The Big Day!

I can't say enough good things about the medical staff at the hospital. Throughout the night and the next day, they were always there checking on me. They were always a little concerned about my blood pressure because it's high, so I was continually reassuring them that it was 'normal' for me. And yes, I'll do something about it.

What I found interesting was when it was really high, they would take it again. Then they would go out and find a manual cuff and take it until it was where they wanted it to be. I learned if I relaxed and concentrated, I felt like I could bring it down for them so they would leave. I don't know if it was true or not, but it amazed me that it was so difficult to get a consistent blood pressure reading.

I was being given morphine through my IV as I needed it. I tried to keep it to as little as possible and it seemed to work. I discovered how sensitive they were to pain when I got sent down for a follow-up MRI. Seems they had only done one of the ankle, they didn't realize I also had broken meta-tarsals. So off I go, get the MRI, and am sent out to wait in the hallway for transportation to come and get me.

As I'm sitting there, here comes my day nurse followed by two other people. She rushes up to me and asks if I'm in pain. I assure her I'm not and she gets this very confused look on her face. The MRI technician must have overheard her and came out. It seems she had called the wrong nurse, it was her other patient that was in pain. But this nurse had come down on a moments notice because she thought one of her patients was in a lot of pain. I was very impressed.

Until they started to walk away. 'Heh!' I shouted softly, ' where are you going??' 'Why, back to the floor' she said (probably, I don't remember it exactly). 'Why don't you take me with you?', I asked. She looked at me and the other nurses, and the MRI tech told her I was just waiting for transportation. So they took me back with them, all the while feeling like we were doing something we weren't supposed to be doing because this was the job of the transportation department.

I noticed on several occasions that hospital staff don't really get along with each other very well, there appeared to be lots of sniping about other departments. 'Only the department I'm in works hard, the others either don't know what they are doing or are slackers' seemed to be a common theme. I didn't hear it directly, but I could see it in the body language and side comments made by the staff.

My wife came to stay with me through the surgery, and had to suffer through my cutting in and out of sleep. I didn't sleep well, what with a nurse waking me up every four hours, plus the drugs had me tired. I also had a couple of good friends and my brother-in-law drop by and help keep me occupied. It is very boring in the hospital, and I appreciated their time. I couldn't have been too entertaining though, I kept dozing off.

One thing I learned through all of this is how important it is to have friends and family. I didn't want a crowd in the room, but having one or two in the room helped keep it from being too boring.

So .. 5pm drew near. Surgery came and went. And another sleepless night was spent before being sent home the next day. Nothing really exciting happened.

Except this one lady that came in an insisted she teach me how to dress myself and how to use a walker. It seems that with all of the lawsuits these days, I'm not allowed to be sent home until they know I can put on my clothes and get around without killing myself. And they wouldn't take my insistence that I can deal with it, I had to show them. Which meant I had to get out of bed, endure searing pain as I lowered my leg below my heart, and hop around on a walker.

So I went home, and began my long recovery. Nothing much to talk about there either, except learning the importance of having multiple sets of crutches hanging around.

Then one day a letter showed up from the legal firm of the hospital saying I didn't owe them any money right now, but they were filing a lien for the total hospital bill anyway.

Sound confusing?? Next week I'll share something you probably don't know about what hospitals and any medical person that treats you can do. Or at least think they can do. Plus some things about recovering from a broken ankle that surprised me.