.. it's just a little cut ..

okay lets rewind and review.. thoracic outlet syndrome. remember the post i had way back when on this? alright. so after we did all the testing i made an appointment for surgery, since the surgeon is booked 6 months out. you heard me right, 6 months. i made the appointment in February for august 24th. it was his earliest appointment. it could be cancelled if therapy and strength training worked in restoring my feeling and motor skills. i started working extra hard with my trainer, doing stretches and following directions to a t. after 6 months of effort, nothing had changed if anything it had just gotten worse. so surgery was the only option left, other than dealing with it which we determined wouldn't really be a good option. 

i was told to show up at the hospital at 11am and check in. we did that and i did the whole pee in a cup draw blood put on a funny gown and attach bracelets and a tube to me deal. i was ready to go by about 11:45. we were sitting in our room waiting and the nurse came in an informed us that his surgery this morning took longer than they expected and that he was running about 2 hours behind. wonderful, cause starving to death was on my list of things to do that day. so we tried to keep my mind off of it, we watched some Steven seagal show on tv that happened to last 2 hours. perfect. after the movie i did one last potty break, just to make sure and when i got back to my bed the nurses moved me into the quarantine  room. your family can't be there the only people who can are the nurse and the anesthesiologist. so i waited for another 15 minutes and my dr showed up. he talked to me about the meds he would give me and asked if i had a bad history with anesthesia. after we chatted, you guessed it. i waited. shortly after a nurse showed up to pull me into my OR. yes i was awake for this whole thing. i had my surgery in OR 9. they wheeled me in and had me move beds. i climbed onto the other bed, adjusted my gown (i.e. untied it for the dr) and they gave me some oxygen. and i waited. after about 5 minutes i remember seeing my dr and then the world disappeared. i woke up in the recovery room with a huge bandage that went half way up my neck, to my arm pit and half way down my chest. and it killed. i was crying it hurt so bad. the nurses gave me meds and pillows and within about 20 i was feeling good. i had to stay one night there due to the fact that breathing can puncture your lung, nice huh? so they prepped me to move. we left the recovery room and out to the elevators where they tried to find cody. he wasn't in there, apparently he was going to the bathroom but his biological dad was there. yep so not the person i want to see when i first wake up from a painful surgery. i told the nurse i didn't want to see him and to take me up and come back for my husband. 

i was taken to my room 468. i was promptly greeted by my nurse and my pca. they hurried and changed my gown from the stupid itchy paper one to a nice cloth one, got me situated with my leg pumps (to prevent blood clots) and ice. sweet girls. within about 10 minutes cody got there and started feeding me ice and water, i was on a liquid only diet which later proved to be a good choice. i ordered some dinner, if you can call it that. it was tomato soup, diet coke and pudding. it arrived and i ate. after eating it was time to try and walk. this is where the liquid diet was my friend. i did well until about 3/4 of the way then i felt really faint and sick. cody had to run and get me a bucket before i lost it. yep everything came back. so it was off to bed and a dose of heavy duty anti-nausea medications for me. I did have a few visitors, my family all came and saw me in my super hot purple moo moo. Cody stayed with me until 11:30pm, bless his heart and then i told him to go home and sleep good. Good thing i sent him home. the night was filled with wake ups every 1-2 hours. the pca would come in every 2 hours and check my oxygen levels and blood pressure and then my nurse came in every three to give me more pain and nausea meds. crazy night, i think i slept a whole 4 hours between it all. the only plus was i was drugged so i was out within minutes of them being done. 

the next day i had some pudding and water and was up to walk again. good news, this time we did 3 laps, felt great and was in hardly any real pain. the dr came by, he took off the bandages and told me it went well. the surgery took a little bit longer and was a tad harder than he expected. he said everything in there was really tight. (really?!?! i could have told you that!) i stayed until 1pm, because they could give me a hospital grade anti inflammatory then that i definitely wanted before trying to survive at home. cody was glad to leave, if he had his choice we would have gone home at 9am. but it was alright. the next few days were spent living in the lazy boy chair at home, the only place that is comfortable, on pain killers and muscle relaxers and living in pj's and blankets. 

i am glad to report that it has since been a week and i have returned to work and normal-ish activity. it still takes a lot for me to wash my hair and to do my hair. i still take pain killers every 4 hours and i still sleep with ice and 7 pillows, but doing much better than before. as for recovery, i can't lift anything over 10 pounds until the end of September, and then gradually add stuff in. so it will be a journey. 

sadly this is the only picture i have from the hospital stay, i wanted to see the cut after the bandages came off the next morning.