A Post About the Past 5 Days

Sorry, this is a long post. But a great one!
WELL, now that my surgery is over and my nose splints have been removed (PRAISE the Lord!) I feel qualified to tell you all about it.
We arrived at the hospital at 7:10am, with my surgery scheduled for 8:30am. First we registered and then we were told to go to the same day surgery wing of the hospital. After a short walk we found ourselves there and a nurse named Maureen greeted us. She was such a nice lady, and when I told her I was a nursing student she just had to tell all the other nurses and some of them stopped by to talk to me about it. One nurse, named Connie, was hysterical. She leaned real close to me and told me it was really important to work at a hospital that has a good retirement plan. Anyways, she gave me a gown to put on (ONLY the gown) which I was a bit nervous about. But luckily, what you see on tv/movies isn't true. The gowns completely cover your rear end; it was actually pretty sweet looking. Then they started a saline IV (to keep the vein open) along with an anti-infection medication.





After that my mom sat in her chair and I sat in my bed and we talked and watched the happenings in the same day surgery place. There was an old woman in there who I think was with her kids because she kept saying things like, "Why did you do this to me?" and, "I'm never getting in your car again." Needless to say, she wasn't happy... but she certainly had my mom, me, and some of the other nurses cracking up. The only sad/scary part was when there was a code blue in the waiting room/lobby of the hospital. Code blue, as you probably know, means a major cardio or respiratory arrest. But did you know that most of the arrests for children are respiratory and for adults most arrests are cardio? I learned that in my CPR class. :) So if a child collapses in front of you, do five cycles of CPR BEFORE you call for an ambulance or a defibrillator for their heart. For an adult, only do one cycle before calling. Alright, go out and SAVE SOME LIVES!
After that my glasses were taken away from me and I was taken away from my mother and into the holding room before surgery. Everything was fuzzy; my Doctor (Micheal Kim) came to talk to me... and I'm pretty sure it was him. It sounded like him. Is it just me or do a lot of doctors sound good looking? Some of them came to talk to me. They were probably having fun making faces at me or something because I couldn't see their faces. Before I was wheeled into surgery the anesthesiologist came and talked to me and pushed something clear into my IV. It looked pretty sweet. He told me that I probably wouldn't remember anything after that point. The only scrap of memory I have is being wheeled towards the operating room and him asking me what nursing school I was in. I tried to answer, but it must have sounded something like, "Poin-loa-na..." and after that I have noothinngg.
After I woke up back in the same day surgery place I was pretty drugged up and my head still freaking hurt. My mom went to the bathroom and said there was a good-looking kid next to me, and that he was going to Harvard. Clearly, she had been eavesdropping while I had been unconscious. The nurses helped him to the restroom (like they did for me) but UNLIKE me... the hospital gown had opened in the back and you could see his booty. Hahahaha, my mom thought that was the funniest thing ever but I was too out of it to even open my eyes. I got dressed in a chair and then was wheeled outside where my mom picked me up. Riding in a wheelchair was pretty cool, except for the huge piece of gauze taped under my nose.
Don't judge. I was too medicated to care about a picture.
So the rest of the weekend was spent alternating between different beds and couches at my aunt's house, my house, and in the condo in Palm Springs. I kept taking my drugs so I could doze off, but nothing made the crazy headache and the pressure in my nose go away. I still have some left over painkills (a mixture of acetametaphin and some narcotic) if anyone is interested in buying. :)
Today at 8am was my appointment to have those freaking nose splints taken OUT! I was having crazy dreams about ripping them out (or were those fantasies...) so it was an exciting trip to the doctors office. Once in the patient's chair, Dr. Kim cut and pulled out the stitch that held the splints in place and that was pretty painful. I even teared up some. He wanted to make sure that I had eaten breakfast because apparently some patients of his have almost fainted at the relief/weird feeling that they experienced as he pulled out the splint. I thought he was exaggerating BUT... sorry if this sounds gross... it was one of the weirdest feelings I have ever felt. It felt like I was giving birth through my nostril. Both nostrils! But the splints were huge; at least TWICE the size of my nose.
I asked the Doc if I could take a picture of them and he seemed a little surprised. Apparently I'm the first one to ask that. Wouldn't you want to see what was up your nose?! He didn't even show it to me after he pulled it out! He decided to give them to me. Yay. I was going to clean them up and put the in a little plastic baggie. I could have even carried them with me. What a great pickup line! See a cute guy in the mall, walk over to him, and say, "So, do you wanna see something cool?"
Maybe not. Maybe I'll just throw them away.

And now I have a saline spray thing to do morning and night. Once my passageways clear up I should be able to spray it in one nostril and have it come out the other. I'm charging admission when that happens.