Monday, July 25, 2011-My Hospital Stay

This entry is rather graphic and has a couple pictures, so if you have a weak stomach, I recommend skipping it.

I'd been doing so well at posting every day...then I started having health issues. In the past month, I've been in the ER 3 times, had an EKG and Echocardiogram (sp), had a vein mapping done, been hospitalized for 4 days and I'm still on the mend.

If you're a new reader, I'm a dialysis patient. Well, my arm they use for dialysis clotted up and they had to put a temporary catheter in my neck. A few days later, they took the temporary one out and put in a more permanent one in.

Those surgeries suck. You don't get the good drugs where they put you to sleep. They stick you in the neck 3 different times and give you a local anethesia and you're wide awake. They told me to turn my head to the left until my ear touched the pillow I was on and they said I'd feel a little pressure.

What I felt was a little pressure, but what I heard, was them slicing my flesh. There was much cutting and tugging and pushing and when it was nearly over, they said they were giving me a few stitches. Well guess what? By that time the lidocaine was beginning to wear off and though I didn't have all the feeling back, I felt small pinches where the needle went in and out of my body.

That was on Monday. I went upstairs to the dialysis unit at the hospital and sent home. Thank God I had pain medicine from Saturday because they didn't send me home with a thing. Not even dismissal papers.

My arm was in excruciating pain Tuesday and Wednesday. I was awaiting a call from my vascular surgeon, to see what he was going to do about my arm. Something told me that if I wanted results, I needed to be seen by my primary physician.

I called her office early Wednesday on the off chance that I didn't hear from the surgeon. Guess what? I didn't hear from him.

I went into her office Wednesday afternoon and I had a temperature, my arm was warm and red and I was taken to the hospital directly from her office.

It was late Thursday that my surgeon came to see me. He assured me that there was no worry of the clot breaking off and traveling to my heart or lungs. It was isolated. He still wasn't sure just how he was going to go about "fixing" things. He'd probably do my surgery on Monday.

Well, my kidney dr. came in on Friday and said he was not interested in waiting until Monday, he scheduled it for Friday morning.

Remember how brutal that surgery was on Monday? Well, I found myself back in that same room, turning my head until my left ear was on that pillow again. This time, I was given something in an IV that relaxed me and something else to supposedly ease the pain.

Well, I felt each snip of the stitches and I said OW each time, to let them know I felt it. Well honey, that man told me to hold my breath, so I did, and he started pulling the "straw" out of my neck. Did I tell you it is basically connected to my jugular vein?

Yeah...

Well, just as I recovered from that, they start applying pressure on it, so I don't bleed out. I did say I could feel this ish, right?

I thought I was going to pass out. Remember, my arm is still uber sensitive and they are slightly leaning on it during surgery.

Just about the time they go ahead and tape up my neck, they start cutting a little lower on my chest and put in a more permanent catheter.

Everything I went through Monday, I went through again on Friday...on top of that, my veins decided to play hide and seek, so when they came to draw blood for labs it was a no go.

It took six people to try and one person tried twice and on that 7th time, they finally got it.

I got to come home on Saturday evening. I won't complain about anything. Two people coded while I was there.

On Sunday I went to fill my prescriptions. One was for a mandatory dialysis med and the last time I tried to fill it over a year ago, my insurance would not cover it unless I did a mail order and then they'd only do it 3 fills at a time.

At first the girl in the pharmacy said that again, my insurance wouldn't cover it and it's a 30 day supply, for $533. Then I remembered a discount card that my social worker gave me. They wouldn't accept it the previous year, but I just couldn't throw it away. I handed it over and the girl said she'd try it. Well guess what? God is too good! That medicine cost me $5!!!!

It will be a few days until I show my face again since I'm recovering.

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