Everything part 2

Thursday Continued:

I woke up to someone saying my name.  I sort of remember being wheeled to the recovery room.  Once I arrived there I was very cold and could not see.  They put something on my eyes that made everything blurry.  I mentioned both things to my nurse and he wiped off my eyes so I could see and wrapped me in blankets.  After this I was fairly coherent.  My mouth was super dry and I felt just a little nauseous so he brought me some ice chips.  Not long after was one of the hours people could come visit in the recovery area, so my Mom, and Dave's mom came by.  They were surprised and happy to see me so awake and alert.  They were also happy to know I wasn't in too much pain.  Only if I tried to move did it hurt.  

This was me when they first came to visit.  I look super puffy from all the fluid and am wrapped in about 100 blankets because I was so cold.  I didn't feel that bad though which was great.  They left after their allotted visit time and within less then 2 hours I was being moved to my room.  One of the perks of donating is a special room that I think is more easily ready the the normal rooms used for the recipients. 

The room was nice and had a good view.  I was pretty alert there and they did give me some pain meds that didn't seem to do much.  The morphine that puts Dave to sleep in a few min. did nothing for me.  And due to the fact I was on my back it was hard for me to sleep, because that is not how I normally sleep.  But luckily if I didn't move it didn't hurt.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I was nauseous or hungry.  This may seem like something simple to figure out but with everything that had gone on and not eating I was unsure.  

View from my room.

View from my room 2

Eventually Stephanie showed up.  I am not sure what time but it was later in the day.  She brought me a puppy stuffed animal, a balloon, and a card. It was nice to see her, and I was happy I was alert enough to talk to her a bit.  While she was there they brought me a dinner tray.  It had some chicken and rice dish on it.  Thinking I was hungry I slowly raised the bed all the way up into a sitting position ready to eat.  I put maybe 2 pieces of rice in my mouth and knew I wasn't hungry I was nauseous.  I quickly spit it out, started sipping a ginger ale and asked for some anti nausea medication.  The nurse came in and gave me some zofran using my IV.  It didn't help.  I eventually started to lower the bed back down and I guess sitting up that straight had the path way to my stomach disrupted because it felt like all the liquid I had drank rushed into my stomach, causing me to throw up.  :(  I didn't have a basin in my room and Stephanie ran out to find one so I used the cover to my dinner.  ick.  It was painful and I ended up getting it all over me.  But I am lucky to have had Stephanie there because she went into Nurse Stephanie mode, and the tech came in to check my vitals at the same time.  So they gave me rags to clean us and gave me a fresh gown.  I was grateful it only got on me and not the bed because I don't know if I could have gotten up for them to change the sheets.  After that episode I was pretty miserable.  The nausea didn't go away and I faded in and out of sleep, with someone coming into my room almost every hour for one thing or another waking me up.  

I swear I am trying to smile here.

In the morning I felt better.  My nurse came and took out the catheter I had to wear overnight.  Which although it sucked having it in, I am kind of glad it was there because I don't think I could have gotten up to use the restroom.  After that came out he pretty much said I had to get out of bed.  So with his help I stood up!  I then put on pants (which is exciting) and walked around my room a bit.  Getting up was a real turning point.  Once I was up I was up.  I instantly wanted to walk to Dave's room so the nurse who seemed unsure about the long walk led me anyway.  It was good to see him.  I was sore and didn't stay long though.  After I walked back to my room the nurse made sure I sat in the chair instead of laying down.  

I felt better then I looked, yay chair!

Eventually, a doctor walked in looked at my incision and asked if I wanted to go home.  I told him that it would depend on if I could eat anything first.  I did not want to leave before I could eat a meal.  I am assuming that because they said I could leave my blood work was good.  I should have asked about it but I forgot.  

Okay once again I am tired of writing and this is getting long so I will come back to it later with a part 3 which should be the end of it!  Thanks for reading.