I am thoroughly convinced Jerry likes to raise my blood pressure randomly by doing the one thing that is my biggest pet peeve in the entire world...arriving late for an appointment.
My check in time for surgery was 7 am, it takes at least 20 minutes to drive to the hospital from the house and we had to drop Zachary off at a friend's house where he was going to catch the school bus for the very first time, I'm sad I didn't get to see him get on the bus and get a picture of it but glad that he was excited and had a fun time and no problems.
Grandma Chicken didn't get to our house until 6:25 and Jerry wasn't ready to leave the house until 6:32, in my book, that's late. I wanted to leave the house at 6:15. So we rushed to Zac's friend's house and literally dropped him at the front door and raced to the hospital and checked in right at 7:00, though by the time the clerk wrote down the time he put 7:01 which rubs me the wrong way...no in the grand scheme it doesn't matter but it does bug me.
My surgery was supposed to be at 9, by this time it was around 8. The orderly came and got me and Jerry went out to the waiting area and I went to pre-op and I was told I could be there for up to an hour but it would most likely be less then 45 minutes, they'd start my IV, I'd speak to my surgery nurse and the anesthesiologist and then go back for surgery. I met the pre-op nurse Juanita who was very nice, she started my IV, and hooked me up to the blood pressure machine and pulse ox and I notice my ring finger was really cold so I asked if we could re-tape my rings looser and she said of course, she took one look and my finger we noticed it was really blue and she started tearing off the tape and my rings almost fell off (she joked that they found a new way to get rings off) so she called Jerry back so he could hold the rings then she let him stay with me. Juanita was wonderful. Her decision to let Jerry stay with me turned out to be really good because someone decided to delay my surgery 2 hours - but no one told me this yet!
I met the first anesthesiologist at around 10:30 then the knee replacement guy came down and my anesthesiologist introduced himself to that guy as well. My doctor came down and went in and talked to the knee replacement guy first which puzzled me, at that point I was already an hour and a half past my surgery time; he then came over and talked to me and explained that they would start the knee replacement but his portion of the surgery wouldn't be for an hour or so so he would do my surgery during that time then go in and finish the knee replacement...ok but the anesthesiologist can't be in two rooms at once and my operating room is still being used by someone else. He said if the people currently in my operating room don't finish in my room and he is needed for the knee replacement I have to wait until after the knee replacement...Juanita was not happy at all. She thinks I should have gone in first since I was supposed to go in at 9 and I have to say I agree with her :-)
I do have a feeling if I had been checked in when I first arrived instead of being delayed 30 minutes, then not being ready when pre-op called for me the first time I would have gone down just before 9 as scheduled.
So at around 10:45 I met my surgery nurse Eric who was very nice and my new anesthesiologist, but I can't remember her name, she was way nicer then the first guy so I'm glad for that. Jerry got a call from someone at the hospital that they needed to show him how to use some device for home for me so I told him to go ahead and go because it probably would not be long at that point. I'm not sure what time I went into the OR but it didn't take long once I got back there. The anesthesia went fine, they don't even make you count anymore, just 2 deep breaths and you're out.
Supposedly my doctor talked to me in post-op, I don't remember that at all. I remember the nurse taking the tube out of my throat and the I took the pulse ox off my finger and the nurse telling me I had to keep it on and that I was out of surgery and that I was fine. I remember bending my knee and being shocked that I could because I was told I would be in an immobilizer. I looked at the clock and it took me a few minutes to focus and it was almost exactly noon. I had a monster of a migraine and told the nurse that. She asked me what I normally took and I told her I need Treximet and she wheeled me out to the recovery area.
I don't remember my recovery nurse's name either but she was awesome also. She said that the pharmacy does not stock Treximet and asked if Immnitrex works for me, I explained that Imminitrex is in Treximet but there is also a muscle relaxer in it and she said she would find something that would work for me. Meanwhile she brought Jerry back and got me some juice and crackers. She and the pharmacist researched the 2 drugs in Treximet and got the correct doses of those and I just took those separately instead of all in one pill, those with the Lortab got rid of my migraine. We went over all my discharge orders and home care. Each nurse that I was assigned gave me a card that said "thank you for letting me care for you" with their name on it and then when I left I got a goodie bag with bags of gold fish, teddy grahams, pudding and some other snacks along with a card signed by all the nurses, orderlies and admitting staff; I've never seen a hospital that does that.
The nurses really rocked at this hospital, unlike at the Integris Hospitals I've been unfortunate enough to be a patient at, where Jerry had to hunt nurses down and go to the desk to get pain meds or blankets for me after I called the desk and no one had shown up after 30 minutes after they said they'd 'be right there'.
My check in time for surgery was 7 am, it takes at least 20 minutes to drive to the hospital from the house and we had to drop Zachary off at a friend's house where he was going to catch the school bus for the very first time, I'm sad I didn't get to see him get on the bus and get a picture of it but glad that he was excited and had a fun time and no problems.
Grandma Chicken didn't get to our house until 6:25 and Jerry wasn't ready to leave the house until 6:32, in my book, that's late. I wanted to leave the house at 6:15. So we rushed to Zac's friend's house and literally dropped him at the front door and raced to the hospital and checked in right at 7:00, though by the time the clerk wrote down the time he put 7:01 which rubs me the wrong way...no in the grand scheme it doesn't matter but it does bug me.
They only had one registrar working and literally when my paperwork was next she decided to have a 30 minute chat with another employee in the hallway which also rubbed me the wrong way. I was the only one waiting to check in at that point, she could have checked me in then chatted until the 7:30 check-in patients stated showing up. Instead we had to wait for her to finish her chat and didn't get checked in until 7:30. This was literally the last bad part of the day.
Next I was called back to the prep are and nurse Erin helped me get ready, she was very nice. The first thing she did was make me pee in a cup for a pregnancy test, yes it was negative, I told her since Jerry had a vasectomy and I've been on back to back birth control pills if it was positive we've got a problem :). Next she said she needed to take my blood pressure so I took off my big thick hoodie and she took my temperature and she said "oh, let's take that again, it was 99.8 have you been feeling sick?" I told her no but I did just take off a huge sweater. She took it again and apparently it was a little lower so we continued. Then she took my blood pressure which was apparently high and she asked if I was nervous...ummm really? I'm about to have my first surgery ever in my life, of course I'm nervous, plus my temp was just high and I was freaked she was going to post pone me on the spot and she was using one of those automated bp cuffs instead of the manual ones, my bp is always higher on those for some reason, so I took a few deep breaths and she took my blood pressure again and I guess that was fine then too because we went on. Whew! I told her of my previous bad experience with drugs in the Oxy family so she made sure to write very large on my chart to not give me any pain killers in that family at discharge, she did say that's what they usually give because it's stronger then Lortab which is the other option. She then noticed my wedding rings and asked if I could take them off, I told her they were stuck on and she said they'd have to tape them which I was fine with, so they used that tape that only sticks to itself and wrapped it around several times then I got changed and she cleaned my knee and wrote a big "YES" on my left knee. The pre-op area called for me during all this and she told them it would be about 10 minutes. Then she called Jerry back to sit with me until it was time to go to the pre-op area, which wasn't long.
I met the first anesthesiologist at around 10:30 then the knee replacement guy came down and my anesthesiologist introduced himself to that guy as well. My doctor came down and went in and talked to the knee replacement guy first which puzzled me, at that point I was already an hour and a half past my surgery time; he then came over and talked to me and explained that they would start the knee replacement but his portion of the surgery wouldn't be for an hour or so so he would do my surgery during that time then go in and finish the knee replacement...ok but the anesthesiologist can't be in two rooms at once and my operating room is still being used by someone else. He said if the people currently in my operating room don't finish in my room and he is needed for the knee replacement I have to wait until after the knee replacement...Juanita was not happy at all. She thinks I should have gone in first since I was supposed to go in at 9 and I have to say I agree with her :-)
I do have a feeling if I had been checked in when I first arrived instead of being delayed 30 minutes, then not being ready when pre-op called for me the first time I would have gone down just before 9 as scheduled.
So at around 10:45 I met my surgery nurse Eric who was very nice and my new anesthesiologist, but I can't remember her name, she was way nicer then the first guy so I'm glad for that. Jerry got a call from someone at the hospital that they needed to show him how to use some device for home for me so I told him to go ahead and go because it probably would not be long at that point. I'm not sure what time I went into the OR but it didn't take long once I got back there. The anesthesia went fine, they don't even make you count anymore, just 2 deep breaths and you're out.
Supposedly my doctor talked to me in post-op, I don't remember that at all. I remember the nurse taking the tube out of my throat and the I took the pulse ox off my finger and the nurse telling me I had to keep it on and that I was out of surgery and that I was fine. I remember bending my knee and being shocked that I could because I was told I would be in an immobilizer. I looked at the clock and it took me a few minutes to focus and it was almost exactly noon. I had a monster of a migraine and told the nurse that. She asked me what I normally took and I told her I need Treximet and she wheeled me out to the recovery area.
I don't remember my recovery nurse's name either but she was awesome also. She said that the pharmacy does not stock Treximet and asked if Immnitrex works for me, I explained that Imminitrex is in Treximet but there is also a muscle relaxer in it and she said she would find something that would work for me. Meanwhile she brought Jerry back and got me some juice and crackers. She and the pharmacist researched the 2 drugs in Treximet and got the correct doses of those and I just took those separately instead of all in one pill, those with the Lortab got rid of my migraine. We went over all my discharge orders and home care. Each nurse that I was assigned gave me a card that said "thank you for letting me care for you" with their name on it and then when I left I got a goodie bag with bags of gold fish, teddy grahams, pudding and some other snacks along with a card signed by all the nurses, orderlies and admitting staff; I've never seen a hospital that does that.
The nurses really rocked at this hospital, unlike at the Integris Hospitals I've been unfortunate enough to be a patient at, where Jerry had to hunt nurses down and go to the desk to get pain meds or blankets for me after I called the desk and no one had shown up after 30 minutes after they said they'd 'be right there'.
Like I said, they didn't put me in an immobilizer, apparently they do that at my post op check in a week because of swelling, I do have a vascutherm, it's an ice machine thing so I don't have to use ice packs and a DVT machine that goes on the non surgery leg to keep blood moving to prevent blood clots since I'm supposed to be sitting with my leg up as much as possible; so I'm all hooked up to machines right now. I have crutches but can walk but not with full weight which is actually hard to get the right rhythm. No pain yet but I know it's coming once the pain block wears off in a few hours. Jerry has been very helpful so far and has taken off work until Wednesday to help out then he is sticking close to the city so he can drop off Zachary and pick him up at 10:30 when school is over and also be close in case I need help.
As far as what the doctor found, he found a small spot of arthritis which he said should not cause much of a problem or pain at this point so that is good; arthritis at 33 isn't but the not much pain part is. Of course I already have arthritis in the form of bursitis in both shoulders and have had that since my early 20's but since I've been on my thyroid medications I haven't had a flare up so it hasn't been an issue. Other then the arthritis he did have to scrape off some cartilage from under my knee cap and now it's as smooth as a baby's butt ;) He did not have to cut the tendon or whatever on the side of my knee to make my knee cap sit where it is supposed to but that likely means I'll have to wear a brace when I work out which is fine, but since the bottom of my knee cap is smooth like it's supposed to be it may not hurt even if it's not where it's supposed to be - if that makes sense to anyone whose not high on Lortab :)
Oh, I almost forgot a bad part as far as I'm concerned...I can't get my leg wet for 48 hours so I need to figure out a way to shower with 1 leg outside the shower...
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