The Surgery and hospital stay

The day of surgery was a little nerve wracking to say the least. I had to be at the hospital by 6am and we had to leave a little extra early b/c we are not from Edmonton (where I had the surgery) and we didn't want to get lost and be late. We were on time but it turns out the surgeon was late. I was so nervous-I think they gave me a sedative possibly b/c I don't even remember being wheeled into the operating room which is too bad b/c I had actually been looking forward to knowing what an operating room looked like. Anyways the surgery lasted about 8-9 hrs and I don't remember anything really till the next day. As far as complications, apparently I had a collapsed lung-but that was minor. I survived the surgery!

I stayed in the hospital for 9days and the first 3 days I was hooked up to too many tubes that I could not get out of bed. The physiotherapist actually came in on day 2 but I was so sound asleep he could not wake me! They ended up coming back on day three which was an incredibly painful day b/c my muscles had all been cut and I had to basically relearn how to use them and it took what seemed forever to manage to get up. I was a little queasy though and threw up and missed the therapist by mere inches. Supposedly, that is common though so she was ok but that was the extent of that visit. Walking was a lot harder than I had thought it would be. It was like I hadn't walked in years and everything was stiff and muscles were incredibly weak and everything was so painful! I remember the first time the physio therapist took me down the hallway-I could not believe how tough it was just to take a few steps. Stairs were something else to conquer! It was an interesting 9 days for me. I still remember showing my mom that I could walk again and how proud I was and she was about it.
Again I want to make a special mention of how supportive my family was through the hospital stay-they put their lives pretty much on hold to visit me! It wasn't easy for them to make so many trips to and from the hospital and a couple nights they had to sleep in hotels and what not. But it made all the difference to me to see them every day-it was definitely the highlight of every day!

I want to say that the nurses were amazing which made things easier and I definitely felt bad for them b/c I was throwing up so much and they had to clean it up sometimes it got all over me and the bed... They definitely were wonderful and took very good care of me despite being short staffed so often. I don't envy them one bit but again I am very thankful for them and their wonderful bedside manor.