I was sent unceremoniously to the reception Tuesday morning at 7.00 and told "ticket number 20." Administration was simple but they said I had been booked a room for two but they have none, so I will be in a room for four. I was sent to the room but spent the next two hours walking, as I knew that would be the last for a while.
About 9.00 my leg was shaved and I was sent to pre-op where I stayed for what seemed unnecessarily long. Eventually, I was wheeled into the operating theatre, with Dr. De Smet on the side looking at my x-rays. The theatre was suitably impressive, done out in dark blue, with what seemed a much too small operating table in the middle. I was transferred to that table and held on with one arm support. That is when the anesthetic must have started and I felt myself spinning and sinking.
I awoke in post-op neither particularly comfortable or uncomfortable and stayed for a couple of hours before going back to the room. In the room were three other patients, Mahmood who had bust his knee playing football, Luke, who had something done to his leg, and Yves. I still do not know what Yves was in for, except that he did not appear to be getting better. I would have liked to have been in the room with other hip patents.
Dinner came. George back at the Villa had warned me how bad the food was. Three slices of unpalatable bread with chocolate spread. I was not hungry. I was mildly thirsty, and there was water available, but I found if I drank any I got wind. Also with the bed bottle I could not piss.
This first night I was on morphine which comes though with the oxygen into your nose. There was an addition button for a morphine pump, which I would not dare use. I am not sure why they give you morphine. It does not make you feel better. It makes it difficult to burp and impossible to piss into those bed bottles. By night my bladder was full and I had to have a catheter inserted to drain me. This is both undignified and unpleasant. Through the night, though my bladder was filling up, I was determined not to have another catheter, and against the night nurses wishes I waited till morning.
The oxygen and morphine was removed in the morning, and another inedible meal came, with an anti-inflammatory and a codeine tablet. From then on codeine tablets seemed to come liberally, but I did not take any more than that first tablet. The physiotherapist arrived and got me on crutches. The first place I walked was to the toilet. It took me a few minutes to piss. From then on I was going to the toilet regularly and easily. Lunch was actually a cooked meal, but inedible. I was glad to be off the morphine and lucid, and with crutches could walk about readily.
The evening meal came and Luke got cheese with his dry bread. The cheese looked good. I could not understand why I got some identifiable spread instead. Luke thankfully gave me a slice of his cheese.
At night I was given another codeine and a sleeping pill. I took neither and did not really sleep.
In the morning, more drab bread, codeine, and thankfully more physiotherapy, which qualified me to leave the hospital. I got a bag of medicine and went down to reception to wait for the lift back.
Topic: Jan Palfijn (Read 3108 times)
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