Twin had an endoscopy on Wednesday afternoon, so I went down there to be around for her. She was having a general anesthetic for it and after she woke up she was pretty uncomfortable and really just wanted something for the pain and to go to sleep. However, it happened to be thunderstorming here and although the bad bad weather was north and west of us, the hospital made her stay in recovery on the first floor and later made us move to the basement. For some unknown reason, they said they couldn't give her anything for the pain. I still don't know why--no order? Surely they can give medication in the recovery rooms? I mean, I know they can in surgical recovery, this was more a procedure and on a different floor from surgery, but still. So we spent an unpleasant few hours waiting for the all clear. The only good thing to happen during that time was the arrival of this:
No, it's not just a cart left hanging out. I should have taken video. No, you see, the doors to the right of the frame opened and this guy rolled out and then it said "Calling Elevator". Seriously, it talked. It didn't press the elevator button, but the elevator came--the very one of three elevators that it had gone to sit in front of. It then announced that it was going to board the elevator and to "stand back" (though there was no one on it) and proceeded on it's way while I squeed a little. I'm sorry, I thought it was super cool.
I posted this on facebook and my very helpful lovely friends and friends of friends identified this as TUG. It's a robotic cart that delivers supplies all over the hospital. Apparently it often has hats and even eyes on it, but I didn't see any myself. That would only have made it cooler.
Anyway, after about 2 hours, they finally took her back to her room and gave her some pain meds. Unfortunately, after having had to wait too long, she was still pretty uncomfy most of the evening. Her lovely boyfriend Jon arrived (seriously, I became even more aware of his awesomeness this week. He was basically at the hospital all weekend with her and he lives almost an hour away) and I headed home shortly thereafter because I felt really rotten myself.
It was a combination of things. First of all, I'd totally forgotten to bring a sweater and the hospital was effing freezing! By the time we got back to her room I was feeling awful just from that. The lovely nurse noticed me using a little throw blanket as a shawl and the dear woman brought me a warm blanket, which was amazing. While Angie rested, I curled on the couch for awhile. Partly because of the cold but also probably from sitting still too much in horrible chairs, my knees were also super sore, stiff and painful. Finally, I'd been having a lot of pain and pressure since Friday that I was guessing was just excess gas (sorry tmi). I'm not talking a little I'm talking PAINful. I could usually get relatively comfortable if I got settled in one position, but if I stood (or sat after standing) it would be pretty painful again. I am not sure why that was suddenly such a problem, except perhaps that my normal workout routine of at least 4 days per week had suddenly flown out the window (the last time I worked out between illness and hospitals was 6/16) and somehow that really messed up my system? I'm not sure but it sucked. A lot. I went home, at a little dinner, walked AJ up to bed and lay on the couch. I watched TV for a bit and then went to sleep. I was running a bit of a fever, probably left over from my cold I guess. I went to bed at 10 and when Adam came to bed at midnight, I was really not feeling well, so he rubbed my belly and it really helped. My sweet husband. Anyway, I felt better the next day and thought it's still bugging me a little bit, it's much better, thankfully.
Wednesday I stayed home so I could be at the hospital for her surgery. My mom went up to see her for a bit while I stayed with the kids. Then she came home and got us and dropped me back off at the hospital. We hung around for awhile (she was feeling better from the night before, just nervous) and then they took her to surgery. I got some lunch and read a book on my kindle until the surgeon came to talk to me. He said everything had gone well and her gallbladder really needed to come out. He said that there were probably over 100 stones in it! Insanity. So good riddance to a non-essential organ! Eventually they told me I could go wait in her room and they brought her up a half an hour or so later. She was a total rock star, getting up to use the bathroom before she even got back in her own bed. She was in pain, but she dealt with it well. I helped her when I could and then just hung out playing with her IPhone (I think I'm just about sold on switching to an IPhone come January when I get my upgrade) and reading. About 6 pm she sat up for awhile and ate some graham crackers (first solid food since Friday!) and took a few pills to try to help her discomfort and we ordered her some jello and juice from room service. My dad stopped in to visit so I left around 7.
Angie got to come home Thursday afternoon. She's going to stay with us for a day or two since she lives alone. I did not like owie things happening to the twin. I guess I can relate to how she felt now, since I've been in her position several times before. It's not fun. I wanted to fix it. So I'm glad she's better! Yay twin!
My knees are still killing me and I actually still have a lingering sore throat I can't seem to get rid of. And boy am I tired for spending two days sitting around a hospital. No idea why that's so tiring! Come on weekend! Mama's ready for you!
So I got a few comments today which made me realize I wrote this post and didn't publish it! So I'll just add here that the much anticipated weekend included the worst migraine I've ever had, complete with ER visit and IV meds. It started Saturday morning and by evening I couldn't take it anymore. So that was fun. It's better today, but still hanging around. Tyler's still acting sickie and he and I both got antibiotics on Friday morning. Hopefully this is the end of the sickness and all things unpleasant for awhile! PLEASE! :)
1 comment:
I'm so glad your sister's surgery went well! That had to be awful when she couldn't get any pain meds, poor thing!
That is the coolest little robot ever! I've never seen a TUG before!
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