Hospital Food, Pig Nose, and Lack of Sleep: The Worst Parts of Recovery

Recovering from surgery is a weird process. Coming out of the anesthesia is probably one of the oddest sensations I have ever experienced and is something I hope to never have to experience again. That being said, recovery hasn't all been bad. Here's a list of the ups, downs, and in betweens.

1.  Apparently when I'm coming out of general anesthetic, I think I am freaking hilarious.  I came up with the title of my last blog post (Ding Dong the Bitch is Dead) during that time. I also made lots of jokes about feeling like I was insanely attractive in that moment. This is the selfie I decided to send a bunch of people to show off just how beautiful I am immediately after surgery:

2.  My nephew, Lucas, is the truly hilarious one in my family. When he saw the above photo, he asked if it was from picking my nose and how would I have done that without Rob seeing it happen? He then said that if Rob would have seen me picking my nose, he would have said, "Aunty Breanne, that's gross" and I would have stopped.

3.  The only pain I really felt right after surgery was a sore throat and nose (not sure if this was explained but the surgery to remove my tumour was up through my nasal cavities/sinuses). I assumed I was on great pain meds but apparently my IV was just hooked up to antibiotics and saline.  If I ever had a headache I was given Tylenol.

4.  Without the crazy gauze covering my nose, I really only looked like I had been beaten up and had a swollen nose. When someone showed me a picture of what I looked like, I said "I look like a pig.  Hah!"  Also, laughing with mega packing up your nose is hard and I don't recommend it.

5. My throat is still sore and my uvula is swollen to a crazy degree (I constantly feel like I have something in my throat). This is apparently normal due to the intubation done during surgery but it's still an awful feeling and I can't wait until my uvula is a normal size again.  With this pain, it made eating in general difficult, especially the same day as surgery. When they brought my supper that evening, I couldn't quite believe what they expected me to eat. Potato wedges, mystery meat, and blueberries did not go over too well. Thank goodness my mom went and bought me some jello.

6. Waking up with three IVs, a catheter, and crazy stockings that get hooked up to a machine that rhythmically expands the stockings to help my circulation is disconcerting. I have come to hate needles so having three IVs (plus one more puncture wound where they tried to get one started) was probably the worst part. 

7.  Not sleeping after surgery is awful. My first night in the hospital, I could not fall asleep. I had one neighbour who screamed all night because he was in so much pain and another one who yelled at the nurse every hour for pain meds (even though they were giving it to him as often as they could). Between that and being woken up the few times I did drift off to do tests, I think I maybe got three hours of sleep that night. Then the doctors and residents came around to do rounds at 7 AM and I was sent for a CT scan at 8:30. It made for an exhausting beginning to my recovery. 

8. My neuro-surgeon came to visit me the first morning after my surgery to see how I was feeling and to reiterate at that point that the surgery was very successful.  He also mentioned that the CT scan I had had that morning showed no residual tumour, which was above and beyond what I was expecting from all of this. I did not think they could get all of it because of all the critical structures (arteries and nerves) in that area. 

I'm going to end this post on that very positive note.  Dr. Beiko did mention that an MRI would be a better imaging modality to see the brain tissues but I will only be getting that done approximately 3 months after surgery. I am still super excited and positive about the results and reassurances from the surgeon, however. 

Next time on the Priscilla Chronicles: the removal of the nasal packing was simultaneously the worst and best part of recovery and heparin shots hurt like a son of a gun.