swift star farm blog: Back Home Again

"Hey it's good to be back home again.
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend
Yes 'n' hey it's good to be back home again - John Denver

And it does!

I went in early Tuesday morning for my surgery. I managed to hold it together just up until the anesthesia Nurse informed me they were just about ready for me. My phobia took hold and the tears spilled, much to my embarrassment. The Nurse was wonderful and steadied me with jokingly telling me she did not want a "snotty patient" to put under. She talked to me and comforted me and took my fears seriously. "What are you worried about , Michele?"
I answered "never waking up"
She reassured me I was such a low risk having never been a smoker, heavy drinker and had no underlying health concerns.
I had talked to a few trusted friends who are employed in the medical profession as well as this very nurse in the days prior to my surgery. I had a very good understanding of the sedation process but being phobic, it was too hard to over ride my emotions just as time came for me to be sedated.
Yet, it was just as described to me.
The nurse indicated she was administering the first part of the sedation through the IV....and the next thing I recall was hearing a nurse saying "Okay Michele, your out of surgery everything went well".
WOW.

I was in my room by 8:00 AM . My brain was active but sluggish and it was hard to stay awake. I was hooked up to a Morphine IV . I felt like I had been hit by a bus! After several hours I started to be more aware and the nurse explained to me that if I needed pain relief there was a little button just off my right hand that would give me Morphine as I needed it. The first day I did pop that button some but asked the nurses if I was abusing it at all. They said that after surgery I was given a measured unit of Morphine and that in the following 12 or so hours I had used the equivalent amount . I felt like I was pushing that button a lot the first half of the day but they assured me that they have had patients that they had to take it away from because they kept pressing the button.
The one thing no one had made me aware of was that there would be a catheter inserted in my urethra the first 24 hours.
Having never undergone any major surgery before this was the most irritating thing to the surgery.

Your encouraged to get up and about as soon as you can. Somewhere in the late afternoon I gave it a go . I wanted to get the clouds out of my head but to be honest the catheter was the issue more than the eight inch incision in my gut!
Clutching the IV pole with one hand and the bag of my own urine in the other as I made my way over to sit in a chair was not a walk in the park.
SITTING in the chair with the catheter feeling more like a flagpole shoved in my urethra was MUCH worse!

That night around 4:30 AM I woke up and counted down the hours...that catheter was coming out around 6-6:30 AM I was told the night before and it could not come quick enough.
Nothing worse than the nurse adjusting your blankets and some how tugging on that line from the urine bag to where it was going in your body, I felt like my urethra was now located somewhere down around my knees.

The next day I felt much clearer but was running a fever. I kept at the breathing exercises they ask you to do even though they hurt like hell . I was also taken off the Morphine. While it did help with the pain it also made me very sick to my stomach . I think between the anesthesia and Morphine just made me feel horrible and as soon as I was relieved of it and that catheter things felt much better. The fever was troubling but thankfully broke on Thursday.
I was doing my best to be up and walking and wanted bad to go home.

What a treat to leave the hospital and be greeted with 70 degree temperatures!
My overall first time hospital experience was a very good one. I hope it will be my last, or that it will be a very long time before I have another stay to compare this one to it.
It was so good to get home.
I missed the dogs. Paul said they missed me too. When he would take them out to walk they went hunting for me. When he brought them inside they searched the rooms for me.
It warmed my heart to find so many messages on e mail asking how I was feeling as well as several of my closest friends calling me in the hospital to check on me. Thanks everyone, it means much to me.
Paul did a great job of caring for the critters , though I had no doubt he would not do a fantastic job.

My few remaining hair sheep obliged us and did not have lambs while I was in the hospital. I was happy for this, but more happy for Paul because I know he was worried about dealing with a lambing while I was not here.

We did have a ewe deliver a single a few days before I was to go in. When I was looking through my records I saw that she had had her own lamb on her birthday. Now, what a sweet present for her. She is a great mom, something you worry about breeding sheep that are just coming on their own first year.