Monday 15 October 2012

Day 7: Fingers Crossed, I'm Outta Here!

Day 7 arrived with my blood pressure consistently staying at 90 or slightly above and the lower number hovering in the low 50's..........YAY!

While I was waiting for my doctor and today's verdict on going home, a resident came into my room and started discussing my file with me. I had never had a resident before...Only my surgical fellows and my surgeon. The resident said I should stay in hospital until Wednesday or perhaps even Thursday!
Uggh...that would be 5 or 6 more days

 It was decided my leg pain was nerve neuropathy and I was started on  Gabapentin last night and would be taking it 3 times a day. It takes 5 to 7 doses to see any results and then generally the dosage needs tweaked higher, resulting in another 5 to 7 doses before they can see if it is the right strength. The Gabapentin would mask the nerve neuropathy pain in my leg.

I was trying to wrap my mind around this, as it was the first I had heard I might be in that much longer. Luckily, my surgeon walked in just before the resident left. The resident repeated all the info he had shared with me and my surgeon said very flatly,...Mrs XXX will be safer at home. The resident tried to broach each of the reasons and the surgeon just repeated (several times in the same flat voice...Mrs XXX will be safer at home.

He then leaned forward to get full eye contact with me and repeated the same words with emphasis on the word "safer".

It was really strange...but I understood what he was trying to say. I stammered out that I agreed with my surgeon and felt I would progress at home. They left to sort everything out with the nursing station and I called my husband in excitement. He had to grab a quick shower and would drive in right after and would be about 1 and 3/4 hours till he would arrive.

I packed my belongings up and went out to the nursing station to see if I was safe to leave my bag and poles in my room and take the wheelchair down for a latte in the other building. I shared I would come back in an hour and a half as DH had a long drive to get me. They all seemed a bit shocked I was leaving and several nurses advised I should say I wanted to stay longer!  But I didn't want to stay longer!

As I turned to leave, feeling a bit worried about what I had agreed to, my surgeon came up and sort of motioned me over to where we would be out of earshot of anyone.

He was friendly in his tone and said goodbye and reminded me of the exercises to be done and recapped  demonstrating the ski poles. By this time, I was quite comfortable with them and had been covering territory poling about the wards each day. He recapped my meds and advised there were scripts to be picked up back over at the discharge desk on the ward. He had added back the T3's as he decided that the single falling BP episode that occurred while still on them, was most likely a positional BP problem as it was taken immediately upon sitting up.
As I said goodbye too, he again sort of leaned forward and said that sometimes things happen on a ward that can affect patient recovery. Some of those things had  happened to me, like the catheter not removed when he ordered it and then getting the UTI.  His orders left for me to be mobile as of day 2 and compression stocking removed, yet decisions made to not follow those orders implemented out of concern for the BP problem and the compression stocking not put back on. There were a bunch more I haven't even mentioned. They all boiled done to his decisions being overridden.
 In his opinion, when these types of things start to happen, sometimes they can snowball for a particular person...He felt I was that person...therefore he thought I was safer at home before something else went wrong.

He left me a list of what to do for each scenario that the resident wanted me to stay for.

Bid me goodbye and instructed me to return to his office in 4 weeks....

Hurrah!                 I'm Outta Here!!!

20 comments:

Tammy said...

So glad you get to go home! But take it easy and take care and let your self mend. At least you can do it at home now! :)

Di said...

Whoop, whoop!!!!!! Welcome home Mo. I truly thought we were gonna need to assemble a posse and break out outta that place :(

Take care, but being home must feel soooooo good.

Love and hugs, Di xx

Madeline said...

Oh my...what an experience! Hope you have a speedy CONTINUED recovery!

Madeline said...

What an experience! Hope you have a speedy continued recovery!

Lisa Rukin Swift said...

It's always great to be home and to be able to sleep in your own bed!

Mary Jo said...

So happy for you that you are able to come home. And glad that he explained why he made that decision.
Good luck with your recovery at home, take it easy, and glad you are keeping us posted!

SandeeNC said...

That's kind of scary that your doctor considers it to be safer at home....yikes! But I'm glad your home and hopefully recovering and "safe". waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :)

Annie said...

Hi Mo. I am certain that your surgeon's decision was correct and you will make a better recovery at home. Less noise and your own things around. Xx

Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving such a kind comment.

Hugs
Annie x

Glenda Atkins said...

Sounds like you have a pretty wonderful surgeon, hospitals are not places you want to linger in for a large variety of reasons and so glad he told you his!
hugs
Glenda

laura said...

Oh, so glad you are going home. Safer seems like a strange comment. I was prescribed Lyrica for my neurve issues after surgery. Good Luck

Tracy said...

Holy crapola!! Why are those people still working there, if the surgeon doesn't even trust them, wow.
I have to say when I got my surgery, Everything went smoothly, but I didn't feel well. I couldn't keep my food down (which tasted gross and I am a picky eater). I faked feeling better to get out of there, and got hubby to pick me up a Teen burger on the way home....I was fine as soon as I got home.
But I do hate hospitals and it may have been I was just sick at being at the hospital.
Glad you got a good surgeon and got to go home.

Jennifer Shaw said...

Glad to hear that you are heading home. Feel better soon! :)

Nirupama said...

Sounds like you have a very wise surgeon. Hope you are recovering well!

Unknown said...

Hi ya, well that makes for interesting reading - looks like hospitals are pretty much the same the world over! We have a great health service here in the UK (the NHS) but, as with any profession, there are some people who are in the wrong job and don't do things well or right.

Glad you got to go home, hoping that you are continuing to improve and looking forward to your next instalment.

Sarah

PS - Thanks for the lovely email - it was a real pleasure to read!

Card will be in the post by the end of the week.

Erika said...

Great news Mo but you must take it easy at home. I believe you probably are safer at home and if you do as advised on the mend very soon.
Take care, I think your consultant is a top bloke, hugs Erika.

Barbara said...

congrats on being sprung! I'm sure that boost in your emotions will go a long way towards your recovery.
Take it easy at home and just keep following the doctor's orders. Speedy recovery.

505whimsygirl said...

Yay! Home you go!!! I'm impressed that you blogged from the hospital!

I've seen the wild burros in Nevada too. I just love seeing wildlife in general. I also saw some antelope but they were too far away to get a decent photo.

Welcome home!!!

Hugs,
Kay

Desire Fourie said...

Wishing you all the best with your health. Hugs Desíre {Doing Life - my personal blog}

Darnell said...

Oh, blessings on you, Mo! Do be super careful with that BP and getting up in stages. I know what that's like. You don't want to end up back in there!! Thank God for that surgeon watching your back ... as it were!!

(And thanks for coming by today!)

Becky said...

Yay! Wishing you a speedy recovery!