On Sunday, we goofed around Louisville and did some sightseeing. I am on Office Manager/Accountant for a man who owns 22 KFC franchises, so I felt it was only right to visit the Colonel Sanders Museum - it was closed but we got some good videos of the grounds and the Colonel's gravesite. We went by the Louisville Slugger Museum as well, but also spent an awful lot of time across the bridge in Indiana at Wal Mart! Every time we'd get back from there, we 'd remember something else we needed!
I did not sleep a whole lot the night before surgery. My hospital orders said I had to have "soap suds enema until clear" on them, so when Dr. Levin called to check on me Sunday afternoon, I mentioned to him that I was really dreading the enema. Even with all three of my c-sections, I had never had to have one. So, he said there was a way around the enema - go to the drugstore (back to Wal Mart!) and get a bottle of magnesium citrate. He said that would do the trick. It was not bad, really, and definitely the lesser of two evils. I took a sleeping pill, but still couldn't sleep till around 2am. I woke up at 4am, and just decided to go ahead and get up. I showered, shaved my legs, blow dried and curled my hair (didn't want to have bad hair at the hospital!) and woke Jon up about 5:30am. We were staying at the Inn at Jewish Hospital and they have a 24 hour shuttle to the hospital, which is only a couple of blocks away. We went down for the shuttle at 6am, and made it to the Outpatient Care Center within five minutes. Signed in, and there was virtually no wait...they took me back to have my blood drawn, then the next thing I knew I was taken up to the surgery waiting area and told to undress and put on the gown and hat, along with the no-skid socks. Jon had to wait in the waiting room until I got settled in a bed, then they brought him back. I was the 2nd case, so basically we waited and talked for a while, Jon videotaped me, and I read some of the Reader's Digest. A short while later, Dr. Levin walks in and says, "Is this her?" and I said, "Is this him?" It was a pretty funny moment. We talked for a few minutes, then he told me he had one quick case to do, then he would be back to get me. The nurse then came in to do my IV and they also started antibiotics since I have a history of uterine infections following each c-section. The nurse anesthetist and the anesthesiologist both came in to ask lots of questions, and before we knew it, Dr. Levin was back and saying we'd be going to "do this thing" in about 10 minutes. He has such a great sense of humor. He looked over my previous c-section scars and said, "Oh cool, we have a dotted line to use!" Then he said, "See you in 10 minutes...but don't start without me!" It was then that I finally started getting nervous - up until then I was fine. They gave me a shot of Versed in my IV to relax me. Before I knew it, they came in and told Jon and I to say our good-byes, then they wheeled me off to the OR. I remember seeing the video screen for the operating microscope, and that was the last thing I remember in the OR.
I came-to in a great deal of pain in the recovery room. I guess, had I thought about it beforehand, I should have expected the pain. I had gone by all of my previous c-sections, figuring it would be similar. But with them, I had had epidurals, so in the recovery room I had still been numb. This time I was not numb! It was pain! They gave me Morphine, then more, then more again. Nothing. Still in pain. They then gave me Dilaudid, which they said was stronger than Morphine. Finally, after a few shots of that, I could feel some relief. A brief time went by (at least to me it was brief) they gave me another shot of that. Finally, after I had been in the recovery room for 2 hours, they were ready to transport me to my room. They gave me a shot of Demerol before we went to the room. |
