When I woke up from my nap, my husband was getting ready to take my daughter and niece back to the hotel so they could get some swimming in at the hotel pool. My mom had told him that she wasn’t leaving my side, he could stay if he wanted to but it didn’t change the fact she was staying. So, he decided to leave with the kids. My mom and I started watching TV and I had to pee, I put my call light on. At this point, it’s night shift, my nurse is very young. She comes in and tells me I could go ahead and go to the bathroom. I explain that I had trouble the last time I got up which is why I put on my call light. Her and my mom get me up and into the bathroom. I’m able to slowly walk, very unsteady on my feet and requiring both of their assistance. Again, I go to wipe and I can’t move like that! My mom says she’ll do it and I tell her that’s crazy that it’s not supposed to be that way! She tells me, “it’s not the first time I’ve wiped your butt and apparently this won’t be the last.” Not sure about you and your momma, but I know better than to argue with mine. She helps me over to the sink to wash my hands and she notices that my right hand is purple again, just like it was prior to surgery. We call the nurse in who says, “hmm, I’m not sure why that happened.” I ask her if she’s going to notify the surgeon and she says, “yea, I will.” A little bit goes by and we don’t hear anything. By this time, with the IV fluids running, I’m ready to go to the bathroom again. We call her back in for help up and I ask if she had notified the surgeon yet. She tells me that she hadn’t done that yet. I’m trying to be nice, but really struggling because I’ve just had surgery and my hand is purple which likely means blood isn’t flowing properly. I think this nurse can tell that I’m getting frustrated. She asks me what I do for a living and I tell her that I’m a nurse case manager. She asks where I work and I tell her. She says she’s heard great things about that hospital and asks if it really is good. I’m thinking to myself, well nursing care is 100 times better than here but I’m being nice and just keep that to myself. I try to get her back on track of taking care of me, but she still keeps asking about my hospital. She starts talking about how she doesn’t like her job, doesn’t like this hospital, and she’s thought of applying where I work (2 hours away). I’m thinking to myself, well I surely wouldn’t recommend you! I again ask if she’s going to tell the surgeon and she says yea she’ll go do that now. Then walks in the charge nurse, she wants to see my hand. My mom speaks up at this point and says, “we called you all in the bathroom when her hand was purple.” She says she’s going to call the surgeon.
It was a rough night, I got up several times and had to have assistance from my mom and the nurse each time. I was so confused why I was hurting, not just at my incision site but all over and I just couldn’t move. I literally felt like I had been hit by a bus! It’s the morning after my surgery and in walks my surgeon’s resident. Not sure why, but he had an attitude from when he first walked in the room. He asks how I’m doing and I tell him how much I’m hurting and that I just can’t move. He said sometimes it just takes awhile to get back to normal. I proceed to tell him this was not even halfway my normal. My mom speaks up about my hand turning purple and asks his opinion on that. He says, “I wasn’t told anything about that until now, when did this happen?” I explain that we noticed my hand turning purple in the night. He then asks why I didn’t have the nurse call him? I explain to him that I told her and that I also spoke with the charge nurse who both said they would call. He acted very aggravated at me like it was my fault that he didn’t get notified. Like it was my responsibility to make sure the nurse did her job. He said, “well you should’ve made sure they contacted me, but I’ll talk with the surgeon and see what he says. I’m sure he’ll want to come check you out especially since you’re in a lot of pain and not ambulating well.”
A little while later, in walks in my surgeon, I really liked him. His bedside manner is one of the best I’ve ever seen. He sits down on my bed, starts asking me questions and checking me over. He then says, I think you’ll feel better if you take a shower. I look at him in shock, I explain that I’m having difficulty ambulating and that I can’t even toilet by myself. He tells me to give it a try and he’ll see me later in the day. He says you probably need to stay here until at least tomorrow, but we may need to even keep you two more nights depending on your progression. This is not what I wanted to hear, I had planned on going home the morning after my surgery. But the thoughts of driving home were more than I could even stomach at this point. I just needed to make it through this shower, but how?
Ami’s Journey 