Surgery Story, Part 5! :-)

Okay, so it took me a few weeks... but now I'll go back & continue the surgery story!

Where was I? Oh, right - brain damage. So I was struggling to put words together, couldn't read, and ANY noise in the background overwhelmed me to the point that I couldn't hold a conversation. For awhile, the nurses all told me I'd be okay - my body had been through MAJOR trauma, my brain had something shoved into it, the levels of CSF (fluid) around my brain were less than a third of what they were when I went into surgery - plus I'd had anesthesia, which will make you out of sorts even when you're NOT having brain surgery.

I was still nervous, but didn't really have any choice but to accept what I was being told.

As the days went by, I was still in the hospital. Two days turned to three, which turned to four. On the fourth morning, I was awakened by nurses frantically messing with my IVs, pushing different pain medications through the tubing & into my body. Apparently, I'd been SCREAMING in my sleep... my roommate hit the "Nurse" button, and they could tell by my face that I was hurting. I was completely doubled over as soon as I woke up... so much so that my face was practically in my lap. Eventually, the meds kicked in & I fell back to sleep. That day, I couldn't eat anything... I was too sick to my stomach... so I got dehydrated. Although there'd been hopes I would go home that day, they couldn't release me when I needed IVs. So another night in the hospital it was.

On the fifth day, I got a fever. This was a sign that my body was fighting some sort of infection, and any infection may have been around my brain which obviously isn't good. I needed some scans to see if the newly-placed shunt was working.

That may sound simple, but it's really not. You have to get several x-rays in different positions to check the tubing running from the top of the skull to your abdomen. Then you have to get a CT scan to check brain swelling & fluid levels and if the shunt is placed correctly. The guy doing the CT scan was an idiot... you know that lead-type thing they put over your pelvic area during x-rays? He DROPPED IT ONTO MY STOMACH. Remember, I had an incision there that was over 4 inches long! I started screaming and it took them putting something in my IV to get me to stop. They also had to put me back on oxygen because when I'm in pain, I don't breathe normally.

Once the scans came back clean, they decided I could go home. It was about time!!! After several hours of talking with doctors, the neurosurgeon, and my parents, we got me all discharged & packed up. They put me in a wheelchair since I couldn't walk still, took me down to the entrance (through no less than 15 minutes of hallways!) and got me into our car.

Let's just say the whole seat belt thing wasn't happening. No way was something pressing on any part of my body! My Mom was driving so slowly but the roads around D.C. aren't that great so I cried most of the drive home. Pain meds at that point did nothing.

When we got home, I somehow managed to get myself cleaned up and my Mom helped me into bed. She got everything I could possibly need set up for me, then told me to rest, gave me my meds, and went downstairs so I could rest.

I woke up a short time later, choking.

When I sat up, startled, wondering how I could choke while sleeping, I saw blood.

EVERYWHERE.

And there was more blood by the second.

As I reached for my phone to call my Mom, everything started to get black... I couldn't feel the phone in my hands... I slowly started to fall back into my pillow...

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And there the story ends until the next part!

I promise it won't be so long between parts this time. I've had a possible case of Swine Flu and I have been SICK. But I'll probably update again soon cuz I'm pretty bored - the doctors said I can't leave the house without a mask on, and I'm just not that into masks. ;-)