Part 7 ~ Infection!: Good Gifts

Part 7 ~ Infection!: Good Gifts

July 2016

I hate hospital beds. They are so uncomfortable and always make my back ache. The pillows are never like my own at home. I remembered very quickly how it felt getting out of bed after my c-section. This was no different except for the scar being vertical and longer. It started a little above my belly button, went around it, and the WHOLE way down. There was a built-in vacuum device in my incision to help it drain and heal correctly.

I was on a floor of the hospital reserved for geriatric adults with abdominal issues (gall bladder, stomach, etc.). I was the youngest patient there. My nurses were incredible! They always had a smile and kind words for me!

I could not have anything to eat or drink for a while as I had a nasogastric tube. For those of you unfamiliar with this – it is a tube that goes thru your nose and down your throat into your stomach. And, they had to re-insert it as it was not in my stomach properly. That was not fun while awake! They came in and told me to take a sip of water and started threading it thru. I felt like I was going to choke. It hurts to cough when you’ve just had abdominal surgery! The only water I could have was from melting ice in a cup with a little sponge on a stick. Due to the IV pole, and my only real source of hydration, I was up about every 2 hours, day and night, to use the loo. I would get up, go use the potty and then walk a few laps in the hall, potty again and get back in bed. I figured if I was up, I might as well walk, as they wanted me to do so anyway! I would chat with my nurses and doctors as I passed them in the hall and I’d check out the large fish tank to see what my aquatic friends were up to! One of the doctors I had at the hospital, who was a part of my GYN-Onc’s office, jokingly told me he was gonna have to buy me a pair of Nikes because I was walking so much! All seemed to be going well as I was being introduced to solid foods again and tolerating everything well, except for a few meds that made me either hallucinate or not feel well.

8 days after surgery was my daughter’s 8^th birthday. I had told the nurses in the days leading up to it that I wish I wouldn’t still be here in the hospital, but was glad I’d be able to see her. I went in for a shower early in the day so I was ready for when my family came to visit. Up until then I was only able to use the disposable washcloths in bed. It felt so good to wash off the germs and do a normal activity. As I was drying off, I noticed that my skin seemed extra red and not from the warm water either. It just didn’t look right. I had an occasional fever over the course of the week, but it always came back down til the next time they checked my vitals, and labs were being taken regularly. I pulled the cord for my nurse and had her take a look to see what she thought. She agreed it didn’t look right and told me to go ahead and finish up and she’d be back in.

I eased into bed and my nurse came in with Dr. L. You remember that little vacuum device in my incision I mentioned earlier? Well, over the course of the week it would beep and I was letting my nurses know and they would re-set it and it would be fine for a while. Well, turns out it must not have been working because I now had an infection. They told me they were going to have to drain it. I did not want to feel or see anything, so they gave me a sleep mask and numbed me up really good. With Dr. L. on one side and my nurse on the other, they removed a generous amount of staples and I felt a whoosh of fluid. I shrieked and asked what it was and they said it was the infected fluid as they worked quickly to clean me up.

Due to the infection, they were going to fit me with a wound vac. This tortuous device is used to help speed healing to the surrounding tissue of larger surgical sites and wounds that become infected. You do NOT want one of these, EVER! It consists of a sponge (which feels more like a brillo, pad sitting in your raw, and open wound), with a tube for suction in the middle of it. A layer of clear film is then placed over top and taped to the healthy, outer part of your skin. The tube is attached to a vacuum device that then pulls it all together (another fun part of this process, especially when it is turned off ever so briefly and then turned back on, cuz it takes your breath away EACH AND EVERY TIME!).

They also whisked me away for a CT scan as they thought there might be more infection inside of me. Immediately following the CT scan, (and I mean IMMEDIATELY, like, they didn’t even move me off of the table) there was a doctor with a knife cutting a small hole in my lower left abdomen by my hip, and feeding thru a tube and a drain and stitching it in place. I think the whole thing only took under a minute. I could be wrong, but they were on it!

My wound vac didn’t really feel like it was doing much that afternoon. My nurses checked on me quite frequently. They then determined I needed a new vacuum device attached to the tube and then I REALLY felt it working!

Kris, Bean, & Mary came in so we could celebrate Bean’s birthday.  The nurses surprised my daughter (and me!) with a birthday gift of a Happy Birthday mug and balloon! I told you they were sweet! Kris brought the rest of Bean’s gifts from us and Kert & Mary so that I could see her open them on her birthday. I was exhausted from the events that unfolded that day and was semi-awake during half of that visit!

I was finally released to go home after 13 days in the hospital. I had many visits during my almost 2 week stay from my Pastor, friends, and family and it helped make the time a lot nicer! On my last day there, several of my friends, who thought I’d be home by then, came in to see me! I was so glad to see them! 2 of them were my Thirty-One sisters! They had just returned from our annual conference in the Big Pink Bubble in Columbus, OH (the trip that I was supposed to be on). They brought me some 31 goodies and were so glad to hear I was doing better! My childhood friend came in and asked me what foods I liked so she could bring our family some meals. I fell in love with her chicken pot pie and so she made it quite often for us!

I love good gifts! Our Father in Heaven gives us good gifts, even in the midst of difficult times. How has He blessed you during one of these times in your life?