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| Bracelets... Where's the bling? |
Before the 9:00 am surgery, I met with various nurses, the doctor, the anesthesiologist, etc. and finally the surgical nurse who entered the room saying, "And now I finally get to meet everybody's favorite patient!" I was surprised, but she said, "Yes, really." Well, I try to be easy to get along with and I realize how hard nurses work and appreciate the skill of physicians and anesthesiologists. After she left I was still pondering what she said... and then it occurred to me that it might not be because they thought I was nice. It might be because of the things I say while under anesthesia! OMG! I was determined to stay awake as long as I possibly could this time to guard what I said. I remember going into the operating room and looking down seeing my sock-covered feet, and eager to see how much longer I could stay awake since I didn't feel sleepy at all yet, and then I... nothing! Nada! Not a thing. I don't even remember getting drowsy. Geez I hope I was entertaining again... or not.
The surgery accomplished what it was intended to do... remove the port used to deliver chemo. However, I'm dealing with some minor problems I didn't expect. I woke up in the recovery room coughing and with a sore throat. The recovery room nurse told me that I coughed all throughout the surgery, and that my throat may be a little irritated because they had to suction it. (She said what they aspirated was clear, which indicated there are no health problems that would have caused the coughing.) The cough stopped after a while and I was released. I've never had a coughing problem before, and feel that perhaps this episode had something to do with the anesthesia.
Ric and I then made our usual trip to iHop for blueberry pancakes. I was really hungry, but after the first few bites my throat hurt so bad I started to cry a little bit... and I was scared. I drank iced tea, which was okay, but it was difficult to swallow. I tried to eat a little more (because of this recording in my head that says we shouldn't waste food), but I could not. So Ric finished his pancake, eggs and some of mine, and we went home. I took Bodhi outside and then went to bed, hoping to sleep for an hour or so.
I woke up at 6pm! When I sat up in bed, I had a major wave of pain in the surgery site. I don't recall what kind of sound I made, but it startled Ric. Pills to the rescue, which helped the surgery pain, but didn't do much for my throat. It was extremely sore and felt very swollen. I could barely talk. (Now that I think about it, that's probably why Ric was smiling so much!) I was scheduled to work today, and was quite worried about not being able to talk. You kinda have to do that when you work on the radio... writing on a dry erase board and holding it up just doesn't work very well. I decided to quit worrying and just wait and see what the next day would bring. Hopefully more than my diet of a cold banana and two popsicles.
Today, I woke up with pain only around the surgery site. I also coughed again, but only for a little while. The pain I felt was where the bandage was adhered to the skin. I couldn't wait until 10:00 which would have been 24 hrs after surgery, the time I was told to take off the pressure bandage. At 9:00 I took it off, to find some large blisters where it was taped to my skin. I don't know why this happened either. They used the kind of tape that was not supposed to cause skin irritation. I only had some of the same kind at home, which is what I had been using with no problem since the December surgeries. For my new clean/dry bandage, I tried using it anyway, while avoiding the blisters. Since a large area of my skin was red, even that hurt. So I ended up using a row of regular bandaids. Itching, but no pain.
I was hungry at work, but didn't have anything much there to eat, and my throat was still sore anyway. At about noon, I ate a sugar-free jello. Shortly after I started feeling nauseous. It just got worse and worse and I panicked, because there was no one else there who could take over for me! The panic only made matters worse, and I eventually went upstairs to the bathroom and threw up. Sorry. Yuck. TMI. But after that, I felt better! Still had kind of a gagging feeling from time to time, but better.
My other concern about being sick was that I was scheduled to pick up Jenny (the black beagle/cocker mix doggy) from the animal shelter after work. So I was relieved when I started to feel better and knew Jenny wouldn't have to spend another night NOT at the foot of someone's bed! (More about this in my next blog entry.)
When I got home I looked in my throat to see if I could see anything. You know that little thing that hangs from the back of our throats? The uvula? It's swollen and laying on the back of my tongue. No wonder I feel like I'm gagging. Now that I know what is causing this feeling, it's a little easier to deal with.
One more thing for my list of complaints... pain is back in the surgery site because of significant swelling. I'm using ice packs on that, which feels goooooood. Until I take it off. I wish I could just strap the ice pack on me, but the incision is just under my collar bone... and I don't have any bras big enough to go up that high.
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