Ms Fifikins

I think I must be feeling better- I am thinking about food again!

Just home after 3 nights in hospital. First two days were horrible. Constant pain, prodding and felt like blah. Felt a little better yesterday and feel really quite good today.

Things to remember when in hospital though:

• Pack all chargers. Fortunately I had mine with me. Don’t know where I would have been without my phone charger.
• Get friendly with the nursing staff, especially nursing students! They keep you in on the gossip. They still couldn’t give me the passwords to the wireless networks in the hospital though
•  Don’t say no to pain relief! Worked out I didn’t need to be a hero wrt pain! Doh!
• Make sure you own plenty of pyjamas! My 2 pairs of pink ones really got a workout!

Oh and finally, get friendly with the nursing students, but don’t let them talk to your doctor! One of them told him my bed was empty yesterday when I was in the shower, which he took to mean I had gone home. I mean really! It wasn’t until I pulled another cannula out this morning that one of the nurses rang him to ask if I still needed it.

Supposedly back to work on Tuesday, but I am thinking of taking a few more days off to do some thesis work. Will ask my doc on Monday when we chat what sort of medical certificate he is willing to give me!

But it’s good to be home! I’m twittering again and on my IM channels! Talk to you all soon, I hope (And, yes that does mean I am talking again!)

Fifikins 0

Hospital 2

Well kinda. I’m heading back there. Turns out I have a post op infection and am dehydrated. Just pour the gin straight in I said, but no, they want it via a drip.

I will be booked in under Corker, not Henderson for those sending flowers, telegrams, chocolates etc! (joke peoples!) But I will have a phone next to my bed and a direct number which I don’t know what it will be, but if you ring the switch bitch receptionist, they will put you through if you ask for Fiona Corker. No doubt they will make some wise crack about it being a corker surname- just remembered they were doing that in theatre before they put me under and I never got to blast them!

Yet another early morning blog post.

When I went for my pre-admission appointment they gave me a brochure on coping with pain after surgery. It goes through different pain management strategies looking at various types of drugs, repositioning of the patient and distraction. I think what I am trying here is a distraction.

I woke up about 10 minutes ago in the most excruciating pain yet. I felt like my throat was on fire. I mean I took an endone when I went to bed 5 hours ago. Now I have taken some more panadeine forte and had a throat gargle.

People have been comparing my pain to childbirth. Usually men that is. I suppose I was fortunate to have beautiful labours. With Jasper, I relied on gas, running water down my back and even though I asked for an epidural and never got it because he decided to come quickly, I remember the pain being intense, but not lasting for days. It was also a positive pain in that I knew I would be holing a baby. Even with a few stitches afterwards (pushing out a 10lb 14 oz baby in a 7 minute second stage will do that apparently) it was a bearable pain.

I suppose I just have to look at this as a positive pain. The pus filled tonsils are gone for good. Having that pus in my body for over 7 months cannot have been doing me any good. I will be so much better off without it. I have been told the pain lasts for up to 6 weeks. I suppose that is not too much to ask for after 7 months of chronic tonsillitis. And I can never have it done again, right? (Actually don’t answer that as the first question my ENT asked me when I first saw him was ‘Have you had them out before?’)

So now I will try and sleep for the next few hours. The meds have kicked in. In the morning I will make an appointment with my GP as I am now shit scared I will run out of meds early in the week and somehow panadol alone doesn’t seem to cut it.

For those of you not following my twitter feed, you may have missed the news that I have a hot date with a surgeon next week. I know I have a thing for professional men it would seem. Unfortunately this surgeon is probably old enough to be my father, but still, it is a date!

You see for the last 7 months I have had the most inflamed pus filled tonsils. The GP tried 3 different antibiotics before I was referred and as soon as the ENT saw them he got all animated and said they were rippers. I think that is good for him, but not necessarily for me. He even got out his little microscope thing and stuck that down my throat. He said they were full of gunk and no amount of antibiotics was going to clear them.

Yes, they have been sore, especially when I talk too much. Now don’t start on my talking! But come April Fool’s Day they will be gone. I will be in hospital overnight. Mother arrives Monday so I am spending the weekend cleaning and tidying. She then takes the kids back to Melbourne next Friday for the school holidays and I have a week to lie in front of the telly watching Dexter and other assorted shows and movies that friends have sent me!  do some serious work on my thesis. As I have this weekend off work, all in all I get 17 days off. Pretty cool, even though I will be in pain.

Now I don’t care much for anaesthesia.  My most vivid memory of the extraction of my 5 wisdom teeth, apart from one of the ladies in my ward having had a breast enhancement and her (ex?) husband was a celebrity from a well known 70s rock band who popped in for a visit, was vomiting through a clenched mouth after the anaesthetic. I had my pre-admission appointment this week and the nurse told me that I probably vomited from that because I swallowed lots of blood. I commented that I also vomited a lot after my laparoscopy, but that may have been the revolting cucumber sandwiches served at the Flinders Medical Centre! Oh and I did ask her how much blood I would be swallowing from the tonsils. Der!

But no, I hate the thought of an anaesthetic.  This is not helped by someone I knew once whose mother went in for a simple procedure and never woke up from the anaesthetic and was a vegetable for many many years. (Oh and if that does happen to me, which would not surprise me, can someone please publish some of my work?)

So most people at work know I am going to hospital. And most know why. We have a lad who is a bit of a Casanova in one of the departments. He has tried it on with most of the young things at work, and from the stories gotten to places he would never get with me! But that does not stop a 21yo who thinks he is a god trying it on from time to time with a 35yo mother of 2!

Yesterday he comes up to me: “Fi, we should go out on the town again one night, you know Gilligans’s Dancefloor, you and me…” (I should say that a couple of months ago he was at a colleagues farewell where I may well have been at Gilligans, but I was not at all under the influence and I had an early night home!)

“M,” I said, “Very tempting as that is, it will have to wait until after my operation.”

“Aw, Fi, are you sick? What are you having done?” he asked, pretending to be concerned.
“Well, they have finally agreed to remove my balls. It seems the hormones have worked pretty well and they have decided to go ahead with the surgery.”

The look on his face was priceless. I turned around and his manager was doubled up with laughter. I walked away trying not to laugh!

Of course that didn’t stop him asking today if he could have a feel so I did my best ‘When I trained you, don’t you remember my big talk on sexual harassment and discrimination?’  Poor lad. Hope I haven’t scarred him for life!

Oh and for those interested… Cairns Private Hosptial.  Overnight stay. They said something about no mobile phones in the ward, but I might have misunderstood If not the number to pester me on is 07 4052 5200!  I am booked in under my married name because I am not going to pay for a formal marriage certificate to prove a name change so I can change it back to my maiden name so will wait for the decree nisi and have it spelt out on that! And it is a corker name too, or so some say! So flowers and bottles of gin… No, I will not be living on ice-cream! Margaritas all the way, with the occasional Daiquiri and gin and tonic jelly!

And yes, behind the humour I really am sh*t scared, not only about the anaesthetic, but also the pain afterwards.  Positive toughts would be appreciated!