Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Waking up from the OR

Well where to to start..I don't really remember actually being "woken up". I do remember being in the recovery room opening my eyes and my body feeling completely numb from about the waist down. I remember nurses asking me over and over again my name and the date...it kind of got annoying at a certain point.  I wanted to start telling them wrong answers but I knew they were just checking on me. (horrible that I want to joke after having surgery, but oh well thats me!) I remember my sister and my mom coming back first to see me, this had to be a total sign of relief for them. They both came back grabbed each one of my hands and instantly I felt the warmth of the love enter my corner of the room. Every time I tried to move they would try and stop me and ask what I needed...what good fam wouldn't. I remember feeling very dehydrated in my mouth and my eyes kind of felt crusted shut. I kept trying to open my eyes up with my fingers. I think my sister thought I was trippin' out on the drugs at this point cause for some reason I couldn't get the words out of my mouth to explain exactly what the hell I was trying to accomplish by pinching my eyes. I asked the nurse if there was any way I could just get a drink of water because my throat was so dry, she told me I wasn't aloud to drink but did give me a little sponge on a stick that I could dip in a cup and suck on the sponge. Mom helped do that for me a few times and it felt a little better but not all that much. I had a tube going down my nose and into my stomach that was hooked up to some kind of suction, so every time I got water it pulled it right out of me. They said they wanted to keep things out of my stomach for awhile because of the surgery. The nice thing I did have some control over was the pain, I did have and epidural in my back that was hooked up to a pump that I could push every so often and get a little bit of relief for a bit. I think the thing that bothered me most was just laying on my back for the long period of time, I was not used to that nor did I like it. So after a nice little visit from mom and sis they went out into the waiting room and then Justin (boss) and his wife Amie came back to see me. Again, as soon as they got to the bed the was a feeling of warmth I imagine from the feeling of importance and care that I had felt from everyone. They came back and I think I was pretty tired at this point again cause I don't remember much of the conversation. I do remember Justin helping me with getting some more sponge water and helping me with my oxygen line. The damn thing felt like it kept getting caught up in the tube around my nose. After spending a little more time with them they went back out into the waiting room. I had my aunt and uncle come back to see me and talk for a bit. Again, at this point I don't think I was to awake I don't remember much of the conversation, I do remember telling them that my shoulder hurt and I remember my Uncle telling me I was a hero when he was walking away. Then another Aunt and cousin came back to see me and were glad to see me, and I saw my cousin had a bag in her hand, I started thinking what the hell could she have in there already. She pulls out the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition magazine for this year, I remember grinning and laughing a little til I realized it hurt then I cut it off. I remember thinking "only Erica" would do that. They went back out into the waiting room shortly after that. I was now waiting for my room to open up in ICU. I remember the guy that came to transport me was very nice and friendly. He started asking me what I did for a living, my reply was "I'm an IT guy" his answer "oh snap, ya'll better watch what you do to this guy he will came back and get you if he wants to." Later on I was finally moved to ICU, I got my bed setup and was introduced to the new team of people that would be watching me that night. I do remember my nurse's name was Joe. Of course the female visitors I had were excited that I had a "good looking" nurse. He was awesome, was on the ball with everything and explained a lot to me even when I felt like I was asking way to many questions. Everyone came back and saw me one more time before heading home, I knew it was a long day for them all too, we did all start around 4:45am. I did have a TV in my room, which I was very excited about but of course the damn remote didn't work. I had my sister get Justin back there to see if there was anything he could do to fix it but, no dice it wasn't working. Another thing I got excited about was that they put ice chips in my water cup this time so it was actually cold, woohoo!! So after getting settled in I said my goodnights to everyone and told them I'd see them all in the morning.  That damn tube in my nose was horrible probably the reason I wasn't sleeping that much. So I started trying to figure out the best ways to get rest, after a little time I figured out the the "pain button" only worked every 15 minutes. So I came up with a system of pushing that having a few tastes of water from the sponge and then falling asleep for 15-20 minutes. I pretty much did that the whole night. I knew the next day had a lot to bring and I was looking forward to seeing everyone again. So I patiently rested why I could.

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