Bike Crash – 24 Days in the Hospital

The first 3 surgeries happened fairly closely together. And within the first week and a half, all of the first 4 were taken care of. I spent most of that time sleeping, hallucinating, and watching television shows. I watched all of Buffy 1 and 2, and lots of Star Trek. The pain started to go down, I finally accepted that I was pretty damn injured, and I wouldn’t be able to go to school, and I started to eat, gradually. Mainly fruit and oatmeal. I also got off the damn catheter after 2 weeks, and after the fourth surgery, I started to want to go home. They also finally listened to me complaining about my hand, got it x-rayed and put a splint on it.

Then came that final surgery, and all hell broke loose. That was some of the worst pain I have ever experienced. It was worse than the original surgery, because they wouldn’t put me on strong enough pain medicine. They had me on the morphine, with the button, again that first night, and I couldn’t sleep, of course. Then took me off that, and gave me oxycodone, with morphine injections every 3 hours. Which didn’t work, and I spent the first day crying, and moaning. Finally that evening the nurse decided to get the pain down. She made sure I got the oxycodone whenever I could, and gave me shots of morphine every hour. It really helped. The pain was down completely by midnight, and it didn’t come back. I was able to sleep.

It took me an entire week post op, to get out of the hospital. During that time, I started walking with a walker. Using the toilet, like a real person. Sitting in a chair, every once in a while. It was exciting, and difficult. It was very hard to move, I was so weak. My right leg was the thinnest I have ever seen it, and I broke a sweat walking 8 feet to the bathroom. I started eagerly anticipating my release, which took much longer than it should have. It was very frustrating. I felt ready to go, but the doctors wanted to keep an eye on how the leg was healing. The continual oozing bugged them a bit, as did the fact that I couldn’t walk too far without getting dizzy, and nauseated.

But I made it out. I told them I wanted it really badly. I walked as much as I could, and eventually made it. They put a cast on my hand, had me fill out some paper work, gave me drugs, and sent me on my way, at about midnight.