Post-Op Emergency

The last few days have been pretty awful.  Lots of pain, barely any sleep, even less food, and to top it off, I got to take an impromptu trip to the Emergency Room after passing out on the bathroom floor.

Through it all, I gotta admit that John has been more than stellar.  :)  He's been the perfect Doctor.  :)

Special shout out to Theresa and my sister, Shannon, for showing up last minute to help out with Vince.  My in-laws took him Friday-Sunday morning so I could rest up.

Anyway,  I did end up having to "stay awake" for the surgery.  While I was awake and aware of everything, I didn't feel any pain and had a very "They could be sawing my foot off and I'd still be totally chill" attitude about me.  I remember thinking, "Wow, if only I could get this in PILL form right before a flight!"

Anyway, after the surgery, I just laid back in the chair as she gave me discharge instructions.  My eyes were closed, but I was 100% aware of everything she was saying.  My entire body felt like lead, though, and I didn't want to get up.  The nurse made me stand and walk into the recoup area so John could collect me. 

Within about two hours, my face was in horrific pain.  I guess because I didn't have as much anesthesia as others, whatever I did get wore off much faster.  John got back with the medicine just in time.  I popped a couple percoset and tried to sleep.

I iced my face as I was told and slept for a couple hours.

The next couple days basically followed in a similar fashion.

Today, however, I was growing concerned with the swelling and pain.  I could barely sleep and the swelling on the left side of my face had partially closed my eye.  I knew that wasn't normal, and the fact it was beginning to puff out my throat alarmed me, too.  So at 5am, I ran down to pop more pain killers, grab some ice, and take the antibiotics.  I went back to bed and tossed for three hours. 

Then I apparently ran downstairs and told John, urgently, that I needed to take my medicine.  I have no idea how it happened, but I must've gone into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and passed out.

About 15 minutes later, John starts banging on the door because he can hear water running but can't get a response from me.  I guess I fell in a bad spot, because my body was blocking his entrance into the bathroom.  He couldn't push the door open because my body was in the way.  My pills were all over the floor because I guess I had dropped them.  John later told me he was afraid I'd overdosed or something because of how it looked to him from the other side of the door.

His banging must've jarred me somewhat awake, 'cause he eventually got in and put me on the couch.  I refused to go to the hospital.  I must've told him I fell asleep or something.  I dunno.  I just went to bed after taking my medicine and seeing Vincent come back from my mother-in-law's house.  My head was absolutely KILLING me.

A few hours later, I woke up again.  I immediately felt that my left eye was half shut again because of the swelling.  I guess I'd finally come to my senses, so I went downstairs and told John I needed to get to the ER.  He agreed, and a friend our ours, Frank, was kind enough to drive through the snow to pick me up so John could stay home with Vince.

As soon as I got to the hospital, triage took me immediately.  It was a huge flurry of activity.  They told me I had a severe infection from some sort of "pocket."  They set me up on an IV drip, shot me up with some morphine and did a bunch of blood work.  An oral surgeon drained some of the infection from my face and told me it was lucky that I came in when I did.  I had probably passed out from the fever the infection was causing.  I wouldn't have realized that because the percoset I was taking masked the fever.  It couldn't mask the raging migraine, though, which I had chalked up to the trauma of having my teeth removed.  Apparently the infection can work its way into the system relatively fast through the mouth, easily overtaking my brain.

I felt like this doctor was explaining how the zombie apocalypse was beginning.  Seriously.

Ugh - so yeah.  That was my weekend.  My head is still killing me, though not as much after my 2nd round of IV treatment.  They gave me a new type of antibiotic (which I now get to take 4 times a day as opposed to 2), and he upped my percoset dosage. 

I sincerely hope a lot of souls in Purgatory got some usage out of me this weekend!  LoL.

Anyway, thank you all for your prayers.  No doubt without 'em, this weekend would've turned out way worse than it finally did.

Finally... finally... I am on the mend!