After surgery, I was placed in CCU for about a day. Pain was driving me crazy again, but this was different. I had a PICC line put in before they moved me to a permanent room. Once settled in my new room, I had tubes coming out of me in all directions. I had a WOC nurse come in and show me how to "operate" my ostomy. Yippee! I had no clue as to what this meant. I changed it myself once while in the hospital, and I thought I had a handle on it. Well, within a week, I started with pain in my chest on the left side, and it was causing me difficulty in breathing. So I went for a CT scan, and sure enough, the surgeon missed a spot, and now it became abscessed (infected), so now I have to have a chest tube put in to drain that "crap" out of me! I lay there with my left arm above my head and had to stay perfectly still while the tech inserted the tube. The tears just streamed down my face because I didn't take enough pain medication, and I felt everything he did. I must have laid there, perfectly still, for about an hour. I was in agony and hurt... the tube was placed under my left breast, between two ribs... the next stop was to have my left lung drained of fluid buildup around it. This time the tech came from behind me, through my left shoulder blade, and cried... I thought I would never stop... all the poking and prodding... I was going out of my mind!
It was Palm Sunday, and here I was stuck in the hospital. I had lost weight to the point of losing muscle. The fat was already gone, so now my muscles were wasting away. Now I had to go to rehab if I wanted to go home. I would climb stairs, walk, and do little exercises to try and strengthen my calf muscles; in a sense, I was learning how to walk all over again. I needed a walker at first, but then a cane, and finally nothing at all. I mastered the stairs, and I was given the okay to go home. Happy?!? I was ecstatic!!! Although I was given the okay to go home, I had to go home with my chest tube, my PICC line, and be taught how to give myself my antibiotic and flush the chest tube.
On April 15th (yes, tax day), I was going home!!! After six weeks, I was getting out of that "hell hole!" Praise God!!! The VNA came home with me and showed me how to give myself my antibiotic and so on. I weighed in at a "skeletal" 110 lbs. when I left the hospital, so now that I was home, I immediately set my mind on gaining weight and getting my muscles back. I was exhausted every day, but I didn't care; I was home!
Within the first week home, I lost my chest tube, and by the following week, I lost my PICC line... it's May 2nd, and I was free of everything... the pain was gone, the bleeding was gone, the chest tube was gone, the PICC line was gone, and I was left with my ostomy....
ostomygirl
Nov 09, 2009 3:17 pm