Canada Goose’s AchillesBlog

October 15, 2010

The next morning the nurse told me that I was on-call again and that meant that they would perform all scheduled surgeries before they got to me but the good news was that on Fridays they dedicate an OR just for orthopaedic backlog. As it happened, they wheeled me in at 10:30am for my surgery. I opted for the spinal block and requested to be sedated enough to have a nap through it all. I woke up about 15 minutes before they were done. The procedure went well and took about an hour. The only concern was that my blood pressure was quite high and had been since I got to the hospital. After recovery, they wheeled me back to my room. My husband convinced the nurses to call the PT and they sent someone up to see us at about 2:30pm. She explained to Kevin (my husband) I would need a wheelchair, a comode and a transfer board. She also said that he would have to hurry and get the stuff because most of the homecare places close at 5:00pm on Fridays for the weekend! The spinal took forever to wear off but that was okay since at the first notion of pain they pumped with painkillers. They kept me overnight since I had to pass the physiotherapy before they would let me go home and was scheduled for the next morning. That night was a killer! It seemed like the percoset wasn’t working. I felt like my legs were on fire. The nurse gave me something for inflammation which was a huge help. In the morning they topped up my percoset, served me breakfast then I promptly vomited. I felt dizzy and nauseas. She gave me some Gravol for the nausea and then I slept for 2 hours and woke up just before the PT appt. I was so excited to be going home! Kevin secured the equipment and its a good thing he is in the homebuilding industry. He had his employees build some ramps for me to get into the house! Now all I had to do was pass the PT. At the PT appt, she wrapped a belt around my middle and stuck a walker in front of me. I said that I didn’t think I was supposed to be using that since I am completely NWB. She went back to check my chart and was at a loss of what to do with me. As it turns out, she suggested to get a wheelchair where the arms removed. Kevin said that would have been nice to know the day before when he went out to get the stuff. The biggest problem was figuring out how was I going to get onto the toilet. We have a two storey home and I was going to be relegated to the main floor and was going to have to use the two piece bath. It’s not that big of a space and my husband suggested that he could disconnect the plumbing from the sink and remove the vanity to allow for the wheelchair to come up beside the toilet. The PT thought that a great idea, however, I was not going to let that happen. There had to be another way. Since the PT thought that there was no way I could transfer from the wheelchair, she suggested a comode on wheels that I could get on in the hall outside the bathroom and then be pushed over the toilet. Now that meant my husband also got the wrong comode! Back to my room I went and my husband was off to find a homecare place that would be open. 2hrs later he was back with the goods to prove to the PT he was prepeared. What gets me, is that they were more worried about how I was going to get on the toilet than how I was going to get into my house or car! I didn’t care, I just wanted out of there I’d figure it all out on my own.

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