TAH - My Castle Story (Long)

Well my Castle story has mostly good and just a few not so good moments. Monday morning we arrived at the Castle at 8:30. Unlike some others I have heard about on this site - I did NOT have to do an enema the night before or douche or any other prep except for not eating after midnight. (My roommate in the hospital - who had the same doctor as me - had to do BOTH - we aren’t sure why!) After being escorted into the day surgery area and changing into the lovely gown - the nurse tried to put the IV in. I normally have GREAT veins I am told - but apparently this day - not so. After unsuccessfully jabbing at my right hand repeatedly - she moved on to my left. After she placed the IV in - she left - I happened to glance over and see my left hand blowing up like a balloon….apparently the IV wasn’t in right and all the blood was pooling under my skin in my hand. Oooops - call for the nurse. She calls for another nurse and they decide to put the IV in under my forearm. So I have lots of stab marks and bruises all over me! Woohoo! They then let my hubby in to say goodbye and as they are wheeling me into the OR I am put under. I don’t remember much about the recovery room or getting moved to my room. I do remember my hubby bringing the kids in and saying HI and then they were off to dinner. I remember pushing the pain button a couple times and then the next thing I know I am being yelled at by a doctor calling my name. I was told all this the next day as I have no memory of it. Apparently I am super-hyper-sensitive to medicine - I could have told them that as I don’t take ANY over the counter stuff - and the pain meds they had in my little push button thingy sent me into a coma-like deep sleep. They weren’t sure at first what was going on with me - I guess they thought I “threw a clot” or something worse - cause they called two doctors in from home and had 5 nurses working on waking me up and getting me conscious again. My blood pressure was 60/30 and they couldn’t get any blood to take a blood count. I should mention that my blood count going into the surgery was 7.6 - too low - and they did give me a unit of blood during surgery to help this. I had been very anemic prior to surgery due to the heavy bleeding for several months straight. They finally got me awake by shutting off the pain medicine - which was excruciating - I can remember screaming that no one was listening to me - that I wanted to die the pain was so bad - at which one doctor said “not on my watch”. LOL. They finally got me settled and I spent a sleepless night talking to my roommate who shared all I had missed while I was under. She had a front row seat for all the goings on. We found out we both had the same doctor and similar jobs and a lot in common. She was a lifesaver while I was in there….I can only hope all of you have great roommates too! I had some minor problems with the catheter - they had to replace it that first night - very uncomfortable. The next day started better - I got up and walked after they took out the catheter. They had stopped the push button meds and gone to straight percocet - which I promptly threw up - oh that felt great on the tummy - NOT! They then decided to go with just 800 mg of Ibuprofen for the rest of my stay. Much better. Second night started out ok - bathroom trips every 2 hours - finally sometime in the wee hours of the morning on a trip to the bathroom the drainage “ball” that was hanging out of me “popped” open and spewed the icky drainage junk all over me. I pulled the nurse cord in the bathroom and just sat there and cried. It was more than my tired mind and body could take. I just felt overwhelmed and exhausted and there I was sitting in my own drainage gunk. Yuck. The blessed nurse came, cleaned me up and put me back to bed like a baby. Third day should have seen me sent home - but blood count still too low - they brought in another unit of blood and poured that into me. They decided to keep me another night to make sure my blood count would come up. I went home Thursday morning. Hubby and kids have been very attentive and wonderful - getting by with cream of wheat and soup for the first few days. After that I started on an apple a day and some grilled cheese. I had NO problems with bowels - I think it was because I had a very light weekend before the surgery - kept my meals those last two days soft foods - and also because I stopped the ginger ale after one cup in the hospital - and the ice chips started to give me gas too - swallowing too much air as I chewed them - so I stopped those. And I am sure the apples helped. Had the typical leg balloons on the first night - but nothing after. Had oxygen on the first night and next day - made the nose dry and itchy. Caught a terrible cold in the hospital that I brought home and sneezed and coughed for a week with - thought I was popping stitches - but I guess not! LOL! All in all it was a good stay. We had the BEST group of nurses - I have read horror stories on here about other sisters hospital stays and their awful nursing care - I feel bad for you. I was so blessed - each and every one of our nurses was exceptional. It was like we were the only patients they had to take care of. My doctor was awesome - came in at 7 AM every morning like clock work even if she was in past midnight the night before delivering babies! She was superb! Thanks to all the sisters on this site - the pre-surgery information was wonderful and very helpful….blow drying the incision after showering was genius! I am 11 days post op and feeling pretty good. I almost think I could go back to work before the six weeks are up! God Bless you all!

Cat