So I woke up from the anesthesia and all I recall is someone sticking tape to my chin and Dr. Poor swimming above my head saying my name over and over. At first I panicked because I could not breathe through my mouth very well or through my nose. Thought I was gonna suffocate. They calmed me down and I was better. Was very hard to swallow.
Something didn't feel right. I was convinced they had pinched my tongue between my teeth. I could move it one direction but not the other. When I tried to swallow it was hard because the tongue was stuck. The nurse called the doctor but no one really believed me. They thought I was having the usual difficulty swallowing. So I wait until a morphine dose kicked in and right before I fell asleep I pulled as hard as I could to get my tongue out. Luckily it did. Now I could move my tongue in all directions and swallowing was a bit easier.
The staff was very attentive. I would say too attentive. I was never left alone for more than 90 minutes. DO NOT EXPECT TO SLEEP MUCH! They were waking me up to give me Morphine every 2 hours. I had to pee every 2 hours. They give you anti inflam drugs and anti nausea drugs every 4 hours. They also come in to check your stats (BP, heart rate etc.) every 4-6 hours. These usually do not correspond properly. I had a roommate so when they were not helping her with something she called for and waking me up, they were waking her up to help me. I don't know why they thought 4:30 am is a good time to wake me up and make me stand on a scale to see my weight. I basically spent the night swimming in and out of a Morphine stupor.
Something else which hindered my sleep was the humidifier they had on me. It was pumping water along with oxygen into my lungs. Since you had a tube down your throat this is supposed to help keep your throat moist and not so scratchy. However, it is very loud. Also after a few hours the water began to condense in the tubing. When it did this the apparatus made a "knocking" sound which would wake me up. I would then have to tip the tubes back and forth to drain the water into the bag. I also found it was making me cough deep in my chest like I had pneumonia. Also not helpful for sleeping. Around 4am I asked them if they could turn it down or check it because it seemed to get noisier. They ended up turning it off. My pulse ox didn't go up so they were happy and I was happy and most of all my roommate was much happier.I was very grateful my mom spent the night in the chair next to me. The biggest help was having her there when I had to pee every 2 hours. I was so out of it from the drugs I couldn't walk to the bathroom and didn't want to bother a nurse to unplug the IV either. Luckily they had one of those little chair like toilet things next to my bed. Was much easier just to stand up and use that than have to walk all over with my tail hangin out my robe. But if your loved one does plan on staying let them know they will also not get more than an hour of sleep. Mom brought a book and a flashlight. They gave her a blanket and a pillow. Around 6 am I felt so bad because she looked so tired I tried to not wake her and go to the bathroom by myself. I was fairly successful.
Only once did I feel nauseated. I had gotten up to go to the bathroom early on. With all the moving around I started to feel sick. Luckily I was able to sit back and breathe and nothing came of it. Called the nurses and they quickly came and gave me more nausea meds.
They let me go home around 9 am. Twice they brought me Jello and I was really curious how they thought I was supposed to eat that.
In my next post I will have some tips and tricks and what to pack for the hospital....
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