Post Op and Release woohoo

Once again folks thanks for all the messages via emails, txts and skype - it has been a great support :):):).
I meant to get a post out yesterday re the op the afternoon before but what with feeling woozy after the op not to say a little feral as well which is my preferred reaction to pain or the thought of it, lol, yesterday was busy with post op stuff plus discharge.

THE orderly who had offered perk coffee and biscuits earlier came back later to show me what she had taped on tv and wall for the bloke opposite me - two A4 pictures from a glossy magazine of a champagne magnum and a chocolate cake filled with cream, and then four pictures from same magazine of a gourmet sausage roll, chicken pie, cheese cake with passion fruit sauce drizzled over it and another pastry - was laughing too much to remember what it was.  Not long after the bloke opposite me got wheeled off for surgery and his wife came over and offered me the magazine she was reading which was a lovely gesture.  I was given a tablet to help relax me (Right!) and then it was my turn.

As brother Brett said, it was very Pink Floyd - Momentary Lapse of Reason, being wheeled through the corridors, through doors until I was parked in the pre-op waiting room (you would need to see the video of this to understand but I got it and had thought the same myself, lol).  I was ok up until the time I left the ward, and then uncontrollably my eyes (firmly shut) started leaking which continued throughout the procedure.  I got asked if I was ok, - yes - leak, leak. Just so you know, this happens when I have xrays on my teeth, lol before I even open my mouth for the dentist to look in, so I figure it is my body's way of coping with whatever - slight nerves to full blown, lol. 

Now a small note by way of explanation that will make sense as you read further.  When Mum first started doing homecare and had a young bloke with broken arms and legs to shower, their conversation about how to manage it went something like this.  Mum told the bloke she would wash him down as far as possible and would do up as far as possible and he could manage possible - if you get my drift......

Back to the op.  The wheeled me into where the op was going to happen - it is a little hazy but my impressions are of lying on a table, night gown lifted with "possible" well exposed and then something that sounded like black polythene sheeting put over me and some " possible" sized cloth being placed into the appropriate position.  There was then some warm liquid gushed over both groins - interesting feeling to say the least and then they said the procedure was beginning - that I would feel a little prick (eyes leaking too much to laugh and respond, heh, heh) and ouch then I jumped as I felt something like an electric shock go down my right leg - great.  Trying to lie still and feeling an unusual sensation as I guessed the dye was being pumped through,  when bam another pain, me yelling for oxygen, the world slowing down (it seemed, nobody jumped quickly so had to ask again) as the pain intensified, someone finally put a mask on and sprayed some GTN under my tongue and SLOWLY it felt though probably about a minute all up, the pain started to recede.  Much more eye leakage and was told that my heart had just gone into spasm  but everything else looked good and it was all over.  I was taken back to the preop room for an hour I think and pretty much dozed, weird jumble of thoughts and then I was taken back to my room.  I either had underneath me or was somehow put on some thin mattress thing that was then blown up around me like a hovercraft underpinnings and was somehow lifted onto my own bed and told I could not move my right leg for 3 hours - and there was some sandbag contraption placed on my upper thigh, groin area to make sure plus my leg felt like a concrete block anyway from the local anesthetic I supposed.  Once again dozed, got a message out that I had survived and was in recovery by txt and dozed again.  Now while I am cast like a ewe in bed, the chap before me is up, dressed and ready to go home.  Flipping heck, an older bloke, plus had previous heart history and though shaking like a leaf was mobile, which I could not even fathom doing.  Bless, he tottered over and offered me his newspaper and some grapes.  His son owns a fruit shop and the old digger helps out at the markets etc and said I was welcome to them and to say good bye to THE orderly when I saw her next.  Was blown away by the kindness of him and his wife.

They bought me my dinner - one slice of roast pork - I had already told the orderly, even if I wasn't up to it, they were to save it for me regardless and could give me double if they liked, lol, so was pleased that I was awake enough to manage it, single lice, salt less helping that it was, lol.   The next thing I knew friend Shelly had arrived for another visit which cheered me up no end and helped to snap me out of the feral place that I was in.  Some nurse had come to tell me earlier that my angiogram was all good, and it may have been the tablets they had put me that had induced the spasms, Told the stupid bint (feral mode), I was having the pains before they put me on tablets and though they had increased since I had been in hospital, what was causing them in the first place and how did I know they would not come back again, grrrrr.  She told me she would get the Dr to explain.....

Before Shelly had arrived, I had thought I wanted to go to the loo and because I wasn't allowed to move they said I had to use a bed pan - no worries.  Along the nurse came and with a bit of a juggle, managed to eventually land on the pan and ........ nothing.  Brain said I wanted to go, bladder thought it wanted to go, but as much as I tried to get there, everything was snapped shut and just could not go.  Drank more water, whistled, tried sheer will power but the lower end was ignoring all efforts.  The nurse said I could wait till I could move to the bathroom myself and removed the bed pan.  She also checked my groin area at the same time - said it was nice and soft, no bleeding - great - like I could have cared  at that point.

After Shelly left, more drinking and a cup of coffee - with biscuits, lol they took the sandbag thing of my leg and I gingerly got up to go to the loo.  More fiddling as they had to catch this one, so with the bed pan now in the loo, away I went, eyes receding back into sockets and thinking there were horses I have known I could have put to shame - obviously all parts still working after the procedure, another tick on the post op list and back into bed.  I skyped Kay around 2am NZ time to let her know I had survived and pretty much went to sleep.  I felt a bit of tightness in my chest but nothing that rated, though was a leeetle anxious when they took the oxygen away from me and the peg on my finger as  my pattern was to drop oxygen stats a bit during the nights.  I hoped the telemetry would work enough if I did get another blast of pain - not entirely trusting that I would be totally ok.

All went well, woke up to meds and had to ask nurse over again what was going on with me after yesterdays procedure - it was going in one ear and out the other it seemed, not a lot was sticking when a woman turned up to take an ekg.  She was extremely chatty, came from the Isle of Man, had been teaching but changed to this job and was loving it, loved nz and was heading over for a month at the end of Jan.  Snap I said.  She is going down the SI then staying at a B&B owned by friends in Ponsonby and said we should catch up for coffee,  so came back with all her details after finishing the ward round.  She also offered me to stay at her place if I needed somewhere before heading back to Geraldton!!!!!! Talk about friendly.

No sooner  she was done than a bloke turned up (Irish) with a fancy machine who said he was doing an ecocardiogram (I think that is what it was) - an ultra sound of my heart from the outside after the angiogram had done the inside.  There had been a shadow on the angiogram which might suggest a leaky valve (thoughts of pig valve replacement flashed through my mind - might not be able to look at pork in the same way again).  I had to lie on my left side, left arm above my head and be still for 20 mins - fully topless again - I tell you St Tropez here I come, wouldn't bat an eyelid anymore, (laughing fit to kill myself at that picture, heh, heh), while he gelled the end of the microphone/camera thing and off he went.  Very interesting experience hearing the beating of one's own heart and seeing it pulsating away on screen which was what I was able to observe once I had to lie on my back for different view.  Same technology as ultra sound for babies but not as ooh er gasp of excitement unless I guess your heart is more likely to be stopping than going, lol.  He spent some time and went over me with the proverbial fine tooth comb as everything looked normal first sweep over and he needed to make sure.  All good I said. 

A small pause for morning tea by then and along came the Drs.  The gist of what they said was that my inside heart was little cause for concern that there was some slight build up of cholesterol on one of the arteries, my outside heart was good and what had happened was that one of my arteries was clamping shut which was causing the pains  - then drew a picture on one of my serviettes to show me what he was talking about.  He said I had coronary artery spasm (google it if you like) which was perfectly able to be managed by meds, no surgery required, and I could be discharged, hey ho and all good.

Got some messages out to family that all was good, then it was lunch and a shower after the nurse had changed the dressing on my groin.  I mean I hadn't been near naked for at least an hour by now, lol.  I remembered the nurse said the night before that I should check it to make sure the INCISION site was still soft, - I also remember looking back at her thinking she was crazy to expect me to be doing anything like going near a wound and what was she talking about INCISION site, I thought they had merely used a needle thingie to put the wire and dye into my groin and FAR too much information.  This nurse said everything was fine and she would give me two bandages to cover site on discharge - great there is no escape...... if I wanted to do stuff like this, I would have become a nurse myself.

At long last, I finally was given a pair of pyjamas to wear, hellaflippinglujah, and where were they when I had wires everywhere that necessitated full frontal nudity or "possible"  being shown to the world, lol.  Mind you, they were blokes pyjamas so had them well hoisted so as not to be gaping at the world as I trotted to backwards and fwds to the bathroom.  I had to wait a little longer and eventually the leur was removed from my hand, the telemetry came off, I was able to go get dressed in my own clothes and I was wheeled down to the reception waiting area.  The Dr's wanted me to stay in Perth for at least 24 hours in case anything went wrong (hmmmm) so I had sent txt to Shelly and rung Mo to see if I could stay with them which was fine except Shelly was at work and Mo did not know how to find the place.  With the open sesame I had forgotten about hospital access to people and places, by the time I had got down stairs they had found Shelly at Rockingham hospital and they were sending me by taxi to save her the trip up, with me arriving at the same time as Shelly was coming out of the door at the end of her shift. They had bunged another woman in the taxi who was going further down than me so maximising their resources.  All was paid for by the hospital.

I had arrived at the hospital with my voluminous handbag and laptop and left with two extra bags and flowers.  I took the orchids out my my NZ bunch and added them to Shelly's bunch and left the lillies which had opened (and one had dropped its petals), with the woman opposite from me who was very sick and didn't appear to have many folk come to see her-  in the spirit of having had things given to me.  It was nice to get to Shelly's and sit, felt a bit light headed but ok and after a couple of cold drinks felt much better.  She decided she didn't want to cook so she and I with her youngest son went to the local Dome for dinner - had salt and pepper squid and a lamb salad and then home again.  We were talking and I said I just had to put my head down and woke up at 5.30am this morning.  Had slight tightness in chest but started my pill regime - am taking 4 a day - and am all good since.  Shelly has gone to work, have got Mo all hooked up on skype after he saw me talking to Kay and Viv,(waves), then Mum (waves again) and am about to go have a shower.  Am having to borrow some of Shells clothes as only have the one pair of spare knickers and what I was admitted in. 

I am here in Rockingham until tomorrow - my flight is booked from Perth to Geraldton at 4pm and Bronwyn or Gerard will get me at the other end.  Tonight is New Year's eve which feels a bit surreal and the plan is to go down to the beach to watch the fireworks and a barbeque tea.  I was all set to go find me a GP on Monday on my return to Geraldton but forgot it is public holidays until Wednesday.  I have off work until the 14th of January and have to have a medical clearance to go back which shouldn't be a problem.  This will give me time for the tablets to bed in so to speak as I believe some of their affects are cumulative until body is adjusted to them.  I will also be referred to a travelling cardiologist who comes to Geraldton once a month I think they said, to monitor progress or the lack thereof. 

Will sign off now, go delete the half post that happened when I pressed the wrong button and leave the fuller unexpurgated version behind.