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.

Operating Day!

i called CHB at 3pm the business day before my November 12 scheduled surgery date. i was to report to the pre-op room at 6am for 7:30am surgery.  we arrived in BOS the day before surgery and checked into Yawkey Family Inn. for some freak reason, my blackberry started to go on the fritz and my brand new suitcase had crooked wheels.  so i took care of these errands, got some groceries to put in our YFI food cubbies and then got an early dinner to comply with the 8hr NPO restriction prior to surgery.  i decided to try to get one last boost of iron so i chose legal sea foods to try to get some clams and shellfish.  the next morning i had a juicy juice apple juice carton at 5am then we set off for the hospital for 6am arrival.

everyone asked me if i was nervous.  i wasn't sure what to be nervous about.  even in the waiting room, none of the kids there seemed to care and i'm like 3-4x's older than all of them!  nurse mary took me in and did vitals, made sure i hadn't put anything in my mouth per NPO instructions, and checked that i had no polish on my nails (to monitor oxygen during surgery).  i had to give urine (standard pregnancy test).  i made sure all my tubes were emptied and then we were called up to the holding room.

i changed into my hospital gown and put all the clothes i was wearing in a brown paper bag. a bunch of people visited me--anesthesiology, residents, fellow.  i got poked a few times and Dr Millis initialed my left thigh.  i think they gave me a happy drug.  i remember being rolled into a room that had lots of stuff.  they told me they were giving me something...and that's all i remember.

when i woke up, someone was saying my name and asked me to wiggle my toes. i had a mask on my face and i was wrapped up all over from head to toe.  they wrapped my whole mid-section in mummy gauze (aka the millis diaper).  my guy was saying sweet nothings to me which i wasn't registering. i felt very nauseated, my throat hurt, and i was very groggy.  i got poked a bunch of times because my sodium and potassium levels weren't normal.  after 4.5 hours in recovery (i think i was one of the last ones in there), i was wheeled up to my hospital room.  i opened my eyes at one point but had such bad motion sickness so i just closed my eyes.

my surgery report is they cut the acetabulum from the pelvis, rotated it laterally and put in 4 screws.  they decided not to explore the joint capsule but may scope it in the future to visualize the labrum and medial cystic cartilage abnormalities that showed up in my pre-op MRI.  i lost 900ml of blood and was in there a standard 4.5hrs.

my first night in the hospital was a blur of beeping and flashing lights thru my groggy haze.  i had zero pain but intense nausea. when i had to lift myself up with the trapeze handle for someone to check my epidural, i had such bad motion sickness and dry-heaved.  i also couldn't tolerate talking on the phone, esp when my sister called with her cheery non-church voice.  the respirator machine kept beeping cuz it didn't think i was breathing. then it would set off the nurse alarm.  they completely turned off my epidural for about 30min for the pain team to figure out how to manage my meds.  they also took a chest xray to make sure my lungs hadn't collapsed. i had a bout of intense tightness in my jaw and upper body. my teeth were chattering and i couldn't relax my neck and shoulders.  i had itchiness on my chest area. my epidural had started at 15 and was titrated down in 2.5 increments until they decided that 7.5 was a good level for me. i was on dilaudad and bupivicaine for pain, and zofran and reglan for nausea.

they gave me an incentive spirometer, a contraption to blow into to keep my airways open.  i had to blow hard enough so these balls would rise in their tubes.  i was supposed to do it 10x/hr but it gave me a bad headache so i wasn't very diligent.  they also had pneumoboots on my calves to help circulation.  my guy fed me ice chips throughout the night. ice never tasted so good.

the medical team decided that i am extremely sensitive to opiates which is why i had such bad nausea from the epidural (i guess i didn't experiment enough in my younger years).  prior to surgery, i passed out before they were able to get the epidural in me.  i think getting in an epidural requires patient cooperation but i was lights out already.  in my hospital bed, the pain team didn't bother giving me the control button to increase my epidural strength.

my guy's parents visited briefly.  i didn't think i felt that bad but his mom was staring at me like i was on my last breath and holding my hands very dearly.  i remember wanting to brush my teeth very badly.  they have toothbrush and toothpaste at the hospital (plus baby shampoo, dial soap and keri lotion).