It’s been almost 3 weeks already and I still have not blogged about what happened while I was in hospital. It’s not really mind-blowing, but just now, I look back one day and need this blog to remember.

We arrived at the hospital at about 06:00. A very early start to our morning. Since Marc had sprained his ankle at paintball on the Saturday before, he sought help from a porter and a manual wheelchair inside the hospital. The paperwork was sorted fairly quickly, since most of it was done either online or over the phone. Just a few blank spaces here and there that had to be completed. Though by the time we got to the ward, they were already waiting for me in theater. Before I went in, I was able to discuss with my gynaecologist and the anesthesiologist what had been worrying me during the week before.

I had been to a physician for a check up, to make sure I could handle such major surgery and he had mentioned complications that could happen. Though he assured me he foresaw no problems, my mind still latched on to the idea of waking up with a tube down my throat and would not let go. The anesthesiologist assured me that this would not happen and the tube would be gone before I woke up.

As predicted, the op went fine and I woke up in ICU. This was just a precautionary measure, from my gynaecologist. Strangely enough, I never really felt any pain from the surgery, so long as I kept still. This was fine, until the BP cuff on my left arm couldn’t get a decent reading. Since my arms are not straight, the veins do not run where they supposed to, which leads to incorrect BP readings. This led to the nurses lowering my bed flat, because they thought I was getting a low blood pressure from clicking the morphine too many times. Fact was, I’d hardly pushed it at all. But now, my back was killing me because I was lying in an uncomfortable position. They did not understand that a sitting position was most comfortable for me and I was not in the greatest frame of mind to explain this. No amount of morphine was going to ease this discomfort. I could not get the nurse’s attention and finally cried until Marc came at visiting hours that evening. He explained to the nurses, but it was too late. My back ached and I did not sleep well. I used the light from my cellphone every time I wanted their attention to help roll me into what was temporarily a better position.

The next morning (Tuesday), at about 4am, I had blood drawn for some tests. It went far better than Thursday before. Some time later, I had a bed bath and the sheets were changed. It hurt when they rolled me over. I sat up a little for breakfast and then managed to sit up a little further when the physiotherapist visited. She showed me some pelvic exercises and we did some breathing exercises as well. I had woken up with a lot of saliva in my lungs, most of which I had already carefully coughed up and cleared my throat repeatedly. Patting my chest and back, she helped it ease a bit further.

By lunch time, I had moved back to the general ward and later that day, I was sitting up unaided, though I did not try move around. More about my hospital stay tomorrow.

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