By the end of all my posts about sinus surgery, you will probably never want to hear those two words ever again :)
I had my sinus surgery on Monday, March 14. Here is a little how my day went:
Before I got surgery I knew that I would be taking about two weeks of work off so I had to make sure to be caught up on everything before I got my surgery. The day of my surgery rolled around and I still wasn't caught up on my work so I woke up at around 5:00 AM and worked for two hours. I got a lot done, but man was I tired!
Of course I had also waited to pack until last minute, so I did that as well :)
My wonderful boyfriend Daniel picked me up and took me the Central Utah Surgical Center. While sitting in the waiting room my nerves finally caught up with me and I got super fidgety. Dan finally had to leave and so I read out of my current book for a while. Honestly the wait was only about 20-30 minutes.
One of the nurses took me into an area where I got to change into a lovely gown and pee in a cup for a pregnancy test (don't worry Mom, they are required to do this for ALL women 18 and older!). Guess what? I'm NOT pregnant, better not be a surprise to anyone. Haha.
I was then guided to my cool, wheely hospital bed! There I read for about another five minutes until I was visited by my nurse, surgeon (who was also my ENT doctor), and anesthesiologist. I asked them tons of questions and I had and I am so grateful that they took the time to answer all my questions and address my concerns. My entire wait time from when I arrived at the surgical center for when I entered surgery was probably 45 minutes or less. I was very happy for that!
My nurse rolled me into the surgery room and I was so nervous! I was moved from my wheely bed to the intimidating surgery bed. The anesthesiologist put some potent sleeping medicine into my iv and a few seconds later I was out!
I woke up and felt like the grim reaper had used his sickle to scrape out the entire inside of my face. Yeah, that was no fun. My throat hurt from the breathing tube making it a little hard to breathe and my face was throbbing. As soon as I woke up there was a nurse who came over and talked to me. She had called Dan to come pick me up. And I guess they had given me morphine (happy day!) and were ready to give me my first two percocets once I could down some food.
This was easier said that done. I have always been a person who cannot eat anything for a very long time after surgery.
Of course I had also waited to pack until last minute, so I did that as well :)
My wonderful boyfriend Daniel picked me up and took me the Central Utah Surgical Center. While sitting in the waiting room my nerves finally caught up with me and I got super fidgety. Dan finally had to leave and so I read out of my current book for a while. Honestly the wait was only about 20-30 minutes.
One of the nurses took me into an area where I got to change into a lovely gown and pee in a cup for a pregnancy test (don't worry Mom, they are required to do this for ALL women 18 and older!). Guess what? I'm NOT pregnant, better not be a surprise to anyone. Haha.
I was then guided to my cool, wheely hospital bed! There I read for about another five minutes until I was visited by my nurse, surgeon (who was also my ENT doctor), and anesthesiologist. I asked them tons of questions and I had and I am so grateful that they took the time to answer all my questions and address my concerns. My entire wait time from when I arrived at the surgical center for when I entered surgery was probably 45 minutes or less. I was very happy for that!
My nurse rolled me into the surgery room and I was so nervous! I was moved from my wheely bed to the intimidating surgery bed. The anesthesiologist put some potent sleeping medicine into my iv and a few seconds later I was out!
I woke up and felt like the grim reaper had used his sickle to scrape out the entire inside of my face. Yeah, that was no fun. My throat hurt from the breathing tube making it a little hard to breathe and my face was throbbing. As soon as I woke up there was a nurse who came over and talked to me. She had called Dan to come pick me up. And I guess they had given me morphine (happy day!) and were ready to give me my first two percocets once I could down some food.
This was easier said that done. I have always been a person who cannot eat anything for a very long time after surgery.
I slowly ate two saltines, downed a bunch of water and took my two percocets. Maybe it was not the best idea to down a bunch of water...
For some reason this surgery killed my bladder control. I think this is funny so therefore I am not ashamed to admit it! The whole experience is kind of a blur due to all the pain and medicine, but I know there was one point that which I wet my bed while waiting for a nurse. She came along and I confessed my accident to her. She laughed, got me a new gown, changed my sheets and put a plastic covered over them just in case I had any more accidents. What a sweet woman.
In fact, what a very sweet woman because this happened twice. Haha. And funny enough, I did use the actual restroom in between them. I guess I was truly drinking a lot of water. The second time came along and she made a bunch of jokes about me being an old woman, which made me feel better :)
Dan finally arrived, but I was not permitted to go home yet. My nose was bleeding too much and they wanted to ensure that it would slow down. This was fine with me because I was getting taken care of super well.
I stayed an extra three and a half hours at the hospital. Two of those hours consisted of my sitting in bed with an ice pack over my face, spitting out blood, trying not to drink too much water ;), and Dan holding my hand and reading Fablehaven to me. Yeah, I know I have a wonderful boyfriend :)
I was finally permitted to go home. Dan was kind enough to fetch me a new pair of pants from my suitcase because my others were no longer usable. As I was changing I bumped my glass of water over and my nurse cleaned that up as well. She was awesome.
I was then wheeled out to the car in a wheelchair.
The next step was to get my medicine, which Dan was nice enough to do. And drive an hour an a half up to my sister's house. Here is what I looked like during the drive:
The drive was super long and made my way nauseous. Midway through the drive we stopped so I could down a couple crackers and take my next dose of medicine. Mostly, the drive went without any major issues and was quite entertaining for Dan...
During the drive I felt like I could think properly and that I was conscious of what I was saying, even though it was weird. I think I talked almost the entire drive up to my sister's house. I mentioned that it would be funny if a small car was behind another car that was towing a boat, and if that boat opened up so that the small car could drive inside of it, and then it closed again. I also tried to have a DTR with Dan (If you don't know what a DTR is, it stands for Determine/Define the Relationship. Basically you decide where your relationship is heading). I don't know why this felt like a good time for this talk, but somehow in my mind it was perfect timing.
The trip finished with us arriving at my sister's house and me throwing up right as we pulled into her driveway and wetting my pants again. Luckily the nurse gave me a sick bag...
I changed clothes again and Dan stayed with me until my sister arrived home that night. He did a lot for me - besides what is described earlier, he also helped me refill my ice pack and he got me tulips :)
I feel blessed that the surgery itself and the day after the surgery went so well! And I feel so blessed to have wonderful nurses that took such good care of me! And for Dan that was so patient and helpful through the entire thing!! Honestly, having him there was a huge comfort and such a blessing :) Plus, I am grateful for my sister's family who took care of me during a lot of my recovery.
My last post about this, when I get around to it, will cover a couple more blessings that I received during surgery and some funny stories about me on my prescribed narcotics.
I find this really entertaining because a couple weeks after Alan and I started dating he had a surgery similar to this through which practically threw me into a DTR because we hadn't talked about dating exclusively yet. He only told me about this little surgery he was going to have and that he would appreciate if I picked him up from it to take him home. I didn't see it as a big deal so I agreed and when I picked him up all the nurses were staring at me as if Alan had expressed his undying love for me to them or something. Needless to say, his surgery threw our relationship into what it is today :) We are all blessed to have the need to be taken care of and to take care of one another.
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