Schedule moved up
They called this morning and asked us to get to the hospital as soon as we could. The schedule change and the procedure has been moved up. We came in they got her registered right away and she’s already in pre-op. She’ll be taken back soon.
Just took her back
Well so much for getting here early they just took Amanda back at the regular scheduled time! We watched many other patients come and go as we waited in the pre-op for hours. To no surprise they had a hard time getting an IV in. She’s like a human pin cushion! They had to call in anesthesia to do the IV and they even had a hard time. Eventually needing the ultrasound to find a vein.
The resident anesthesiologist came for signatures on medical release for the anesthesia saying it would be done under general. We had previously spoke to the surgeon about this. Then the main anesthesiologist came and said it would be under conscious sedition, this is what Amanda previously had issues with before. He mentioned that they would start with that but if needed they could do the general. Amanda’s was concerned and a little anxious because she didn’t want to be miserable during the procedure. During pacemaker procedures they don’t have an anesthesiologist just the EP doctor doing his work and the sedation. They don’t have the same medication as the anesthesiologist so hopefully they will keep her comfortable.
This procedure shouldn’t be that long and if they don’t do general we’ll be out if here sooner. Even if they do the general anesthesia, being a short procedure, they will take all the tubes out before she goes to recovery.
We rushed over here this morning without eating so I’m headed to the cafeteria now!
All done
She’s out of surgery and doing good. I just talked to the doctor he said everything went well. During her previous surgery he placed 2 epicardial leads but only connected the atrial lead today. The other will be there for a backup. I haven’t been able to go back and see her yet. The plan is still to discharge us today.
Rough time in recovery
Amanda is still in recovery. She’s been in a tremendous amount of pain over the last few hours. It seems to be so hard to get doctors to realize she has such a low tolerance for pain. With her being on regular pain medication, more than she was before her previous surgery, it makes her pain even harder to control.
The surgery went good and it was under continuous sedation monitored by the anesthesiologist. She barley remembers anything but when she came off the anesthesia she was in horrible pain. I was able to get back and see her about 5:30 and they just now, at 8, got her pain down only a little, still a 7 out of 10.
I went round and round with the doctors and nurses about her pain control. They had given her a little IV pain medication but didn’t want give her anymore because they planned on discharging us today. Finally they gave her the regular dose of Dilaudid she normally takes but that is just her base line before surgery. She has also been taking another pain med since the last surgery. So essentially they wanted to give her less pain medication than what she was getting before we got to the hospital. They seemed to be more concerned with giving her oral pain meds so she could be discharged. She was in such pain when I first got back to recovery that she was in tears and stayed that way for about 2 hours. I was about ready to bust out her pain meds and give them to her myself.
The way her pain was we would just end up in the ER in the middle of the night if we were discharged this evening. I told them we don’t care to be discharged just get her pain under control and we’ll stay overnight. No one seemed to want to hear that just take the regular pain meds and she should be good they kept saying. It’s like they don’t listen no matter how we say it, she’s had chronic pain for over a year, been on pain medication that long also, her tolerances are high compared to a normal patient.
We finally got a face to face with the surgery resident and he decided to keep her over night for pain management and observation. The recovery area closed at 7:30 so they moved her to the PACU until a room is ready on the cardiac floor. Her pain is better now that she finally got her regular pain medication and some other IV meds. I just wish they wouldn’t wait so long to get the pain under control. Hopefully she’ll be feeling better by the morning.
In a room
Amanda is finally in a private room. She’s still in pain but doing much better now. They have her on the regular meds plus some IV pain medication. She had already received some and was about to get another round before I left.
I still hadn’t eaten dinner and needed my grip so I’m just staying at the hotel tonight. I didn’t see the need to get back there at midnight. I’ll just get a good night sleep, incase we come home tomorrow, and get there first thing in the morning.
We were planning on coming home tomorrow. I’m not sure that’s such a great idea now. It just depends on Amanda’s pain level tomorrow and how good it’s being controlled. I’m sure we won’t be discharged till the afternoon. Amanda seemed like she wanted to come home tomorrow. We’ll see how thing go tomorrow and I’ll make the call then.
I just finished some leftovers from last night for dinner. Star Wars, the original one, is on so I’ll be entertained till I fall asleep at least!