UWMC - One Day Before Vascular Surgery

-
Tuesday June 16, 2020
Chuck went home Monday night to take care of our pets, water the garden, and get a nice long run in after being cooped up in the hospital room since Saturday. That gave me an opportunity to call my school district's HR to update them on my medical adventure. I also needed to clean out my classroom to meet the district's COVID-19 standards. An amazing group of colleagues rose to the occasion and helped knock out that looming chore in an hour! I felt so blessed! 

At 10am a doctor in residency (DIR) came in to have me sign a consent form for the surgery. As he explained the possible complications of the surgery I noticed that I started to get black spots in my eyes. I sat down and explained that I wasn't sure what was going on. A minute later I stood up again to take notes and as he continued to state the side effects I suddenly lost my vision, got immensely hot & sweaty, and felt like throwing up. Thankfully, I was able to sit down in time before losing my balance. He reeled back and assured me that I was in good health and the surgery would go very well. All I could think was, "Is this  what it feels like to die?!" 

vagal response symptoms

I explained that I needed to lay down so he guided me to bed. The next thing I heard was the nurse in the hallway asking, "What do you mean she's in there alone? You didn't take her vitals?" The DIR kept saying, "She's okay. She's okay." Thankfully, nurse Katherine hustled in, took my vitals, gave me some orange juice and an ice pack. The DIR quietly said, "We'll sign the paperwork later," and vanished. 

I slept for the next hour until the advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP) Nicola came in to review the situation with me. She calmly explained that I experienced a vasovagal attack (fainting) where my sympathetic nervous system responded to a "stressful situation". I explained that my mind was accepting of the facts and risks and felt serene with the situation. She explained that we can't always control how our body responds when it feels stressed. She also explained that DIR are there to hone their bedside manners and learn the art of how to read the room. We both seemed to have experienced a moment of shock.

At 1pm, nurse Katherine came in to administer my second COVID-19 test. The first one, in Tacoma, was terribly painful but the second one was easy breezy! Afterward, we were both complementing the other. She told me that I was the first patient not to cuss or squirm away from her. I acknowledged the fact that she didn't scrape my brain and make me taste blood, so it was a win-win! It's very important to test negative to keep the medical team safe when in the operating room.
COVID-19 test


Throughout the day I walked over a mile around the floor and worked on eating protein-packed meals. Chuck returned around 5pm and we spent the evening watching "Wicked Tuna". 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2nd ER visit

-
Image
Friday June 12, 2020 During the week I refrained from riding my bike and focused on completing my 2nd graders' report cards. I took copious naps because the symptoms spread from my heart to my chest, back, and left side of my neck. My body was exhausted from the constant thoracic pain.  I called the cardiologist's office (CO) multiple times throughout the week to schedule an appointment. I was told that they had 61 faxes to go through and that making an appointment doesn't happen in a day. This was confusing to hear. Monday night the emergency physician insisted that I see a cardiologist the following day. Why was my aneurysm not a concern to a cardiologist's office? I ended up calling the Olympia ER to remind them to fax over my patient visit information. Why was I having to connect the dots for these medical facilities? Thankfully, the nurse hotline followed up with my Monday evening phone call and asked if the pain had subsided. Their empathy was appreciated!  When I...
Read more

How the aneurysm was discovered

-
Image
Monday June 8, 2020 While video chatting with my 2nd graders from home I noticed sharp pains on the left side of my chest. The pain increased whenever I laughed or bent down. When my husband, Chuck, and I walked our dog that evening the pain became even more unbearable. I had been biking 60 miles on Sunday and 20 miles daily prior. Why was it suddenly painful to walk to the mailbox?   Chuck offered to take me to the ER. I called my insurance's nurse hotline and the RN also encouraged me to take chest pain seriously enough to get it checked at the ER.  We arrived at 7:30pm but due to COVID restrictions the Olympia ER stated that Chuck would need to wait in his car. No one was in the waiting room thankfully so they zipped me back to get an EKG, draw my blood, do a urine test, and take a chest CT scan.  While I waited for results the nurse brought me four baby Aspirin to alleviate the pain. Thankfully I had cell service so I could update Chuck about the progress. At 11:...
Read more

Home after Vascular Surgery!

-
Image
Friday June 19, 2020 I can't think of a better way to celebrate my 33rd birthday than to be discharged from the hospital and be with our critters and friends at home!   Everything went smoothly with the post-op, thankfully. I was moved out of ICU on Thursday afternoon and was home the next day. There was very little pain and only a slight tightness when turning my head to the left. I did continue to have a sore throat, but there's an abundance of popsicles to ease the pain.  I'm incredibly blessed to have such compassionate friends and colleagues shower me in gifts and flowers upon my arrival home!                 I'm so grateful to get to spend the next six days at home to recover before the open heart surgery to replace my ascending aorta! Today is the start of summer break and if all goes as planned I will have my next two surgeries before the start of the school year in September. In the meantime I'll keep finding teaching oppor...
Read more