I arrived in the 3 West Wing at approximately 9:40 AM, but was
not put into a bed until approximately 11:30 AM. I used the time to get
my Living Will updated by the hospital social worker. I was then taken
into a staging area where other patients were awaiting surgery. This process
can take several hours as I was not wheeled away until approximately 1:30 PM.
Before that I had to get naked as they say, receive a drip of IV, talk to the
nurse and doctor, wear what I call pantyhose to prevent a blood clot,
and try to relax as much as I can; given the pain in my hip. I was not
too crazy about the announcement that I would be awake during the entire
surgery. I thought that I was going to have a choice to be knocked out. The
nurse said that I will be able to hear things but they would give me something
that would make me not care! I repeated the Lord's Prayer many times
before being whisked away into the operating room.
She was right, they wheeled me in the operating room and it was on. I remember getting the shot in my lower back and being laid down on my right side and covered up. I can't quite remember being cut but I do remember hearing the doctors, nurses, and others talking and laughing -- not at me but at jokes that were being told. It was weird; I could feel my body being jerked from side to side, hammering, a saw, but no pain. My surgeon let me know that they were done and actually showed me my damaged hip which looked like a doggy bone -- it was oh so surreal. I thought that I was getting stitches at the end of the surgery but it turns out he put in staples and they rolled me back onto a bed and off I went to the recovery room. It took approximately 40 minutes from start to finish.
This room was like being in the midst of Alice and Wonderland and Robocop as strange people kept coming and going, hooking me up to machines, checking my vitals, and asking if I had feeling in my lower half. Finally, after two hours I was whisked away again into my room for the next three nights where they began another round of people hooking me up to various machines, placing my left leg in a brace,
giving me pills, shots, and checking my temperature. This flurry went on all night and through the next morning. I did get a chance to taste hospital food for the first time in my life and it was as I anticipated -- awful! So bad all I can remember was the black coffee which I typically do not drink. The only bright spots were the two cute nurses that attended to me, one all night long.
She was right, they wheeled me in the operating room and it was on. I remember getting the shot in my lower back and being laid down on my right side and covered up. I can't quite remember being cut but I do remember hearing the doctors, nurses, and others talking and laughing -- not at me but at jokes that were being told. It was weird; I could feel my body being jerked from side to side, hammering, a saw, but no pain. My surgeon let me know that they were done and actually showed me my damaged hip which looked like a doggy bone -- it was oh so surreal. I thought that I was getting stitches at the end of the surgery but it turns out he put in staples and they rolled me back onto a bed and off I went to the recovery room. It took approximately 40 minutes from start to finish.
This room was like being in the midst of Alice and Wonderland and Robocop as strange people kept coming and going, hooking me up to machines, checking my vitals, and asking if I had feeling in my lower half. Finally, after two hours I was whisked away again into my room for the next three nights where they began another round of people hooking me up to various machines, placing my left leg in a brace,
giving me pills, shots, and checking my temperature. This flurry went on all night and through the next morning. I did get a chance to taste hospital food for the first time in my life and it was as I anticipated -- awful! So bad all I can remember was the black coffee which I typically do not drink. The only bright spots were the two cute nurses that attended to me, one all night long.
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