Tuesday:
Mom came and picked me up at 9:00. I was finally starting to get anxious and nervous. And, of all mornings, I was hungry! I never get hungry in the morning. So all of the anxiety and hunger combined made me a little snippy. When we arrived at the hospital, I checked in and they got me into the system right away. I got my little arm band and was told where to go to wait. All this time, the anxiety is building. Mom and I made our way up to the 5th floor surgery waiting room. I had to call on a little black phone to let them know I was there. Finally, after about 45 minutes, they called us back. I was really getting nervous at this point, a bit shaky. A little voice inside me said, its not too late to stop now. But I ignored it. We went into the back area where they were down to business. Had to strip down to nothing and put on the hospital gown, these weird socks that went up to my knees but had holes in the toes, and these little footies over that. I was shaking all over by this point. Mom just sat there doing all she could to look calm and keep me calm. My blood pressure was 143/ 76, which is really high for me. I'm normally around 100/ 60. I told the nurse that I was a tough stick, and she said she'd be careful. But she tried twice and couldn't get the IV in. And oh, did that hurt! So she said she'd have the anesthesiologist do that. Thank goodness, too, cause the anesthesiologist got it in one try, although it did hurt a bit. I have small veins apparently, that don't like IVs.
Anyway, around 12:00 they wheeled me back and I said bye to mom. They took my glasses, so I was pretty blind at this point and nervous too. It took a few minutes for the "happy drugs" to kick in and help me relax. But by the time I was in the surgical ward, and put on the table, I was ok. I remember them sticking all sorts of heart monitor patches on me and these weird leg squeezer things for circulation. And that's all I remember before lights out.
I remember waking up (they sent me to recovery around 4:30) but it took me a while. I was in and out of it for a while. I remember at one point they put oxygen on me and told me to breathe because my blood pressure had dropped so low. But really, it was just back to normal levels, ha ha! I had an NG tube down my nose that ran to my stomach to suck out blood and fluids. The nurse told me a few times to cough to help the sucking. My hospital gown kept falling off my shoulders so the nurse came to tie it back up. I told her that I was trying to be sexy and now there went that. She laughed and told my mom and sister about that. Apparently Ashley got fussed at for wandering around as an "unsupervised minor" in the recovery room. Apparently I was feeling all emotional, telling mom "I did good, didn't I? I did everything they told me to." and "I love you guys."
They had 3 different rooms ready for me to move into, but each time they came back and said, no, they "unassigned me". So I didn't get moved into a room until 8:30. Apparently the first two rooms were shared rooms, so thank goodness the third room was private. I was really nauseated at this point, and I did end up throwing up, through the NG tube. That was so weird! That night was difficult. I kept waking up every couple of hours in agony. They would give me some kind of pain killers in my IV tubing which helped. And the NG tube started making me gag. Ashley stayed the night with me, she was a wonderful help. I almost threw up again, but Ashley prayed over me really hard and I finally was able to relax. Around 5:30, one of the doctors came and took out the tube and I felt soooo much better. All in all, I didn't get much sleep that night.
Now, I have gone back and forth over this, because most of you know I hate my picture taken, but here is a picture of me in the recovery room. No making fun!
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