Surgery and Recovery - 10/24/07
After a reasonably good night sleep Bruce and I arrived at hospital admissions at 6am. Shortly thereafter I was taken to a pre-op room where I was left to change into a gown that I am sure was a circus tent in a previous life. I am not a small woman, but I could have wrapped this thing around me three times! I also was asked to don TED (antiembolism) hose. So here I am in this gigantic hospital gown, TED hose, and my decorative socks. In comes the nurse to hook up the compression boots and start my IV. Three sticks later I finally have a patent IV.
The anesthesiologist comes in to do his little talk. He covered my anesthesia/intubation/allergy history. We spoke about post-op pain control also. I can’t take Morphine so I am limited to what I can have in my PCA pump. I told him that Fentanyl worked well for me in the past. He told me that although they can use Fentanyl in surgery, it has a very short range between good pain control and depressing respirations. Since the goal here is to keep my breathing while trying to control my pain, Dilaudid was going to be the drug of choice in my PCA pump. [FYI – PCA is a patient-controlled analgesic pump. The pump is set to give a set dosage through an IV while allowing the patient to give additional small doses (boluses) to supplement pain control if needed.]
Dr. Hudson came by also to see if I was ready. I asked him if he had gotten a good night’s sleep and had eaten his Wheaties. He said that he did sleep well but that he was a coffee-for-breakfast kind of guy. Good enough.
Bruce was in the holding room with me after the IV was started, and then it was time to go to surgery. Bruce and I smooched a few times – this, after all, was the last time he was going to be able to kiss my old mouth. His joke was that when all of this is over he was going to be able to have a midlife crisis with a new kisser and not have to cheat. Our minister joined us for a quick prayer and I was off. I remember about 30 seconds in the OR, they got me off to sleep quickly.
The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room in excrutiating pain. My face was throbbing and I couldn’t get the RN to help me. I kept saying “I hurt” and “PCA not helping” but she told me that I was getting as much medication as I could. I finally realized that my O2 sats were not great so they were hesitant to give me more med. Ok – I understand that. Lots of pain but nothing I could do about it at that point. What really angered me about this nurse, though, is that she kept telling me to open my jaws a little bit so that she could give me ice chips. WHAT! She wanted me to work against the banding and pry my jaws open. What an idiot!!!! This one still flabbergasts me. I had just had my maxilla and mandible CUT LOOSE FROM MY SKULL. I had a bunch of plates and screws holding them in place until the bone regrows. I won’t even be able to chew scrambled eggs for months and she wants me to strain against the bands so that she can drop some ice in my mouth. I kept saying that I couldn’t do it and she was getting a little impatient with me. I didn’t catch her name but, man, she needs to pay attention to the procedures that her patients have done.
The anesthesiologist comes in to do his little talk. He covered my anesthesia/intubation/allergy history. We spoke about post-op pain control also. I can’t take Morphine so I am limited to what I can have in my PCA pump. I told him that Fentanyl worked well for me in the past. He told me that although they can use Fentanyl in surgery, it has a very short range between good pain control and depressing respirations. Since the goal here is to keep my breathing while trying to control my pain, Dilaudid was going to be the drug of choice in my PCA pump. [FYI – PCA is a patient-controlled analgesic pump. The pump is set to give a set dosage through an IV while allowing the patient to give additional small doses (boluses) to supplement pain control if needed.]
Dr. Hudson came by also to see if I was ready. I asked him if he had gotten a good night’s sleep and had eaten his Wheaties. He said that he did sleep well but that he was a coffee-for-breakfast kind of guy. Good enough.
Bruce was in the holding room with me after the IV was started, and then it was time to go to surgery. Bruce and I smooched a few times – this, after all, was the last time he was going to be able to kiss my old mouth. His joke was that when all of this is over he was going to be able to have a midlife crisis with a new kisser and not have to cheat. Our minister joined us for a quick prayer and I was off. I remember about 30 seconds in the OR, they got me off to sleep quickly.
The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room in excrutiating pain. My face was throbbing and I couldn’t get the RN to help me. I kept saying “I hurt” and “PCA not helping” but she told me that I was getting as much medication as I could. I finally realized that my O2 sats were not great so they were hesitant to give me more med. Ok – I understand that. Lots of pain but nothing I could do about it at that point. What really angered me about this nurse, though, is that she kept telling me to open my jaws a little bit so that she could give me ice chips. WHAT! She wanted me to work against the banding and pry my jaws open. What an idiot!!!! This one still flabbergasts me. I had just had my maxilla and mandible CUT LOOSE FROM MY SKULL. I had a bunch of plates and screws holding them in place until the bone regrows. I won’t even be able to chew scrambled eggs for months and she wants me to strain against the bands so that she can drop some ice in my mouth. I kept saying that I couldn’t do it and she was getting a little impatient with me. I didn’t catch her name but, man, she needs to pay attention to the procedures that her patients have done.
posted by Anne | 3:15 PM
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