Monday, September 18, 2006

Hospital Blessings

Wednesday night my sister was waiting for us to come home from church she helped me get her bedding together and put the children to bed. The two of us sat up and talked until my husband came home, he and I packed for the hospital. At 5:45 am we checked in and began our wait. I was surprised at how quickly they moved me to a room. I was instructed to strip, put on a gown, and wait. I was given something to help with nausea and something to relax me. Relax was the word I thought I was soooo funny my husband kept laughing at me. Not with me. I knew it wasn’t funny I just couldn’t stop laughing at everything I said and thought. The lady who did my IV apparently thought it was Christmas and I was the inquisitive child under the tree. She used a ton of tape and it really hurt.

I was moved to another room. The people who push those things aren’t given lessons, I asked after we almost killed a pedestrian. They asked me several questions at the next station. It was a hallway of us about to go into the OR.


I kept talking to God about how I wanted everything to go and how great I needed this to be and if things went wrong that he would take care of everyone.

He agreed.


Once in the OR I was put on a narrow table then strapped down so that I wouldn’t fall. One of the surgeons stopped in and gave me a quick, it will all go well, and squeezed my hand then rushed out. The other I have known for more than eighteen years I have a huge amount of trust in her, she had permission to do what needed to be done and knew exactly what I wanted. That’s huge that’s important she had to be my advocate. When she came in she told me what was going to happen. She said she would step out then be back in when I was under. I watched as she filled out paperwork then all of a sudden she put the pen down and started talking about the ocean, beaches, drinks with rum in them she smiled as she turned walked over and took my hand firmly and held it she kept talking as the anesthesiologist pushed the stuff in.

When I woke I was in a whole other place. People I didn’t know kept talking to me. Once in a while they said "Breath" Finally a women said when you hear the beep I want you to take a deep breath . I have low blood pressure to begin with and putting me under brought it way down. I explained it to them and was sent to a room. A room in pediatrics, not my choice. The surgical floor was full.


The first nurse wasn’t very nice and I thought my family might take her down hard. Can’t a husband be concerned about his wife? Apparently not in this woman’s eyes. I tried to smooth it over by making jokes. I was also happy to never see her again.


I worked hard at teaching the nurses when I say I’m going to be sick please give me something, I mean it. I also said stuff like my doctor doesn’t want me to throw up so please give me stuff now.


My doctor was a wonderful blessing and gave me great news afterwards, everything looks good. She also took me off the pump so that I had to ask for pain pills and put me on real food. She looked horrified at the liquid diet they had me on. "No wonder you’re sick you need real food." I wanted Olive garden salad, I got hospital roast beef. I wonder if they have stock in jello? I was served it every meal breakfast, lunch, and dinner.


I knew that I was blessed in so many ways but this brought the blessings to light.


Miss Littles and Little Mister came to visit. I was brought an Eeyore balloon he’s my favorite. My daughter told me about the gift shop her eyes lit up as she told me about the Crock flip flops. The girl loves to shoe shop.


My son asked about all the things hooked to me. He surveyed the room and relaxed in front of the television.


I was surprised to hear that Miss Littles had a melt down at bed time and wished that they had called me I might have been able to calm her a bit. My sister stayed awhile for her and spent the rest of the week spoiling her and bringing her to the hospital to visit.


Spoiling was good for both of them, she now sports an OSU cheerleading outfit and has gone to her first football game. Sis needed for one of my kids to like OSU, the other is an OU fan. That’s a big thing in Oklahoma. We cheer for Penn State in this house it’s safer at family gatherings.


I checked in on Thursday and left Saturday evening It’s grand to be home. My blood pressure was up by the time I left.

I am so blessed by family and friends and I felt those prayers.

Thank you.

7 comments:

Kevin Knox said...

Milly,

He [God] agreed.

LOL! Amen.

It sounds like you had a wonderful doctor, even if some of the nurses were pathetic. Praise the Lord it all went well.

Great story!

Anonymous said...

Milly,

I'm so glad everything turned out Ok. In all of our (Ali's, Danika's, Brynley's and my) hospital experiences, the Doctors have been wonderful and the Nurses have been great. But when there's a "bad apple" it's been one of the nurses. I don't know why that is...

But the good thing is that God has a way to remove them from the equation so that they're not a constant irritation (for lack of a better term). Whenever we've had an extended stay (more than a week), it's been the nurses who have made a world of difference.

Again, I'm so glad that everything ended up fine. As I tell my girls: "You go girl, with your bad self!"

Keep on bloggin'...

Milly said...

The other nurses and staff were great. I’m sure that if I had need the mean one she would have been great also. My sister and I figured she was having a moment. After my husband and father left the room we started joking with her and she seemed fine. I would have hated for the man to have to deal with her the whole time and I’m sure one word to my doctor and she’d have been moved to a different room.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that things went well - PtL. Nurses and their aides really make a huge difference. The food - well that's a different story!

Kevin Knox said...

A friend of mine explained it and I translate it like this.

I was a fleet mechanic and a dealer mechanic. As a fleet mechanic, there were 2 of us responsible for keeping 75 trucks hauling freight each and every day. There was never a moment that we were able to tread water. There were always 50 trucks that needed attention, and 5 or more that were dead. We patched up the ones that could be fixed fast first. After that, if we could, we got to the dead ones. The other 50 simply kept running until they made it to dead. And we both worked 13 hours days.

As a dealer mechanic, I was assigned one job, and I worked it until it was done, then I got another one.

Being a hospital nurse is rough, and after a few years of it you learn some way to get in and get out. It's often not the most polite way.

Milly said...

Codepoke,

Without a doubt I realize she was busy I heard lots of code blue calls while I was there. The thing was that my BP was very low and they rushed me out of recovery. I didn’t realized that I was in recovery as long as I was in surgery. In that bed was: his little girl, his wife, the mother of his children, the momma, and her sister. When she came in so rudely they looked shocked. I was still a bit incoherent and throwing up. She just said you have a bucket and reached for it. I couldn’t stop throwing up in it. I made a joke and she joked back, I was the only one who got it. She completely blew my husband off when he voiced his concerns, it was bad timing she should have said I’ll keep an eye on her. She came into the room complaining to me about the fact that he was worried. My sister elevated from the chair, I knew that look. I made a joke of it and we all laughed. It was a good thing that the nurses and staff weren’t like her. I get the in and out thing but it’s hard to believe she hasn’t upset others. One thing for sure she would be great if I was in need of her life saving skills I could tell she was quick and ready. I don’t disrespect her. She must be better with kids then parents.

DougALug said...

Milly,

When you said OSU, I surely thought you meant Ohio State U! The is no other OSU that I recognize.... ;).... well that is worth recognizing.

I'm thankful everything went well.

God Bless
Doug