I'm Home Again

I am home from the hospital. This hospitalization had NOTHING to do with my weight loss surgery per the cardiologist and I'm thankful for that. I had surgery to increase my health, not to make more problems for me. I wasn't scared so much as pissed about having to be there. I went to the surgeon for a check up and end up admitted into the hospital. I had things to do, damn it! Mandi and family were here. We were supposed to go to Alpha at church that night. It was a royal pain in the butt!

I am thankful that the doctor reached for my wrist out of character. I am thankful that I'm going to be just fine. But ... those were the longest five days in my life!

I had three different roommates. Most were friendly but I was in no mood. I had a huge fight with the dietary people who thought I had to have everything chopped to ground hamburger mush and would not give me most of the things I wanted to eat. I eat all of them at home and they are okay for me to have but they wouldn't let me have them. It got ugly to the point I told them I was going on a hunger strike and not eating another meal at the hospital. I mean, come on now. I'm 46 years old and I think I know what I can eat and how to cut it and chew it thoroughly. Debbie talked to my nurse and she called the doctor and I thought it was resolved. Then I tried to order dinner and it was another nightmare. I'm so glad to be home where I can make my own food and eat what I want to eat!

The atrial fibrillation resolved itself. The cardiologist says it may have been caused by stress (which I've been under quite a bit of lately but not said a lot about) or even my sleep apnea, though that diagnosis pisses me off. I did snore a LOT at my sister's last weekend sleeping in her recliner so I suppose that's possible. Now they wait to see if it happens again.

The heparin drip they had me on did something to my blood and my platelet count dropped enough to be a concern. Once they stopped the drip, the count started to rise again.

I had three IVs and all of them eventually blew. The multiple sticks to draw blood have totally ruined the vein in my right elbow bend. The gal from lab told me that. I am bruised up from all the jabs.

I have to go to the coumadin clinic on Thursday to see if my level is where they want it. It was still low but the cardiologist said if I stayed in the hospital it may be another 4-5 days before it was where it needs to be. Good thing he released me because I was about to go stir crazy and was likely the patient from hell the last two days there. I didn't mean to be but everything just got to me. Thankfully, they can do that test for level with a finger stick instead of a blood draw. I'll be on the coumadin for at least 4-6 weeks and then they will re-evaluate and see where we need to go. Fun!

It took so long to discharge me that I ended up having to say something. It really shouldn't take three plus hours to discharge someone from the hospital, in my humble opinion. My nurse had only three patients and that included me. She came on shift at 7 and by 7:30 knew I was going home. She never even came in to see me and check my vitals until 9:30 and then told me it would be three more hours before I could leave. What the ...? I ended up talking to the charge nurse who agreed to help get me out of there. I swear I heard a cheer go up from that crew when I left. Don't get me wrong, most of the time I was there I had excellent care. But the 3-11 shift the night before and then the day shift my last day were just awful. Guess they save the suck crew for the weekend which is just as well. (My apologies to any nurse reading who may be offended. I did not have a good experience with less than a handful of the nursing staff. For the most part they were an attentive, caring, helpful staff who were there to take care of patients and get the job done.)

I go back to work on Wednesday night. I think I'm strong enough. I will work Wednesday and Thursday and then be off for the weekend. I'll give next week a shot and see how it goes. If it's too much, I'll have my doctor write me up a note to do half shifts for a week to ease me back into it. I have to get back to work. I've got bills to pay and a life to live.

I can return to water aerobics a week from today if I feel up to it. I figure I'll see how I feel. I should be able to get back to that now, too.

It's good to be home. I got to sleep in my own bed, on my tummy no less. I had to get up about 4:30 because my back was hurting due to not sleeping like that for so long but it felt good to be sleeping in my own bed on my tummy once again.

Pain and pulling in my abdomen is almost nil. My abdomenal muscles are tight from getting up and down in bed but that's a good thing. Soon, I guess things will be back to normal here, whatever the heck that is!