On that Monday they released me from ICU and put me down into a room on first floor where I stayed until thanksgiving day when I was running fevers and was in a lot of pain and so my surgeons came in and took a look at me and decided that they wanted to take me back to the O.R. to find out what was going on. I called my mom to tell her and she wanted to come back over but Dr. Sarr told her not to because it would be late and that I wouldn't even know she was there. So once again it was off to the O.R. where they again intubated me while I was awake. I don't remember anything that went on from that time until I woke up Saturday to find myself in restraints again and also still intubated which really sucked because I felt as though I was gagging on it and that it was sliding down my throat. I kept trying to sign to them that I wanted it out and that it was gagging me, but they wouldn't listen. My mom kept asking me what I was trying to say because she doesn't know sign language. But anyways I remember that it was gagging me so much that I was vomiting and crying but all they would do was tell me to relax and take deep breaths. Finally after
what seemed like forever they took it out which hurt like heck and scratched up my throat and made it so that it hurt to talk. It took almost a month for me to get my voice back, during which time everyone was always asking me to repeat myself and I had to almost yell to be heard or understood and also sounded like I was whining all the time. That Saturday I was moved to the coolest floor in the hospital which was Francis 2C I had the best nurses there. Though I was a total pain in the butt. I gave them such a hard time and didn't want to walk or get up into the chair or anything. But then my 'warden' got put with me hehe (love ya Deb). She is a nurse that majorly pushed me and wouldn't let me whine my way out of anything. She also was the first one to get me up into my first shower since surgery. Which I really really loved even though it meant being naked in front of a stranger and worse yet having to have them wash most of you because you couldn't bend to reach. The one thing hat was really totally embarrassing was when I sweated so much that I soaked my gown and bedding and had to stand naked while the night nurse who was a guy had to run and get me a dry gown. Having
male nurses and nursing assistants really gets ya over your shyness real fast. But Jon was an awesome guy and a lot of fun. I felt bad for him the night when they were going my blood transfusion. The poor guy was having to come in ever five to ten minutes to put hot packs on my arm because it hurt where the blood was going in because it was so cold. The reason for the blood transfusion was because my count was low and I was supposed to go home the next day. The morning of the day I was supposed to go ho me they did labs and my white count was way up and so ended up staying another four or five days. I finally got to come home on December 10, 2002. Unfortunately I wasn't home for very long because on Friday December 13,200 I ended up in the emergency room because my lower stomach had become bright red and swollen. I was admitted into the hospital because of infection which sucked. I was put onto Francis 6th floor. I was there until December 22.2002 which was cool. While I was up there I met two really awesome people. One was Helen who was a nurse whom had had the same surgery as me. She was a lot of help and answered a lot of questions and etc. The second was Sidney, a PCA,
he was awesome and helped to make the days go by faster and not be so depressing and boring. He made me laugh a lot, one time he made me laugh so hard that I had to run for the bathroom before I would of wet myself, and while I was in there he continued to make me laugh while I was trying to go potty.
I must also talk about my wonderful surgeons, Dr. Sarr and Dr. Donnelly. I couldn't have asked for two more wonderful and gifted doctors then them. Dr. Donnelly was really cool, everyday she would come by twice a day to check on me and see how things were going. She was also really sweet and made me laugh and answered any questions my mom or I would have. I considered her to be an angel and to this day I still think of her as one of the two angels sent by God to give me back my life. The other one is Dr. Sarr. I must say that I use to really dislike him but after surgery we got to know each other a lot better and wow did I ever find out how awesome he really is. He has a great sense of humor and an awesome personality, tough at times but a real caring man. Like I said this man is an angel to me and has given me my life back.
