If you are reading this then I have obviously survived my operation!

Actually it is 4.30am and I have been awake for over half an hour. Well I did hit the wall at 8 last night and took a strong pain killer to knock me out. Suppose 8 hours sleep is pretty good, even if I did wake up 3 times in that time.

Now random recollections from the operation and hospital stay:

• People may have joked about the hospital gown that opened at the back, an yes I was expecting that, but I was not expecting to be made to wear hospital bloomers made of paper too! And no, I did not get a photo!
• It really is the eeriest feeling lying on a bed being wheeled down a corridor. Perhaps I have watched too many medical dramas, but still I kept wondering what soundtrack should have been playing.
• I never listen to commercial radio. When I was in the holding bay waiting to go into theater, they had one of the local radio stations on. Apart from the crap music they were playing, almost every ad break they had an ad for sexual enhancement therapies! Spam through your radio.
• When I was waiting in the holding bay, I lay there and practiced the deep breathing I was taught when I had those panic attacks a few years back. Seemed to help, surprisingly enough! Oh and I also tried to focus on an image of someone’s fingers- you know who you are!
• When I met the anaesthetist we traded some gags- had the nurse laughing. But I did make him promise to wake me up. He told me I was the first person in a very long time to ask that, but he would ensure I did.
• As soon as they woke me up in recovery I was as high as a kite. I would not stop rambling and apparently told every nurse who came near me that I loved talking and could talk underwater with a mouth full of marbles! I remember my random phrases from this high time “OMG! I survived, I really am alive!” “This doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.” “Wow, I can talk, did you know my daughter thought you were going to take my voice box out?” “Can you pass me my phone please, because I really want to tweet this!” Yes, even in recovery I was wanting to twitter!
• I crashed as soon as I hit the ward. It might have had something to do with more pethidine! I think I was trying to be stoic about the pain. At one stage I said that pain was a 7/10, but I suspect when the nurse made me sip some water and it made me cry, they realised I was not exactly telling the whole story. It did mean lots of pethidine though.
• The kept me on oxygen and a drip all night. Originally I was told I would be heading home around 9am, but when the doctor rang they told him I was still in lots of pain so they made me stay until after lunch. At around noon they unhooked me from the oxygen and told me they didn’t know why I was still on it!

I have been inundated with messages, texts and the like for the last few days and thank everyone for their care, concern and support. Now if only all the virtual flowers on facebook would translate to real arrangements next to my bed (and that is a joke peoples!)

Tags: drugs, hospital, personal reflection, tonsillectomy

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 5:10 am and is filed under personal reflection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.