Thursday, October 25, 2007

Farting is the Password

The day before yesterday, I was opened up surgically about six inches. The pain has actually been less than what I'd anticipated except that all along the right side of my abdoment I kept getting a major cramp. I got this cramp when I tried to roll onto my left side. I got this cramp when I gried to roll to my right side. Finally, last night, they got me an abdominal binder which helped. It's like a big girdle.

Last night, I fell asleep, but then woke up in a panic attack. I felt trapped like a rat. I kept getting those cramps so I couldn't even sleep on my side as I like to. I had both legs attached to the bed by air hoses that filled and deflated "boots" on my calves in order to prevent blood clots in my legs. I had an oxygen canula in my nose, which attached to the wall. I had a pulsOx monitor stuck to my finger to monitor my oxygen levels. I had an IV sticking out of the port in my chest. I had a wire leading from the pca unit to distribute narcotics to me at the touch of a finger. I had the nurse call light/tv controller at the end of a wire running from the wall to my bed. I had a tube sticking out of my urethra to catch my pee and another one from the wound to catch the drainage. I WAS trapped like a rat. I kept getting tangled up in all those tubes and wires, along with my blankets and I just started freaking out. I ripped off the "boots" and pulled off the pulse ox monitor since I couldn't find the call light that I was sitting on. I let the nurse know that I did that on purpose because I couldn't find the call light. I started to cry when I was telling her that I was freaking out. Of course crying sent me out of this world with pain because of the abdominal cramps. A binder finally came for me.

They got me bound, which sounds like it would feel more confining, but the pain relief was almost instant. They untangled my blankets and encouraged me to put the "boots" back on. They gave me Ativan to calm me down. (I let the Dr. know that I'm afraid of Ativan because when the doctors gave it to my mom, she never woke up again. I explained that I know that she was a geriatric patient and that I know that my fears are unfounded, but they are there. I did allow them to give it to me because anything is better than the panic that I was experiencing.) I was able to roll over on my side with the binder on. I still had some pain, but not too much. I only used the pca once or twice after that.

First thing this morning, around 5:30am, the Doctor pulled my catheter. A few hours later, they pulled my IV fluids and pca pump once they knew that I could tolerate solid foods. Since I hadn't used any narcotics in several hours, we started me on just Motrin for the pain. That lasted for a few hours, but then I started having more pain. And nausea. They gave me Phenigren through my port for the nausea and Narco by mouth for the pain. They both helped, but I was knocked out for several hours. One of my nieces visited me and I was totally out of it, not able to hold a decent conversation or create much of a cohesive thought even. I felt bad.

Finally, after several hours, I was able to wake up. So I walked down here to the isolation area to get on the internet and write on this blog. I am still quite groggy, but they kept telling me that I needed to walk as much as possible. They still want me to fart before I leave.

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