surgery update (long one!)

I'm wide awake due to the neighbors loud music earlier, a woken baby, & feeling helpless to my husband who is now going to run on 4 hours of sleep so I guess I will update this thing...

We bought our house a year and half ago. Its a brand new house in a new neighborhood & we really do LOVE it. It is family friendly w/ lots of parks close by, which is wonderful. We have made new friends that live right across the street... they have a two year old daughter & an eight month old son. That part is so nice. The neighbors on our side of the street aren't so wonderful. A few months back, the guy(s) two houses down, had a dog that was constantly getting out of the fence during the day. (I took him back one of the times.) There was alot of nights that the dog was barking ALL NIGHT too. Finally, we walked over one late night to see what was going on with the dog. Clearly, nobody was home so we peeked around back to look into the yard (its a vinyl fence). As we were looking, here come some other neighbors who were also concerned. We noticed the dog was completely tangled up & couldn't move. This was in the middle of December too! The other neighbors filed a complaint that night. Two nights later, same thing, so we gave them another "warning". The next day the owner of the dog shows up at our house & asks if we left this paper in his mail box... somebody had printed off the weather report for the week & put it in his mailbox. We told him it wasn't us, but let him know what we thought about the issue too & after he left, we got a good laugh about whoever put that in the mailbox. Anyway, since then, it has stopped. Thank goodness. Well now we are having more neighbor issues...The guy next door has clearly had alcohol issues... Joey, him, & another guy all built the fence together this Summer & he wore an alcohol sweat detector thing after several DUI's & was constantly talking about how bad he wanted a beer. Anyway, no big deal there, until recently. He's been rocking out late at night... even on week days & Grant's window is right next to their house. Joey has nicely asked him to keep it down, but it only lasts a couple days at time. Tonight, we'd had it & called the police department. We decided to only "warn" him & not sign a sitation... for now atleast. Grant was completely freaked out by it & woke up several times. Not only is that frustrating, but I can't lift him for atleast 3 more weeks, because of my surgery, so Joey was up with him alot. Let's hope that is all over with now!

Anyway, I've been wanting to post about how surgery so I guess I will write myself to sleep tonight lol...

Friday, the 18th, we arrived at 530 am downtown St. Lukes. We were shocked at how quickly they were ready for me. They took me into the pre surgery place where I gave a pee sample & got into my gown. My nurse came in & did the usual vitals. She seemed like a pretty good nurse & everything was going well. After a few minutes, they let Joey back to sit with me while we waited & waited for surgery. One of the times she came in, she asked me if I was had any questions, so out of pure curiosity, I asked if I'd have a catheter & when they'd be putting it in. She gave me a weird look & said of course not. She went on & on for the next few minutes about how there is no way I'd even need a catheter because everything stops while your under. I still thougth that sounded odd since I'd be under for up to 7 hours, but I didn't question her. She kept bringing it up as she popped in & out of the room... almost as if she wasn't sure herself, but didn't want to be wrong. My anesthesiologist (sp) & his nurse came in to meet me & then we just waited for my surgeon to come in & draw all over me while I was standing up. As the surgeon walks in, she laughs while telling the surgeon that I thought I might have a catheter. My surgeon looks at her with kind of an evil eye & says OF COURSE she'll have a catheter & the nurse just walks out. I thought it was pretty funny! After that, I got the happy juice & remember telling Joey I can feel my arm burning... then boom, I was out & off to surgery.
I had advised Joey to not sit at the hospital all day, so he went and got a few groceries & dropped them off home then went to play with Grant, who was at his parents house.

Sidenote: last week, Grant got the flu & ended up being really sick for 3 days. We dropped him off Thursday night & while we were there, my MIL starts throwing up too! Ughhh... I was seriously contemplating cancelling surgery, but we'd be out alot of money & have to wait months to reschedule. Joey's dad assured us he'd be fine with him & didn't have to work the next day so we finally left. The next morning (while I'm in surgery) Joey's dad ends up having to go into work so my sister-in-law called into her work & ended up having Grant all day. It was pretty hectic!

Surgery went really well & ended up not taking as long as planned. They took me into the main recovery room for an hour or so before they would take me into a different recovery room where I could have visitors. The nurse in the main recovery seemed nice although I don't remember much of that. When I got to the other room, I was starting to be pretty alert & was sooo thirsty. I was freaked out because I knew where I was, but the nurses were ignoring me & Joey wasn't in there like I thought he'd be. I finally pushed my call button & a guy nurse came in, introduced himself then started to walk out! I asked him where my husband was & ended up waiting about 20 more minutes until Joey came in. He too, was out there asking several times when he could finally come in. In the meantime, I pushed my call button and asked for a drink & the nurse said sure I'll get you water then acted kind of put out when I asked if I could have a coke. He hands me it & partially sits me up then walks off. Umm... HELLO! I need sat up all the way & I don't have anywhere to set this down. I held it while feeling all sleepy & ended up reaching to the tray at the end up my bed to put it down. (I'm not supposed to be down anything like that with my arms.) Joey came in & I felt a huge relief just having him there. Shortly after, I started feeling really nauseated & Joey got the nurse. He asked me if I'd rather have one drug or another. Uh.. I don't know, you're the nurse, but Joey ended up making the decision. He gives it to me & nothing really changes so I tell him that I think its because my stomach is so empty. I was so hungry! (Hadn't ate in about 20 hours). He hesitates then offers a couple crackers & brings me two. I eat those, and as I expected, two crackers didn't do crap. Once again, I had to ask for more & then he gives me the option of saltines or ritz so I say ritz & make the comment that they don't seem as dry to swallow. He turns around, and says a crackers a cracker & throws them on my lap. At this point, Joey & I are both irritated & I'm trying to prep myself to ask to get he catheter out & leave. During shift change, I hear my nurse tell the next nurse good luck! Now I'm about to cry because I really didn't think I was being a difficult patient & Joey assures me that I wasn't & he was just an ass. The new nurse comes in & takes the catheter, but says I need to stay atleast a few more minutes after that. All of a sudden, a throbbing pain all over my chest starts & it takes my breath away. Joey gets the nurse, & I tell her my pain is unbareable & asked if I could have anything. She hesitates & asks me to wait it out. I wait a few minutes & nothing changes. Joey gets her back in the room & she says I shouldn't have anything because I had a Norco just over an hour before then walks out! I start crying & my heart monitor starts beeping really loud so a couple nurses come in then decide to call my surgeon & see what she thinks & of course, she tells them to give me something & that I'm not to leave until I'm comfortable. They finally come in with a little morphine. Ahhhh! :) I get the nerve up to tell that bitch a little something (sorry for the language!) I go on to say, "I don't know if you have ever given birth, but let me tell you... I did give birth without even a tylenol & wasn't at this or any stupid hospital for that matter. I have a high pain tolerance & only take things when absolutely needed." She doesn't say a word & walks out! Joey gives me a high five & we laugh our butts off! If you know me, you know I'm not very outspoken & definately don't use my natural birth card to often. I was proud! She nervously comes back in & says I need to try to rest so I can go home. How the heck do you rest with a fluoresent light above your head? I decide to be a brat (not really though) & have her come back to ask if she'd turn the light off so I can rest. She hesitates, but finally does. I nod off to sleep for about five minutes & boom the light's back on. Wow! I'm so mad by this point so I have Joey sit me up. She finally goes out & I sit start to fall asleep again when I suddenly feel the urge to pee. I'm thinking great... just great. I tell Joey I'm going to hold it until we leave because I'm not asking that bitch for anything. He doesn't think thats a good idea & pushes the call light. Nobody comes in & we wait... finally, he goes out & gets a nurse (not my nurse) to come in & take me to the bathroom. She grabs my upper arm to get up. Ouch, Lady... did you not read your notes that I can't be pulled on my arms!! Ughhhh... Joey asks if he should come with me or if she will handle it & she tells him I'm fine. She walks me into the bathroom, hooks my iv on something and walks out. Thanks... guess I'l lean over, pull down my own pants, yank the toilet paper off (all no-no's) but what can I do? I pull the call light because you know she didn't even wait outside the bathroom, & finally comes in & unhooks the iv then just stands there while I pull up my pants & turn on the sink. We get back to my room & I tell Joey, I'm done with this place & leaving so I sit down in the regular chair & he puts my shoes on. My nurse okays it with my surgeon & we are out! I cry the whole way home & beg Joey to tell me if I was being difficult & his insists that it wasn't me & they were extremely rude. We get home & my boy comes running to me saying momma, momma. I completely lose it & bawl my eyes out even more.

I will update the more on the recovery part later... time for bed finally!