Surgery Recap

   We, being mom and I,  left for Piedmont about 6:20 yesterday morning. I stayed at my house the night before so she came over, we loaded up all my stuff since am staying with them for a few days, and then we hit the road to Atlanta. We decided to take a new route instead of taking 78 to Ponce to Peachtree. Mom hates driving down Ponce where the Paideia School is because the lines are very narrow, the road is curvy, and there are people out walking everywhere going to school. Instead, we took my new favorite cut-through...which I am sure most people already know about it, but I just learned about it in December. We took North Druid Hills to LaVista...which magically turns into Lindbergh...which crosses Peachtree Street between 85 and Piedmont Road. There was virtually no traffic and we made it to the hospital in a little over an hour. I didn't have to be there until 8 but we got there about 7:30.

     I got signed in and did all the pre-admission stuff and then we sat...and sat...and sat. Little did we know that sitting and waiting were going to be the theme of the day. There weren't too many people in the waiting area which was nice. There was one man across the room who has sleeping...and snoring loudly. It was all I could do not to bust out laughing. He snored really loud! I played on my blackberry, read some, and mom worked on a quilt. We also watched some of Good Morning, America. Up until this point, I hadn't been too nervous...but the nerves were starting to kick in. 

    About 8:45 (I think) a nursing assistance, Michelle, came to take me back to pre-op. My nurse, Muriel, got me settled into my pre-op room. They did all the normal stuff...weight, temp, heart rate, blood pressure and asked a bunch of questions. I got to put on one of those lovely hospital gowns...you know the ones that tie in the back and you pray that you don't wind up mooning someone! Then the fun part started...the IV. Susan, another nurse and the one I had in pre-op in July, came over to help Muriel. While Susan scrubbed my arm, wrist, and hand, Muriel started the IV. They give me a shot of lidocaine before they put the IV in so I didn't feel anything....it was great. They did a couple of other things...listened to my heart, lungs, listened to my stomach to see if it was growling, and felt my pulse in my feet. Then I waited...and waited. They finally went and got my mom when they realized that surgery wasn't going to start at 10. 

     The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me. What I really wanted to say was "just knock me out so I don't remember or feel anything." He went over what they would do and gave me some Pepcid in my IV to help me not get sick after surgery. It was probably around 10:30 and Susan said she had been watching the OR board and that Dr.A's first surgery had run long. Dr. A finally came in and talked to my mom and I about what he was going to do and he made some marks on my wrist to show where he was going to make the incision (luckily, he used one of the incisions from this summer). 

     Just a few minutes later, the OR nurse and the nurse anesthetist came to wheel me back to the OR. The nurse anesthetist gave me the first of many "cocktails" and I was high as a kite by the time we got to the OR. After that, things start to get fuzzy. I remember getting on the OR table, having them strap me down, getting my arms situated, and the having a mask put over my nose and mouth. I don't remember anything after that until I was in PACU...post anesthesia care unit. I woke up saw the nurse and she asked how I was feeling. My wrist was hurting pretty bad and she said they would give me some more pain meds. 

    They moved me to the recovery unit and gave me Dilaudid through my IV. This is when things went down hill...quickly. Within 2-3 minutes of me getting the meds in my IV, I started to feel terrible like I was going to pass out. Unfortunately I know what it's like to pass out and I knew that was where I was headed. My mom got my nurse, Lisa (who was incredible), and she came running in with another nurse. At this point, I was nauseous, dizzy, and getting more clammy by the second. My blood pressure had dropped to 48/22, my heart rate slowed to under 30, and my O2 levels dropped too. They uncovered me, took my socks off, put wet rags all over my face, and made me smell alcohol wipes to try to bring me back to consciousness. They finally got me stable....but every time they tried to sit me up, the same thing would happen. I'd get dizzy, start seeing spots, and all my vital signs would bottom out. 

   To make matters worse, some time in the middle of this, a 5 year old little boy came out of surgery and was put in the recovery room next to me. If you don't know, anesthesia makes kids very aggressive when they come to and wake up. He was screaming and crying. It sucked. I felt terrible and the little boy was out of control. I started to cry as did my mom. They finally got his parents in there with him. He kept crying and saying that he wanted to take his hat off (he had some sort of surgery on his ear to repair damage he got when he fell into the corner of a table...no I was eavesdropping...they were loud and there was just a curtain between us), said it itched, and the funniest was that he kept saying they had hurt his feelings. He finally calmed down when they brought in a rocking chair for his mom so she could sit and hold him. Well, that was all fine and dandy until the mom started rocking back. My bed and left arm were up against that curtain, so everytime she rocked back, it would hit my arm and move my bed. Mom finally told the nurse and I think they moved the chair to the other side of their room.

    At this point, it was probably 2:45 or so. They decided to let me go home. Mom went and got the car and Nurse Lisa helped me get dressed. They had removed all the monitors and my IV line so they couldn't really monitor how my body would react to getting up. I managed to get dressed, get in the wheelchair, and go down the hall. But that is as far as we made it. She could tell I was quickly going down again and another nurse said "she's not going to make it....take her back to her room." They had already taken the stretcher out so they had to get another one. Laura, the charge nurse (and the boss, I think) helped me get back on the bed and lay down while Lisa went to tell my mom that we couldn't quite leave. My BP was down to 50 something / 30 something. They hooked everything back up except the IV and had me drink coke to get some calories in me. Mom came back in and by this time, she was getting worried. We were both starting to think that they were going to make me stay overnight. They called the anesthesiologist who said that if everything bottomed out again that he would come and give me some shots to try to stabilize everything. Mom had not had anything to eat or drink since about 5:30 am so Lisa sent her to get something to eat. Lisa stayed with me and kept giving me coke and crackers. 

   Mom got back about 4 and they decided to try to see if I could sit up without crashing. This time, my BPS only went down to like 90/40 which was much better. They gave mom all the instructions from the hospital and from Dr. A and gave her the prescriptions. She went and got the car and Lisa wheeled me out...and at 4:30...we finally left Piedmont after being there for 9 hours! I slept the entire way home and came home and went right to bed. 

     So the surgery part....Dr. A said my body had a really bad adverse reaction to the stitch and had built up a bunch of scar tissue around it. The scar tissue had wrapped around my nerves so the nerves were embedded into the tissue. He was able to remove the stitch and scar tissue. He also cleaned all the tissue off the nerves and said everything looked good...except for one part of the nerve where he thinks there may have been some damage. He thinks that I may lose feeling to part of the back of my hand but that we won't know until I get out of the splint. My splint is luckily shorter than the one this summer so I can bed and straighten my elbow. I can sort of wiggle my fingers (which are very swollen) and I can't move my wrist at all. I go back to see Dr. A next Friday to have the splint removed, have the stitches taken out, and see what the next step is...which is probably going to be some more therapy....which means I will get to spend time a lot of time with my OT friends!

   I feel much better today (and have been told that I sound better too) but I still don't feel stellar. My wrist hurts some, but it's not too terrible. I am hoping to go back to my house tomorrow. Don't know about work next week...just going to take it one day at a time!

My lovely splint/cast from surgery.
At least it doesn't come up above my elbow like it did this summer.

Sorry for the spacing issues...I can't figure it out.