In The Hospital

They wheeled me into pre-op at 7:00 pm as promised. Surgery commenced around 7:30, and at 9:30 I awoke in post-op with Mary at my side. This was on Tuesday, October 12. I was in the hospital until Friday the 15th.

The first night I only wanted to sleep. The nurses woke me up every hour to check vital signs. This didn't bother me. With all the meds in me, I didn't care about anything.

I mostly slept between around 11:00 pm and 3:00 am the whole time I was in the hospital. I was never really comfortable enough to sleep the night through, even with all the drugs. I did sleep a lot during the day, though, since staying awake was way too boring. I hate TV, and I didn't have enough energy to read a book.

Mary visited me every day. Some days I had to chase her away so she could get her own things done. Pastor Eddie Munoz from Calvary Chapel visited me one day. My Aunt Roe visited me one day. And Kathleen and David Brandt also visited me, and they helped Mary with a lot of things at home.

The first morning (Wednesday) they tried to get me to urinate. I couldn't do this lying on my back or lying on my side. The nurses even tried to help me, letting me stand up by the side of the bed and holding me steady. But nothing. I'm not really sure whether this was the result of medications or just a "shy bladder." But Mary says the medications do shut everything down. Anyway, eventually they did put in a catheter because they were worried about the bladder becoming distended. This was an experience, but not as gruesome as I anticipated. The worse part was having it in for a day and feeling it "tugging" all the time. Eventually they pinned the tube down to the bed to keep it from tugging. This helped a lot. For the most part, it just gave the sensation that I was peeing constantly.

That very first day they sent an occupational therapist (OT) in the morning and a physical therapist (PT) in the afternoon. The OT helped me with things like putting on socks and pants. This is not so easy when you can't move your leg, and when you can't place weight on one leg. The PT showed me how to get in and out of bed without placing weight on the foot, and she showed me how to use the walker. It felt good to get out of bed and "walk" around. But it was relatively painless because of the medications.

They gave me some soap and water, and Mary washed me up a bit.

I was quite heavily medicated the whole first day of recovery. Before surgery, they had given me two doses of morphine, plus a spinal. But the spinal wasn't effective, so they administered a general afterward. So the whole next day, I had all the benefits and drawbacks of both. The spinal lasts 24 hours, so until about 7:30 on Wednesday night I felt no pain, which was a great benefit. But when they administer the general, they must shut down the digestive systems. So that whole first day I could not eat or drink anything. My stomach just did not work, and everything came back up. Fortunately I was getting some fluids through the IV.

After 7:30 on Wednesday night, as the spinal wore off, I did start  feeling some pain. They started giving me Vicodin then. It was supposed to last only 3-4 hours but I actually took just one per day, usually in the morning.

I definitely did not get as much attention from the nurses during the day as at night. At night they woke me up every hour, but during the day they did not ever respond when I pressed the button. Fortunately for all of us, I was not very demanding. But there were times when Mary sat with me during the day, and even she could not find a nurse anywhere. My roommate, an elderly gentleman, got lots of attention. And apparently we were right next door to a room where they tried to restrain drug addicts and other malcontents. I only faintly heard a row one time.

On Thursday I started eating again, and passed a little gas. I took these as good signs that digestive systems were back online, and I asked them to remove the catheter. It took a while to get approval for this, but eventually they relented. It was a real milestone when they let me use the walker to access  the restroom, and I was able to urinate on my own. Yes!

We hoped that I would be released on Thursday, but an internist became concerned that my blood oxygen count was low. I tend to be asthmatic and short of breath anyway, but they were particularly concerned that my BOX level dropped after using the walker for PT. The physical therapists also noticed that I was not nearly as steady on the walker the second day, and I had some nausea in the middle of one of my walks. We think it was natural that I was not in as good form the second day, since all the anesthetic had worn off by then. Anyway, the doctor ordered up a bunch of lung scans that didn't happen until late Thursday night, so release before Friday became impossible.

Things went well on Friday. With some breathing exercises, my BOX levels became acceptable. I did well on the walker. I had my first bowel movement since the surgery. I got up and washed myself in the bathroom. I even sat up in a chair to eat lunch. But the doctor did not make rounds until after dinner, so we twiddled our thumbs all day. Eventually they released me around 9:30 pm and we got home right around 10:00 pm. It had been just about 72 hours since I got out of surgery.

In all, I think the doctors and nurses took good care of me, and in particular the internist took extra steps to diagnose a potentially dangerous condition. Mary was also very helpful. She tried to be there every time I talked to a doctor or physical therapist, so she could remind me later of things I might forget.