Hi, folks.
Checking in to let you know how things are going, which I’m afraid isn’t as well as I’d hoped. I was taken to surgery about 5:00 Thursday evening, and the first time I remember seeing a clock afterward, it was 9:40 PM. The operation went smoothly, but I awoke from anesthesia with a headache. I went home about 10:00 Friday morning, and by 3:00 Saturday morning, the headache had gotten so bad it felt like the top of my head was going to blow off. The only thing I’d ever felt similar to it was a headache I got as a side effect of a spinal tap. I had to go back to the hospital’s ER, and they gave me Benadryl and Toradol, which knocked it out completely. I found out later from a cousin that members of my family characteristically have this reaction to a certain anesthesia drug, and that administration of Benadryl along with it prevents the reaction. I’ll have to find out from the surgeon if the problem drug or anything similar was given; that’s important medical history information to know.
Now, I have a stabbing pain in the upper right abdomen, and had to stop taking my blood pressure medicine (a mild diuretic that normally just prevents edema) to keep from dehydrating from putting out a lot more fluid than I’ve been taking in. I’ve been out of work all week, and will have to be out a couple more days. It’s possible that my recovery’s been hampered by the unsanitary/uncomfortable conditions in my house–coughing from the dust all over everything, having to rest on a broken-down bed that slants. We’ve hired a cleaning service that’s going to spend Monday and Tuesday (yes, it’s going to take 2 days) thoroughly cleaning and organizing the house, and hauling away all broken furniture and major trash. We’ll have to go to a motel to get the cats and my husband out of the way while the professionals do their work. The manager says her crew is really excited about getting a shot at the place! All this, of course, is going to be very expensive, but it just can’t be avoided any longer. At least I get a couple of days’ rest in a real, sturdy, comfortable bed (!!!!) with feline companionship.
My husband was excellent, taking care of me at home with great affection and consideration, up until yesterday. There was no dramatic change; he just started reverting back to his characteristic self-interest. Part of the reason for getting him out of the house is to keep his obsessive-compulsive disorder from running rampant as he sees other people taking control of his domain, even though he can’t handle it himself the way it is now. Realistically, he’s probably done the best he can.
I took a printout of the other thread to the hospital with me and read it until they took me in the back to get ready. It was lovely to hold onto it, and you.
I’ll be here in my office for a while writing a letter to the secretaries to explain my continued absence. If all goes well, I should be back regularly Wednesday afternoon.
Has anyone heard Bruce Springsteen’s new song, “Radio Nowhere”? The refrain includes the question, “This is Radio Nowhere; is there anybody alive out there?” I listen to it a lot because I often wonder that myself. Along with the cousin who told me about the anesthesia reaction, you TDKers make me able to answer that question “yes–there IS somebody out there.”