My Op

WEEK 1

Day 1

Well, inevitably the 22nd of July came round and after packing my bags the night before with Mum, having my two showers in HiBi scrub, we nervously drove to the Conquest Hospital. After arriving at the Richard Ticehurst unit, I was told to make my way to the Cookson Attenborough ward, and was shown to my bay, B5. There were already 4 people in the bay, ranging from ages 40-92! I was by far the youngest at 17. During the morning I was told I was second on the list, due to be wheeled down the Operating Theatre at about 10.30am. I was visited by the anaethetist, who told me I'd have a spinal and a general anaesthetic - I promptly broke down in tears, as I am needle-phobic, and to make matters worse, he said that it's a very painful injection - great. One of the sisters on the ward, Nicky, tried to reassure me, and said that I didn't need to worry, and that I could have my general before my spinal so I wouldn't feel it. That helped calm me down a little.
I was dreading the time when the operating team would come down in their scrubs and take me away to the theatre, but that time came and I cried again, more out of fear of the unknown than anything else, this being my first time under general anaesthetic. As I was wheeled through, my Mum came with me, and I was introduced to Dr Gould, a different anaesthetist from who I saw originally and he was a complete sweetheart. He even put a baby canula in for my general so it didn't hurt too much. As I started to feel a bit zoned out, I remember him talking to me about it feeling similar to feeling drunk, and as my face began to tingle the last thing I remember saying was "This feels weird".
The next thing I remember was waking up in recovery, feeling very drained and out of it. I can vaguely remember asking where I was and what time it was. Bob - the man with me in recovery, told me it was just after 2.30pm, I'd been in theatre for a good 4 hours. He fixed me up with a drip and gave me a unit of my own blood, which they had collected whilst I was in theatre, cleaned and gave back to me. After that he pricked my finger to test my Haemoglobin levels, and was about to give me 2 more units of blood, when Mr Apthorp stopped them. He reasoned that I was young and fit and healthy and should be able to replenish the blood myself. So, at 3.30pm I was wheeled back to the Cookson Attenborough ward where my family, Mum, Dad and sister Jo, greeted me. I had a catheter in and had to drink plenty so my Mum fed me orange squash through a straw as I lifted the oxygen mask - which made my nose itch! I don't remember much more of the day, as I drifted in and out of sleep. One thing that arose was that my blood pressure was extrememly low - at its lowest it was 64/31, and I was very anaemic.
That night I had my blood pressure, saturation levels and temperature taken every 2 hours, which meant that I didn't get much sleep. I was still woozy from the anaesthetic, but because I had a spinal, I had relatively low pain in my hip.

Day 2

I can't really remember much of the morning as I spent most of it drifting in and out of sleep. I
refused to eat as the medicine I was taking - paracetamol and oral morphine (it tastes like neat alcohol) - was making me feel sick. I do remember the physios coming in to try and sit me up, but as my blood pressure and blood levels were so low, I fainted and the bed had to be moved so that my feet were higher than my head to get the blood back to my brain. In the afternoon my parents, grandparents, my best friend and a couple of other friends came round to see me, exceeding the 2 people limit several times, but as the ward was relatively quiet, they didn't seem to mind much. Mum also bought me the 3 day TV, internet and radio package which provided entertainment for when they had gone at 8pm.

Day 3

I slept better and I had my drip taken away, but I was still being rudely awakened by the nurses doing my obs. I managed a few mouthfuls of toast, but food really wasn't appealing to me still. The physios came again to try and sit me up, which I managed for a few minutes before I fainted again. When I came round my bed was again tilted and I had a fan on. My Mum had also just arrived and she told me I blended into the pillow I was so white. In the evening just before Mum was due to go home, Mother Nature decided she'd be cruel and send my period a week early, so I had another thing to deal with and more blood loss, which in my state of anaemia wasn't good. Mr Apthorp still refused to let me have a transfusion. I also had a scary encounter at about midnight. I'd fallen asleep watching the BBC News at 10pm, and I'd woken up to see the film 'Halloween: The Resurrection' and it took me a few minutes in my sleepy state to realise that I had to turn the tv off for it to go away - this amused my best friend when I told her, she likes to laugh at my misfortunes.

Day 4

Saturday 25th July. I was starting to become very frustrated because I kept fainting and wasn't making any progress, and I wanted my catheter to come out. When the physio visited me in the morning she was accompanied by a nurse and they managed to stand me up and I managed to walk a few steps before I fainted again. This time, because the nurse had been in with me, she came back some time later with a doctor who asked how I was feeling. I was completely truthful with him, I said I felt awful, light-headed and sick. He then made the decision to give me blood finally. However, this brought up the problem of which canula to put the blood through. The baby one on the back of my hand leaked because it was too small, and the one on the back of my other hand could be flushed but it wouldn't take the blood. They called an IV lady and she started to squeeze the tube and I have honestly not experienced pain like it. It stung, and made my whole hand ache. It felt like someone was pouring antiseptic down my veins, and I cried and cried until she stopped, took the tube out and said that the vein wasn't big enough. So she put a tourniquet on my right arm and put a new canula in a vein in the crook of my elbow, which mercifully took the blood. It took about an hour and a half for the first unit of blood to transfuse and even after one unit I was feeling so much better, and the nurses were commenting on how I had more colour in my cheeks. After the second unit I felt a completely different person and the nurse came along with a Zimmer frame and a pair of crutches, turfed out all my visitors and got me up. I could stand without fainting, it was such a good feeling and she managed to walk me from my bed to the doorway of the bay and back again. When I sat back down on my bed I felt so proud of myself because I was finally making progress, and my parents were really happy with my progress. I will never ever underestimate the power of blood again.

Day 5

I woke to find a nurse pulling my curtains and announcing that she was going to take my catheter out. It was uncomfortable, but I was happy to be able to hobble out the the bathroom and have a proper wash for the first time in a few days. Also that morning Mr Apthorp came to see me and asked me how I was feeling, which I gave him a thumbs up and told him I was feeling much better. He told me that if I wanted to I could go home today because I had made so much progress in such a short period of time, and that if the nurses took me to the physio room and I could practise the stairs then I could go home when I wanted. My wound was also redressed, and I took a picture of it so I could gross out my friends. I also discovered that I had been glued instead of stitched or stapled, which I like because it means I don't have to go back for the staples to be taken out. When Mum came at 2.30pm, she helped me hobble out to the bathroom and she washed my hair, which was the nicest feeling ever, as it hadn't been washed in a few days. So after I had violated the visitor number by about 9 people, Mum packed up my things and I was wheeled to the front door where I awkwardly got into the car and Mum carefully drove me home. Once home I established myself in front of the TV and stayed there until I had to go to bed. I also sneezed for the first time since my surgery and wow did that hurt.

Day 6

My first night at home was weird because I had no footpumps to constantly pummel my feet and no trough in which to place my leg to prevent it from rolling out. Instead I had a pillow and a rolled up blanket which roasted my leg. I also had to sleep with 2 pillows, which I'm not used to because if i slept with one pillow, it felt as if my wound were being pulled, which was understandably not confortable. My friends came round and we spent a lot of time watching films which was nice.

Day 7

Isn't it funny how when you can't do something it's the one thing you want to do. Well sometimes when I have been sitting for a while, it feels like there is nothing wrong with my hip and I just want to get up and walk around, or sit cross legged, or sit in funny positions on the sofa. Also I have no bruising at all which is good, as some people get lots of bruising. But my tummy is all swollen and makes me look all bloated, and it hurts when I am bloated because it pulls on all the muscles. I have a district nurse coming to our house tomorrow to change my dressing but I think that's going to hurt, as the sticky bit on the dressing is covering some of the actual wound :S. I'm still taking paracetamol, iron and ibruprofen for it, but I'm not taking the tramidol, as it makes me feel really sick, and the pain isn't that bad. Well, it's not specifically pain per se, its more achy and stiff than anything else. There are benefits of being unable to do normal things and being housebound. I'm reading as if I was on holiday and before my op I went down to the library and got a huge pile of books to work my way through. Alongside lots of books I also have lots of chocolate to work through, and considering my appetite is considerably less than what it was before it's going to take me ages!

Pre-Op Assessment and random ramblings

Hi, it's now only 19 days until my surgery and I must admit I'm starting to become a little nervous. Last Friday I had my pre-op at the Conquest Hospital and Val (the lovely nurse who did my pre-op) filled out a questionnaire (which I must say was aimed at old people!) and took my height and weight, my blood pressure, conducted an ECG scan and then some other nasty stuff which I'd rather not indulge. Also I was a complete and utter wimp when she tried to take some blood as I really don't like needles or blood tests, and ended up being sent to pathology because I had tensed up and not enough blood came out. I was then a complete wimp in pathology but managed to have enough blood taken. The lady at the desk then promptly gave me a bag of Haribo and a starburst! :) I walked out of hospital with two gauzes and micropore all over my arms, which really hurt when it had to come off, which it had to really, because I had a Sports Awards Evening for college that night.
I go on holiday next week to Skiathos, Greece, for a week and I'm soooooooo excited. We come back on the 17th of July, the day before my birthday and after that I'm really busy cramming anything I can in before I go into hospital, which includes a swimming gala in Croyden on my birthday, work twice on the 19th, then hopefully going to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on the Monday and then who knows what on the Tuesday morning, then it's up ridiculously early on Wednesday as I'm required to be in hospital at 7.15am - what a silly time. So yeah, I'm a rather busy body when I come back from holiday :)
Will update soon
xxxxxx