On we go…It’s finally Saturday and I’m breathing under my own power so they decide it’s time to send me to the M Unit and a room where they won’t be checking me every hour. I don’t remember leaving the D Unit; I just remember the rude awakening I received when I woke up. I was greeted by searing burning pain in my eyes from the extremely bright sunlight streaming in from all of the windows. I was privileged enough to get a corner room, which would have been great if I wasn’t so sensitive to light. Even with the shades closed I spent the next 2 or 3 days looking like this, and mumbling to myself like Gizmo “Bright Light, Bright Light”:
I also awoke to the realization that I had a roommate. Normally it wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but he was a pastor of some sort and I’m pretty sure his entire congregation was visiting him. My nurse finally put them out via the 2 visitor limit rule and told him to go down to the waiting room with them…ahhh the sound of silence. I remember my visitors coming and going over the weekend but that was about all I remember. I didn’t have much to say so I was terrible company. I think it was Monday when my roommate moved out and I had the entire room to myself…the quiet was wonderful.
My original, naïve, never been in the hospital plan was to be out of the hospital within 3 days, after all they said 3-5 days, so I was all set to be released at some point Monday. Turns out I’m not as tough as I thought, and Chiari and nausea had other plans. My doctor also reminded me that I just had surgery that is very difficult to recover from.
So Monday turned into Tuesday…more pain, more nausea…Tuesday involved being transported to the CT machine to make sure everything is in it’s place…Tuesday turned into Wednesday…more pain, more nausea, oh no now a fever! Thursday comes and the nausea has subsided and I got my pain level down to a 5. I haven’t been at a 5 in forever, it was glorious. Of course the relief didn’t last long, I over did it and shot back up to a 10…grrrr! All I had to do was keep my food down and I could get out of there Friday! Thursday also meant the arrival of another roommate…ugh! He was about 90 years old and had the grossest cough ever. Each time he coughed my stomach turned and my head pounded. I did a lot of praying that I wouldn’t puke each time he coughed, which was about every half hour. All of his visitors had to talk on their cell phones and were loud in all conversations, I never met any of them but I hated them anyway. They seemed to quiet down after I told the nurse I was about to go after all of them with my IV pole. So it’s Thursday night and the pain is brutal, they pump me full of pain med’s and during one of my vital check’s it looks like I’m getting another fever. This resulted in spending about an hour with cold packs in my armpits and on my head. Close call, but the fever stayed below 100 so I still had a chance of getting out. It’s finally Friday, and the pain was way above 10 but I didn’t care I wanted to go home. After all I can be in pain at home just as well as I can at the hospital. At long last the nurse came in with my discharge papers…sweet! I listened to her instructions and bam; got hit with a wave of nausea. Another close call but I got through it and got my wheelchair ride down to the exit…FREEDOM!!!
The next post will deal with the special hell that was getting home!
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