Thursday, October 21, 2010

Surgery

Well we started off the morning being late. I was suppose to be there at 8:30 and we didn't get there til 9:00. The traffic was horrible and it was raining. The nice thing about being late was there was not alot of time to think about what was to come. Which is good because I always get my self all worked up. So I got in there changed into my lovely dead sexy hospital robe. Seriously something needs to be done with those things. While I was waiting I had to fill out some paperwork. Peed in a cup got on those very cool tight white stockings.


seriously someone in the health industry needs to be brought up to speed on the most current fashion trends.

my bro
     The nurses and doctors started pouring in. The nurse who TRIED to get my ivy started, didn't like her so much. She was digging around for about 5 mins before she gave up. I guess Chemo makes the skin tuff and the chemo has damaged my veins as well so getting an IV started is not easy. The anesthesiologist came in to take a look. Right as he was about to try he got a page. He said sorry I'll be right back and ran out of the room. Five minutes later he came back meanwhile he had left that thing tired around my arm so I think that helped. Anyway it took him 2 seconds to get it. MWUH!!!!  At this point they are starting to talk about the time line. The nausea has now set in. I told her ok I'm starting to get worked up not feeling so good. She said don't worry shortly I'm gonna give you something to calm ya down. We will then take you to the OR I'll have you scoot over on to the table and that will probably be the last thing you remember. She suggested at this point to say my goodbyes to Jesse and my brother. It was time to go. She said ok I'm gonna give you something to kinda relax you. As she was giving it to me we were joking around saying I would be feeling real good in about 5 seconds. Woooooooo thats good stuff! Jesse and my brother very quickly became blurry and I could see five of them. Jesse said as they were taking me away I kept commenting on how great it was and how I felt like I drank a whole bottle of vodka. Jesse said right as I was about to go through the doors I said loudly this is awesome! Jesse yelled down the hallway was that Mandy? YES. Yes it was.
OK here comes the good stuff!

Seeing double wooooooooooo!


Bye boys now entering lala land woohooooo!
                                                                                  
I remember her asking me to scoot over onto the table. I remember looking up at these huge massive metal lights. It was a very cold and sterile feeling room. She came over and put a oxygen mask on my face she said ok take three big breaths. I don't remember even getting past the first breath.
...................................................................................................................................................................................
I woke up 3 hrs later. I couldn't quite open my eyes but I could hear a male voice screaming F you, your stupid, get away from me, somebody help me. Oh my I was thinking make up your mind. Which is it get away or you need help. I started laughing the nurse said Oh can you hear that. She apologized that I had to listen to that. She was telling me they get one like that everyday. I guess he was not doing good coming out his anesthesia. I seemed to be doing ok. The doctor told Jesse everything went well. He got everything and then some. I won't need any further treatment other than recovery and I could most likely go home on Friday. FRIDAY!???? That's like barely 3 days. Well we will see. At this point I had and IV in my right hand, Five patches stuck to my front side for heart monitor with wires, some red glowy thing on my pointer finger on my left hand. A drainage tube coming out of my left side which was absolutely disgusting. It drained blood and other fluids into this box thing where it collected and they would measure it. When I would breath it would go up and down. It was not pleasant to look at. Ask Jesse and Meagan? LOL! There also was another tube going into the incision that was giving pain meds right to the spot were they had done the removal. On top of all that I got 3 injections a day  in my upper legs to prevent blood clots. I also had nebulizer treatments 3 times a day to prevent infection or problems in the lungs. Lots of pain & nausea meds too! First day after the surgery was ok but I think I had the help of all the meds and anesthesia from the surgery. I had some visitors that evening. Jesse's parents came. It was kinda funny. I was very tired so I would sleep and then wake up. There was a clock on the wall right in front of my bed so every time I would fall asleep and wake up I'd be starring at this clock. At one point it felt like I had been sleeping for hours but it had only been about 3 mins. Back to sleep I went. The next time I woke which was about 3 or 4 mins later I woke up to Jesse's dad sitting there starring at me I about leaped out of my bed. Scarred the crap out of me! Meagan and her sister also came to visit. She brought this gorgeous vase with pink flowers and a pink balloon shaped like the cancer ribbon. It wasn't long after she got there I started having a huge amount of nausea. The nurse encouraged me to try and control it as I would be in a lot of pain if I vomited at this point. I got through it but Holy smokes I put 110% of my thought and energy into it. I did everything I sat up, layed down, but cold wash cloths and my head and stomach. Tried to talk about something to get my mind off of it. The next day was HORRIBLE!!!!!!! I was in an extreme amount of pain. I could barely talk or breathe and my heart rate was between 146-148. The doctor came to see me and said I looked horrible. G thanks Doc. They changed a couple things for me. They switched my pain meds and gave me two different ones, gave me pain patch to put around the incisions and ordered me a chest x ray. When radiology came to get me for the xray the nurse wouldn't let me go. She had them reschedule it for later in the day. She wanted to wait til my heart rate was normal and I was more comfortable with my pain. It took from 6 in the morning til 4:00 that afternoon before I felt any kind of relief. There was no way I was going home on Friday. Friday afternoon they took out the drainage tube. It didn't hurt but I wouldn't say it was a walk in the park either. It did relieve some pain and pressure I was having. I hadn't gone to the bathroom so the nurse came in to do a ultrasound of the bladder. She was pushing on my lower abd with the probe. She said does that hurt? Nope don't feel anything. She then says ok well your bladder is full you can either go voluntarily or involuntarily. Umm yeah as a matter a fact I'm feeling like I need to go right NOW! After having anesthesia it takes a while for everything to wake up and start working again. Jesse had been coming everyday at some point to see me :) Friday late afternoon my sister came and stayed. We watched some girly movies and had dinner. She actually stayed the night which she may have regretted doing about 2 hrs into us trying to sleep. It seemed like the nurses came every hour. They don't bother me all stinkin day but as soon as I want to sleep they are constantly coming in the room flipping the lights on. I was soooooooo annoyed all I wanted to do was sleep. One of the nurses helpers or whatever you call them came in at like 2am woke me up and asked if I had gone to the bathroom. If ya went over to the bathroom and looked in the toilet you would see I left ya a whole lotta pee in that white catcher thing. There's so much more I could tell ya about the four days I spent there. But I'm super tired and having some discomfort from sitting here at the computer for far to long.

xoxoxoxo
Mandy
Still trying to wake up. My eyes felt like they weighed 500lbs.

right after getting to my room 4930




One of my visitors about 6 hrs after my surgery. Right before this I had a huge nausea attack.

I have so much crap hooked to me. Wires coming out of everywhere.
                                                                                          

4 comments:

  1. You are so brave and strong! Such a trooper!!!
    See YOUR DOING IT - YOUR KICKING IT"S A$$! Keep fighting!!!!!! xoxoxo Kim

    ReplyDelete
  2. Damn girl, still managing to make me laugh. LOVE the white stockings! It has got to feel good to know you have one down! I don't know how you are so strong but I am so thankful you are.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ya I'm glad to say its behind me. I just can't wait to be all healed and pain free. Then it will really be behind me and I can tackle the next one:) Its been a little over a week and I thought I'd be feeling better than I do. I thought I'd be able to do more than I can do.Its been nice to sit and do nothing. But its getting old now and its starting to drive me nuts. My floors are in need of cleaning, the dishes are sitting longer than I'd like theres just things around the house that need to be done.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy to hear from you!! Been watching for yours posts...very funny! Glad you are on the mend from that trauma!!! Sydney sends were well wishes to you. lynn gale

    ReplyDelete