Josephine
NURSE DIRECTOR EMERITA
Well, this is where you're going to get the entire story so just get yourselves comfortable for a nice long read!
Arrived in the hospital about 15 minutes early and got talking to a young lass whose mother has been disabled with bilateral O/A knees for almost six years and yet her doctor is still telling her that she is too young to have TKRs! She's also on double strength morphine and unable to do much more than sit and cry with the pain.
She is 58 years old!
So I gave her the name of my surgeon, told her she needed a second opinion and she should get herself referred to this chap. I also gave her the name of BS (of course!) and said we would all give her a good welcome! If I remember, her name is Margaret and she will, of course, be from the UK. I really think God was in that meeting!
Well, back to me! I got taken through to a special area where patients are prepared! It's called POD - PeriOperaative Department! I was put in a little room/cubicle, got into the ubiquitous op gown and checked out, had more blood taken for group and crossmatch and was prepared with (one) TED stocking. Later the surgeon came and went through some more routine stuff and got me to sign my life away!
Then the anaesthetist came and - joy of joys! - it was somebody I'd worked with before I retired! His name is Peter and he's a real doll! I loved working with him and if there was one person on this planet I would trust to do a spinal on me it's him! So I went into the anaesthetic room a moderately happy bunny!
Least I was till he pranged my right nerve root and almost made me kick the anaesthetic nurse in the 'never-mind'! Second time he got in there straight as an arrow and it was all done. He had asked me earlier if I had any 'final requests' (LOL!) and I had told him yes, I don't want to see anything once he was satisfied with the level of anaesthesia. To which he replied that he didn't believe in checking levels, that once I told him I had pins and needles in my feet he would know the spinal had worked and would knock me out. He did and from the moment I had laid myself down on the table, I knew no more until I was being wheeled into recovery! It was blissful!
I also discovered that he had given me a very successful femoral block and a PCA plus oral meds if I should need them. I didn't! What I did need, about an hour after I got back to the ward, was to be catheterized as I had urinary retention and had to deal with the new information that UR hurts! Seems she had to phone a doctor for a single dose of prophylactic antibiotics before she could do that but it was tough finding one. In vain I begged her to do it anyway and eventually she agreed to but just as soon as she had opened all the packets and washed up, I began to urinate spontaneously! Oh joy! I didn't pass much but enough to be effective and everything was cleared away. She still gave me the antibiotics anyway!
Thereafter, I started keeping a record of everytime I used the PCA and what my pain score was! I had a relatively comfortable night.
Next morning, in a great flood of attention, the PCA and the drain were removed, I was given a bowl of water to wash and clean my teeth and cloths to get into and got out of bed. Unfortunately, along with the removal of the PCA I was given 60 mgs of codeine phosphate. Now 30 mgs will wipe me out big time. 60 is almost as good as a GA! Never the less, I was got out of bed and given a walker to help me get to the chair. Should have been warned as I tried to rise from the bed, my leg with the still working, very efficient femoral block, just gave way under me. I was feeling very wobbly and like a frail little old lady! I made a couple of steps to the chair but as I went to turn and sit, somehow I lost my co-ordination (what there was of it!), the leg that wasn't there crumpled and I kind of oozed not so gracefully to the floor! The worst part was that I had my knee buckled under my chin! :hate-shocked: Just as well the block was still working, else I would have been screaming the place down! Instead I managed a kind of desperate "oh-oh!" amongst frantic cries to straighten my leg and eventually somebody realised and did it for me.
I was then told that I would have to get myself up off the floor as they weren't allowed to lift (health and safety rules! :DOH
but I knew I was so spaced out with the morphine and pills there was no way I could lift a hankie much less me! But they still all stood round me watching and telling me to get myself up like I was sitting on a setter! Eventually they got a hoist and I was slung up in a most undignified manner and lowered into the chair. THAT was when I discovered the arm chair was about 6" too narrow so after some more somewhat vocal complaints from me, they finally got some common sense and decided to put me back on the bed but during all the kerfuffle, somebody had stripped it so it had to be made! I hung there while they got new sheets on it and was then gratefully lowered into a place of relative comfort! But the chair issue gave me a perfect excuse to stay in or on the bed for the next two days! :th_heehee:
There's one thing that has been referred to on here a couple of times but never elsewhere and that is the searing pain in the upper thigh and buttock. I was quite unprepared for that. What ever I did it seemed to affect my movements, getting into bed, walking, on and off the loo, SLRs. Oh my! It was horrendous! I despaired of ever being able to do SLRs though I could get a flexion of around 90/95 degrees which the surgeon was absolutely delighted with! I asked him about the other pain and he looked nonchalant and said "Of course - it's tourniquet pain!"
"You mean you know about? You even expect it?"
"Of course! Those muscles spend around 2-4 hours under some considerable compression, 350mgs mercury where blood pressure is often pumped up to a maximum of around 200 mgs. There's bound to be some consequences!"
Well, maybe, but I just never thought of it like that before! Anyway, by day 6 that pain magically dissipated and I could waggle that ol' leg around like a kid with a flag! I was sweeping it back and forth in bed like I was making snow angels!
Sunday I did the stairs and very well too, even if I do say so myself! So despite the missmanagement of the aids deliveries, I offered to come home on Tuesday and did so! My brother and his wife kindly arranged to come up and stay with me a few days and see me settled in but to be honest, I'm already pretty independant. I can walk with one crutch though I'm not going to, and I can get up and down off the loo without any help. I can also walk quite freely around the house though slowly. I can bend down to feed the cats and put my slippers and panties on.
When the taxi dropped me off at the door, he left my two suitcases standing there and a basket of flowers and a bag of all my meds from hospital and scooted! So first thing I had to do was to pull them indoors!
My next task was to feed the cats and the third to get my laptop opened up. That was when I realised I had come up with this absoutely marvellous idea of unplugging things when I went away. One of these was my Gateway router which is upstairs in the study! So - only 10 mins home and I have to go upstairs (and down of course!) to switch it on.That accomplished, I start to read my emails (all 214!) and try to check the forums. But I fell asleep and then my brother arrived so one way and another, you're getting this first insallment at 11.30 pm and not earlier as planned!
Section 2 will be later - meaning tomorrow sometime! Till then G'night!
Arrived in the hospital about 15 minutes early and got talking to a young lass whose mother has been disabled with bilateral O/A knees for almost six years and yet her doctor is still telling her that she is too young to have TKRs! She's also on double strength morphine and unable to do much more than sit and cry with the pain.
She is 58 years old!
So I gave her the name of my surgeon, told her she needed a second opinion and she should get herself referred to this chap. I also gave her the name of BS (of course!) and said we would all give her a good welcome! If I remember, her name is Margaret and she will, of course, be from the UK. I really think God was in that meeting!
Well, back to me! I got taken through to a special area where patients are prepared! It's called POD - PeriOperaative Department! I was put in a little room/cubicle, got into the ubiquitous op gown and checked out, had more blood taken for group and crossmatch and was prepared with (one) TED stocking. Later the surgeon came and went through some more routine stuff and got me to sign my life away!
Then the anaesthetist came and - joy of joys! - it was somebody I'd worked with before I retired! His name is Peter and he's a real doll! I loved working with him and if there was one person on this planet I would trust to do a spinal on me it's him! So I went into the anaesthetic room a moderately happy bunny!
Least I was till he pranged my right nerve root and almost made me kick the anaesthetic nurse in the 'never-mind'! Second time he got in there straight as an arrow and it was all done. He had asked me earlier if I had any 'final requests' (LOL!) and I had told him yes, I don't want to see anything once he was satisfied with the level of anaesthesia. To which he replied that he didn't believe in checking levels, that once I told him I had pins and needles in my feet he would know the spinal had worked and would knock me out. He did and from the moment I had laid myself down on the table, I knew no more until I was being wheeled into recovery! It was blissful!
I also discovered that he had given me a very successful femoral block and a PCA plus oral meds if I should need them. I didn't! What I did need, about an hour after I got back to the ward, was to be catheterized as I had urinary retention and had to deal with the new information that UR hurts! Seems she had to phone a doctor for a single dose of prophylactic antibiotics before she could do that but it was tough finding one. In vain I begged her to do it anyway and eventually she agreed to but just as soon as she had opened all the packets and washed up, I began to urinate spontaneously! Oh joy! I didn't pass much but enough to be effective and everything was cleared away. She still gave me the antibiotics anyway!
Thereafter, I started keeping a record of everytime I used the PCA and what my pain score was! I had a relatively comfortable night.
Next morning, in a great flood of attention, the PCA and the drain were removed, I was given a bowl of water to wash and clean my teeth and cloths to get into and got out of bed. Unfortunately, along with the removal of the PCA I was given 60 mgs of codeine phosphate. Now 30 mgs will wipe me out big time. 60 is almost as good as a GA! Never the less, I was got out of bed and given a walker to help me get to the chair. Should have been warned as I tried to rise from the bed, my leg with the still working, very efficient femoral block, just gave way under me. I was feeling very wobbly and like a frail little old lady! I made a couple of steps to the chair but as I went to turn and sit, somehow I lost my co-ordination (what there was of it!), the leg that wasn't there crumpled and I kind of oozed not so gracefully to the floor! The worst part was that I had my knee buckled under my chin! :hate-shocked: Just as well the block was still working, else I would have been screaming the place down! Instead I managed a kind of desperate "oh-oh!" amongst frantic cries to straighten my leg and eventually somebody realised and did it for me.
I was then told that I would have to get myself up off the floor as they weren't allowed to lift (health and safety rules! :DOH

There's one thing that has been referred to on here a couple of times but never elsewhere and that is the searing pain in the upper thigh and buttock. I was quite unprepared for that. What ever I did it seemed to affect my movements, getting into bed, walking, on and off the loo, SLRs. Oh my! It was horrendous! I despaired of ever being able to do SLRs though I could get a flexion of around 90/95 degrees which the surgeon was absolutely delighted with! I asked him about the other pain and he looked nonchalant and said "Of course - it's tourniquet pain!"
"You mean you know about? You even expect it?"
"Of course! Those muscles spend around 2-4 hours under some considerable compression, 350mgs mercury where blood pressure is often pumped up to a maximum of around 200 mgs. There's bound to be some consequences!"
Well, maybe, but I just never thought of it like that before! Anyway, by day 6 that pain magically dissipated and I could waggle that ol' leg around like a kid with a flag! I was sweeping it back and forth in bed like I was making snow angels!
Sunday I did the stairs and very well too, even if I do say so myself! So despite the missmanagement of the aids deliveries, I offered to come home on Tuesday and did so! My brother and his wife kindly arranged to come up and stay with me a few days and see me settled in but to be honest, I'm already pretty independant. I can walk with one crutch though I'm not going to, and I can get up and down off the loo without any help. I can also walk quite freely around the house though slowly. I can bend down to feed the cats and put my slippers and panties on.
When the taxi dropped me off at the door, he left my two suitcases standing there and a basket of flowers and a bag of all my meds from hospital and scooted! So first thing I had to do was to pull them indoors!
My next task was to feed the cats and the third to get my laptop opened up. That was when I realised I had come up with this absoutely marvellous idea of unplugging things when I went away. One of these was my Gateway router which is upstairs in the study! So - only 10 mins home and I have to go upstairs (and down of course!) to switch it on.That accomplished, I start to read my emails (all 214!) and try to check the forums. But I fell asleep and then my brother arrived so one way and another, you're getting this first insallment at 11.30 pm and not earlier as planned!
Section 2 will be later - meaning tomorrow sometime! Till then G'night!