Surgery...

Well I got through my first surgery. Went in on Friday morning at 7:30am and was taken back by 8am. They started my IV and put these funky leg braces on me to help with my blood circulation during surgery. They would blow up one leg then release like a blood pressure cuff. weird honestly. I had to get some kind of injection into my stomach also to help with blood clotting. That didn't make matters feel any better either.
Anway, John was able to stay with me until the wheeled me back. CF Hoffman came back with me also and prayed with me right before they headed back to surgery. I got back into the operating room at 9:32am. First they had me switch beds then they hooked me up to the blood pressure cuff again. Took my blood pressure and it was good so they processed with getting me ready for Dr. I. The put the oxygen leveling thing on my right hand and then started tucking something in on my left side but thought they had better stop and sedate me first because that part was a bit unconfortable to some. So in went the medication to my IV and I heard the nurses talking about something about a Miller?? What that was I'll never know...apparently it was something they wanted to use on me though. I got the impression though that I had a newbie in the room too. Ohh that made me feel soo much better *yikes* The "head" nurse that had been with me since she took me from John said she needed to put some oxygen on me and warned me that it would smell like plastic. I saw her put it on my face and I fought the anesthsia as long as i could and finally I saw the clock..yup it said 9:45am...then I don't remember anything else until I woke up screaming in the recovery room at 13:05pm. From there the nurse just kept asking what my pain levels were. I kept saying 8 or 10. Honestly I'm a baby when it comes to pain. I also couldn't breathe. My chest hurt so bad. The nurse just kept saying to take deep breaths in through my nose out through my mouth...yeah that was eaiser said than done. You try having your throat closing up on you and your chest hurt like nothing was every working for you. It killed I'm telling you and all she kept telling me when the alarms were going off were... yes michelle those are your alarms..you need to breath!! umm I'm TRYING!! Could I get some extra help here?
Finally she moved me out of the recovery room only to try and reach across me to get one of the monitors off of me but to stab me in one of my insitions. Yeah that KILLED!! I cried going out of the recovery room. She apologized but it still hurt like heck! I got into my other room and that nurse sooo much nicer. Judy really helped take care of me. Though I didn't like her at first..they had to force me onto my right side (the same side all of my insistions are on mind you) to help push all of the "air" from the anethstsia out of my chest. They believed that was what was causing all of my chest pain. She gave me some vicodin by oral and I got to rest a bit longer. Woke up sick to my stomach and in more pain so Judy came back in and got me some pain medication and anti-neasua medication through my IV this time. I slept a bit longer and that really helped. After I bit longer of a "nap" I finally decided I needed to get up and get out. So Judy came and helped me get ready. Only one problem...my blood pressure was acting funny. It was REALLY low. She had me sit in a chair for at least another half hour with my IV fluids fully open in hopes that my BP will come back up. No Luck but I wasn't dizzy or tooo light headed so she released me under John's care and gave us strict instructions that if I got dizzy or light headed to return.
Well I did late that evening but I didn't say anything to anyone so what they don't know won't hurt them. I'll just be sure to watch my BP over the next few weeks. I knew it was acting funny over the last few weeks but I just thought it was because of nerves. Though it was higher not lower prior to surgery. Ohh well.
Post surgery the next day recovery was horrible! I had to keep the vicodin going every 4 hours the pain was that bad. The first night I was up a lot. I didn't get much rest at all. I couldn't figure out how to get up and down without seriously putting myself into more pain.
As of last night though I finally figured most of it out. I figured if I lay on my right side and push up from my right side I wasn't rocking my organs from one side to the other so I could have better luck that way. Minimal pain that way at least. I still have to watch with the kids and the cat. John is going to try and take Tuesday off for me so I'll only have to worry about Monday with the children. I'm a little worry about that honestly. I can't lift and I definately am still very very sore in my stomach area. I have to watch everything and have the kids really watch their actions. Ohh this is going to be rough.