Under The Knife part II, Recovery.

[Greenhorn44]

Brothers,
Im 8 days out of surgery and it was a nightmare. Surgery was tuesday t 12;30 it lasted 2 and a half hours. I received pain medicine two times in the form of tylenol 3 liquid. over the coarse of 8 hours.... ticked... you bet.
I bout came outta that hospital bed I tell ya. After my wife chewed out the night nurse, she finaly came in and asked for my pain scale. 9, I said in tears. She tells me that popsicles and ice is all she can give me doctors orders.....
Ohhh, we called the doctor, a good friend of the family. May I speak to her? he asked.
We handed the phone over to her and she turned white.
She found out real quick that there was multiple surgerys.
She jumped up gave me morphine and after 8 hours of feeling like my face was packed with pepper..... I was able to tell my wife I still luv her
The kicker is this is one of the hospitals I donate video libraries too. So im what you would call a V.I.P. they put me in a hospital suite so my wife had a room all to herself.
Yup, that nurse didnt know my parents name was on the front of the hospital, and after her night of shennanigans, by morning the hospital director and head nurse was in my room with me, our doctor, my mother and my loving wife. And we had a wonderful chat about the night of my surgery.
The way I look at it... yes, I was under alot of pain for a long while... but. Obviously this nurse had lost her passion about her profession. And just maybe, this was Gods way of giving her a wake-up call before she really done herself damage and someone died under her neglected care?
Well if im the puppet... So be it. Im healing well, and fast. Quickest the Doc has ever seen. Im his new "Poster Child" and better yet...No one died But I dont think she works there anymore.
Doc says 4 more days and im free!!! Thanks for all your suggestions guys, They really helped. I used them all.
And, I thank you with all my god fearing heart for all your prayers. Its amazing what the power of prayer can do for a man.
And I cant wait to get back to casting. Git'r'Dun.

[hiram]

I had surgery for sleep apnea. My air passage was so poor that the anesthesiologist couldn't intibate me.

I wound up in another hospital a month later in NYC. I needed a lingual tonsilectomy(spelling?). I was sent to the new doctor by my former surgeon. I asked him if he ever did this operation before. He said 'no'. So what are your qulifications. He said his specialty is tongue reconstruction of cancer patients. I said ok.

Operation was a success. They used lasers. My throat was cooked hamburger. I slept so quietly that my wife would come over to me to see if I was still breathing.

That wore off, the noise came back, and I wound up with a CPCP machine. A wonderful invention.

Be well.

[Greenhorn44]

Yeah I thought about the CPAP. But, Im 28. I wanna wait till I have too. Plus I already have lost 20 pounds. Go Figure, throat hurts to bad to eat real food. What i would give to tase, and eat a Porterhouse. Or a Whitetail Backstrap.

[thx997303]

I'm 21 and use a CPAP machine.

Not too fond of surgery.

Problem is, for some reason I sleep with it on for 5 hours, then turn it off and remove the mask while still sleeping.

Gotta figure out why I do that.

[mroliver77]

I went through the same deal with the pain meds greenhorn. My ex wife is a nurse and went and read the riot act to them. It did little good. She then told them they did not want to see me mad which was very close. After quite a ruckus the doc was called and I got meds, the nurse got her butt chewed and I was educated. The next surgery I had a talk with the Doc beforehand and told him this would not happen. If it did he would experience major pain( sometimes you just have to bully). All went well and successive surgeries have been handled the same way.
Jay

[gray wolf]

I am/We are--So glad you are doing OK. I had rectal surgery about 8 months ago and I wont tell you how bad my pain was for to months--brother I just wont tell you.
I hope you go on with a great recovery, and get back to all the things that make you happy.
I have a personnel interest in all my casting brothers and pray for all of you and your families.
Stay well and continue to recover, We are sure you will be up and about very soon.

With concern

Sam & Julie

[MT Gianni]

Glad to here that things are getting better. I don't remember the last time I could breath freely from both nostrils but have put off getting anything done re surgery. Please continue to update.

[Bad Water Bill]

Glad to hear things are getting better.

Two years ago my mom age 95 was winding down in the hospital. I had many talks with some wonderful nurses. There is one big reason these things happen. LAWYERS If it isn't written in stone the nurse and hospital can be in court in a heart beat. Some people will do anything for a buck. Even if they are in as much pain as you were and the nurse gave some EXTRA pain relief that worked the medication was not on paper so WHERE IS MY LAWYER.

Some day we will get some good Judges who will start telling lawyers This is a waste of court time. You mr lawyer and your client will pay ------- in court costs and if I see YOU here again with another case like this byby license.

[Firebricker]

If your surgery was simiar to mine in a few more day's you might start smelling bad as in I thought we had milk that had gone bad. It was the tissue they removed rotting. If this happen's to you try the vics vapo rub in the nostril's. It will drown out the smell hopefully you don't experiance that. It took a couple weeks before I really felt better then it was great. Before surgery actifed was the only thing that would come close to stopping my headaches. Now thank's to the druggies you can't hardly get real actifed. My surgery was about five years ago and it's getting to were I'm going to have to get checked out again but it was worth it. I would do it again. BTW some body should lose their job over lack of pain med. Sinus surgery of any kind is some of the worse pain you can have.
Good luck and hope you recover well. FB

[starbits]

My best bud couldn't breath out of one side of his nose. Went to have surgery to straighten things out and they found a tumor. A bad type that grows up into the brain. He got lucky because it was found before it got that far. Just had surgery the other day, 10 hours. Still in the hospital, but back to his cranky old self.

Starbits

[sleeper1428]

Glad to hear that your recovery appears to be progressing well. And I'm really sorry to hear that you had so much trouble getting someone to respond to your need for pain relief. If you'll recall, I mentioned that this was a surgical procedure that was a lot more than just 'uncomfortable' and indeed was downright PAINFUL!! Unfortunately, there are a lot of surgeons out there who, never having experienced the post-op pain that accompanies surgery, simply do not believe that patients are hurting as much as they claim. As an example, the Chairman of Plastic Surgery at the University where I practiced and taught anesthesiology for many years was always downplaying patient's claims of pain until he had to undergo surgery himself for a parotid gland tumor. Two days post op he had changed his tune completely, telling me that he finally understood, that it really 'hurt like hell' and that never again would he disregard a patient's request for pain relief. And as I also mentioned to you, choosing your anesthesiologist as carefully as you choose your surgeon can also be a bonus in the post op period because he/she may well be able to influence your surgeon to provide adequate pain relief.

Anyway, glad you're doing well. And I do hope that this surgery takes care of your snoring problem. But as others have mentioned, it's always possible that you may experience some regrowth of tissue that could contribute to a return of your snoring. If that occurs, you'll then have to decide between another surgery or the use of CPAP to manage the problem.

sleeper1428

[wallenba]

I hope my sleep apnea never gets that bad. I began waking up in the mornings with rapid heart beats (120-140pm) went to the emergency room 4 times in a month. Sleep study caught it. I stopped breathing 66 times in 4 hours averaging 11 seconds. Breathing only 20 seconds out of each minute, stresses the heart. I've been on a bilevel (bi-pap, similar to c-pap) machine for 14 months now, and have much more energy. If you are tired all the time or have any of these symptoms get checked.