Surviving

[perzephone]

12:30pm - I was scheduled for surgery at 2:30pm. Got to the hospital at 12:30 - why they want you to come in two hours early is beyond me. So we sat in the waiting room watching Vegas & I embroidered some.

1:30pm - They called me in, did the pre-op stuff - pregnancy test, answered questions, got the IV inserted. I told the nurse how hard of a time everyone seems to have finding a vein & she told me to load up on potato chips & water the day before, which I'll remember to do before my hysterectomy. Put the obscene hospital gown on.

2pm - my doctor came in, went over my chart, wrote her initials on my left side, stole mah x-rays. I made the mistake of telling the nurse that I had drank about 1/2 cup of water around noon so I could give a urine sample if necessary, so they were going to postpone me til 4. The person before me was going to get the soundwave machine used on him. Rob had brought his mini DVD player, so we started watching Howl's Moving Castle.

3pm - my doctor comes in to tell me the soundwave machine was down so they were going to go ahead & pull me in because mine was the laser lithotripsy. The anaesthesiologist came in, started an antibiotic drip & gave me a muscle relaxant.

3:45 - they wheeled me into the OR.

The OR was very scary looking. Had all kinds of machines & looked like something out of Aliens or similar movie. It was also about -10º F. They got me up on the operating table, which was under a portable CT scanner & X-Ray machine. The doctor originally started with the laser and cut the stone in half, but I almost immediately started bleeding, which made visibility almost null, so they apparently had gotten the ultrasonic machine working and pulverized the stone with that. She also performed the equivalent to an episiotomy on my urethra to insert a stent.

6pm - out of surgery, yay! Rob got called back to see me around 7pm. Coming out of anaesthesia last night seemed harder than my knee surgery. I felt like I was fighting it & it was just unpleasant. My throat hurt, my lower back hurt, and I had to pee before I could be discharged, which was painful but not quite as painful as I'd anticipated. Happily, I only felt nauseous once, mostly due to the car ride. It tasted gritty, like maybe they'd given me some kind of pill while I was in Recovery. By the time we got home I was pretty much out of the anaesthetic haze. Rob dropped me off so I could be w/Chelsie while he went & got my prescriptions (they had my Darvocet & antibiotic, but there's some other stuff for my bladder that Wal-Greens won't get in until tomorrow. It's a pain reliever/antibacterial that also has hyoscyamine in it for its antispasmodic properties, which I find quite cool. Gotta love those tropane alkaloids).

8pm - took pills, ate the world's best tasting banana, drank some cranberry juice.

9pm - went to bed. Woke up at 11 because of back cramps & having to pee really, really bad. Stayed up for awhile, went back to bed. Got up at 2, had to pee. Got up at 3, had to pee. Got up at 6, had to pee, got up at 8:30, had to pee, said fuck it & got up.

Today I'm doing ok, mostly a sore throat from the oxygen tube & intermittent back cramps. I'm still pissing blood, which is hideous, but it's clearing up from what it was this morning. I have to run my urine through a strainer & bring any particles to my doctor to analyze, which is a pleasure considering how disconnected from my bodily wastes I prefer to be. It also burns when I pee, and I can feel my left kidney knot up. My heating pad is my best friend right now.

Thank you for all the kind thoughts & support :)

Comments

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Ow to the burning, but hopefully the procedure was successful; when will they know for sure that it worked?

And I don't think I've ever been in an OR that didn't feel like something out of aliens, and damned freaking cold at that.

I'm so glad this is over! *hugs*

Success is Relative...

[perzephone.livejournal.com]

I have to get x-rays in about a week or so, & then I get an office visit to have the stent removed (yah, I'm looking forward to that).

And I don't think I've ever been in an OR that didn't feel like something out of aliens, and damned freaking cold at that.

This OR seriously had the 'laboratory quickly abandoned during a Red Alert' kind of look to it, lol. If the lights had been off I might have refused to go in there.

[spyral-weaver73.livejournal.com]

*gentlehugs* Im so happy you are still alive! Recovery sucks..but its only for a time..Sending lots of love your way..(I was really worried about you...)

((hugs))

[perzephone.livejournal.com]

I was pretty worried, too, and when I'm worried everyone knows it's gonna be bad, hah.

Thank you for your warm fuzzies :)