Day 1

I have decided to count my recovery days with "0" being the surgery day, and 1 being the first day post-op, etc..

We will start Wednesday, June 12 with the doctors' visits at 6 am.  First came the resident GP for the hospital.  He looked over my chart (on the computer) and asked me some questions.  He said things looked to be "on target" for me.  He told to not be shy about asking for what I needed.  Then came a partner of my surgeon's group.  He looked at my leg and my chart, and made a comment about range of motion.  Then left.  I wasn't too impressed with him.  At this point, I'm not even sure what the range of motion comment referred to.

The highlight of Day 1 was breakfast.  I wasn't particularly hungry, but I knew I should eat, so I ordered scrambled eggs, bacon and English muffin.  I didn't have high expectations for the eggs because I know scrambled eggs made in big batches are usually dry.  However, I was very pleasantly surprised - the eggs were actually excellent and so was the bacon!  I also had  part of an orange, but it wasn't cut up very small, so it was hard to eat.  I also had Cran Juice and had ordered chicken broth too in case the eggs were a wash-out.

Then came the student nurses.  Oh... my... goodness.... bless their little hearts... As a teacher who often has student teachers, I certainly "get" the importance of student nurses.  I had 2, and they were about as different as it was possible to be.  One was very professional, introduced herself and talked to me about her role with me that day.  The other seemed totally clueless.  She didn't introduce herself, and she didn't seem to know what she was supposed to be doing.  After she came in a second time talking about things others had already talked about, I suggested she go back to the nurse's station and get a clearer handle on what she was supposed to be doing for me.  The instructor was with the better one, and I wasn't sure she was even supervising the second one at all.  It seems there could have been a better way to deal with the students.  They needed clear tasks to do that weren't overstepping the regular nurses and techs.  It was almost like there was no coordination.

Little Miss Clueless brought me a tub of soapy water and some towels so that I could wash myself.  Then she left.  I don't know if she was supposed to offer to help me or not - I'm not sure she knew.  Later, someone else brought me water and towels, so I had to say, "The student already brought this to me..."  Based on the reaction I got,  I felt like this girl was more in the way than she should have been in a more coordinated situation.

Around 9 am, my PT came in and took me for a walk.  My room was about in the middle of the hallway, and I walked to the far end of the hall and back.  She was very impressed by what I could do.  Before I got back in bed, I went to the bathroom, but nothing happened.  In spite of all the water I'd had during the night - no pee.  Hmmm...  We reported this to the nurse who brought me a pill to relax my bladder.  This issue haunted me all day and leads me to say that Wednesday was NOT a good day.  By 2 pm, I still wasn't able to pee, so they did a bladder scan, found out I was full, and had to drain my bladder with a catheter.  Bleh!  Not what I was expecting.

The other negative for the day was my high pain level.  Every time I was asked, I reported a fairly high pain level, and nothing they gave me seemed to bring it down much.  When the PT came back at 4 for my 2nd walk of the day, I could only go about half as far because I was in so much pain.  The nurse tried putting Dilaudid in thru my IV, but it really didn't make much of a difference.  Finally, my night nurse Sarah added Vicodin to my pain meds, and THAT finally started to make a difference.  After the 2nd dose of Vicodin was working, I started to turn the corner.

I tried a bunless cheese burger and broccoli for dinner, but it wasn't as good as breakfast, and the chocolate pudding was virtually inedible. I don't know how it is possible to make bad chocolate pudding, but they found some!

My friends who visited on Wed both could tell I was not having a good day.  The pain seemed relentless, and I felt like I had a steady stream of people in and out of my room who really weren't doing anything for me.  By bedtime, I was starting to wonder if I'd made the wrong decision to have surgery.  During the night, the pain was relieved, and I started to feel better about things.

:) Amy