03/11/2020
Today is the day of my operation. I woke up at 04:00 hrs in the morning, and didn't want to oversleep. My appointment is at 07:00, Mum & Dad take me to Derby hospital, we leave at about 06:00. I’m still not worried about my operation, not even at the last minute, I thought I would be worried about it, but all I was worried about was if I would be in a lot of pain after surgery.
Mum & Dad drop me off at the hospital, we say our goodbye’s, I take myself inside, make my way to ward 308, I’m taken to a room on the ward.
A nurse comes and checks my weight & blood pressure.
Another nurse comes and talks to me about the operation, asks if I have any questions, which I can’t think of any. My anaesthetist introduced herself, she spoke to me about the procedure for the spinal block, which meant, from my waist down, I would be numb. 1st she would inject my back with something similar to a premed, to relax me. I would then be injected with the anaesthetic that would make me go numb from the waist down, she would use a larger needle once I have been put to sleep.
Between 10:00 and 11:00 I am taken into theatre for surgery.
My anaesthetist injects me with the premed, then chats to me, we were having a nice conversation, that’s all I remember.
I woke up in the ICU (intensive care unit), which was expected, as they told me this is normal, for the 1st day, I would then go to step down, which is in between ICU and a ward.
The nurse asked when I had my operation, I told her today, she said “Wednesday?”
“No, Tuesday,” I replied.
I was told later that I had lost 5 units of blood during surgery, which was cleaned then put back into my body. I was told there could be a risk of this happening.
This is where I lost a day, they had put me in a coma for 24 hrs, in case they needed to do anything to me, as I lost so much blood.
Today nurses from OT (Occupational Therapy) visited me, they asked me to sit up, which I did, wow, I momentarily felt lightheaded. I was asked to get out of my bed and stand up.
I stood up, it was very painful when I stood up straight. I had staples on my incision, from top to bottom. I asked the nurse to count them for me, she counted 30 staples.
They moved the bed out the way, placed a chair behind me, asked me to sit down in the chair, I did that, sitting down in a chair was fine, not painful.
I had tubes coming out of my nose, connected to small bags. I found it irritating and asked if they could be removed. After checking with my surgeon, the nurse agreed to remove it. It was a strange feeling when she removed it, as the tubes went up my nose and all the way down to my chest.
Step down is now ready for me, they get me to stand up again, they move the chair out the way, then get the bed and place it behind me, I sit on the bed and lay down, they take me to step down.
05/11/2020
I’m in step down, I’m allowed to have a sip of water every hour, no food.
OT asked me if I could get out of bed, walk to my chair and sit down. I got out of bed, walked towards my chair, but didn’t quite make it to my chair, I went back to my bed.
06/11/2020
Today I went for my first walk with OT, the pain was not as bad as last time.
07/11/2020
Today I started taking myself for walks, I’m no longer in pain, so I stopped taking pain killers.
I’m now allowed coffee, instead of having to sip water every hour, my first cup of coffee was Heaven.
I’m also allowed soup and ice cream. I'm not mad about soup, the only choice they had was tomato or chicken, I chose tomato soup, it was just nice to have something.
Got diarrhoea tonight, so they moved me from a cubicle to a side room to myself, in case I had any bugs etc.
It turned out I had no bugs, this was just from surgery, this only lasted for 2 days.
I start washing myself, while on step down. This took a lot out of me.
09/11/2020
I could not get comfy on my bed, I woke up in pain from my lower back, I had pain killers for this, which helped.
10/11/2020
I moved to my ward today.
Now eating anything I choose from the menu.
I started washing myself while in step down, this really took a lot out of me.
Washing myself is getting easier and not so tiring.
11/11/2020
Today I had a chest x-ray. My blood test results indicated I had an infection, I found out I have sepsis.
I was put on antibiotics via a drip. My blood test results showed the infection was clearing up. By the time I was discharged from hospital, I didn’t have sepsis.
12/11/2020
The results from my chest x-ray showed some damage to my kidneys. I was advised this is common, it’s not as bad as it sounds as this is only temporary.
13/11/2020
Today I saw OT again. They wanted to see if I could manage getting in and out of my bed by myself, with the bed raised and the headrest flat, to simulate my bed at home. They also wanted to see if I could get on and off the toilet without the aid of the handrails. I did these with no problems.
OT said I don’t have to attempt the stairs, as my wife has a stairlift. I told OT I still wanted to attempt the stairs, so we went to the staircase, I went up the 1st flight of stairs. They asked how I felt, I felt fine. OT said that was not as many steps as I have at home, so I insisted on going up the next flight of stairs, then I walked down the steps of both flights of stairs. They asked how I felt, I felt fine, I really thought this was going to be difficult and take a lot out of me, but I was fine and not in any pain.
OT were happy with me and discharged me from their care.
14/11/2020
Today I had my drain removed, I was so pleased as this was getting on my nerves. I also had some of my staples removed. I was dreading this, I thought it was going to be painful, but it was fine.
Most days Mr Thomas, my surgeon, came to visit me, this was really nice of him, I also saw my anaesthetist who also visited me after my surgery.
All the nurses, doctors and staff were very good to me and looked after me.
I was discharged from the hospital today.
