Hospital Stay

Day 1
throughout the night nurses come in regularly to check vitals, give meds, empty the catheter bag, empty the wound drainage bag...i woke up with less nausea and zero pain.  i must say, the nurses at CHB are all very pleasant and cute.  i wonder if it's cuz little kids are happier with perky nurse. i tried to nibble on some crackers with water and apple juice. my daddy came into town, with my aunt and cousin.  my dad is always thinking of food.  he brought 2 stuffed giordanos pizza for us and brought back a whole peking duck from the chinese restaurant in the howard johnson.  unfortunately i had no appetite.  i tried to eat dinner and ordered chix noodle soup and toast from the hospital dining service.  it took 2hrs for the food to arrive.  the soup was terribly bland so i had bits of toast and called it a day.

PT came buy and had me do ankle pumps, quad extension, glute squeeze.

my upper body was really itchy and i had a dull headache all day.  they gave me nubain and benadryl for my itchiness and tylenol for my headache.  i received 3 doses of cefazolin antibiotic and started lovenox shots (60 days) for anti-clotting.

Day 2
i woke up with less nausea but my dull headache lingered.  i was super itchy all night (back, belly, around the edges of my millis diaper) so the nurses decided to change my sheets.  they gathered a crew of 6 to change my sheets. i didn't know what they were going to do to me, but i lifted myself up with the trapeze thing and they got my sheets changed in one motion.  really quite amazing. i went ahead and got a towel bath and my hair washed.  that was really SO refreshing and my itchy back and torso got some temporary relief.  getting my hair washed was a bit of a production tho.  they had to adjust the bed into an upside V (automatic buttons) and put a collection tray under my head to catch water.  my dad visited again and my sis-in-law brought goodies from rosie's bakery.  flowers from friends and family continued to come in. winston flowers has some beautiful arrangements.

my wound drainage was removed and dr millis cut off my diaper and replaced the tegaderm over my steri-strips.  now i had easier access to all my itchy spots.  they also gave me back the blood that i donated before surgery.  my hematocrit went up 3 points to 23, still anemic. in addition to nubain, they give me narcan for my itchiness.  my nurse also started me on myolax to get things moving again.  i was super gassy ALL day from that...tho i wonder if my blood was still tainted from the stomach bug i had prior to donating my blood...my catheter kept getting stopped up so i felt urgency but i was thinking, i shouldn't have urgency b/c there's a catheter.  so i had to have nurses come by frequently to un-kink the collection tube. whenever it would empty, there was an uncomfortable tugging inside so i wished the tube wouldn't keep kinking.

i ordered full meals hoping to eat but ended up picking at everything.  we ordered bertucci's for dinner but i didn't feel like eating that either.

PT had me do adduction/abduction, slide foot to butt, and pronate knee.  i seriously couldn't do any of these moves and the PT was doing it all for me.  amazing, losing all that control.

Day 3
pain still low. i would say there's more discomfort in the hip area, tightness and the whole area is numb so it doesn't feel normal.  there's a fire&ice burning sensation that comes and goes.  plus it was all swollen.

today was a big day--they yanked out all my tubes. my epidural was turned off at 7am and removed at 11:30am.  my catheter came out the same time. they gave me 5mg oxycodone and tylenol for pain. and more colase and myolax.

my guy cooked me his famous slow-cooked scrambled eggs, english muffin and bratwurst for bfast. i could eat but the brats were a little too aromatic for me still. ordered some yogurt, cottage cheese, soy milk and strawberries for lunch to get some calcium for bone-healing for lunch.  didn't get to it til dinner, and only picked at it.

got another sponge bath today cuz my period came and i soiled the sheets.  PA erin and the nurses all said this was common after the body endures trauma like surgery.  the hospital has funky gauze-y underpants. getting bathed is great cuz of the itchiness.  my inner thighs started to itch like mad now. w/o bathing, getting wiped with rubbing alcohol feels great too.

PT today was getting out of bed into wheelchair.  i did it in record time b/c i had to pee so bad.  they asked me how my pain was since this was my first time out of bed.  i felt no pain; just had to pee right now.  they stuck me on a rolling commode chair to use the toilet.  my left thigh is so fat and swollen.  that might have been too much excitement for me. they had me sit in a big recliner chair. i sat there for a couple of hours and had no energy to stay awake.  i took 10mg oxycodone prior to my next PT session in the afternoon. i technically wasn't supposed to have a 2nd session but they thought i got out of my chair so well, i could do the next step.  getting wheeled over to PT was very nauseating.  i was to walk the parallel bars which caused even more nausea.  i couldn't finish the length of parallel bars, turned back and wanted to vomit.  that's when the miracle wax kicked in so i got rushed back to the toilet.  then i was very sleepy and napped.

i was woken up by a friend's visit.  she dropped off a big fat magazine. oddly, during my whole hospital visit, i have no energy to read or even watch tv.  i just sleep, scratch my itchy spots, sleep, go to the can, do PT, entertain guests, eat, sleep.  very strange how all my time passes.  after i woke up, i tried to go for a stroll in my commode chair.  i got into the hallway but had nothing to pull myself around.  a nurse asked where i was going and sent me back to my room.

nurses trying to get me off nubain for the itchiness cuz i can't take it home. throughout day, experimented with different doses of oxycodone and they decided that 5mg was the best amount for me.

Day 4
woke up with no pain but very drowsy. they gave me more colase and cortisone cream and sarna for my itchiness.  appetite still isn't back but the yogurt with fresh strawberries is yummy, tastes like pinkberry! tried to pick at some roast beef for lunch. au bon pain chix noodle soup for dinner.

nurse suggested i might get discharged if i can pass crutches test and get a good balance for pain/nausea control.  took a shower and washed hair in the bathroom.  that was very tiring, so i went back to sleep after.  and it's very uncomfortable to have so much pressure on left butt.  my wheelchair and 3-in-1 commode were delivered.

for PT, tried parallel bars again. still very difficult. i can't move my left foot forward and have no hip flexor control.  got very nauseated again and went straight to can. had to take a nap again.  for afternoon PT, i walked the parallel bars much better.  then they had me do a round with crutches.  was physically wiped after that and then had to poop and sleep again.  i need to tell the nurses no more colase.

my brother visited!  the nurse showed my guy how to give me my lovenox shots.  went to bed with small chills.

Day 5
woke up pain-free, not too drowsy.  switched to 1mg dilaudad to see if that helps nausea. my itchiness is out of control--back, belly, inner thighs.  it looks like i walked thru a thorn forest.

ordered choco chip bananas for bfast, yogurt w/sberries, oj w/prune juice.  all very good (good job CHB kitchen). eating better but stomach feels smaller. chix parm and mac n' chz for lunch.  eating is actually quite tiring.

Dr Millis took me down to get an x-ray done (so i can get discharged). getting wheeled around didn't cause any nausea. a skin ulcer check nurse came by, and audit nurse, and food quality rep.

for morning PT, i crutched to the stairs and then had to go up and down 3 stairs.  that was SO hard and tiring. my left leg simply doesn't move.  it's like the PT lady doesn't think i'm trying.  she let me go rest and for the afternoon session i had to do stairs 4x's before she cleared me for discharge.  it was very ungraceful.

so finally cleared for discharge!  i needed to be able to do stairs with crutches, have bowel movement, have pain under control, and my x-rays were fine.  there was a ton of meds to pick up and paperwork to sign and take home. my guy only brought me a pair of pants for discharge...so i wore a child's hospital gown as a shirt and hospital socks out of the hospital. my left leg was so swollen that i had difficulty getting my pants on (luckily for my sanity, they fit fine now).

we called a van cab to take us (and my wheelchair and commode and all my flowers) to yawkey family inn. i got in and out of the van without any problems and wheeled myself into the house.