As usual it's always a SNAFU! I needed knee replacement surgery and delayed it for at least two years. The deterioration of the cartilage in the joint had accelerated and could no longer be ignored. Thankfully, the knee replacement went very smoothly. The debacle started up just afterward. Resting comfortable in my hospital room, two friends, who just got married the day before, popped in for a visit. (They changed to an earlier wedding date, just so I could attend! How wonderfully sweet!) This blissful couple came by and brought a wonderfully large box of chocolates, sat and chatted.
All of the sudden, out of the blue, I turned REAL GREEN and HURLED! All of the liquid diet forced upon me had decided I didn't need the nutritional intake. If I hadn't hit the puke bucket, I probably have hit the opposite wall over 6 feet away. My girlfriend, Bliss ran out of the room for a nurse and the newlywed husband, poor Bruce held the bucket and tried to keep his eyes away from the gross green sludge filling the tiny bucket. All the while he stoked my hair and cooed words of comfort. I felt worse for his situation than I physically felt ill over mine! Bless both their hearts! Needless to say their visit was cut very short.
So the medical staff rushes in, put me on anti-nausea meds and continued the liquid diet. Lo and Behold, I do the same thing the next day, this time with the nurse and her assistant in the room. And they are scratching their heads as to why my stomach felt better turned inside out than right side in. All I could say, it was one heck of a way to lose the extra pounds!
Now, I get a sharp pain in the calf of the surgery leg. They scramble to do an ultra sound, looking for a possible blood clot. No clot, that's good. Gee Wiz, I wanted an excuse to get out of the room for a change of scenery, anyway! Uh, can you push me one more time around the block for a lark?
Just when you'd think, it would start to go smoothly, I get severe leg cramps. They run a blood test that showed my potassium, magnesium and iron was desperately low, causing an irregular heart rate. The cramps were so severe, I was SCREAMING in pain, something I do not do! My leg felt like it was solid granite from my hip to my foot. They gave me the potassium and magnesium in pill form and an IV for the IRON. They also included Ativan for anxiety and they claim, to relax the muscles. It took close to 6 hours before the pain level became bearable. It was the worst pain I have EVER felt. When my appendix burst, shoulder or foot broke, none ever hurt this bad! TRUE STORY!
The second I saw the IV bag for the iron, I immediately questioned whether I would have an allergic reaction. The solution was red and I am highly allergic to iodine, beta-dine and red dye. A short time later, of course, I broke out in hives and my IV bag of iron had to be removed. A new IV had to be reinserted in the opposite arm with the iron supplement discontinued.
Now, I develop a fever, with no explanations. They send me for a chest X Ray to look for pneumonia. No Pneumonia. They wake me up every 1/2 to 1 hour to take my temp and blood pressure.
Because of the torn rotator cuffs in both of my shoulders, it's real difficult trying to use the walker, but, I am getting better at it. I've managed to step on each of my five cat's tails or paws. When a larger immobile object meets a much smaller quicker object, what do you think would happen?
M E O R W!!!! S C H R E I C H!!!!!!!!!!
Last night was a horror with the aches and nausea. They added in a new medication into the new IV, which blew the new IV. Quess what, run another newer new, new IV. They gave me the newest meds in the newest new, new one. And what do you think they did? (Maybe we can set this to the tune, "The Bear Came Over The Mountain..") They blew the newest, new, new IV. The Nurse, "Gerald" had to rerun the IV again, because of the swelling and reaction around the site. He, too blew a vein he was working on and tried for 45 mins to find a clean new vein. Frustrated, he called in the hospital top gun, a Nurse from Recovery.
She was so sweet and worked for 1 1/2 hours looking for a vein, yet, even she
blew one vein, until she was finally able to find a usable vein at the side of my wrist. The only reason I needed to keep an IV, was because they kept me on the
heart monitor. All of the meds they had me on up to that then could have been given orally.
The funniest part of all of this? I was honest with the surgeon on how much I like to drink at happy hour. But, I told him, I don't always do it every night. A week before surgery I always stop so it doesn't interfere with the meds. The Surgeon insisted I bring a bottle of scotch with me and prescribed a shot each night. The first night, I drank 1/2 of a drink and threw the rest out. The bottle was stored under lock and key at the nurses station. Two nights later, I had the second drink and the bottle again went immediately back to the nurses station. Believe it or not, it has it's own prescription label with my name on it. So why don't they just open a cocktail lounge at the hospital? Be more fun than sucking one down alone in your room! Maybe a piano bar? Karaoke?
They discharged me on Friday and Jani lugged all of my stuff down to the car. I
got in and we headed home. Going about 2 miles, I remember the bottle of scotch. I make Jani turn back and retrieve it. Hey, it's alcohol abuse to throw it out! Well, I know I only had 2 ounces, but looking at the bottle, someone else enjoyed quite a few slugs!! TOO FUNNY!!! Hey, I would have welcomed a drinking buddy!
Well, I'm home safe and sound. Jani is still trying to get everything fixed so
I can move round easily. First thing I'll be doing, is catching up on
sleep..... Without someone taking blood, reading my temp or shoving who knows what who knows where!!!!!!!!!!!
Edie sent me the most beautiful flowers, Bliss and Bruce the most delicious chocolate and BJ's Boo Boo Bear kept me company! Marci babysat me, so Jani could run to the store and Barbara gave me a wheelchair, for when I need to get out of the house for an extended period of time. I can't thank everyone enough for the warm wishes and prayers.
I am truly blessed!
PS - The physical therapist that comes to the house is a GRECIAN GOD! Ah, Jani, I think I hear a pack of cigerettes calling your name at the store down the road.......
MY Jani! I Think I'll Keep Him, Anyway!
Barbara King wrote:
> Nothing attached. Was that the little buddy we sent over to help you
> heal?
> Mom said as usual, your post op was worse than your op?
> What happened? Jani called while we were in NYC seeing a specialist
> for Paul. Heleft his cell number, but didn't say anything about how
> you were doing?
> Haven't had a chance to call him back yet.
>
>
No comments:
Post a Comment