Hey Jen! It’s Lisa! I’m going to shove this board under
you to get your x-rays. Huh? Ooowwwwww. “Oh hey Lisa. Can we go get in your
pool?” I was waking up in PACU to the sound of a friend’s voice who I knew
would get good post op X-rays for me. This lady is good and I trust her work.
There was a huge sense of relief to hear her voice and for once I felt
reassured about things. I think she mentioned something about how “good” my
X-rays looked, but in my way of knowing Lisa I think she was hinting that things
actually looked good. Thank you Lisa. I have seen your films and you did a
great job! It also made me feel good that you were there for me!
I don’t have any sense of timing or what else went on in
PACU - that’s the wonderful thing about anesthesia. I know I was trying to
figure out where I was in the PACU, but soon I would be even more confused
about that because I was whisked away on my ride to 9 West. I’ve walked those
same halls hundreds of times, but I was lost this time. I remember clunking off
the elevator and seeing those purple walls of 9 West. Soon Katrina was there.
Doink, doink, doink (raising the stretcher up to match my bed height). Alright
Jen, here ya goooo. Whoosh oooowwww to the left I flew into my bed.
Uh oh, uh Katrina. Ummmm. Bbbbarrrrfffffff. Nothing like
seeing a friend that you haven’t seen in years then puking on them. Soon after
I finished puking Katrina handed me my toothbrush... “brush!” Yes ma’am. At
some point Katrina mentioned she ordered food for me. Well sort of-broth and blue
jello. Yea I bet y’all can guess how that went.
I can’t remember when visitors came. I do not have much
memory of what time it was. I do know that I didn’t want my oxycodone, boy was
that the dumbest move ever. If you ever have surgery. Just take the pain meds.
Of course Mom and Dad were there. They left to go get
dinner and see to the dog. I know my friend Troy was there for the next episode
of Ralph and Earl. I know one of very good friends Laura came to visit and
another friend, Jen stopped by near the the end of her shift. It was so nice
that people took time out of their days for me. I will try to mention everyone
who stopped by but I will prob get the days wrong. I hope I don’t forget
anyone.
Anyway the rest of Wednesday went by. Katrina would bid
me farewell and my next nurse would be Shelby. (I think she was my night nurse
W, Th and Fr). I know J checked back in before I went to sleep. I really just
wanted to sleep, but dear God the pain of the first night was tremendous.
Stupid me and my desire not to take the Oxycodone. Fentanyl would work briefly
but not for long and I could only have 10mg of Oxy every so often. I know at
some point during the night I decided I would try to distract myself from my
hip pain by ripping the tape off of my many needle stick sites. (In retrospect
I believe they were checking my blood levels in the OR.) This would also be the
first time we’d discovered that I couldn’t pee. The edge of the bed pan hurt
the back of my butt; I was getting nowhere. Not being too personal here, but
things didn’t feel right. I know how patients are positioned during hip surgery
and orthopedic surgery is borderline barbaric. I understood why I was feeling
uncomfortable, ugh! My poor bladder would get so full then it couldn’t relax
and allow me to pee. Along came the order for I/O catheter. Sigh. Seems like my
night was spent gettting vitals checked, bladder scans and getting meds. The
blood fairies would come around 2am.
I also noticed that my left foot was numb. I could feel
people touch it but from my ankle to my toes it was very odd. I wasn’t allowed
to have a foot pump on that side because of my DVTs so the right foot was
constantly being squeezed while the left just hung out all insulted and numb.
Thursday would bring more people into my journey and new obstacles...
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