Good morning all from a reasonably happy patient.
I’ve had a reasonable night under the circumstances. Sleep was on and off, partly because of obs being done every couple of hours, but I had my headphones in to block out a lot of noise and distract my mind from the pain. Overall though I feel like I’ve slept. The PCA pump has been great for allowing me to top up on morphine when I need it rather than having to get it prescribed each time.
I’ve just had a nice chat with a lovely HCA at about 5.30. She interrupted her round of taking obs to make me a coffee. 😀
The neck pain is pretty bad, but I do think overall it isn’t nearly as bad as last year from what I recall. Maybe that’s partly because I knew what to expect, maybe it’s the PCA pump, or maybe it is simply that, as Mr Mundil suspected, not having to do the bone work meant he didn’t disrupt as much.
I’ve got bruising around my head from where I was pinned down, and one of them needed a stitch in it, but it’s not sore. I’ve also got a bit of a pain in the bum (quite literally) which Mr Mundil apologised for. When he pinned my bum down to the operating table he pinched the skin a bit and thinks it’s going to blister. The nurse checked it last night and seemed happy with it.
Good news re ECG
Something I forgot to mention yesterday was that, having been sent for an ECG due to my blood pressure being 175/105 when I went for my pre-op assessment, the registrar confirmed that the ECG was clear. Given the family history and closing in rapidly on turning 57, it was definitely a concern.
Visit from Mr Mundil
Mr Mundil came to see me. He said he was quite amazed at how I generate scar tissue. He said it was feeling like bone in places, which was why it was so hard to operate on and why the procedure took so long, but he said the scar tissue generation is good from a healing perspective.
He has spoken to the Medtronic rep again and they feel it best to wait until a week Tuesday to see me in clinic and turn the device on. I’m staying on the PCA morphine pump until tomorrow and then see how I go on other meds prior to discharge. I had some burning when i peed not long before he came, so he asked the nurses to do a urine test. Not overly worried though. He is such a lovely man. 😀
Sure enough, they tested the next pee and it was fine. More to the point it didn’t sting nearly as much either. A good thing given how frequently I’m needing the bottles. They’ve lined up four next to me ready!
Our interesting patient!
As for “other Ian”, they put his bed sideways along the wall to stop him getting out of one side, and have had an HCA stationed next to him all night. The last I heard last night before I put my headphones in was that he was complaining to the authorities (don’t know which, and must’ve been on his imaginary phone I presume since his own phone had been confiscated). He reckons the army were taking too long to get here to deal with things, but he was pleased to see that snipers had finally been positioned along the rooftops opposite us! This morning he has had conversations in the guises of a businessman, a car mechanic, and some sort of clinician. I got to the point at one stage where I wondered if it was me hallucinating what he was doing! How would I know? 😱🤣
Right then, time for a nap, but first another pee. 🤷♂️