Today marks exactly four weeks post my Open Heart Surgery. I had my operation on February 5th, 2018. I was only in the hospital a total of four days. Some days were fine. I sat, ate, and watched marathons of House Hunters, Property Brothers, and the Food Network. So I was good…until the pain started.
I had two IV’s coming out of the right side of my neck, one IV in my left hand, one IV in my left arm, a catheter (you know where), and two chest tubes in my chest. The nursing staff gave me Fentanyl, Tylenol, and OxyContin to control the pain. At times there was still some pain even with the drugs. They wanted to keep me at a level three of pain which was tolerable. But there were times when I had pain so bad that I was asking for ALL of the drugs that they had.
Tuesday night (technically Wednesday) around three o’clock in the morning I had a ROUGH night. I could not go to the bathroom. The medications “stop you up” if you know what I mean TMI. One of my nurses walked with me through the halls and she gave me some tea with a gang of sugar in it and it helped me go because I was not for the pain in my chest and in my stomach. I was able to go to sleep afterward which was awesome.
Wednesday mid-morning I had to get some wires removed from my chest from the temporary pacemaker that they put in during the surgery. I had to sit very still for my nurse to do this because I was told that if anything went wrong I could bleed to death. My nurse had said that with so much ease. Like, don’t scare me, lady! Then about two o’clock in the afternoon, I was able to get one of my chest tubes out. When I say that mess hurt…it HURT!!! When she pulled the tube out it had like a wick on the end so it felt like it snagged my skin when it got pulled out. It was designed to close the hole that was created from the tube. But it was HORRIBLE and I was PISSED! I just wanted to eat and sleep that day. Later that night I called my husband crying because I was just ready to give up. I was tired of fighting. He encouraged me, of course, so I just fought through the pain.
Thursday I got the second chest tube out, it hurt but not as bad as the first one. My nurse could not give me any more Fentanyl because the prescription amount that was allotted to me ran out by the time she had to pull out the second chest tube. That Fentanyl was my go-to drug because it worked so fast. Anytime I was in pain I wanted that. Forget Tylenol or OxyContin give me the Fentanyl. They wouldn’t want me to get addicted to it but I really wanted it at that moment. Just had to tough it out. I was glad that the tubes were gone because after a while whenever I moved I could feel the tubes in my chest and they were not bending no matter what way I sat, laid, or stood.
Early Friday about five o’clock in the morning I was at about an eight-very close to nine- level of pain and it was terrible. I had to wait to get some medicine. I was so mad that I posted EXACTLY how I felt on Facebook that day. See below:
Writing has always been something that calms me down and makes me see things a little bit clearer...well not today! I want to go home! I want my momma! And I want some drugs! I’m finally getting down to about a level 4 on the pain scale. But when I tell you I wanted to SLAP the piss out of everyone on this floor!!! I wanted to five-finger-open-hand everyone including the patients. They hadn’t even done anything to me, everyone is super sweet but this pain is ridiculous. I’m not going to do it (slap people) in too much pain to even try. I’ve just been quiet so I don’t cuss anyone out. Waiting on the hubs to come here in about 2 hours or so. I’m tempted to say “F” school and bring the kids with him but I want them to go and I want him to get some sleep. I’m starting to calm down now and I’m getting a little hungry so maybe I just need to eat something.
Needless to say, I was mad because of the pain I was in. I eventually got my pain meds about seven o’clock in the morning (that is when I wrote that post) and then I was fine. I was able to go home about one o’clock that afternoon and I was just so glad to be going home!
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