Post op

Thought it would be a good time to write, since I can't fall asleep. It seems as though childrens tylenol puts me to sleep and children's advil has the opposite affect. which sucks cause I could use a nap, but soon it will be wearing off and I'll get some tylenol on board. Anyways, I just read my first post about surgery, its crazy that I could have even written that, hahaha I was barley awake, but Micheal said my followers needed something. This time will be a bit better I'm sure. So its day 6 post operation today and I'm feeling a bit better. Well, lets just say better then sunday thats for sure. Sunday I was nauseous and couldn't eat anything. I felt like I should be re-admitted to the hospital cause I was in pain and worried about my electrolyte imbalance. Yeah I know, who cares about their electrolytes, but I was throwing up and feeling like crap and thought I would end up there anyways. But here I am, it's Wed and I'm not puking and my pain is pretty much under control. So lets take a step back and go back to the hospital. Let me just remind you that one of my fears of surgery was having to spend the night in the hospital, especially Langley hospital. SO, when they were wheeling me to my room, there was this strange familiarity about the hall and the ward. They stopped int he hall while they cleared a space for my bed, and it came to me. I used to work there as a nursing aid while in school. I only worked there a handful of times cause I was either busy with school or had way more fun at my BC ferry job. being pulled into the room brought back memories. Memories of why I decided I wanted to work with pregnant ladies and families. They aren't normally sick, they are just having a baby, and are usually well after they give birth. This pace was gloomy and smelly. The nurse before she left to go back to the recovery room said "you might want to keep your mask on". haha that is an understatement. I could still smell the sickening smell of the elderly lady beside me going to the bathroom on the comode by her bed. and I could smell the ODOUR BE GONE that they spray to mask it. I was screaming inside. I knew it wasn't gonna be good, and I was wondering the whole time if they secretly did have a private room available but was just holding it. hmmmmmm SO my lovely neighbour was in for hip surgery and wasn't with it. She slept most the day, but when ever the nurse would come to help her or give her meds she would freak out. using words I didn't nice little ladies knew. And when it got to be around 8pm she just started talking to her self. My friend suggested that I mumble back to her and maybe she will understand me in her head. So I tried that and it seemed to calm her down for a bit. it was kinda humorous, but she got louder the later it got, so around 1010 they brought her bed into the hall way as to not disturb the rest of us int he room. There was 2 more people in the room, nothing to write home about, one lady had a tumour removed from her mouth and the other guy had a colostomy bag put in. changing that was pretty smelly too. Oh geez, I guess my nose is really sensitive right now, I can smell every little thing. Wow, this might be a long one, another thing I observed was the nurses. Haha I know, I'm a nurse and I know the tricks we use and all, but I don't think I'm as mean as mine were. It was like pulling teeth to get them to bring me pain medication. I would call when the pain was around a 3-4 so it wouldn't get higher, so they would say, oh just wait a bit more the codeine should kick in soon. I don't think it takes 1hr for codeine to take effect. SO I would ring the bell, they would come back and say "oh your still in pain", ummm duh, what the heck is codeine gonna do, my jaw was just broken into different pieces. SO finally she said she was gonna bring me something. It took forever, so of course I range the bell, an it still took FOREVER, they just let it ring and ring and ring. I was pushing it over and over knowing it would do anything but it felt good to do something. I remember telling Micheal that I wanted to punch her int he face. Really how long does it take to draw up some demerol. geez, Finally she brought me some demerol and I had relief for 4 hrs. Then the whole scenario started again, but with a different nurse cause mine was on break. Geez, they should just bring me something every 4hrs or something. I know it can get busy sometimes, but when I was calling I would look over and I could see nurses sitting there charting or planning their breaks. Oh my goodness, I am so thankful that having a baby is less work to be a patient. AT least after having a baby you feel pretty good, well besides your aching body there is nothing really you need the nurse for urgently. Well I didn't at least. I could take my own meds, walk to the bathroom, eat. I was pretty independent after having a baby. Being a patient dependant on people is hard work, especially if you have nurses that don't know you or don't care. Lets just say the day I got to go home wasn't the best either. I went for x-ray in the am and they took off the machine that was continuously massaging my legs. ohh that felt soo good through the night :) ANd the machine and it's pieces stayed on my bed ALL day. I would have taken them away by now, who wants all this stuff at the foot of their already small hospital bed. Again with the medication slowness. Does it really take that long? Am I missing something??? I don't think it takes me too long to get meds out of the cupboard at work. After lunch the nurse said I can go when ever I want, after she gives me a shot of steroids. So again I waited forever for her to return with it. When she gave it it looked like she hadn't given many shots before. I killed going in, but that was the least of it, after she pushed it in an walked away it stung and ached more than any pain I had felt all night long. The pain went down to my calf and I could barely move my leg. Tears just started pouring, and wouldn't stop. I was surprised that she actually came back to see how I was, well she was probably seeing why I hadn't left yet. I told her it killed, and that I couldn't move my leg and other stuff, but she prob didn't understand cause who can with my mouth shut. She brought me some ice, to help the pain. Oh my gosh, I typed to micheal that I thought she got it int he wrong spot and that she doesn't know what she is doing. The ice helped a bit and the pain finally subsided after 30 mins. Micheal found me a wheelchair and left. No one gave us instructions at the hospital of what to do. No kind of teaching or anything, it was kinda weird just leaving. I brought all the stuff they told me to at the oral surgeons office cause they said the nurses will go over it with me and show me things. Haha that never happened. So, my fear of spending the night in the hospital was true. don't get me wrong, I did get some sleep and rest, but thats about it. Not sure if I was at a different hospital if it would have went better, but I would like to think so. I am thankful that I don't work there, I like to think that I am a nice nurse, I seem to answer the bell when it first rings even if it is not my patient. I know that care is more important than charting, and that charting will get done, especially on a night shift. If I ended up working there who knows if I would have become like them, I saw a lot of nurses, none of them seemed bright eyed or happy to be there. Didn't seem like they loved their job or people. So why?

xoxo