July 31, 2013 posted by Chad Carey
"Day 1 of our new journey is almost in the books! Janelle did great today through her surgery! She showed once again how strong of a woman she is and why she has been my rock since we met! We have been through so much together in such a short time but we come out on the other side of everything we have gone through stronger than before! So glad you had the strength to make this decision for yourself and our family, baby! It's time for both of us to get healthy and start feeling better! I love you!"
So overnight was a bit rough. I'm not a 'back' sleeper as a rule so trying to sleep in a new place/bed, with a newly re-routed tummy, a drainage tube hanging out of the right side of my stomach (did I mention that yet...? Nothing too icky... it just kinda hangs there being annoying) and without my hubby next to me.... not the most restful nights sleep I've ever gotten. But then again, hospitals are not really meant for rest. Someone comes in to check your vitals every 4 hours and then after shift change the nurse trots in to check on you usually when you're about to fall asleep again. That being said... I did get some sleep here and there.
5:30am rolls around and I've already had my vitals checked (around.... 4am?) and I see the wonderful staff member with that wonderful tray on her arm come into my wonderful room to draw my wonderful blood. Wonderful. (Are we picking up on the sarcasm here...?) Hope everyone likes math cuz here's some numbers for you.
Lab Tech #1 (yes, they have to be numbered) comes in and I go through the normal routine. "I understand you have to do this but I'm a horrible draw... you wont get anything out of my left arm cuz they haven't in 2 years (with the exception of the 2nd IV they put in during surgery which I'm sure they wouldn't have gotten had I actually been conscious.) They normally get something here (outside upper right arm), here (top of right hand between first and 2nd- sometimes 2nd and 3rd knuckle) or here (right wrist but the first IV they got is already occupying that spot.) Feel free to look around. Once you stick me, if you have to move it around too much, pull it and re-stick.... Oh and tell me if you get it." (Can you tell I've been through this a time or 12.) So Tech #1 tries once.... and Nothing. She's nice so I can deal. 2nd attempt... Nope. She politely say she's not going to keep trying (gee, thanks) and she's gona get someone else up here to draw me. Cool... bring on #2.
Lab Tech #2 rolls in and there's that second... Oh yeah... I remember you. She drew my blood for my post op labs. "They didn't put a central line in you?" she asks. I tell her no... obviously and she gets her 2 attempts in with no real success. (We're up to 4 sticks now in case you're counting.) Now forgive me because amongst my many sticks, I can't remember if Tech 1 or Tech 2 got about 3 drops into the tube... not even enough to crest the rounded bottom of the tube but still.... drops.
So Lab Tech #2 exits my room with her tail between her legs and sends up Techie #3. This young blond spunky chick rolls in with her semi-conceited "I got this" kind of attitude. She lines it up and 'confidently' states "Oh, you've got one here... on and one up here too." Great... this chick seriously thinks she has options...? *Smacks Forehead* So after she gloves up and starts feeling around 'here' number one, and can't find it (surprise, surprise) she goes down to her '2nd option'... in my hand... not on top... not the wrist... in my hand... on my palm, below my thumb. Are you KIDDING me? Fine. What the hell. That's a new one. She goes in with the butterfly..... um OUCH....nothing.... drip.....nothing....nothing....driiip.... blown. Ooooh more drips! Yay :| So she goes back for option number 2 and nada. "We'll send someone up to do a finger stick cuz I don't know what else they're gona do." Wellllll thank you doll. Have a wonderful morning. Yah... if you're STILL counting... that's 6.
A little time goes by and I think... sweet... they gave up when along comes Tech #4. Mrs-Old-Bossy Needs-A-New-Profession-Stick-Up-Her-Butt Tech. By this time, I'm pissed. She comes over and starts poking (with just a finger) around... flick, flick... slap... poke. Grrr! I say "I thought you were going to just do a finger stick? I've already been stuck 6 times." She hastily grabs my fingers and tells me my fingers are too cold to get anything out of them anyway. Fine. 1 last time. I'm being way too complacent looking back. She goes into yet another tender spot and starts acting like shes lining up her pool cue (aka needle) in my arm... after a few seconds... "Pull it"... I've already given her the lecture that the other 3 got... "You need to pull it out" and finally she does. Out with you... I'm done. No one follows her... good thing or I probably would have brought them to tears.
After that ridiculous morning, I got a little more sleep here and there where I could in between the doctors and nurses coming in. My hubby made it down to visit me and I got to "eat" aka sip on some more liquids. Chicken broth, jello, hot tea, apple juice (halfed with water - everythings really sweet now), and even some fruit punch crystal lite (again, watered down). Sip, Sip, here... Sip, Sip, there. I did have some nausea here and there but surprisingly not as much as I thought I was going to. There were some points where I needed to stop... breathe... cold cloth on the head, kinda nausea... but it was in brief bouts. Chad and I chatted and watched some tv... I made some calls to let family members know I was doing ok... normal hospital monotony. The worse part by far was getting up to pee. That's a LOT of liquids for someone who already has a crappy bladder to begin with (thanks Aiden :-P ) At this point the IV they had running was in my left hand. (Apparently the one the originally put in in my right hand was just for shits n giggles cuz they never used it.) The restroom in my room... closer to the left side, so naturally they wanted to get me out on the left side of the bed. Makes sense, right? Ehh... kinda.
Let me note at this point that I have 6 incisions total. 2 on my left side, one right in the middle - none of which I even notice. No pain. Just minimal incisions, tiny, that have been glued closed. Now moving onto the right side, we have another 3 incisions. 1 from the drainage tube which is still in place and 2 others, 1 of which is twice the size of the others and is the cause of most of my pain along with that damn drainage tube. That drainage tube is fine and dandy when I'm just laying there but moving around... sucks! So back to this pee trip.... What I discovered in my several trips to and from the little girlies room is that getting out of bed on the left side seemed to make sense but my left leg just dropped right over the bed and onto the floor. No problems there, but that meant that I had to lift my right leg up to slide it over. If you're laying there in bed reading this... try it. Lift up your right leg a few inches off the bed enough to move it far enough to drape over the left side of your bed. Feel it? Yeah... that's called your stomach muscles engaging... in my case... the muscles they just cut through on the side with the drainage tube. Not Fun! It hurt... a lot. There were points this day where I was almost in tears just trying to get up/out/to/from/back in bed. There was a point where I thought, why did I do this? But then I got back in bed, relaxed, the pain went down and remembered that this part is just temporary. I was told by the one Dr that this would be the hardest day and it definitely was. After they disconnected my IV, and realizing it was much easier to get out of the right side of bed... I did so and it was Much easier. Whew.
Amid the day, I was able to get up in my chair and sit to wash off, brush my teeth, "eat", etc. I had sat up the night before for a short time but this time was a bit longer. The day went by relatively uneventfully until Natalie came to visit. It was great catching up with her and b.s.íng for awhile. After she and Chad took off for the evening, I watched part of the Bucco game... trying to make it to 10-10:30pm before caving and going to sleep. Barely after that, I called for my meds (yay pain killers), called to say goodnight to my love and my baby boy. "Bubbies" was still awake. Normally, I rock him to bed every night and sing to him before I put him in bed. I hadn't gotten to do this for two nights in a row now. "Mommy... sing" he says... so I do. "'gain"... and I sing again. I get busted by the nurse when she brings in my meds but I don't mind. I love that my little boy misses me and not being there is really the hardest part of this whole process. After saying "Goodnight", I snapped this little picture with my hospital buddy before calling it a night:
This little guy went through surgery with my hubby Chad when he had his hip replaced... then Aiden claimed him for awhile and now it's Mommy's turn to claim him for a few days.
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