Sunday, February 10, 2013

homey home

I have been getting a lot of spam messages on here so unforuntly I have had to turn comment verification on. For now, I have left it so you can still comment without a username, but if leaving a comment do give it a few seconds once you post for the verifaction to appear.

So, I am home. I got home the start of the week. What an eventful week it has been not to mention an eventful hospital stay.

Surgery wasnt without its how hitches. I left the ward at 2 and didnt return nearly 10.
The plan was to plant the cartiledge that they took from my chest and put it in my arm. Turns out, after a lot of digging around, they were unable to find an adequate artery in my arm to connect to the cartiledge. So despite my wrist now having being rather bruised and stitched from them digging around, it served no purpose to the surgery. They had to find another area to place the cartilege, so that is now in the top of my left leg. They took 3 large piece apprently and I have 2 sets of insicsions on my leg.

And last but not least I have an inscsion on my chest, just under my boob. The chest one always turns out to be the most painful, but then, they do dig around a fair bit from the one area.

From waking in recovery, the chest area was painful. I was written up for 20mg morphine IV, but we went right through that with my pain levels still way above control and my heart suffering for it. We added IV tramadol to the mix, which I have never had before, but it made little differnce. The anaesthetist in the end came and gave me a large dose of Ketamine with a top up pain button of fentanyl. He was a nice guy and joked that for most patients, with what I had had, he would be scrapping them off the roof as they would be so high. Yet, I was having regular conversation with him. Eventually got to the ward and after some minor hicups like flooding the bathroom (oops) managed some sleep.

There are a new team of ENT docs on, none of which seem to be very wise. They pretty much wanted me to go home the next day, so they said they were stopping all my pain meds and would begin the works for sending me home. I pretty much lost it at the point, given that I was still in agony and feeling rather rough. My nurse for the day had already commented about how crap I looked and so after she shouted at them, I eventually got to see the pain team and a plan sorted. I had regular Ketamine addded to my list as well as the fentanyl pump and over the next couple of days, slowly began the process of moving about and keeping things like my lungs functioning.

At the weekend, I had another fight regarding pain meds, which left me going from major pain relief to nothing, for almost 14 hours. During which time, I also broke my expensive tablet, that I was using to keep me sane with entertainment. But eventually, monday night, things were in control enough to manage, and I arrived home.

Since then, pain has still been a big issue. Mainly still in my ribs, but also in the base of my lungs. Things didnt feel right and so I ended up first at the walk in centre, then in resus in A&E. I had a suspected lung collapse or blot clot. x-ray had a more shadowed area on it than is normal for me. Blood were eventually taken, though it was difficult as my veins are still sulky. They came back clear for infection. Arterial gases were obtained, that showed that I was hypoxic (lacking oxygen) And urgent CT scan was ordered, but I needed IV access that no one in the A&E had been able to achieve. Anaesthetics were called and eventually we managed to get a line in. CT was performed, but showed no major clot or collapse. The first doctor had said she wanted me to stay the night anyway as I needed oxygen. They decided to keep me in overnight for observation and further tests, though the second doc, decided to ignore the results and not use oxygen.

The next day, I had been transfered an othorpedics ward, and I was eventually review by a gastro doc. Which seemed a bit odd to me, espically given that my complaint was in relation to the chest. anyway, despite my bloods saying that I didnt have an infection, they decided that was the cause of my pain and I was discharged with a set of antibiotics.

Things havnt really changed. I look so pale and ill and still feel rather crap, not to mention sleeping so much when I can get comfortable.

Things are pretty bleak at the minute and I spend a lot of time juggling pain meds, to keep things moving. Even on my max dose though, a coughing fit leaves me clutching my chest in tears. my boob closest to the surgery is also throwing a tantrum and adding in lots of nasty side effects.

And that is basically where things are at right now. It feels harder to hold on to good, and the pain is wearing me down hard. I know it will get better, it just needs time. But that of course is always easy to say.

Plus, I am kinda hoping that it isnt infection in my chest, although that was the less of the 3 possible evils. The reason being, that if there is a darker area on my xray, that is different from previous xrays which is what the doc said, then this will mean that my lungs are deteriorating. Not a good sign really.

Anyway, time for sleep. Seeing as last night I slept for 14 hours solid oops. (and given the fact that I cant spell hours or solid)








1 comment:

  1. O wow Kim you've been through a lot recently. I have been reading but not had chance to comment much. My Blog is also getting a lot of spam and I haven't posted much as I'm not in a good place at the minute.
    All those pain meds! that's heaps, it's a wonder you can still write . . . But I suppose tolerance builds up as with any meds.
    It must be worrying not knowing what the shadow is on your lung . . . My lung is getting worse. I've managed to cancel, avoid or just ignore all my letters for chest reviews until last week when they rang me and made me see how important it is that I go in for a review . . . I don't want to but I will. I just know it's worse . . . and I know it's my own doing. O well.
    I hope the pain improves for you Kim and things stabilise so you can get on with life. Sending love and strength x x

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