Dennis811's Cancer Blog
Surgery and being back home
After a whirlwind Wednesday I went into the hospital early Thursday morning. Things were pretty uneventful before the surgery and I don’t remember anything during! The doctor said things went well – there was little bleeding, no need for a drain, he was able to save several large nerve bundles (yea!) and that the whole thing only took about 2 1/2 hours once the surgery started. I took a little while to come off the antisthesia, but felt really great the first day. I even had a sort of a ‘race’ with one of the nurses in the hall. That night and the next day were not so good though. I apparently had a panic attack about 4a.m. and it took forever to get the nurses to help me. They pumped my full of morphine and oxygen, so it was back to sleep for me. The surgeon checked in about 7:00 am Friday morning. He asked the all important question – ‘have you passed gas yet’? Since the answer was no, he said he’d prescribe a laxative along with some Migraine meds since I had such a headache from only having liquids the day before. This is where it all started to go bad….
It took four hours to get one prescription and five to get the other! One nurse said it was because the pharmacy was closed! In a Hospital?! It seems it would probably be open 24/7. After the doctor left, I paged a nurse to help me get out of bed. The catheter tube was on the left side of the bed, looped under it and was hung on the IV stand on the right. The IV was plugged in behind me, I was tilted in bed and my feet were all tangled in a mess of blankets at the foot up the bed. I was literally trapped and needed to get up and walk. 15 minutes later, no nurse, so I paged one again. Another 30 minutes passed and a nurse finally showed up. He wasn’t there to help me get out of bed though, just to take my vitals. I asked him to help me get out of bed and he refused, saying he’d be back at 8:00. I told him I was in pain and really needed to get up and out of bed. The time he took to argue with me, was less than the time it would have taken to help me out of bed!. I finally reached around me, ripped the plug out of the wall, stretched myself to get the catheter tube to the right side of the bed and crawled out. I saw the shift nurse as I walked out of my room and told her what happened and that I did not want the male nurse in my room again. She tried to make excuses for him and then proceeded to go tell him what I had said! SO all day he was apologozing, but to me the damage had already been done. Several other frustrating things happened – with the solid food menu, taking vitals 10 minutes apart, etc. I was so frustrated that I called my sister to vent. While I was on the phone with her, one of my surgeons associates came in and heard me. When I got off the phone she asked me if I would be happier if I got to go home. I quickly answered yes, she checked with the doctor and he approved me going. She said it would take about an hour to do the parperword and it was really about 4 hours, the nurse said it would take about 15 minutes once she got the go-ahead and that part took about an hour. WHY do people give a time frame if they know it’s not realistic of they can’t meet it? I was never so glad to leave someplace! It’s a shame, because the room was beautiful and I felt like I was on vacation when I forst got there. It has a living area with sofa, chair and coffee table, dining area, entertainment cabinet and bedroom furniture in cherry wood and a decent view! Oh well, at least I’m home and on the mend. More later!
Dennis
Oh those Methodists!
Hang in there and I know you are feeling like “there’s no place like home.” Hope you can explain this stuff to your surgeon and help them do better with other patients…as for me I hope to NEVER spend another night in a hospital no matter how luxe. A friend asked her doctor to prescribe an extra day of rest when she had surgery and he said that she’d be much better off if she checked into a 5-star hotel…
Hugs!
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