I didn't really do too much today, a lot of sleeping and talking to the family. The first day could go one of two ways and mine fell kind of in the middle. I wasn't knocked out dead from surgery but I wasn't wide awake either (each is how my last surgeries went).
Mom and Kevin and I played card games on our i'devices which helped pass the time. I could play one round or so and then needed a nap. This surgery has made me VERY tired. I wake up for a decent amount of time, kind of wide awake, but I switch rather quickly and need to sleep.
I don't remember what was ordered for lunch or dinner...I think I had a salad somewhere in there! Shortly after my parents left, Dr. Millis came in and asked if my dressing had been changed or my drain was removed and I said no to both. My pain is still under control so no big deal there. He said that tomorrow my dressing and drain would be changed along with my epi turned off and me out of bed! I heard him out talking to the nurses...and about 5 minutes later he came back in to change my dressing. He was talking to me about how the nurses taking care of me didn't know much and there's only a few he trusts with his patients and I said I TOTALLY understand. If you can remember back to my last surgery and the nurse left me dangling from the trapese on a bedpan for 5 minutes when pain management walked in...well...yup, guess how was my nurse...ding ding ding, Sue! Millis said "I hope you're teaching her a thing or two" haha I liked talking junk with my doc. During all of this, my drain was out and I didn't even know it!!!! He thought it was a little soon as it was still draining a little. But while he was there he decided to do it. He then cut my ace bandage (human diaper, Millis diaper), I was eating Cheerios at the time - oh yeah, I had Cheerios for dinner! No milk - I told him I wanted a Cheerio to heal in my incision, he didn't find that funny. I tried to touch the steri-strips but he didn't let me. Again, he did all this with no gloves on, he kills me! So he layed out the gauze on the Tegaderm (clear, waterproof bandage)...and stuck that over my wound. The drain hole was leaking a little so he said that might show through the gauze but not to worry about it.
That paragraph was long so we'll start a new one here. After he cleaned me up he told me I would get my units of blood overnight and my epi would come out the next morning (a day earlier than normal). I was glad because the epi really covers things up and I was ready to get on my feet and rock and roll! So, he had mentioned my blood went bad - which didn't make sense to me because I had given two pints a week about only 3 weeks ago! So whatever. Around 10pm the nurse came in and started my first pint, the Red Cross took whole blood and didn't "spin" it down so it was thick and was going to take some time to drop in which is why we did it over night. It started at 10pm and I also got the heating pad on my hand which helps the vein open up so the blood goes in easier. This pint took just over 3 hours and then the second pint came up. So I asked my nurse, I thought Dr. Millis said my blood had expired. She corrected the statement, on the bag of blood there are small "test tubes" of blood which they use to do testing on the blood, that is what started to get clots and it went bad. NOW it makes sense. So around 2-3am I started my second pint which would end just around 6am, perfect timing for the epidural to come out.
I forgot to mention, PT came in to give me simple exercises I can do by myself in bed. She was the same one I had for the first surgery. So what I had to do are:
1- Ankle Pumps: point and flex my feet 20x
2- Quad Sets: flex my quad 10x
3- Glut Sets: squeeze my butt 10x
Having trouble focusing, but here is my body bandage and blood drain!
I also had the booties on my legs that contract and expand to help with circulation. They also make my legs itchy and sweaty!
My incision after I got a new dressing. The top gauze is where the drain was. Sorry the picture is a little close to my hoo-ha. Did I mention one of my rules to Millis was to make sure my tan lines match up! He then told me to make sure I wear panties around the floor because there's children!! ha refer to day 0 when I told him I wasn't wearing any. :-)
Day 1, just chillin' with my neck pillow and snuggie
Hang on ! Life is tough !
ReplyDelete