After I was taken up to my room, the nurse came in to ask 101 questions, including all about Lyme. Then she said I needed to wear a heart monitor that would be monitored by the cardiac unit. They apparently heard the same abnormal rhythm as my Lyme doctor did. After that was finished, I thought I was going to get to go to sleep. No luck.
The Next Interrogation
A few minutes later, the door opens again. By this time, it’s almost 2am. A woman comes in and introduces herself as a nurse practitioner who works in the hospital. She said she was sent up by the ER doctor to evaluate me because of my Lyme disease and learn more about my meds.
I thought oh crap, here we go. So it’s now after 2am, I’m coming up on 24 hours with no sleep, I’m starving because I threw up my dinner but I’m not allowed to have anything (even water) because of the surgery and I’m on morphine. Now, have I mentioned all my neurological issues and not being able to recall things, mixing up words and just all around not being able to carry on conversations well at times? Let’s add to that no sleep, no food and morphine…..
So, yes, strange lady, let’s take this time to go through my entire medical history as I struggle to stay awake! Geez!
She wanted to know everything I was taking including supplements so I did my best to go through all of that. As we were talking, I kept remembering other ones I hadn’t told her (or I would tell her the same one multiple times). Then she wanted to know about my diagnosis, what else had been considered, what my treatment had been, who was treating me, what all of my symptoms were, how much longer I was going to have the PICC line and on and on and on….
I was like get out of my room and let me sleep!!!
She finally left and about the time I was falling asleep, the nurse comes back in again about the heart monitor and putting those compression contraptions on my legs that squeeze them every 30 seconds or so. I just gave up and figured I could sleep during surgery! haha
Let the Interrogations Begin Again
So by this point, I have been questioned about my Lyme diagnosis by the person who checked me in at the ER, the triage nurse, the ER doctor, two different ER nurses, the radiology tech, my surgical floor nurse (and the new one at shift change) and the nurse practitioner.
Now the next morning in walks another doctor. I was actually in the process of arguing with the nurse about my meds as he was walking in the door so he wanted to know what was going on.
I gave them all of my meds the night before. With the adrenal meds, they have to be taken when I wake up in the morning and again around mid-day. You cannot skip a dose of the medication as it can be very serious and send you into an adrenal crisis. Your body becomes reliant on the medication.
She had ordered my meds in the correct dosages but was going to give it to me at 9am and 9pm. I was explaining to her that’s not how I take it (and she was basically telling me tough!) when the doctor walked in. So I tell him about the Cortef.
He tells the nurse that it’s essential that I have the medication but I need it by IV in a stress dose….or it could be very bad during surgery. I asked what that meant and he just told me it was necessary to have stress doses for 24 hours for any traumatic event. I looked it up after he left and if you don’t get it, you can die. Nice, right? Essentially, if your body is under a lot of stress from an accident or surgery with general anesthesia, it can’t produce enough cortisol to keep major bodily functions going. Basically, you can die from the stress overload. Comforting tidbit before you have surgery, don’t you think?
After that part was handled, he introduces himself as a hospitalist and gives me his card. He says he was referred to me by the ER doctor because I have Lyme. Hmmm…sounds familiar. That’s the same thing the NP said the night before. So he starts going over all the same questions.
Finally, he says what kind of Lyme do you have? I said neurological, I had Bell’s Palsy from it as well. He paused, said I agree completely with your treatment and never said another word about it. So weird.
He said they would have to continue monitoring my heart and would decide after surgery when I could go home but it was possible I would have to stay the night again.
Surgery Time
They came to get me to take me down to the OR not too long after lunch (or what would have been lunch – I still wasn’t allowed to eat or drink). By the time we got to pre-op, my parents had arrived as well. More questioning about Lyme from the OR nurse, the surgeon (who I finally got to meet) and the anesthesiologist.
I told them repeatedly I was allergic to ChloraPrep and adhesive. Then they came in to prep me for surgery and started to use the ChloraPrep – I’m like once again, I’m ALLERGIC. Then they wanted to know about what types of adhesive I was allergic to and I said all of them. They told me to make sure I told the people in the OR. So from that point forward, I literally told every single person I saw! haha
When I got into the OR, a new nurse anesthetist came in and said she would be in to monitor my surgery along with the anesthesiologist. I let her know about my allergies and also that anesthesia generally makes me sick. They had already given me a patch behind my ear and she said she would add extra meds for nausea and have them available when I woke up too. I also made sure to let her know about the heart rhythms and she said they were monitoring me for that already.
She also started asking questions about Lyme. By this point, I was like I’m going to have a Lyme 101 conference in my room, everyone is invited!
My surgeon came in and asked me if I was ready. I told him I really wanted to see what my gallbladder looked like. He said they didn’t have a camera in the OR and just laughed at me! 🙂 Then they asked me about the adhesive and if I had ever had glue used on an incision. I said no and they said they would try that instead.
Then I remember the nurse anesthetist putting the oxygen mask on me and telling me she was giving me the relaxation cocktail and I would be going to sleep soon. She was kind of rubbing my hair and then apologized because she said it was going to cause an uneasy, dizzy type feeling in my head. As soon as it hit, I said oh, I’m used to this…this is what Lyme feels like when it flares up.
She said I’m so sorry….and the next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room.
The rest of the story: Off to recovery