. I had IVs and tubes hanging from everywhere, I was swollen. I couldn't move without any assistance. I was able to get my catheter out this day ( all the praise hands ). I took my first walk after breakfast this day. Michael tagged along with me, my nurse, my chest tubes, and my cart I had to use to push. Things were going really well at first until I got very nauseous, but nothing zofran can't fix! Nothing else too exciting happened on this day. LOTS of pain medication, other medications, and taking a couple of walks.
Sunday
CHEST TUBES ARE OUT!!!!! Those two things were a son of a bitch and made me so uncomfortable. I was so nervous when having them taken out, it did not hurt one bit and I felt so much relief after they were gone. On this day I had a lot of extra pain that I had not had the day before and kept complaining about it being extra painful. My nurse kindly brought me pain medication but also informed me that I had a rib removed during surgery. Yeah, she nonchalantly told me they removed a rib because it was in the way.
At this point basically was living off of watermelon Italian ice, but no worries the doctors told me it was very normal for me to have no appetite. This day my mom and step dad came around lunch time and they brought me every type of quesadilla from Chili's. It looked amazing and I tried to chow down on a much as I could, but that resulted in about maybe three pieces eaten.
Later in the day Michael and Christina came to visit. Remember its January 9th at this point and NFL are getting ready for playoffs ( GO PACK GO ). So we turned the game on, can't remember who they were playing. So game comes on not really sure what quarter it was because remember LOTS of pain meds, and Jordy Nelson goes down. Side note I love giraffes and my sweet Michael bought me a giraffe this day and we named him Jordy Rodgers (Jordy Nelson and Aaron Rodgers). So later in the game we find out that Nelson broke a rib and I got a kick out of telling Michael to tweet Jordy and see if he needed a new one because I had one he could use, he didn't get a reply haha. Michael also still tells me often that I should have asked to keep the rib.
Monday
I don't really remember anything exciting about this day except for the night. It was literally a night from hell and I had the worse experience ever with my nurse and aide. This was my first night without my same nurse Fabiola and the ngiht before I would go home. I'll sum the story up quick, I was in a tremendous amount of pain, my nurse told me to hurry up because she has other patients, my aide ignored me for 30+ minuets and then by the time I called again I was so uncomfortable I was crying my heart rate was through the room and every alarm I had on me was being set off, my nurse forgot about me and luckily there was another nturse who gave me my medication promptly, got me comfortable, and then had my nurse come get me more medication to be sure I had a good night. Oh a goodnight I did have after I got that IV medication.
Tuesday
DR. E: do you want to go home today
ME: YES!!!!
Finally I was able to go home. Discharge took about an hour or two and I had never been so happy to see the outside world again. The ride home was a doozy. My mom had to drive very slow, not hit any bumps, and my red heart pillow was my best friend. I got home a little before lunch time and then that is when the recovery really started.
Another post will come soon all about my at home recovery. A very tough night was ahead for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment