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Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2006 11:30 PM
Subject: [surfacehippy] Kam's Belgium experience (and tips!)
(long)
(5/17/06) Walking across the lawn to the (very Cold
war-looking)
Jan Palfijn hospital, this fell out of my mouth "I'm not
going to
like this.".
Checking in, the tests, I think I have a good spirit, and I
found a
(Dutch) pal, Janni, and we limped around, met Marty; but I
still had
a heavy feeling. I met Dr. De Smet. Unassuming, I guess. I
got no
definite impression. "Dinner" was 4 slices of doughy bread,
a very
small container of ham -- I think -- salad, and coffee or
tea. It
took some powers of persuasion to get the evening nurse to
"let me
go" out to find a decent meal. I knew it would be my last
good meal
for awhile; So 8 blocks to McDonald's, fish fillet and
fries. TIP
#1 have a decent meal, hopefully with salad or vegetables in
it,
your night before surgery.
Sleeping pill that night. Slept all right. Third on the
docket for
surgery. I was in a shower --! when the nurse ran in about
11 am
and said "your next", implying hurry up. TIP #2 as best you
can,
get what you will need for 24 hours within arm's reach, on
that
rolling cart next to your bed, especially if you go alone.
There
are not always people around to help you. I spent about 2
hours in
the middle of the night trying to reach down without moving
my hip
to get my clock from my bag.
Rolled me to surgery. Nurse nice enough (evidently I already
had a
feeling for the place) to let me use the WC. Crucial, since
your
bed ridden the next 24 hours! Hugo, Bart. Plastic mask over
my
face.
Recovery room. Frozen and in some kind of shocked state.
Wiggle
your toes they told me, and were pleased. Frozen, traumatic.
Couple of hours later, rolled to room.
TIP #3: the day before the people in radiology tipped me off
that
they intubate you. Put a tube down your throat with oxygen,
during
the operation. 'The anesthesiologist didn't tell you?'. No
he
didn't. So I could understand why my throat was raspy.
The next 16 hours were a nightmare. I have no idea why I
evidently
had such a different experience from others, but maybe the
following description will help:
I had 3 Dutch people in my room. No US people. One was a
white
trash stringy-haired cigarette-voiced woman with missing
teeth and
Appalachian relatives, with a loud cell phone ring. One
thankfully
was Janni, frozen and perhaps suffering like me. The third
was a
woman who, as Janni and I were lying there recovering,
talked to
her friends on her cell phone, watched TV, and the next day
told us
to please be quiet when she was recovering.
TIP #4: if you don't hear some kind of beep when you press
your
morphine button, it's not working. About 12 midnight, I
asked the
brusque (read mean) nurse if my morphine was working. She
did
something, and made some motion like it was okay. The next
morning, I asked Evelyn, the only decent nurse I met, if she
would please check it again. She went back there, did a
couple things, and
said "it wasn't connected". I had 10 more minutes before
they took
me off of it. This was late the next morning.
You have an IV, small oxygen tubes in your nostrils, and you
are
lying on your back. By 11 or 12 that night, I wanted to
count the
hours, because I was in such hell.
I was afraid to drink for my sore throat because then I
would have
to pee. The first time with the bedpan -- a large
cream-colored
scoop, which the night nurse seemed a little abrupt with,
considering my hip was 12 hours old -- was impossible. By
the 3rd
or 4th time, the simple mundanity and concentration it
required gave
me some blessed sane moments, those few times through the
night.
TIP #5 I heard from two people who used it that the catheter
doesn't hurt, it's no big deal.
TIP #6 Dr. De Smet will allow you a sleeping pill the night
of your
surgery. The nurse's around us told us he wouldn't (wouldn't
they
know that by now, months later?!)
So that night was the worst night of my life. I was in hell.
I
started counting the seconds of the minutes, to want the
hours to go
by, for the next 14 hours. Maybe this is what a bad acid
trip feels
like. Every second was awful. My mind was going 90 miles an
hour,
I was crazy: I was afraid to go to sleep, and could not stay
awake.
I was afraid my heart would stop if I went to sleep, I was
afraid my
breathing and heart were not coordinated. 12 hours. I think
I
slept 20 seconds about 80 times.
4 weeks of talking to people have given me possible answers:
the 1st the obvious, no morphine. The insanity of having to
feel very
intense pain. Throughout the entire night. Maybe that was
most of
it. Perhaps the after-effect of anesthesia?, but I don't
hear of
other people going through what I did. Perhaps my body also
in shock mode; and in hyper-protection after the major
invasion it had been through --? And I felt quite estranged,
because evidently no one else went through this, so no one
seemed to understand it. Not the nurses, fellow patients nor
the doctor, did I get any answers from.
On top of this I had a low blood count. (Any ladies can
e-mail me
about getting your period, before, during and after.) So the
next
day, I was nauseous. Amazingly, really amazingly, they get
you up
on a walker the very next day. It took me many tries. I was
also
majorly sleep deprived and post-shocked I think.
At some point they have you fill out hospital menus, and
they're
really militant about it. But as I think Alan has pointed
out, it's
like Russian roulette. I think once I got one thing I asked
for, a
banana, and I treasured that banana for a day and a half. It
was
the healthiest thing I ever got. TIP #7 (obvious) Have your
helper
person bring you real food.
Other hospital TIPS: The Pingo phone card (Pat's tip) cost
me like
half of a locaphone or Verizon rental. You end up memorizing
the
number, and can speed dial -- just cuz you dial so fast --
the US a
lot. You need some kind of card from the reception desk, to
be able to dial out. Hugo knows about this, but was not
around when I
needed the card.Yes you must bring your own towel, shampoo,
soap ... there's a list somewhere.There's a cafeteria in the
hospital, but it closes at 8, and the menu is sort of
limited.You can have the nurse move and bend your bed in
many different ways, and that recliner position seems to be
the best one. A few of us got sort of adept at figuring out
a couple ways to move it, since the nurses aren't always so
willing.
Holiday Inn. Day #2! Hugo helping me a lot. Very spaced out.
Very careful walking.
This being so incredibly long, I will try to wrap it up. I
was on
my own, and I felt pretty stuck at the Holiday Inn. Taking
the free
taxis to the city were semi-painful in the beginning couple
of days,
and I would even hit "the wall" on the way in.
I wish I'd had better access to a grocery store. Most nights
I just
spent the money on the dinner. Yes the breakfast buffet is
fantastic, and you can take a few things away with you. Marc
was
great. Bart was great. I didn't really see much of Ghent
(most of
it was when I was limping, the day before my operation). I
was
there for my operation, not to sightsee. Just because I want
to put this: my x-ray is BEAUTIFUL. Dr. De Smet brought them
a few days later, and I told him so. It's simple, -- what
other word? Elegant? I didn't get a BHR, I got a Wright
Conserve C+, because of the measurements, 44 mm. This -- my
surgery -- he's the best.
Marty (and Geoff), Jane (and Roger), Jerry (and Carol),
Peyvand (and her mom), later: Drew, Phillip, and Pierre (and
Connie) -- my fellow hippies while I was there, I will not
forget.
7 days of rehab, getting better by the day. The lovely
sleeping
pill. The awful shots (come on guys, it's bigger than a
hair!) in
my stomach fat. TIP #8 People talk about all the comfortable
clothes you must bring; but I found that everyone there was
dressed
very nicely, so make sure you bring loose stuff that looks
decent.
My worst night was after my 7-hour flight back to New York.
(The
flight itself? I did the get up and walking part. Or maybe
all the
walking afterwards?) I had a bulkhead seat, and had arranged
the
wheelchair, very helpful. My leg was just throbbing. I iced,
took
the codeine -- didn't help much --, cried ... each
consecutive night
was better.
My incision felt plastic-y and kind of numb up to a week
ago, but is
much less now. I never had any drainage, and just the normal
swelling.
As of now, 4 weeks and 2 days post-op, I'm just reaching the
point
where the pain and frustration is less than before I went
in. (Like
maybe yesterday!) I was never in a huge amount of pain, but
I was
bone on bone (Dr. De Smet said I was just getting to where
it might
have been too late). I'm still learning to walk, I'm just
barely on
one crutch. I try to get in the pool every day, I do
stationary
bike every 2 days.
Apologies for the length, oh my God!!
Kam C+ 5/18/06 De Smet
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