My hospital trip

A week out from Surgery and I am doing great! I have been meaning to come back in and do a big post on my surgery and all but have been taking it easy, and I can't wear my glasses at the moment because of where the bandages are on my head so am getting a sore head if I am on the computer too long.

Anyways, here is the story...

Monday: Found out the cost of the shunt wasn't bad, a little more than Jackie (Dr. K's receptionist) had told us but not too bad so told her we would go ahead with private. A few hours later we got a call from Sir Charles to say I needed to go in for a pre-admission appointment and there was one on that afternoon so we did a mad scramble to find a sitter for the big kids and raced to SCG to get to the appointment in time. Got that done - saw the anaesthetist, nurse and neurosurgeon who would be working with Dr. K and came home to get the kids. During the appointment they told me they would call on Tuesday to let me know the time of my surgery and when i would need to get to the hospital on Wednesday morning.

Tuesday: I had a doctor's appointment for Hamish on Tuesday arvo and while I was gone to that SCG rang to tell us to come in at 7am Wednesday morning. Walked in the door from the doctor, Steve had just finished telling me that we need to be at the hospital at 7am and the phone rings again. It is the Neurosurgeon who I had met with on Monday ringing tot ell me we needed to come to the hospital ASAP, turned out my surgery was first in the morning (Due to the Latex allergy, they needed to clear the theatre for 3 hours prior) and I needed an MRI to be done so had to be booked in Tuesday night. It was 4pm and we needed to pack our bags (For me and the kids) organise someone to look after the kids and drive through peak hour traffic and get there before 6pm!

In the next 10 minutes the phone rang 4 times, all SCG, telling me I needed to be there 5 minutes ago. Each time I told them I would get there ASAP but I needed to find a babysitter, meanwhile I am trying to pack and get everything organised. I had planned on packing later on Tuesday night,t he kids were going to mum and dads after dinner and I was going to organise myself after that... SCG changed those plans! LOL

So, we got to the hospital with 15 minutes to spare, went up to the ward where I was met by the neurosurgeon, he took me out the back of the nurses station and shaved little patches of hair off and stuck on "lifesavers" for my MRI. Went down to the MRI and got that done then came back to get settled in the ward. Spent a quiet night on the ward sleeping. No 1:30am wake up for Diamox and no Makenzie meant a full night sleep...until 5am when they came to check my vitals and get me up for a shower etc.

Wednesday: Early start to the day and then lots of sitting around. Steve got there at 8am, mum was just after that and we sat and chatted and waited. Nayd rang at about 8:30am so the kids could talk to me, Jessie burst into tears and almost made me cry so it was decided they could have the day off school.

At about 9ish (not sure on time, i had my watch off! LOL) I was taken down the lift to the waiting area near the theatre. We were there barley 5 minutes and I was wheeled into the Theatre holding room (Not sure on the real name! LOL) then I was surrounded by about 100 nurses and doctors... okay, maybe 8 or 9 but still seemed like loads anyways! 2 Anaesthetists started asking questions, confirming who was, what I was getting done etc. while nurses took my vitals again then one Anaesthetist put in a canulla while the other fixed brain-wave scanning things to my forehead (Not sure again on the name, it was to make sure I was asleep properly)

Was wheeled into the theatre and was moved on to the theatre bed and that was it, I was out! LOL No counting backwards, no deep breaths, nothing, I am so hardcore! LOL

Next thing I am aware of is a horrible pain at the top of my stomach and a huge thirst. I was in the recovery room with a nurse watching over me, an oxygen mask on and a pain in the tummy. My first clear thought when i woke was that something must have gone wrong as my stomach hurt but my head didn't! I thought they must have started and something went wrong before they got to my head! LOL I have since discovered I have a numb head, going to ask Dr. K about it tomorrow because it is freaking me out a little but it sure helped the recovery! LOL

I was given Oxycontin for the pain in my stomach and then had to wait again. If nothing else, I certainly learnt patience while in hospital, there was so much waiting going on! LOL After a couple of hours of waiting (Woke at 11ish, moved at 2ish) I was taken to the Neurosurgery High Dependency Unit where I spent the next 24 hours. It was not my idea of heaven, hourly obs all through the night, having to ring the bell when I needed to go to the toilet, being attached to machines that kept alarming because my heart-rate, blood pressure and O2 saturations were all dropping to low. Heart-rate got down to 40bpm half way through the night and I was so worried about going back to sleep, I thought I wouldn't wake up! I also had to have these special leg cuff things on (Another name I have forgotten) that squeezed the bottom half of my legs at random intervals to make sure I didn't get DVT.

The one great thing was I had my own room :D Everyone else in HDU had a cubicle and I had my own room, I wasn't allowed to have the door closed but it was still more peaceful than out on the ward! Thanks to my Latex allergy, it sure came in handy!!!

Thursday: I was allowed to have a shower at about 11am on Thursday, everyone was surprised that I felt well enough to be up and went into the shower by myself without a seat or anything :) After my shower they decided I could go out onto the main Neurology ward. I hadn't had any pain relief since 5am and was fully mobile so was doing better than anyone (Me included!) expected.

Moved to the main ward and had some lunch, Steve and mum went to have their lunch then mum left at about 1pm. Steve stayed till 3pm and then went home to get some sleep. Mum and dad came back at about 5pm with the kids for a visit and then I was by myself for the night at 6ish.

It was a looooooooong night that night! I started in Room 3, right next to a guy who needed security outside his room as he kept on wandering. So, at around midnight I was moved from 3 to 6 because the man in 6 was trying to get out of his restraints and was agitated so he was going where the security was. I was moved to Room 6 which was right in front of the nurses station and right next to a man snoring almost as loud as Steve so not much sleep was happening thena t 2ish the nurse came back and told me I was moving again!

I was then moved from 6 to 14 because the man in 14 was becoming very ill, the nurse said he should have been in HDU but there was not enough room so he had to go to Room 6 where the nurses could keep an eye on him. He ended up being a Code Blue Friday morning but came out of it again.

At 4:30am, the man next to me started calling out that he needed a drink. I didn't have a jug, it didn't make it with one of the transfers so I couldn't help him. The nurses came and gave him water and 5 minutes later he was calling out again, it was so horrible to listen to, I felt so bad for him but the nurses were doing all the could for him :( he kept going till 7am.

Friday: I didn't get much sleep after the man next door settled down, probably 1/2 hour before Steve came in. At 9am the residents and a Neurosurgeon came, looked at my incisions and told me was going to go home on Saturday. I gave them a pout and the Neuro asked what was wrong so i told him I had hoped to go home today, as soon as he heard that he was happy for me to go! :) We had to wait to be discharged and then at 9:30am a nurse came and said the Occupational Therapists wanted to see me.

They came down and were a little concerned that my planning skills were affected, I had done a test thing the day before, so I had to go to the kitchen with them and make them a cup of tea! LOL Not surprisingly, that went fine and I was all set to go...and then the OT's told me the Speech Therapist wanted to see me.

ST came down and had concerns about my short term memory, I had been having issues with it before the surgery so I ahd to do another test with her. That went okay too so she told me I was free to go.

Just as we were ready to go the Neurosurgeon who had done my lifesavers on Tuesday came and told me Dr. K wanted to see me before I left, not a prob I said.... he wasn't going to get there till 1pm though!!!

Yet more waiting happened till Dr. K got there, he was happy so told me I could go... then the other Neuro said I needed to eat some bananas after I left because my potassium levels were low (Side effect of the Diamox) he had to go but said he woiuld be back so more waiting......We waited another 1/2 hour and he didn't come back so I hot footed it out of there! LOL

We came home and I have hung about around home since then. It was a long drive home, I didn't realise how much pain I still had until I was in the car, once we were home though I was feeling heaps better.

And that is the whole story! Well done if you got this far! LOL There is lots more that happened but I am ready for bed so cut it down, but good job for sticking with it!!!

I do have photos but they are on mum and Nayd's cameras so will add them when i get them :)

Mel