Surgery - Part funf
Perry said my surgery only took about 30 - 45 minutes total. He went in, the hernia was about the size of his thumbnail, he pushed it back in and sewed up the surrounding area. No mesh, no difficult, messy work, no problem. Wish I could say the same for the recovery area.
When I came to, I just remember the room being really dark, but with the lights and the noise coming from the nurses station I couldn't go completely to sleep again, so I was somewhere between awake and asleep. A while later, they turned the light on in my room so I definitely couldn't get back to sleep.
Some time later they brought Perry back to the room. By this time, I was actually cognizant of what was happening - I knew my abdomen hurt, my throat was really dry and sore and I felt nauseous (and generally crappy). They asked me if I was feeling sick and I answered yes and requested ginger ale. They told me I couldn't have anything until I was sitting in the chair, but went and got something to put in the IV for the nausea. It helped. It put me back to sleep.
Perry put on some tv channel that had reruns of the Golden Girls, then Frasier, then Will and Grace. I remember hearing some parts of the shows (enough to recognize what it was, but it wasn't until the second Frasier episode that I could actually tell you what the story was about. I on the other hand was coming out of the sleep and medicine that kept the nausea at bay. They did tell me that I need to remember ALWAYS whenever I have some sort of procedure (regardless of size) to ALWAYS ask the anesthesiologist to PRE-medicate me for nausea!
Again, I couldn't get anything until I was sitting in the chair, so since I was looking a little less green, they had me move. Here's the bad part (and I honestly wish I could figure out why this is happening), when I sat up and moved, my blood pressure took a nose dive. Perry said they were taking my pressure and it was something like 60 over 30, and he was willing me to bring it up to normal. All I know is I felt faint, sick, dizzy, sore, and basically (and this is the usual body reaction - like a "flight" reaction - my heart starts pounding, respiration goes way up and I just want to get away). So I got in the chair, but immediately had to recline and try to relax to get my blood pressure up and my body back to normal). I ended up falling asleep again (or at least dozing) and I think this blood pressure thing happened a couple of times during the recovery period.
Later, I was actually able to sit up, and not pass out. They said my color was MUCH better, and let me have some ice chips. I worked on those for a while (it helped make my throat feel better anyway), but they wouldn't release me for a while (after all that - I wonder why). After making my way to the bathroom and getting dressed (after sitting for a while), they finally let me go.
We got there a little before 6 A.M. and after a surgery of less than an hour, I finally got home a little after noon - so it took a while to recover. Now if I could just figure out why I have these "fainting spells." I have never actually fainted, but...I'd like to know WHY my blood pressure crashes like that.
When I came to, I just remember the room being really dark, but with the lights and the noise coming from the nurses station I couldn't go completely to sleep again, so I was somewhere between awake and asleep. A while later, they turned the light on in my room so I definitely couldn't get back to sleep.
Some time later they brought Perry back to the room. By this time, I was actually cognizant of what was happening - I knew my abdomen hurt, my throat was really dry and sore and I felt nauseous (and generally crappy). They asked me if I was feeling sick and I answered yes and requested ginger ale. They told me I couldn't have anything until I was sitting in the chair, but went and got something to put in the IV for the nausea. It helped. It put me back to sleep.
Perry put on some tv channel that had reruns of the Golden Girls, then Frasier, then Will and Grace. I remember hearing some parts of the shows (enough to recognize what it was, but it wasn't until the second Frasier episode that I could actually tell you what the story was about. I on the other hand was coming out of the sleep and medicine that kept the nausea at bay. They did tell me that I need to remember ALWAYS whenever I have some sort of procedure (regardless of size) to ALWAYS ask the anesthesiologist to PRE-medicate me for nausea!
Again, I couldn't get anything until I was sitting in the chair, so since I was looking a little less green, they had me move. Here's the bad part (and I honestly wish I could figure out why this is happening), when I sat up and moved, my blood pressure took a nose dive. Perry said they were taking my pressure and it was something like 60 over 30, and he was willing me to bring it up to normal. All I know is I felt faint, sick, dizzy, sore, and basically (and this is the usual body reaction - like a "flight" reaction - my heart starts pounding, respiration goes way up and I just want to get away). So I got in the chair, but immediately had to recline and try to relax to get my blood pressure up and my body back to normal). I ended up falling asleep again (or at least dozing) and I think this blood pressure thing happened a couple of times during the recovery period.
Later, I was actually able to sit up, and not pass out. They said my color was MUCH better, and let me have some ice chips. I worked on those for a while (it helped make my throat feel better anyway), but they wouldn't release me for a while (after all that - I wonder why). After making my way to the bathroom and getting dressed (after sitting for a while), they finally let me go.
We got there a little before 6 A.M. and after a surgery of less than an hour, I finally got home a little after noon - so it took a while to recover. Now if I could just figure out why I have these "fainting spells." I have never actually fainted, but...I'd like to know WHY my blood pressure crashes like that.