It's been a very long, tiring week. Mom's surgery was Tuesday afternoon.
When we went out to do last minute errands on Monday, she said she wished we were headed to the hospital to get it over with. Monday night, she wanted to call it off. By Tuesday morning, she was sick to her stomach and had a headache from lack of food after midnight and we didn't need to arrive at the hospital until 12:15.
JUST A HINT - FOR COFFEE DRINKERS - If the patient is a heavy coffee drinker, try to decrease the amount of morning coffee slowly over the weeks before surgery. Going without the usual dose of caffine will cause headaches and increase anxiety on the morning of surgery. Mom only has one cup in the morning, but that was enough to give her a bad headache. She was only allowed to take a Nexium for her stomach and a seizure medication with a sip of water in the morning, nothing for the headache.
Our hospital has a new security system and we had to wait in line for me to get a photo ID sticker. That's after the hassle of finding a parking place and getting her up to the main entrance in her wheelchair. If your hospital has parking or security problems, be sure to allow extra time. Unfortunately, the sticker is only good for 24-hours so it means a long line each day. I dearly hate the few idiot troublemakers that have caused so much trouble for the rest of society.
Pre-op went very well. Since I had turned in her Personal Medical History (see sidebar) at Pre-Admissions (Part 5), they had all the information they needed and, for once!!!! they actually read it! Yeah. They knew about her meds, allergies, and previous surgeries and conditions.
The surgery lasted only an hour and her surgeon came out to the waiting room to update me. Her osteoporosis was a concern but she came through the surgery very well.
I was able to take some time and run home, let the dogs out, and get some supper. By the time I returned two hours later, she was out of recovery and had just arrived in her room. She was as miserable as the surgeon had warned me she would be, and exhausted.
She was still aware enough to tell me "you don't need to stand here and listen to me scream. Go home."
I had worried about the anesthesia. My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's after a severe illness and each surgery made his symptomsworse. But Mom was still as sharp as ever.
The next post will cover Surgery Plus One.
Later.....
Kathy
Thank you for sharing all this. I especially appreciated the note about coffee drinkers. I would never have thought of that aspect. I'm saving that for future reference! In fact, I'm planning on saving the whole series for future reference in regards to my own family, as well as linking to this site on my website to recommend it as a good resource. No matter how many questions we ask in situations like this, there's always so many more we don't know to ask, like the phone. I'm so glad you found out about it in time. I'm praying things are going well for both of you.
Posted by: Kaye | October 25, 2008 at 10:30 PM