Surgery

It was a week and a half of waiting, but I finally had surgery September 15.

I didn't eat for 12 hours before surgery, which was very easy since I wasn't really eating anyway. I arrived at the hospital at 9 a.m., ready for my 11 a.m. surgery. Unfortunately, both for me and whoever was in the operating room before me, that guy had it rough. I didn't actually get into surgery until around 5 p.m. because he had so many complications. My parents and fiance were there to wait for me and eventually I was brought into the OR and given a mask. Next thing I knew I was in EXCRUCIATING PAIN!!!

That's right. They woke me up from a wonderful dream, the contents of which I don't remember at all. The only thing I remember was being outdoors, at least in my mind, and then being dragged awake to the worst pain I had felt throughout this whole experience. On a scale of 10, I told the nurse I was a 9.5. I just felt too guilty to say 10, but she knew.

Several injections of morphine, something that starts with a d (maybe Demerol), and whatever else they could fit into my IV finally lessened the pain enough that they allowed my family to come in.

All I remember from this time frame is yelling at my parents. Apparantly the hospital would only allow two people to come in, so instead of letting my fiance in both my parents came. I immediately threw one of them out and demanded my man! (Sorry, dad.) I've been told Jason whispered something in my ear that made me smile when nothing else in the entire world would. I don't remember what he said, but I'm not surprised that he was my sunshine.

I spent four subsequent days on the ortho floor of the hospital. The staff was totally amazing, as was Jason, who slept at my bedside and refused to let me be alone, even when my mom was late relieving him from his shift. There was, however, one aspect of my stay I would like to never ever repeat: I was forced to use a bedpan until I was cleared to get up with a walker (and hop). This situation was all the worse because the bed had an air mattress. The mattress is designed to help avoid bed sores by sensing where you are putting pressure and supporting those areas by adding air to those chambers. In other words, when propping myself on the bedpan the bed started MOVING. It is hard to not pee on yourself when sitting on a moving bed.

TMI? Maybe.