Day 3 of Surgery Recovery - Friday

This day started out okay, a little amazed to tell you the truth. The night before was awful, because I couldn't go to sleep. That's one thing I hated about the hospital stay, I would almost want to cry when it was time for visitors to leave, because that meant the start of the "creeping clock watch". I can honestly say that both nights, I looked at the clock on my phone every 30 minutes!! It helped me pray alot those days, because every thirty minutes, I was begging God to move the clock faster! That's how much I was awake and how much I was wishing the time would go faster!!! Man, those nights were long..... and filled with such a chatic chior of beeping machines! You want to know how to torture this girl?? Put her in a room with almost expired IV machines... I'll tell it all! :) :)

No really... back to serious-ness!! So this kind nurse (PCA) named Perla, I never figured out what Nationality she was, but it was something Asian... she was just the sweetest thing and would stand and talk to me, wasn't too busy to sympathize with my "creeping clock watch", she said "What if we tried giving you some earplugs? Maybe that would help you block out some of the noise and go to sleep?" I've decided that she was another one of those Angels!! It totally helped, and I slept like a baby from 3:30am- 6:00 am... (that's when they come in to bother you about shift changes)... and thus my feeling of amazement (above). I couldn't believe those 2 little earplugs did the trick and I was able to get a small break from my restless exhaustion! Yeah! Score!! And there goes my theory of the clock needing my help to keep moving.....

Anyways, my happy thoughts were quickly dashed, when Dr. Felix came into the room for his morning rounds of discharge. And I could tell by the look on his face, that now was going to be another one of those crying moments! :( He wasn't pelased with the day I had had on Thursday, felt that I had all but given up on getting any of my liquids in and were it not for my ever-so-faithful (and beeping) IV machine, I would be in a full-on case of dehydration! He said "this is like, a class, you don't pass the test, you don't get to go on to the next grade"... "It's like anything else, we have rules you have to follow"... :( WAH! I was like, "Seriously... you are gonna make me stay through another night?" .. he said "Yes, I think you're gonna have to stay another day, because you have to be able to get to the point where you can handle 1 liter of liquids/day! I told him I could AND WOULD prove to him that I could do it... And I'm not sure he belived me, but said he wouldn't be able to come back again until later on in the afternoon, because he had a dr.'s office to run also. And that was that... I had to start trying to get my liquids down in HOPES that he would come back to see if I took him serious! Oh yeah, I cried! My mom said she thinks he was being gruff on purpose and felt bad for me, because she saw him as he was leaving & putting my chart away, tell the nurse quietly "I'll be back to check on her".. so maybe it was all to get me in the right frame of mind.... and it worked.. I'm a good student and I PASS THE TEST!!! The nice nurse came in to comfort me afterwards and said "He'll be back and he'll let you go home, don't worry.. just start drinking your fluids and show him you can do it"

So anyways, I was so serious that I almost drowned! (Felt like it at least) I ate every popsicle, broth cup, water bottle, tea cup... virtually anything that counted as liquid that they would bring to me.... and I had my liquid requirement (for the day) finished by 10 am!! I had to walk in between each thing so that it would filter down and give me some more room! I won't lie, I was miserable, water-logged, and felt bloated and uncomfortable! But I was GOING HOME!!!!

Then the waiting game for him to come back... a full day of Stir-Crazy is all I can say! I had the nurses scouting for me every hour on the hour!! :) My main nurse said that she knows that thier office closes for lunch on Fridays at 12:30 and if he was gonna come on that time, then it would be in that hour. No luck... hopes dashed! More stir-crazy! Then the angel from yesterday (Denise) came in to interview me about what happened, because she was filing a report on the issue & needed some more information. When she was done, I had convinced her to come up with a question that she needed to ask Dr. Felix so that she could find out what time he was coming! :) She did... and she found out he was coming at 2:30!! Yeah!!! only a couple more hours of stir-crazy!

Needless to say, he did finally come, though he wasn't in MY room at 2:30, scouts did let me know he was on premises!! :) LOL! (yeah, it was a network towards the end!) When he came in, he acted like the morning never happened.... started giving me instructions for home.. signed the papers and left..

Then the wait for the IV Nurse to come and remove the beeping machine from my body..... LOL... no I won't go on... then you would really know how impatient I am.... :)

At about 4:00 that day they wheeled me out of the hospital, and I will admit I was scared. No, I didn't want to stay longer, but it was scary to be on my own with this new little pouch and not sure what to do with it. Yeah he had given me alot of instructions, but none of which I had tried previously in the hospital. Start taking your vitamins, take your pills, drink 1 liter of water per/day, drink your protein drinks... etc.. Oh my, how was I supposed to get it all in?

But I will say, today is actually Sunday ... and I made it! Today I woke up feeling better than yesterday. I figured out that I can take 1 adult Tylenol and it works the same as taking the massive (feels massive) amount of childrens liquid tylenol that makes me want to vomit! I'll carefully swallow the pill, thanks!! It works out just the same pain wise, and I can proudly say, I am only taking 1 Tylenol for pain!! :) Yeahoo! I fell less anxiety today, was able to sleep pretty good last night.... all is well!!