Surgery Step One, Done.

The surgery process at KU is much different than that of NKCH.
Not better. Not worse. Different.
I was Patient #30-ya know so as not to violate anyone's privacy by using their name -that HIPPA thing and all. Which I suppose might actually work had they not come right out into the waiting room of fellow surgery patient family members and given updates in front of them all. Don't get me wrong, I could care less what the person sitting next to my husband hears about me, otherwise I probably wouldn't blog to the whole world. But it seems kind of contradictory???

Anywho, pt #30 gets called back to pre-op-that's me- and imagine my surprise when standing there waiting for me is one of my oldest, dearest, best friends from X-ray school! My friend Keely, whom I can only describe as one of the most upbeat, fun, loveliest people I know was standing there with a big hug for me! I haven't seen Keely in years, though we've somewhat kept in touch through FB. She and I go waaaaay back-like 23 years back-and have our fair share of crazy Westport, Lakeside, Bethany Medical Center memories. It really made my morning to see her and chat with her about our lives and kids while being worked up for my surgery. Love you Keely Rae-we have to get together now, and I don't mean while I'm all hopped up pain meds!!

So, change into gown, get IV started-one stick yeah, chat with nurse anesthetist, anesthesiologist, get marked on by Dr Buescher, get my lovely surgical cap on and away I go. The pre-op area was full of hustle and bustle, lots of chatting and smiling and so many people. I wonder if I often forget how many people actually work on the day shift since I'm so accustomed to a skeleton crew at night. It was nice, kept my mind off the pounding headache I had and helped me to ignore my rumbling, hungry tummy.
I got me a little Fentanyl and Versed on the way to the surgical suite, and sure thought I would go right out. But I was awake and moved over on the table and the last thing I remember was trying to move the mask off my face as the Dr was saying "take some deep breaths now Kari"

The next part was not so pretty. Apparently I did not wake from the anesthesia very well. At all.
So poorly in fact that I extubated myself, began thrashing around and upon nearly kicking the plastics Fellow, they put me right back down. Fast. My fellow CMH peeps know exactly what I'm describing. Many a times we wrestled with a little one waking from sedation. And I spent an hour wrestling with my bald kid after his ear tube removal. I vaguely remember describing him as a howler monkey on crack. And red heads are the worst. Even strawberry blondes!
So, during my exorcist-like awakening, I caused some bleeding in my surgical site and when my right drain started putting out 100+ ml every half hour, Dr Buescher was worried she may have to take me back into the OR to fix it. Fortunately she did not, it just got me 5 hours in PACU with an amazing nurse Meghann, and an overnight stay. Oh, and lots more Dilaudid. I was so schnockered, I was unable to open my eyes, but communicated to the nurse with thumbs up and thumbs down hand signals. I guess I kept asking what time it was too, like a dozen times, because Meghann said she finally asked me if I had somewhere I needed to be and I told her yes and then went right out again.
Finally the drainage slowed down and Dr Buescher and the Plastics Fellow-wish I could remember her name-she was lovely too, came to tell the finally awake me that I need to tell them how horribly I awoke for next time. And for my safety. And theirs. Dr B is military trained, and said she saw lots of young soldiers come out of anesthesia the same way. Something to do with a fighting, feisty attitude when personal control is taken away. Oh and stubbornness. Hmmmm.......

So, I'm of course awake in room 5114 because this is my normal awake time. Oh, no because I got a roommate at 11pm! Yep, shared, small room. And bathroom. A least I'm the only one getting up to pee-my roommate is snoozing marvelously while I listen to her IV beeping, breathing machine, RT checks, lab draws, vitals checks every two hours, drain emptying and foley emptying noise all while divided by that privacy ensuring paper curtain. Again with the HIPPA thing? Defeating the purpose, maybe?

Sarah Mills, I thought you were gonna hook me up with private penthouse suite, complete with mini-bar and personal masseuse?? And for some reason I didn't get a wine list with my food service menu. What's that all about?

But, I hear the Plastics Team rounds pretty darn early around here. And since my drain output is down to about 10ml on the left and 30ml on the right every 4 hours, I ought to get cut loose! They are being a little stingy with the pain meds, I only get 2mg of Dilaudid every 2 hours, they held the Toradol for now until the bleeding was controlled so as not to make it any worse. I don't have much swelling, which is surprising because Dr B said I had almost no scar tissue, but that also meant very little stretchy skin. She said she hurt me pretty good getting the expander under my pectoral muscle, and was only able to get 50cc's of saline in each one. And I feel it. Like an elephant standing on my chest. Hurts to take a deep breath, but not unbearable-the worst I've been was a 7 out of 10. Most often a 4, and can easily tolerate a 4. I do have the On-Q pain catheters in, one on each side connecting to a pain ball distributing 4ml/hour of Bupivacaine-numbing medicine. I don't want to imagine how I would feel without the On-Q. Pretty fancy, schmancy device.

Brian and my Mom hung out with me all day, then Brian went home to check on the boys and go to his Fraternity get together. So Mom and Carissa hung with me later, even while I napped! Funny thing, the night nurse asked if Carissa and I are sisters! We used to get that a lot when we worked together at Mercy. Even though she's not, she's been like a sister to me for years, and I wouldn't trade her for the world. She's been there for me and my family without missing a beat! Love you sister friend! Ooh, makes me think of sister wives, maybe sister bestie is better.

Oh, and the bald kid's GJ clogged off again last night! Argh! I am so damn frustrated with this thing. He went all day with almost no food, because although his feeding pump never beeped off, it was flowing extremely slow. He should have received 770ml but only got about 100ml. Looks like these next three weeks I'm off we are going to be trying to go back to bolus gastric feeds again. He needs to start developing a hunger sensation anyway since we are going to be starting with OT this week working on swallowing and taking foods orally. Oh, and he has an ABR test-special hearing test- and gets his new hearing aides this week. AND he gets to get back in the pool Tuesday for pool therapy! His new glasses should be in this week, AND we got bumped to three years for his next Orthopedic visit with Dr Schwend! His scoliosis is gone-yep gone! His spinal curve that was 20 degrees is now 13-so no longer considered scoliosis. However, his kyphotic curve, the curve of your upper back that little old ladies get causing them to slouch, is drastically worse at 56 degrees. Dr S was worried he had tight hamstrings pulling him over, but I laid Ethan down on the table and when he immediately raised his legs straight up in the air, back almost to his head, Dr S was convinced that was not the problem. Probably just his poor trunk muscle tone and long body. So three years it is, as boys typically have a growth spurt at 12. Not that Ethan does anything typical. But we will take the three year break!

He is doing well being home, I've been sneaking in and checking his sats while he's asleep and they've been holding steady at 98 with a sleeping heart rate in the 70's!!

Hailey is in Wichita for Jonny's Prom tonight, I can't wait to see the pics-I will share as soon as I get them!

Brian and Parker are going to see "42" on Sunday, which I would love to, just not gonna be ready to sit through a movie theater movie by then.
One of my other besties, Jody, is coming to take care of me today and tomorrow. Jody and I are pretty warped together, so I'm sure I will spend most of my waking hours laughing my ass off. I just wish it were going to be our 'drunk lunch' rather than nurse and patient!
My Mom is coming up to help me out too. I will definitely need my hair washed and fixed sometime today!

I'm about to doze off now in sleepy narcotic haze, and just realized how long this post was, but want to leave you with a funny story. As Brian was putting E in bed, I asked him to Face Time me so I could tell him goodnight. He was holding his iPad over the bald kid's head, and I was talking to him watching him look around for me in his room, not realizing I was the huge face in the screen in front of him, and Brian dropped the iPad right. on. his. head! Yep, he did.
Ethan looked rather shocked and just about started crying, but stopped when he realized we were laughing at him.
Parents of the century we are....