Saturday, January 22, 2011

Wedneday, January 12, 2011 -- Day of Surgery


I didn’t sleep very well that night even though I wasn’t overly/outwardly nervous, inside my nerves were still going nuts. All night I heard snow plows driving by so I knew it wasn’t going to be a clean drive in. We woke up and I got more nervous and even had some tears because of some fear. We left around 5:45am and my husband drove us all. Boy the snow was already about 8 inches and large plow drifts in the middle of the road, but we got to the hospital a little after 6am and began my pre-op festivities.
I first got my ID bracelet and peed in a cup so they could do a pregnancy test (for anyone over 12yrs old). Then I met with a nurse to ask me a few questions and she gave me a lovely pad to wear since tampons can’t be left in the entirety of surgery. They told me to go back to the waiting room and someone would take a bunch of us upstairs to holding shortly. 

About 30 minutes later a nurse came down and called three of us upstairs and gave us our beds, non slip socks and johnny’s to change into. After that they give you a nice warm blanket. Next some nurses come in to ask if you have any questions or need anything. Then the anesthesiologists come in and explain what they are going to do and they start an IV into one hand…that wasn’t overly comfortable. Then they tell me that they’ll put another one in my other hand in the OR and one in my arm. Dr. Millis came in to sign my hip and make sure I wasn’t turning back! No WAY!

They tell my family to say goodbye and then I start to cry because it all really hits me. They put in some drugs to help relax me and I felt drunk…which I laughed about and told one of the doctors about. Once in the OR I was looking around but couldn’t focus on anything, it was really bright and a lot of people were walking around. They asked me to shift to the other bed and then to sit on the edge facing one of the doctors so they could put in the epidural, I did not feel a single thing. I don’t even remember laying back down!

3pm

I woke up in the OR after surgery and immediately asked what time it was. They wheeled me into recovery and checked my vitals, I was shaking a lot! My family came in (only 2 people allowed so it was Kevin and my mom). They put a hot blanket on me and I felt sick and threw up – It was only spit since there was no food in my stomach. The nurse got a pad for me to clean me up and also made sure I was feeling ok. I felt fine, but very tired. I couldn’t really feel my right leg and my left one was also a bit numb. My right pinky was also numb which I told them and they tried to lower the meds.

I’m not sure how long I was in recovery..maybe an hour or so. My mom and dad kept swapping out. But soon they wheeled me to my room. I thought I would get dizzy so I kept my eyes shut. They gave me a private room which was nice. I got to my room late around 5pm or so. My family stayed with me for a while and then they left, mainly I slept a LOT! My husband stayed in the room with me which was really comforting. So I just spent my time sleeping that night and having my vitals taken every hour.

[My mom helped write my journal for the moments I don’t remember. After I was wheeled to surgery my mom, dad and Kevin went to breakfast at AuBonPain on the hospital and then found a nice place in comfy chairs to watch the snow fall. They received updates every 1.5 hours from the liason so they knew how I was doing. They went to lunch around 1pm. 3:30pm they got word I was being closed up and around 4:40pm they were allowed into recovery to see me.]

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