Part 1: Trip to the ER and Part 2: The Surgery
When I woke up in the recovery room, I was covered up with multiple blankets and still violently shivering. They kept piling on more layers and I heard them talking to a doctor about it as I was coming around. The nurse saw me open me eyes and I looked at her and just whispered “nausea, pain”.
She said I’m going to get you something right now, sweetie! You know I know some people are annoyed by people calling them terms of endearment like that but I find it oddly comforting – especially in this type of situation. She was back a minute later putting more drugs in my IV.
I was having a horrible time keeping my eyes open. I hate that feeling when you first wake up from anesthesia. You just can’t really focus on anything and it all seems to be spinning. After they got the shaking to stop and I was a little more awake, they rolled me upstairs back to my room.
Moving from the OR bed back to my bed in the room was not a fun experience! It reminded me a little of my c-section where you just don’t want to use any part of your stomach when you’re moving. I have one incision at my belly button and three incisions on my right side. My mom and the surgeon both said they looked good.
Moving around to go to the bathroom, etc was lots of “fun”. Especially with having to put the compression things back on every time after I got up. I quickly remembered to really use my legs for standing, etc. I was surprised how quick that came back to me as I did it for weeks after my c-section. I took a nice, long nap and when I woke up again, I felt much better. The pain was under control and my head felt incredibly clear, which was almost strange. I haven’t really had that experience since everything with Lyme started. Maybe anesthesia is good for me! Ha!
My next big challenge was with the diet. I told them I needed sugar free. I was on a liquid diet the night of the surgery and everything they brought me had sugar in it. They thought they were okay with “no added sugar” items but I had to explain that wasn’t the case. Luckily they located a sugar free popsicle for me so I had that and ice chips as my first “food” in 24 hours.
The next morning, I was allowed to have a soft diet. They brought me the menu and just let me order and then they did the same for lunch. I didn’t eat much either time. It was making me feel nauseous and really, after you don’t eat for that long, you just don’t really care. And then I had to start walking the hallways to get my blood flowing again. It was nice just to have those compression things off my legs!
The surgeon came back in to check on me and told me he wanted me to take protonics going forward. And to follow up in a week in his office. He said I was free to go as soon as I was able to switch to oral pain meds and keep them down without nausea. So I quickly made that switch so I could go home.
He wants me out of work at least until I follow up with him on the 3rd. Which I gladly agreed to, although I’ve been working the entire time I’ve been in the hospital. They took my iPad away from me as they were rolling me in for surgery! So I better not get charged sick time for this!!
Now for recovery but I’m thinking it won’t be too bad!
Tally Time
Just so you know, I go back and add these in later since I don’t really know by the end of the month what all of my charges will be. So this is up-to-date based on all procedures, treatment, etc so far.
Grand total: $78,971.44.
The good news (can you really call it that?!) is that I received notification from my insurance company that I reached my catastrophic cap at the end of March. The bad news is that I haven’t yet paid out all of my catastrophic cap so that means I have bills that will be hitting some time soon. My max out of pocket other than supplements and the doctor who wasn’t covered by insurance is $3,000.