My hospital stay
Dec. 10th, 2023 02:30 am(1) I remember a lot more than i expected to and I’m in a good deal less pain than I expected to be.
(2) one day I’m going to tell an anesthesiologist how sensitive i am to anesthesia and maybe they will listen? In this case, I woke up in recovery to all the nurses looking extremely concerned. I was exhausted and not at all concerned because they are good at their jobs. only every person who walked by said “You need to get a handle on her Bp and my nurse would answer over and over “Yes, I already ordered bloodwork” or “I’ve been calling anesthesia”. Then he’d turn to me and over and over repeat “Don’t worry, we just need to get your bp up.”. I eventually said “You keep saying that and now I’m starting to worry. What does it mean it’s so low?” and he’d never answer just say “Nothing to worry about we just need to get it up.”
Apparently I woke up and it was at 70s/40s and at some point made it to 80s/50s. Then the nurses kept all asking about my blood work over and over and why it wasn’t in yet. Finally they realized it had been ordered wrong and they called the lab and there was a huge collective sigh of relief. “What was that about?” I asked.
”Oh, you’re not bleeding internally after all. “ Huh. Good to know? Some IV meds arrived and made it up to 90s/high 50s so I finally got to leave recovery after 3 hours. (I should have been there 1). Of course they don’t let anyone with you in recovery so I got to spend 3 hours with panicked nurses and no one I knew to sit by me.
(2) I was cheery and doing well for a while. My default when loopy is to say “you are all so awesome. I appreciate you.” over and over.
(3) then I started deteriorating. Not cheery. Not able to eat. Completely out of it. O2 at 87. I would answer questions I thought loudly but they only heard mumbling no matter how loud I started to talk. They decided not to send me home as planned and throughout day I became more out of it. i felt dizzy, nauseated, freezing cold and shivering, covered in sweat, insisted on blankets and a heating pad. The nurses became frustrated with my mumbling and I became frustrated they couldn’t tell I was talking loudly and clearly. They checked my temp over and over again, but always no fever but they said i felt warm, clammy and looked feverish. They started wiping my brow with a cold cloth and it felt like heaven on Earth.
I told them I felt itchy and they managed to understand that.
”How long have you been itchy?”
”I don’t know”
”Where are you itchy?”
” I don’t know.”
”You’re not being very clear. We need to understand what is happening?”
My o2 kept fluctuating so they left me on oxygen, literally turning off the O2 monitor because they were tired of the alarm.
Finally they said they thought I was having a reaction to the oxycodon so they were taking me off it. 3 hours later I was back to being cheery and myself. Only now, the doc had ordered no more iv meds and no ibuprofen and the only med left to me was tylenol. That sucked and made for a rough night before they finally got some alternatives.
(4) I finally went home next day. I seem to be doing fairly well. Lots of dizzy spells and a mixture in the appetite area. I am told I had a lot of work done, even more than was talked about. I’m exhausted but somehow still have insomnia. They even had to give me an ambien the first night in hospital.
I guess now so just need to write whump like this.
(5) Coughing is awful. Post abdominal surgery, they told me to brace on a pillow when I needed to cough but I had to cough and let it all out of my lungs. It hurts so much and this right here is whump gold. When you cough, stuff comes up. When you cough, the stitches all hurt. it’s agony. I go from 0 pain to a 6-7, just hurting for a good hour after coughing.