Surgery!

I'm alive! I made it through surgery! I had it on the 21st of October. I didn't get much sleep the morning before so was very tired and anxious by the time I got to the hospital.

I checked in and had to wait about 15 minutes before I was called back. I had to strip down to a paper gown, and D was allowed to come back with me. I was pacing, and generally very nervous. I kept telling him it wasn't too late to run! The medical professionals could tell I was very on edge and offered me some adavan to calm my nerves, which I took. I don't remember much after that. I remember going to the "kissing corner" and kissing D goodbye. I remember getting rolled in to the OR and seeing all the monitors and as soon as I slid over on to the table, them giving me the good stuff and I was out like a light.

The next thing I remember is being in pain in recovery. Very white hot pain but I was sooo sleepy that I don't remember agony but rather it was just there. I kept telling them it was painful and they kept telling me when I started breathing correctly, they would up the pain medicine. I could hear the machines beeping each time it picked up I had stopped breathing and they would yell from where ever they are "Jade, start breathing honny" and that kind of thing. I don't remember coming out of recovery, or getting to my room. I slept a LOT that first day. My hubby had on Glee, and I remember bits and pieces of that. Eventually they made me get in a chair and I did that for about 10 minutes or so before I wanted to lay down and sleep. I have no idea how people walk the same day - crazy!

They were very worried about my asthma right from the get go. They gave me two breathing treatments that evening and I was fine. I could do the lung inspiratory just fine. The next morning, my mom showed up to give my hubby a break so he could go let the dogs out. I had just finished a breathing treatment and D had just left to let the poor dogs out. My mom being around put me SO on edge that I had a mini panic attack. It was not good. My heart beat went up to 155, which is not good. Everything started to turn white, which made me panic even more. They called for the rapid response team but it was not rapid. By the time they made it there, I was back down to about 129 beats per minute, which was still high but not "the white light is coming" high. They were about 10 minutes getting to me and I'm sitting here thinking now, what if it was really bad and I went in to cardiac arrest? Would they have a responded quicker to a code blue call? Anyway, that was really my only gripe about the whole stay is that one piece of it.

So they hook me up to a heart monitor thing, EKG maybe?, to see what was wrong with my heart. They kept saying it was sinus rhythm that apparently was a good thing. Having been so educated pre-op, I knew that a rapid heart beat could be a sign of a leak or a pulmonary embolism. Because my heartbeat stayed so elevated for longer than it should have (it basically stayed above 130 for over 30 minutes), I bought myself a day in the ICU. But before they took me there, they did a full CT scan of my chest and abdomen to rule anything out and it was clear. I remember they put me before a guy who had fallen 23 feet and had broken bones - that scared the shit out of me because if that guy was that bad off, how bad off did they think I was?? It was pretty fucking scary. That set the tone for the anxiety I had throughout my hospital stay.

I don't remember much about the ICU on Thursday. My bff Katie came to visit for a couple hours so D could go home and let the poor dogs out. I'm eternally grateful for her support in all of this - I couldn't have done it without her.

Once I got out of the ICU on Friday, I developed a pain in my upper thigh. I mentioned it to the nurse and she told the doctor who sent me down for an ultrasound stat. I told them it felt like it was sore from getting in an out of bed and such but they sent me any way. It came out clean too.

Finally Saturday, they gave me the option of staying the night or going home. At that point I wasn't getting my fluids in and told the doctor so. He said to work on them and see if I could get them. I tried really hard and made it so I told them I wanted out. I got home about 10:00 pm. So far so good!