I’m Home…a little behind on the post, sorry

Hello,

I sure thought I had posted that I was at home on Friday morning.  But, alas, I didn’t.  Sorry for worrying anyone.
I was checked out of the hospital by 10:30am Friday.  Dr. Rogers had come in and commended me on how wonderful a patient I was.  I said thanks and then mentioned that I didn’t have much of a choice seems I was unconscious, he kinda snickered and reaffirmed that I was a good patient. After talking with friends and family I realized being a good patient was more about not having any complications during surgery and in the recovery room.   I guess some people come out swinging from anesthesia.  I’m just extremely chatty :).

My surgery started at 7:45am Thursday morning and wasn’t complete until around 3pm.  Yeah, that’s over 6 hours. Shawn was stuck in the O.R. waiting room that whole time.  He says I spent about an hour and a half in the recovery room (not because I needed to, there was some sort of hang-up with the patient wing staff sending a transporter down for me).  I had an awesome recovery room nurse, Tim, who allowed me to Q&A him as soon as I was awake, with only occasional snickers.  He was caring for me and another patient through the curtain to my right.  I was so thirsty.  I gobbled down several cups of ice chips.  Then patiently waited and watched the other patients and nurses around me.  This group of nurses worked extremely well together.  There were at least 8 patients in my section of the L-shaped recovery room, all were being personally cared for and listened to.  I have been in several recovery rooms over the years with my own c-sections and other outpatient procedures with my children and myself, most of the time they were decent-good care, but this group, this group was exceptional.  I wanted to ask Tim if he liked working with these people, but I didn’t want to ask it in a way that would make him have to lie or hurt someone’s feelings, so I asked “How many different departments have you worked in this hospital?”  His answer was almost all of them in rotations.  Then I asked which one was his favorite.   His answer was “this one, by far”.  He had actually been given the opportunity to chose the department he wanted after being through a bunch of others.  He chose this one because of the other nurses and their efficiency and care for the patients and the love of their “jobs”.  I told him I could see it too, and that I appreciated the work that he and his coworkers put into their labors.  I ended up in Recovery way longer than I should have, to the point where Tim felt comfortable walking me down and around a corner to another restroom to “go pee”.  I opted for the wheelchair ride back to my bed, seems it was quicker and would take up less of Tim’s time with his other patients, but I was very much ready to be taken to my room.

The “fun” part of being on anesthesia and painkillers…your memory comes back in pieces and sometimes there are still things missing.   So this post is a bit disjointed and not in a real timeline, sorry.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am, ugh!!!! That was too stinkin’ early.  We only waited about 20 minutes to be registered (had my wristband put on).  Something neat about this was a 35 year old woman who did the check-in decided to share her story with me.  She asked how I was feeling, I said “fine”.  She looked at me more pointedly and asked “How are YOU doing with all of this?”  I then looked up from the paper I was signing and told her how I had had a few weeks to get used to the idea and images.  She then shared that she found her cancer at age 32.  Due to her circumstances and diagnosis, she was just now in the final stages of reconstructive surgery.  I would not have noticed if she had not chosen to share it with me.  She was upbeat and confident and did not “look” like a breast cancer patient.  That was so good for me.  I wasn’t having a particularly hard time with my thoughts, but this was an extra boost to get me bolstered for the next step, Pre-op, where they make you put on the hospital gown, attach blood pressure cuffs, oxygen monitors, and the dreaded IV line.  My LEAST favorite part of any surgery, the IV placement, well that and the catheter, but that’s a whole other story not related to this surgery thank goodness. The Pre-op nurses usually prefer to put my IV in the back of my right hand, as those veins are usually very visible and easy to stick.  NOT this time.  The only veins that looked good were on the inside of my forearm, so that’s the one the nurse went for.  So while one really nice and considerate nurse was entering my data into the computer system and taking my blood-pressure and such, the other “not so nice” nurse was attempting to start an IV in my forearm, and NOT doing a very good job of it.  My veins had hardened due to chemo and were being difficult.  The nurses discussed how there seemed to be some resistance in that vein and Nice nurse suggested moving it.  Not So Nice nurse refused and said “well if they don’t like it in the O.R., then they can just move it”.  Yeah, not so shining moment for Baptist Hospital Staff / Patient relations, for more reasons than just the IV stuff, she really was not a nice nurse to her coworkers either.  They decided to leave it, seems there was no evident swelling in my arm (meaning the needle wasn’t poking out the other side of my vein and putting stuff in my arm instead of in my vein).    As I came out of recovery, I noticed a few new bruises / holes in my arm.  Two separate places on the back of my hand, one in the crook of my arm, and then the IV itself being in a new hole just to the left of the original hole accompanied by a large bruise along the original hole.  Sooooo glad they did all that while I was under anesthesia!  The Not So Nice nurse was done with her part for me, and we were left with the Nice nurse and the occasional other staff popping in and out.  Assistant to the Anesthetist, the Anesthetists, Dr. Lynch coming in to chat with us and draw on my chest and talk to us a bit about things and give us time to ask any other questions we might have had, Dr. Rogers popping in to check on us and say good morning and remind us of the details of his part.  It was fun to see he and Dr. Lynch interacting so jovially.  It really cemented the statements we heard of them working together quite frequently and I felt like if anything went wrong or weird they would definitely be able to communicate with each other efficiently enough to deal with it.  They then both left to get dressed for surgery, and Shawn and I were again left semi-alone.  That was a bit nerve-wracking.  Probably more for Shawn than for me, seems I had been given a lite dose of anti-anxiety meds.  The nurse then had me take some Celebrex and anti-gas pills and stool softeners and an anti-nausea patch behind my ear.  I am not sure which order this happened in.  The Anesthetist came in to explain to us this new type of anesthesia blocker that they use for these surgeries called a PecBlock.  Its the same type of medicines that they use to do a spinal block, but its in the Pectoral muscles instead.  It more fully covers the area being operated on, and has been proven to help the patient have less complications from anesthesia and a quicker recovery time.  Well, I guess it worked for me!  They then gave me my general anesthesia and I was out of it.  Shawn says that they talked with us a bit more before they actually wheeled me out to the O.R. but I remember nothing between that and the recovery room.  I have a few bruises here and there on my arms and sides that were obviously from having to be manually lifted from the Pre-op bed over to the Operating table.  I’ve been partially awake for those movements before, for C-sections, so I am generally familiar with those bruises. They didn’t worry me, but hospital staff or surgeons really should tell patients that kind of thing too before going into surgery, that could make someone panic or worry 😉

to be continued….