I thought I would tell you all what exactly happend last Friday, because, well its kinda interesting!
Friday September 30, I woke up at 0445, took a shower and did my hair. Yes, I did my hair. Im probably the only person on the planet who would think of doing my hair just to go into surgery...but what can I say? Once we arrived at the hospital we waited for just a few minutes until they took me back to Pre-Op. There they started and IV and I basically hung out for about an hour. Of course once I went to turn on the television to distract myself, everyone and their mom came in to talk to me! I opted to get a nerve block for my shoulder. NO this was not instead of being put under! If your going to come at me with a knife and mess around in my body, I will not be awake for that! In hindsight the nerve block was the best decision I ever made! While it was happening, I was thinking otherwise. IT HURT! Im not exactly sure what they did but it felt like a huge plastic piece being shoved into my neck and the doctor pushing a needle through said plastic piece. Now, while I did have drugs on board, I had to stay awake in order for me to tell them if/when my arm would twitch. It was not a pleasant experience, but afterwards when I couldnt feel my arm for 24 hours, totally worth it!!
The surgery lasted about an hour and a half. I woke up in PACU-Post Acute Care Unit- and was super groggy. My nurse saw I was awake and immediatly sat me straight up, 90 degrees! Um...not cool! I went super pale, and was super nauseous. She gave me Zofran and layed me back down. A little while later she did the same exact thing. Again, not cool. Same effect. This time they gave me Phenergan and layed me back down. The third time she tried to sit me up, I told her I would do it myself and slowly sat myself up. It worked!! All was looking well and that I was going to get to go home soon!! Except once they got me into the chair and off oxygen I wasnt able to keep my oxygen sat's up. Crap. They were threatening to keep me overnight and after about 2 hours of my sat's dropping, I was finally able to keep them above 90 for 20 minutes and was released to go home!!
I spent most of the next few days in a pain pill induced sleep state. That and this amazing ice machiene they gave us, was pretty much the only way I could stay happy. On Sunday, I felt a little bit better and decided to go to lunch a movie with my dad. I think I slept through most of the movie! Maybe going out was a little ambitious that day!
All in all it was a rough surgery, and Im sure it was a rough recovery. The good news is that while my shoulder was a mess, nothing was torn! It ended up being a burst bursa, a bone spur and a massive clean up of my shoulder. It will be a long recovery but I dont have to be in a sling for any amount of time!
