Waking Up and a Restless Night
The first day was such a blur. Exhausted, nauseous and completely unaware of what was really going on, this is my recollection of the initial 8 hours after coming out of surgery. *Warning this post has a photograph of the postoperative scar*
Waking up
My eyes open up to a room of 5 nurses all gathered around a table eating and filling out reports. My body and brain seem somewhat disconnected for the first 3 minutes I try to breathe slowly but find myself going into shock almost instantly. Right away a nurse wraps me up 3 warm blankets to help calm me down, almost like a caterpillar in its cocoon. They tell me to focus on my breathing, breathing in for 5 and out for 5 but I'm too concerned that I can't move my feet. For those of you who have seen Kill Bill, it felt like that scene where she's trying to get her big toe to move for the first time after being paralyzed, completely frustrating but terrifying at the same time. Finally, a sigh of relief when I move my feet for the first time, although due to still being completely numb I couldn't feel the flexing of my feet so the nurses had to reassure me that I was still in control of my body.
Back to room 606
After 20 minutes of playing good toes bad toes, they wheeled my bed upstairs to my room where I was greeted by my parents and sister. Unknown to me the doctors had kept me in the post-operative room for longer than necessary. This was due to my blood pressure being so low as a result of a mass loss of blood during the operation. Once there the nurses hooked me up to two drips: one that was the IV fluid that would keep me hydrated and another which gave me painkillers. A small dose of the painkillers was automatically injected into me however if this wasn't enough I could push a button every 5 minutes to give me another boost. They also attached these really cool massaging 'boots' to my legs to help with my blood flow.
Surgery is incredibly tiring and alongside the anaesthesia you feel almost like you have an incredibly bad hangover: drained and always wanting to sleep as well as nauseous. I tried to summon the energy to tell my family what happened but found myself zoning in and out. They quickly realised that I was exhausted so decided to leave me and go and get lunch. Instantly I closed my eyes and was out of it until the nurses came in to do my observations shortly after.
Dealing with intolerances and my first meal
Like in the morning before surgery frequently many people came in and out of my room. One of the next staff members to come and see me was the caterers. I have an extensive list of intolerances which made their set menu completely unusable on me. You could tell it was a private hospital due to some of the meals provided there. I felt like I was in the Ritz, smoked fish, curry, Mediterranean meals and so forth. They quickly told me that for this to work I would have to write down what I wanted for the day on a piece of paper so they could prepare it for me. Now I don't know about you but I really struggle to know what I want to eat 1 hour before let alone 12. One thing was certain I knew exactly what I wanted to drink - cranberry juice my all-time favourite.
One more nap later as well as another observation my family came back with gifts, well crisps and rice cakes. We hung out for a while, talked about how cool my scar was whilst laughing at the giant arrows that were drawn on my leg in permanent marker. We were really impressed at how cleanly they'd managed to seal my hip and it looked a lot worse than it actually was. The immediate dark purple seen directly around the scar was the glue and the rest was bruising. My family left me around dinner time (6:30 pm) where I wolfed down my chicken, mashed potato and vegetables. Simplistic I know but I wanted to make sure I was getting easy food filled with lots of nutrients into my stomach.
The toilet...
Now for those of you who are probably wondering how I used the toilet the answer is I didn't. During surgery, they do two things related to your bowels. Firstly they insert a catheter which basically drains all of your no.1 and the second thing is the anaesthesia they give you acts as the world's strongest Imodium which sorts you out for quite a number of days. I didn't realise until 4 hours after I'd come out that I was having either. They had explained it to me beforehand but I had no idea what a catheter was and also at the time I was too focused on my operation to be listening to what they were telling me (that was my parents job!) So to my surprise when I asked my parents how I was going to go to the toilet and they explained it to me it was quite a shock. At that time I was still about 75% numb and couldn't feel the tube that had been inserted and draining the whole time since I'd gone into surgery and also since being back in my room.
A restless night
As many people who have been in a hospital will know you do not get an easy sleep. Considering that this was my first-night observations had to be done every two hours including throughout the night. They'd come in check my blood pressure, heartbeat and temperature which woke me up every time. They say that you can sleep while they do it, however, every time they opened the door I was quickly woken up by the light seeping in from the corridor. You very quickly become used to it but it's still very annoying as sleeping is one of the most important parts during recovery.
