Hi all,
After a painful ride home yesterday, (Friday) I'm so happy to be in my own element. While in the hospital, I amused myself by fighting nurses & cafeteria people 3 hours for a cup of coffee that I had been allowed already, Insisting I needed
pain medication between my percocet pills
after weaning off the morphine, so took a shot in the butt a few times and fighting the nurse for some throat lozenges that I was also allowed. The short of it is that they didn't take good care of me in the hospital or upon my departure, I don't even know if I should put ice or heat on my
neck. Jerks! So, I'm very happy to be home & my blood pressure has come down since being here. I have enough
pain medication & whatever I need to get through the weekend despite my plea with my doctor's office to have him call me when he finished
surgery, yesterday. I don't have an appointment with him until NEXT Tuesday, (Feb. 6) but can guarantee that Udo, (my husband) will be getting me a prescription from him this week, to give me sufficient medication to deal with this serious
pain in my
neck. They did not prescribe enough & (the *team of surgeons*) told me to take what I was taking before ... that wasn't even prescribed by my surgeon, so how would they know how much of what I was taking? Grrr. The last thing I want to do is turn into a full on junkie, and will take as little
pain medication as I can to cut the
pain. I write down what medications I take at what time, on my own private home chart, along with my blood pressure and temperature, so am very careful about what I'm doing.
Last night while trying to sleep, I was sweating profusely, I got trapped in my bed (socks wrapped in blanket) & ended up falling out of bed onto the floor. Somehow I managed to get myself to the bathroom & stripped off my pajamas, then wet my body with a cold wash cloth. Like an idiot, I didn't use the paging system we have on our phone system to summons one of my home "nurses" to me to help. Udo got angry at me for that one, "I didn't want to wake any of you since it was 3:15." so I promise not to that again. Tonight, I'll turn down the heat & take off my socks before going to sleep and Udo put one of the phones by his bed, so I can page his phone specifically. He really is a great nurse maid, even if he does get mad at my stupidness, I deserved it.
Most of today, I've been in resting position, with a TV pillow behind 3 down pillows in an angled position. I'm happy for this laptop because I can see it perfectly in my perfect resting position. I got a tootsie roll shaped, egg carton foam, pillow that I put under my head so I can sleep on my side. It's wonderful to sleep on my side in a flat position, despite the ICU nurse, (Brian) who told me I could NOT do it & moved my bed into a more upright position. Who can ever sleep in ICU with all the stinking bells ringing & blood pressure cuffs going on all the time? One of the surgeons told me that I absolutely could sleep laying on my side as long as I had support the depth of my shoulder, (I do).
I have painful bumps on my head from where I assume they clamped my head in some vice, along with very sore shoulders that must have been tied down to the operating bed. I have 8 staples in my
neck and some tape over the drain that should be done draining tomorrow, so I can remove that. I have nausea pretty much all day & night and some really expensive pills to take for it, ($120 for 30!)
Pain meds are $2 for 60!
I guess the narcotics make you nauseous, so I'm now taking them with food, even if it's only a little bit, since I'm not that hungry. I escaped the laryngitis part of this surgery. :-). Though, it still hurts to swallow so I've kept my diet pretty easy with soups, jello, potato pancakes & lots of fluids. Thank goodness Udo is home & knows how to cook, shop & clean. :-) My right hand does hurt right now but only where an IV was attached. I don't feel the same pain I did before I went in for the surgery, this one major pain should end it all.
I'm told that the surgery was a success so that is good news. I'm not thrilled with my surgical team, the timing it took the nurses to get to my needs, nor the cleanliness of the hospital; I killed a cockroach in my bathroom the other night!!! YUCK! So, you can imagine how elated I am to be home! I should be getting a proper bed wedge in the mail on Monday, that will help me be in the propped up position without as much work as stacking the pillows up. I got one of those gripper things, like an extra long arm with an elbow. It's great for reaching things on the end of the bed. Amazing how much we do with our neck muscles, that we don't realize until they hurt & we need them to do just about every movement.
This will pass. I'm just thankful that I'm not a total idiot & will figure out my best treatment to get myself to the other side of this. Thanks for listening to my "not so short" update.
Ro