Saturday, January 22, 2011

Friday, January 14, 2011 -- Day 2


They told me Dr. Millis would be in to remove my dressing and give me a new bandage in the morning.
My dad and my brother left Boston and went back to NY (my brother lives in Boston and is out of work from  having shoulder surgery). So Mom and Kevin were left in Boston with me. 

Today they gave me back one of my pints of blood (that kind of burned going into my hand catheder, but they put a heat pack over it to help it go in smoothly). They also take vitals every hour to make sure I do OK, but since it was my own blood I was feeling fine. Once I got my blood, it really perked me up and made me more awake. But of course I got very sleepy again.

I’ve been running a fever so they give me Tylenol to help break that. I wasn’t aware that it makes you sweat out the fever so I became SO hot I thought I was going to explode. My brother gave me a Snuggie for Christmas which I had on and I was dying of heat. We learned after that moment that when I get Tylenol, all sheets and covers come off! But I felt good after that. But I still ran occasional fevers for the next couple days.

Dr Eduardo Novais (from Brazil), an orthopedic surgeon that usually helps Millis but was not there for my surgery stopped in to see how I was doing. He asked if my dressing was changed yet and I said no, so he said he could change it. Dr. Millis likes to do it himself but Dr. Novais is allowed to do it since he knows exactly how to change it. I refused to look at the incision but my mom took a picture of it. Boy did I feel good without  that huge Ace bandage wrapping my whole body! 

They warned me that Day 3 was going to be the worst because they were going to take the epidural out. They said it will feel as though I just had surgery, and will either over medicate me or under medicate me until they get the pain under control. Kevin was going to head back to the hotel and sleep there that night and I thought it was OK but when he was getting ready to go I got upset and thought it was better if he were there that night since the epidural stops at 6am. So Mom left around 9pm.

10pm the nurse came in and said they had to move me to another room, that wasn’t private!! I was so upset, but SO glad Kevin had stayed that night to help move all my stuff, but he was just getting comfy in bed when they said that. I got the window and bathroom side of a double room with another girl that had just had a PAO also! She was much more alert than I was coming out of surgery.  So I fell asleep but didn’t sleep well cuz I was nervous for the epidural stopping.

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