Based on what I am told there were two nurses in the room along with I believe my parents and my husband and I had a wonderful friend named Anna who sat at the hospital for almost the complete 10 hours that I was in surgery but she needed to leave before I reached the recovery area so I believe those were the people there when I was waking up from anesthesia.
My sister told me that I was using rather foul language and refusing to drink Ensure and demanding potato chips which is kind of funny seeing as I had my weight-loss surgery several months before and my diet had completely changed and was not the same. The nurses assured my sister that type of language is common and people say all kinds of things when they came out of or were waking up from anesthesia.
I asked my sister to take pictures and my head was wrapped completely in white gauze there was a tube coming out of my scalp with blood coming through the tubing into a little pouch that was tucked into a pocket in the front of my hospital gown. Which was collecting excess fluid I guess.
I don't remember being in any type of pain I had no concept of what time it was and I was repeatedly asking for my glasses which had been taken from me obviously during the surgery. I wanted them to see the clock. For some reason I was very interested in what time it was. I did have several visitors after the surgery but I don't recall those visitors being there so I was filled in on that part.
You're automatically placed in the ICU or intensive care unit where you are checked on every 15 minutes literally it's all glass where people can see you at all times meaning the nursing staff or hospital staff would come in every 15 minutes. They were checking my pupils checking all neurological things to make sure everything was going okay.
I vaguely remember those visits. I vaguely remember having my blood pressure taken or really any other procedure that went on except for a very traumatic experience that did occur I believe on the second day that I was there. Several doctors came in as the cancer hospital I was treated at is a teaching hospital and it was time to remove the bandages from my head and instead of doing it gently they basically ripped the bandages off of my head and I remember feeling excruciating pain like I've never felt before in my life and that includes childbirth! However I was still in such a daze that I couldn't even really process the pain or complain about it or ask for more pain medication at that time.
What is very strange to me is my very little recollection of my time in the hospital. I don't remember speaking very much to hospital staff I do recall more of who came to visit me. I had a visit from rehab doctors and It was recommended that I be sent to a rehab hospital for further treatment and that if I was not sent there that my chances of a full recovery were pretty much minimal. For some reason that did not happen. My sister and other family members did tell me that I was very combative about not wanting to go to a rehab hospital.
So instead of following the guidelines that were written out for me for discharge somehow I was just charged home with the care of a daily nurse to come and visit me to check vital signs and to check the staples that were in my head which were 45+ Staples I believe. I was quite shocked about the number of staples and how large the incision was, which went from the peak of my hair in the front near the fore head all the way down past the ear to the bottom of the ear lobe; that was not the size incision that was discussed when I met with the neurosurgeon about my surgery.
I really did nothing at the hospital but sleep and receive visitors and even when visitors were there I was sometimes sleeping. I was sent home after three days at the hospital. I was sent home on a medication called Decadron which is I believe a very strong steroid to control swelling of the brain I think I took that for two weeks maybe it might of been less my memory is not that great.
I vaguely remember the drive home as the sunlight was excruciatingly painful to my eyes and so my husband leaned the seat back and he drove and I had my eyes shut dozing off in the seat all the way home. I came home to a freshly made bed and a very neat and clean home as I tried to have things organized before I left. Thanks to family and friends my sister coming by and staying with me during the week when my husband had to go back to work I was well taken care of. The first few days at home weren't bliss as I was kind of out of it walking around in a daze. I was inundated with love and family and friends all around me which made things a lot better however trouble began on the 10th day after being home. All was not well.... More to come in another blog entry.
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