OK here goes - the promised diary.
Sun 9th July
Left home about 2.45 pm to head out for hosp.
Returned home to collect hospital bag
that hubbie had left in kitchen in his rush to get me out of the house - duh - luckily I noticed not too far away!
Admitted to hospital at 4pm - in prep for TKR on Monday 10th.
Th ward consisted of 4 bays - with 6 beds in each, It was soooo dull and gloomy and depressing. The bay that I was in - well don't think there was anyone under 80 and would have made a great olympic snoring team!
Hubbie and daughter left me about 6pm - floods of tears - well I hadn't had my KFC - just couldn't stomach it so had to endure my first hosp meal - plastic turkey salad! - no knife!
Well no stars in that hotel! oops hosp.
Watched the footie cup final with the wrinklies on the smallest telly in the world - then decided that I might as well get to sleep before the snoring started.
11pm - woken up to see if I would like some pain relief - aaaargh like I would have been sleeping if I needed that!
Ear Plugs came out then and slept until 4 am when they woke me for a cup of tea! - pity they forgot the tea - just milk and water!
Day 1
Mon 10th july - new knee day!
got showered and had hte usual round of OS, anaestatist and doctors
Told surgery would be at 1pm - OMG such a long time to wait - no food/drink/fags - had premed so went back to sleep about 10 am.
Woken at 11.30 by porters! aaargh - my turn - OS decided to do me before lunch!
Mad rush to have a pee and get into my gown - sooo sexy! - no knickers as was going to have catheter! yuck
Taken to anaestetists room where nurse tried putting canular in left hand - oops no veins - so tried right hand - no way - so OS came and got a liitle one in and promised they would do the other one when I was sedated so no more pain - bless him.
Then came the nerve block - this was so scary - have never had this done before - quite painful where they put the needles in the top of my leg and got all the nerves shaking - uncontrollably - anaestetist then gave me a "gin and tonic" in my right hand to calm my legs down - both going by now.
Then I woke in the recovery room!!! Ha! got my new knee - oh sh*t I was in agaony - so very quick shot of morphine given - much better - from the recovery room I could see the cars queuing to get into the car park - saw hubbie in my car - waved like an idiot - begging for a bed pan before I wet myself - NO CATHETER - Yippeee.
3pm ish
Woke up again back on ward with hubbie and umpteen nurses around checking usual stuff - finally got bed pan - tipped most of it in bed - thank god for the nerve block and morphine so I could have a painless bed change! oops
Apparntly chatted with hubbie until about 7pm -! I was very happy and wide awake - don't actually remember too much - had loads of cards which I had to read again the next day - and helium balloons above my bed - and a huge bouquet from hubbie!
4 drain bottles full. leg felt like concrete and had tose lovely ted socks and foot pumps!
9,30 - got on commode by myself negotiating foot pumps and drains - and put knickers on
did some leg bends and straight leg raises - all I could think of was not getting scar tissue!
The woman in the bed next to me was on her bloody nebuliser - sooo noisy - and then asked if she could have one of my fags - no way - never!
Did NOT sleep well - they had given me co-codomol which made me so dizzy and kept thinking I was being thrown off the bed - ended up very distressed- every time I shut my eyes I just went weired.
very low BP
blood thinner jab and iv antibiotics
Day 2
very low BP
IV antibiotics and diclofenac given - no other pain relief due to bad effect night before - so was waiting for new prescription -- aaargh 8.30 am - nerve block came off in the space of about 10 minutes - kept ringing buzzer along with the rest of the patients - OMG I thought I was going to die - I was in sooo much pain - knocked out with morphine jab for about 10 minutes - came back round still in pain - the pain management team were there so quickly - about 30 mins - given tramadol and oramorph , diclofanac and paracetamol- it took till about 1pm and I was finally comfortable.
Thinking now that I don't know how I am gonna cope with this pain - but getting better.
1.30 - Xray - all fine
2pm - physio came - did a few exercises and sat in chair - painful
spent rest of day in and out of sleep - used zimmer frame to go to loo
had hubbie and daughter visit - don't really remember much
8.30- asked for extra pain relief - finally got it at 10.30 - really not impressed - so bad was back on morphine.
sorry - soo tired cna't do any more now - will continue tomorrow - night night
