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fenchurchThe last week has been a bit of a blur... I blame the pain medication, since I've been taking the stuff pretty much constantly -- I even have system set up to keep track of when the next dose is due, since I've had more than a few moments of fuzzy-headed confusion, trying to remember if and when I'd last taken it. That being said, while the shoulder hurts, I can say with great confidence that I was right... and it's nowhere near as painful as a broken acromion process.
The surgery apparently went really well and no work needed to be done on the rotator cuff, so they just fixed up the tear in the labrum and (from what I was told) anchored a whole slew of tendons. The worst part was that the surgery kept getting pushed back further in the day. I got there at 7:00 am, after really not sleeping much the night before, with the idea that I'd be going into the OR around 9:00. There were, I believe, two surgeries scheduled before mine... and what with one thing or another, my surgery was already running about two hours late. They had me all hooked up to the IV, giving me fluids, which I'm guessing was the only thing keeping me from going insane from thirst, they'd put on one of those anti-motion sickness patches and I'd already had my pre-op breathing treatment of Albuterol and Atrovent (that was pretty funky... I'd had both as inhalers before, but never as the steamy, mask-over-the-face sort of thing). So I got to wait in the Day Surgery area, chatting with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rackham and my mom, which really helped fill the time. The nurses were just getting ready to finally take me back when the surgeon came in, looking over the lab results from the previous day. Apparently, there was a slight indication that I might have some sort of infection. It wasn't anything major, and the odds were actually good that there was nothing wrong, but Dr. Barrett didn't want to take any chances, so she had them start me on a course of IV antibiotics, which was going to take another hour to get into my system... so she said they were going to take the next person in ahead of me, pushing my surgery back a grand total of four hours. I really didn't mind, because I would rather be safe than sorry, as well... and the person who was scheduled to go after me was an elderly woman with a knee problem who was VERY anxious about the surgery. I think it was better for everyone concerned that she got in and got it over with.
I ended up not eating anything for 24 hours and not being able to drink anything for 18 hours (the latter really was the worst). The funny part, to me, was that all the art in the Same Day Surgery area had water in it... scenes of the ocean, a river, a lake, and even a weird hand-made quilt wall-hanging with a very sad and/or angry looking cat getting rained on.
This was my first time in a real operating room... the only other surgery I'd ever had was on my right hand, for carpal tunnel, and it was done in a little surgery room with a local anaesthetic. This was the full deal, with big lights and all sorts of machines and strapping me down to an operating table and yeah, it was a bit freaky. The anaesthesiogist came in and set up a breathing mask thing next to my head, telling me it wasn't going over my face, it was just there in case they needed it... and then he gave me first a muscle relaxant followed by the anaesthetic via the IV, which burned a bit and I could feel moving up my arm, into my chest and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in an unfamiliar room, with a nurse reassuring me that I was okay and in Recovery. Apparently, according to the nurse, I fought them a bit when I first started coming out of the anaesthetic and they actually had to hold me down. Of course, I remember none of this... I was actually not entirely sure where I was, other than that I was in a hospital and that was okay because I was supposed to be there, but I didn't want to ask the nurse where I was, because I didn't want to alarm her. I think it was the fact that I'd not seen the Recovery room before the surgery and nothing was familiar.
They brought me some ice chips, which I understand is SOP in post-op. It was also the best thing I've ever encountered in my life... I don't think I've ever been that thirsty. I graduated from that to water a short time later, and they brought in some saltine crackers which were *sour*. Ugh. REALLY sour. So, they brought in some applesauce, which tasted like someone had mixed half applesauce with half saccharine, it was so hyper-sweet. Finally, they brought me a full dinner tray and I was able to pick at the sandwich a bit, but everything tasted wrong and the bread was as sour as the saltines. Yuck. The water, however, was absolutely divine. Everything was still kinda fuzzy, and they had to move me over into the hospital proper, since the Day Surgery area was closing for the day... they were even starting to discuss just keeping me overnight, when the anti-nausea meds really began to kick in. At one point, a nurse came in to go over the discharge papers with us... and Rackham got a bit puzzled by the fact that she was directing everything at him, finally asking "Doesn't she need to sign herself out?" (since I'd signed myself in) and she gave him a funny look before informing him I was under the influence and in no way could I sign legal papers. Hee! (Okay, it seemed funny to me at the time.)
I was feeling a good deal better by the time they wheeled me out to the car, although I was definitely loopy from the medication. Rackham stopped by the local grocery store to get something and I asked him to buy me one of those Campbell's Soup At Hand thingies, whatever chicken flavor they had and I didn't care if he couldn't heat it up... although, thankfully, the manager of the store very graciously heated it up in a microwave in the back. Yummy! Why they hadn't just given me soup at the hospital, I'll never know. It still tasted funny (and a little sour), but much better than anything else I'd tried eating.
The five hour drive home wasn't exactly pleasant, although I did provide the in-transit entertainment. I was so out of it... I was actually having conversations with people who weren't there (seriously, I kept talking to someone who was sitting in front of me to the right, which would have placed whoever it was outside the car). The weird part is that it was like my brain had been divided in half... with the loopy side and the lucid side, which knew there was something wrong, but didn't seem to be able to do anything about it. By the time we got the Ellensburg, I was giggling at everything. I would lose track of what I was saying in the middle of speaking, or I'd ask Rackham something and then immediately forget I'd even posed a question and have to puzzle out what he was talking about and why. But at least I finally figured out what was up with my taste buds. I had Rackham buy me some Gardetto's snack mix... something I KNEW was supposed to taste a certain way, and it hit me. I couldn't taste salt. At all. And anything made with flour tasted sour. The lack of tasting salt thing actually took about two days to fade out, which had me a bit worried, since I'm rather fond of salty things! Very weird side effect, though.
Since then I've been sleeping a lot, watching a bit of television, playing a lot of Zuma (it only needs my right hand on the mouse and doesn't require a lot of high-level thinking) and trying to at least scan my flist from time to time. As I mentioned, the pain meds I'm on leave me a bit muzzy and a bit dizzy. In fact, I've only been away from the house once, whentomte took me up to the Fruit Market and over to Taco Bell to grab some lunch, although I ended up getting so motion sick that I wasn't able to eat the lunch :-( It's also meant that I've had some difficulty typing up coherent sentences... I've been working on this entry for a few days. I've gone over it a couple of times and I'm still betting it's got some random bits of nonsense, because my current condition does not lend itself well to concentration.
Tomorrow we head back over to the other side of the state for my first followup... and removal of the stitches. I suspect I'll end up sleeping for most of the trip.
The surgery apparently went really well and no work needed to be done on the rotator cuff, so they just fixed up the tear in the labrum and (from what I was told) anchored a whole slew of tendons. The worst part was that the surgery kept getting pushed back further in the day. I got there at 7:00 am, after really not sleeping much the night before, with the idea that I'd be going into the OR around 9:00. There were, I believe, two surgeries scheduled before mine... and what with one thing or another, my surgery was already running about two hours late. They had me all hooked up to the IV, giving me fluids, which I'm guessing was the only thing keeping me from going insane from thirst, they'd put on one of those anti-motion sickness patches and I'd already had my pre-op breathing treatment of Albuterol and Atrovent (that was pretty funky... I'd had both as inhalers before, but never as the steamy, mask-over-the-face sort of thing). So I got to wait in the Day Surgery area, chatting with
rackham and my mom, which really helped fill the time. The nurses were just getting ready to finally take me back when the surgeon came in, looking over the lab results from the previous day. Apparently, there was a slight indication that I might have some sort of infection. It wasn't anything major, and the odds were actually good that there was nothing wrong, but Dr. Barrett didn't want to take any chances, so she had them start me on a course of IV antibiotics, which was going to take another hour to get into my system... so she said they were going to take the next person in ahead of me, pushing my surgery back a grand total of four hours. I really didn't mind, because I would rather be safe than sorry, as well... and the person who was scheduled to go after me was an elderly woman with a knee problem who was VERY anxious about the surgery. I think it was better for everyone concerned that she got in and got it over with.I ended up not eating anything for 24 hours and not being able to drink anything for 18 hours (the latter really was the worst). The funny part, to me, was that all the art in the Same Day Surgery area had water in it... scenes of the ocean, a river, a lake, and even a weird hand-made quilt wall-hanging with a very sad and/or angry looking cat getting rained on.
This was my first time in a real operating room... the only other surgery I'd ever had was on my right hand, for carpal tunnel, and it was done in a little surgery room with a local anaesthetic. This was the full deal, with big lights and all sorts of machines and strapping me down to an operating table and yeah, it was a bit freaky. The anaesthesiogist came in and set up a breathing mask thing next to my head, telling me it wasn't going over my face, it was just there in case they needed it... and then he gave me first a muscle relaxant followed by the anaesthetic via the IV, which burned a bit and I could feel moving up my arm, into my chest and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in an unfamiliar room, with a nurse reassuring me that I was okay and in Recovery. Apparently, according to the nurse, I fought them a bit when I first started coming out of the anaesthetic and they actually had to hold me down. Of course, I remember none of this... I was actually not entirely sure where I was, other than that I was in a hospital and that was okay because I was supposed to be there, but I didn't want to ask the nurse where I was, because I didn't want to alarm her. I think it was the fact that I'd not seen the Recovery room before the surgery and nothing was familiar.
They brought me some ice chips, which I understand is SOP in post-op. It was also the best thing I've ever encountered in my life... I don't think I've ever been that thirsty. I graduated from that to water a short time later, and they brought in some saltine crackers which were *sour*. Ugh. REALLY sour. So, they brought in some applesauce, which tasted like someone had mixed half applesauce with half saccharine, it was so hyper-sweet. Finally, they brought me a full dinner tray and I was able to pick at the sandwich a bit, but everything tasted wrong and the bread was as sour as the saltines. Yuck. The water, however, was absolutely divine. Everything was still kinda fuzzy, and they had to move me over into the hospital proper, since the Day Surgery area was closing for the day... they were even starting to discuss just keeping me overnight, when the anti-nausea meds really began to kick in. At one point, a nurse came in to go over the discharge papers with us... and Rackham got a bit puzzled by the fact that she was directing everything at him, finally asking "Doesn't she need to sign herself out?" (since I'd signed myself in) and she gave him a funny look before informing him I was under the influence and in no way could I sign legal papers. Hee! (Okay, it seemed funny to me at the time.)
I was feeling a good deal better by the time they wheeled me out to the car, although I was definitely loopy from the medication. Rackham stopped by the local grocery store to get something and I asked him to buy me one of those Campbell's Soup At Hand thingies, whatever chicken flavor they had and I didn't care if he couldn't heat it up... although, thankfully, the manager of the store very graciously heated it up in a microwave in the back. Yummy! Why they hadn't just given me soup at the hospital, I'll never know. It still tasted funny (and a little sour), but much better than anything else I'd tried eating.
The five hour drive home wasn't exactly pleasant, although I did provide the in-transit entertainment. I was so out of it... I was actually having conversations with people who weren't there (seriously, I kept talking to someone who was sitting in front of me to the right, which would have placed whoever it was outside the car). The weird part is that it was like my brain had been divided in half... with the loopy side and the lucid side, which knew there was something wrong, but didn't seem to be able to do anything about it. By the time we got the Ellensburg, I was giggling at everything. I would lose track of what I was saying in the middle of speaking, or I'd ask Rackham something and then immediately forget I'd even posed a question and have to puzzle out what he was talking about and why. But at least I finally figured out what was up with my taste buds. I had Rackham buy me some Gardetto's snack mix... something I KNEW was supposed to taste a certain way, and it hit me. I couldn't taste salt. At all. And anything made with flour tasted sour. The lack of tasting salt thing actually took about two days to fade out, which had me a bit worried, since I'm rather fond of salty things! Very weird side effect, though.
Since then I've been sleeping a lot, watching a bit of television, playing a lot of Zuma (it only needs my right hand on the mouse and doesn't require a lot of high-level thinking) and trying to at least scan my flist from time to time. As I mentioned, the pain meds I'm on leave me a bit muzzy and a bit dizzy. In fact, I've only been away from the house once, when
tomte took me up to the Fruit Market and over to Taco Bell to grab some lunch, although I ended up getting so motion sick that I wasn't able to eat the lunch :-( It's also meant that I've had some difficulty typing up coherent sentences... I've been working on this entry for a few days. I've gone over it a couple of times and I'm still betting it's got some random bits of nonsense, because my current condition does not lend itself well to concentration.Tomorrow we head back over to the other side of the state for my first followup... and removal of the stitches. I suspect I'll end up sleeping for most of the trip.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 03:15 am (UTC)Glad you're doing ok!! And anesthesia side effects like taste are very weird!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 03:38 am (UTC)I'm glad you're starting to feel better.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 04:06 am (UTC)I wonder if the hospital didn't feed you soup because of the high sodium content. Good thing you liked the water so much. ;)
Fingers crossed for a swift recovery.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 04:41 am (UTC)When do you start PT?
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 06:21 am (UTC)I hope you continue to do well.
You're in my prayers. Can't hurt/might help, as I always say.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 06:48 am (UTC)Hope you recover quickly
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 06:56 am (UTC)Glad it all went well! Best wishes for the healing process.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 07:38 am (UTC)good luck with the follow-up!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 07:44 am (UTC)Rest up, heal fast, and feel better!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 08:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 10:36 am (UTC)And it made me laugh!
I'm glad your sense of salt came back. That would have been a little freaky.
Hang in there! The world will settle, soon.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 01:35 pm (UTC)So glad all things are going well, even though it seems a little disjointed now, all will be better soon! I just finished up the last of my "good" meds and have stepped down to Tylenol Arthritis - not quite as good, but better than staying on Lortab, I suspect. *g* It sounds like your first surgery was roughly equivalent to mine; it took much longer and was much more harrowing than this one was. I wonder if you just get used to it or something...?
Anyway, many gentle hugs to you and
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 02:26 pm (UTC)*hugs* I'm wishing you a quick recovery! And I'm glad you've got the good stuff.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 02:33 pm (UTC)And that really is the strangest feeling. But glad to hear the surgery went well. May your recovery continue steadily and uneventfully. ; )
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 02:43 pm (UTC)And thanks for the post-op effects reporting. Some of it is hilarious (although I think that half-loopy-half-lucid thing is scary: I get like that sometimes when I am getting towards drunk, and I don't like it) and all of it is interesting... to an observer.
Take care of yourself.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 04:23 pm (UTC)Needless to say, we don't have kids nor were there any in the vicinity...
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 07:08 pm (UTC)Much love to both of you.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-28 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 12:12 am (UTC)Hey, Peter and Karen are having a girl! Check it out: http://karenspoetryspot.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-are-little-girls-made-of-by.html
no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 03:43 am (UTC)how should we wash the tie dye
And does Rackham play star sonata?