The Day After

I wish I could say that the rest of the day was better than this morning. About 2 or 3 hours after my catheter leaked the first time, it started leaking again, much worse this time. And I know the medicine in the boob-bags works because as soon as it started leaking again, pain started shooting up my leg. My mom and I started calling numbers that the hospital gave us if I had a problem with the catheter system. Long, and painful, story short, I finally got in touch with the anesthesiologist on call and he told me there was basically nothing he could do about it except to start taking more vicodin. I was so frustrated by the pain and the incompetence of some of the people I spoke to on the phone, I was in tears with pain shooting up my leg. Not fun whatsoever.

The next thing that happened was weird. I got up to go to the bathroom, which is exhausting in of itself, and changing positions made the catheter stop leaking. Within minutes, the pain stops and I can't feel a thing. We figured out that letting my leg hang down a little bit lets gravity help out the nerve block, giving me instant relief. I was thrilled that I finally couldn't feel my toes again! My mom helped set me up so that my leg was kind of hanging off the bed, resting on a stool that was lower than the bed. I passed out for about 3 or 4 hours and woke up still pain free. Praise Jesus!

Those of you who know me pretty well know that I am a total lightweight and need very little booze to put me in a really good mood! Along with alcohol, I am very sensitive to strong drugs. The vicodin hits me so fast and I start to glaze over in about 15 minutes. One of the pharmacological effects of narcotics is that is causes histamine release in the body. Those of you with a science or medical background know what histamine is, and that it causes allergic symptoms. I itch ALL over! So the pain finally goes away and my whole body starts itching like crazy. If its not one thing, its another.

Watching The Italian Job and hoping for a restful night.