I woke up to find that my drain
wound had leaked and soaked my clothes and the bed with a bunch of blood and
other drain fluids, yuck. I was super
excited because today is the leak test.
If passed water, broth, and sugar-free popsicles await. I hadn’t had anything to drink since 10:00 pm
on day one. I wasn’t dehydrated, they
give you IV fluids, but I felt dehydrated and thirsty. I got in the chair and got wheeled
downstairs. They gave me an unpleasant
clear liquid that was not good, but not terrible. The technician who does this test has a
reputation for joking about the liquid being an alcoholic shot (mine was
tequila, he said). This technician is a
bright spot on the journey. He actively
encourages you to watch the x-ray dye pass through your newly-surgeried stomach. He points out that there are no leaks (like I
would know how to spot one anyway unless it was blatantly obvious). It was done, I passed, fluids, yay!
I was walking more now too. There’s almost always someone out walking the
halls. Even though I have a tendency to
stay quiet I still walked and talked with lots of people. I met a nice lady who had come from
Denver. She was from Germany originally
and had lived in the states for quite a few years. I speak German pretty well, so we walked and
talked in German (at least as best as I could).
I think it helped to cheer her up meeting someone and talking in her
native language. Patients here often
have meetups where they will decide to meet at a certain time to walk. It is common to see as many as 5-7 people
slowly zombie-walking down the hall pushing their I.V. poles.
(Hallway, it wraps around the whole top floor)
(The hallway overlooks the lobby)
(The ramp, it has 4 switchbacks to make it an easy climb)
(It's just an abandoned IV pole, but the darkness of my bad photo makes it look all zombie-apocalypse)
(Nurse's station)
Back in the room I noticed that the
last IV infusion left a red welt just inside my wrist.
I mentioned it to a nurse, but she said it
wasn’t a big deal.
Thank goodness for
that I didn’t want that IV to be moved to my other hand.
My wife had complained of stinging in her
hand, and had to have hers moved.
My IV
didn’t sting, but I didn’t care for the feeling.
I have a bit of complaining to do about the
I.V.
I wish the hospital did something
to warm the medicines that they inject through the I.V.
I’m speaking from an area of ignorance
here.
I don’t know if medicines are
allowed to be warmed first or not.
I’ve
seen nurses in the states hold them between their hands before injecting them
into the I.V. lines to try and warm them a bit.
I was getting 2 or sometimes 3 syringes at a time.
Each had a lot of medicine (a tablespoon or
more).
These medicines are given at room
temperature which is nearly 30 degrees colder than body temperature and the
cold is very noticeable as it enters your veins and spreads up your arm.
I didn’t like it especially when they did 2 or
3 in rapid succession.
Maybe I’m just
whining.
My drain was also still leaking, so
the nurse went to talk to the doctor about it.
A few minutes later the doctor came in, checked it, and decided that I
could have it pulled early. The
drain-removal process is intimidating.
I’d guess there is about 8-10 inches of tubing inside your body and a
stitch holding it there. The stitch was
cut (barely felt it) and then there is an odd sensation as the tube is
pulled. It’s not painful, but it’s not
pleasant. When I was a kid sometimes my
siblings and I would hold a piece of spaghetti with our fingers and swallow the
rest. Then we would gross each other out
by yanking it up and out of our throats.
This is the closest sensation I can think of to having the drain pulled,
but it’s across your belly not up your throat.
After the drain was out, I took a shower and put on clean clothes. The rest of the day passed with walking or
resting. At one point they brought a
nasty (although tasteless) blue liquid which is another dye to check for
leaks. This one is bad. You only get about 2 tablespoons, but it took
me four swallows to get it down and I dry-heaved twice. For the next three bathroom breaks my urine was
green (which is a good sign).
(Shower)
(Bathroom)
Later in the afternoon I realized
that my IV problem in my wrist had gotten worse. There was a balloon of fluid starting at my
knuckles and running halfway up my forearm.
It didn’t hurt, but it looked terrible.
Again, the nurse talked to the doctor and the doctor said it could come
out (and stay out). Now I could walk the
halls without the IV stand. I even went
up and down the stairs a couple of times.
I took the rest of my meds by mouth but still got the syringe of blood
thinners in my belly (the needle was small and I barely even felt it although I
dreaded it knowing it was coming).
Comments
Post a Comment