Cancer Free and Some Complications

Ok this post is going to be long... and it took me awhile to get it up since I had to go back into the hospital... and it's the only hospital story you are getting from me for a while (no labor and delivery stories for me) so just bare with me. Also please excuse that some of the pictures were taken with my phone.

Thursday:

I arrived at the hospital at 6am ready to get things started.

The nurse called me back into pre-op, took my vitals and info and attempted to put in the IV.

Attempted being the key word.

She was trying to put it in my left arm, but my vein kept rolling. So she called in another nurse who tried, but couldn't get it to go in, and then they both tried together like holding my arm and vein and trying to get it in.

Didn't work.

So then she tried my right hand.

She got it in, but then my vein blew.

Awesome.

Oh and right about this point I got flushed, broke out into a sweat and thought I was going to throw up. Which is weird since I have been jabbed with needles at least 700 times this year and I have never had a problem.

So they called in a gurney, embarrassing, and had the anesthesiologist put the IV in the crook of my right arm. Which in case you were wondering, is not the ideal place to have a line placed into your arm.

My sweet surgeon came in and asked if we would join him in a word of prayer. It was lovely.

They walked me back to room, and I hopped up on the operating table.

They put these fancy leg compressors on my lower leg, which are supposed to help prevent blood clots and then laid this thing that looked like a blow up rectangle pool raft on top me.

(skip to 27 sec in)

It had warm air circulating through it and it was luxurious.

The anesthesiologist put the oxygen on me and the next thing I know...

I wake up in recovery!

My doctor said:

Amanda, wake up. Everything went fine. There was no cancer. You are staying over night. And you probably won't remember anything I tell you.

Well I did remember.

But you know who didn't remember anything her doctor told her?

The most ridiculous woman in the curtain next to me.

You would have thought she had brain surgery, because her brain kept resetting every 30 sec.

She kept asking the same things over and over again, and if I had been able to shout, or even talk for that matter, I would have yelled at her every answer.

They wheeled me up to my lovely room

where I had the most beautiful flowers waiting for me from Jamie and Joy.

My dad said that my room looked like a hotel room in Vegas and he kept wanting to go downstairs to the buffet.

I slept off and on, but had no pain at the incision sight.

My throat was sore from the tube they put down it, but I felt ok.

Then I started to feel nauseous.

Like bad nauseous.

So they put a shot of Zofran in my IV and I waited 15 min.

Still nothing.

It just so happened that my doctor had dropped his iPad on his foot and so he had come back to get his foot x-rayed so he was able to give the go ahead for something stronger, but it had to be a deep muscle shot.

They gave me Phenergan and I instantly felt better.

Granted my left thigh felt like it had just ran a marathon and then got the crap kicked out of it, but as long as I could finally eat something and have ice chips I was fine with it.

I got a new nurse at night and he said that we could probably take my IV out, so that I could sleep better.

The thing about hospitals, as most of you know, is that unless you are on heavy narcotics or something of that nature, you don't sleep very well. Mainly because they come in to check on you every 4 hours.

At least I could watch Private Practice on the TV and Grey's Anatomy on my iPad while in my hospital bed... Medical Drama overload?

They came to take my breakfast order, and since I was on a soft liquid diet, I opted for fruit and oatmeal.

I was still having trouble swallowing, but I kind of just thought it would go away.

They discharged me around 9:30 am and I just had to go over to my doctor's office so that he could check everything out.

(decent looking incision)

He said my incision looked good, and that if you couldn't see it, you would have never known that I had had surgery. I had excellent coloring and felt great.

Then he said he had to check my vocal chords... which I was dreading.

Mainly because the endoscope I'm convinced is of the devil and the most dreaded thing on earth.

I was nervous because the time before he had done it, I had gagged the whole time and then felt sick the rest of the day.

And since I had just had my throat operated on, I wasn't too keen on the idea of gagging/puking.

Everything checked out fine, but I did not feel good.

I came home and still did not feel good. I couldn't swallow anything still. The pain in my throat felt like when you have strep throat, which is heinous.

The plus of it all was that I was greeted by lovely flowers and cards and gifts from:

Rick, RS Presidency, Callie, my grandma, Caroline, and then of course the flowers Joy and Jamie had sent from the hospital.

I started to feel really nauseous. My mom said she would go to Whole Foods and get me some soup, so that I could eat. As she was getting ready to go, I asked her to bring me a bucket.

She did and I instantly threw up in it.

No food.

Just clear liquid.

My mom stayed around obviously as I continued to throw up and throw up.

I am not exaggerating when I say that from 11 am to 1 pm I probably threw up at least 22 times.

My mom looked at my bucket and informed me that it was not clear liquid, but bile.

Which means that there is nothing in your stomach for you to throw up.

And it was bad.

Like heaving, and choking and not being able to breathe.

My mom called my surgeon, who quickly said that none of this was his fault and that he had no idea why I would be throwing up. He said the anesthesia would have been out of my system by then and that this NEVER happens.

He called in some anti-nausea medication and my mom went to get it.

Well about 15 min after she left I threw up more than I had all morning.

I was chocking, I couldn't breathe, and I had no energy.

I called my dad in a panic and asked him if he could please come home from work.

He did.

I think he was surprised to see how bad I was.

He told me not to force it.... since clearly I wanted to throw up and was forcing bile out of me...

(my dad shows concern by being angry)

My mom came home with the medicine.

Now maybe you are processing this and thinking, hmmm, how is she supposed to take medicine to make her stop throwing up, if she is throwing up and can't keep anything down.

Well... let's just say I didn't take it through my mouth... so that really only leaves one other option....

Needless to say after all of that, it didn't work.

Around this time my aunt called and said that when she gets bad migraines she goes down to the Urgent Care and gets a shot.

So we headed down there.

We saw the nicest doctor, who thought that I definitely needed to go the ER.

I apparently had a fever, which after surgery is sort of not the best thing to have.

Not to mention that I was severely dehydrated.

We went over the ER, where we made it in, in record time.

Like we maybe had to wait 5 min.

I don't know if it was because it was 5:45 on a Friday night, or because I had just had surgery and had a super sweet looking incision on my neck, but we got in super quick.

And we didn't just get into the triage area, but we got into the back area with private bays.

So far I am 2/2 with private rooms.

I saw a million different people.

The ER doctor, 5 nurses and countless other people, that I really don't remember.

They hooked me up to an IV, took blood and got me started on morphine.

Once the morphine kicked in, which actually hurt pulsing through my veins at first, I was out for the count.

You can barely see the rash that broke out on my cheeks and neck from the morphine.

My sweet mother talked to every person that came in.

She said that there were at least 12 different people who came to see me while I was konked out.

Running blood tests, taking chest xrays (which they can do right in your bed), checking my vitals, hooking me up to a heart monitor, giving me anti-nausea meds, potassium, and morphine.

No one knew what was wrong, but they knew that something wasn't right.

They wanted to admit me, but they could not get ahold of my surgeon or my thyroid doctor and the insurance was making them jump through all kinds of loops, which they said is common and ridiculous.

Fortunately enough, the internist who I had seen this summer was on call that night and we had seen him when we were walking in. My mom mentioned to the ER doctor that I had seen the internist before and so he was able to clear me to get admitted.

They were finally able to get ahold of one of the surgeons in my surgeons group and he cleared me to stay as well.

They wheeled me up to a room ( another private room 3/3) at about midnight and gave me another round of meds.

The morphine gave me the weirdest dreams, more vivid than any dream I have ever had.

Like in the ER I swore my mom was standing next to me braiding my hair and I woke up and she most certainly was not.

Or that night in my room I had a dream that they were bringing an old woman named Grace into my room and I was really upset about it because I thought I had a private room, and then at the doorway were all these people who kept saying I had to come with them and they were waiting for me and it was my time to go with them. And I kept saying, No, I don't want to go. I'm not ready to go.

So basically I never need to do mushrooms or LSD because I got to experience all those hallucinations at the hospital.

I woke up at 8 and the internist said that I could leave as soon as I could hold down food. My surgeons partner came by to check, said the incision looked good, and said he had never heard of someone having that delayed of a reaction to the anesthesia before.

My dad showed up.

They gave me lydacane, which is a numbing agent, to swirl in my mouth before I ate so that it would numb my throat and I would be able to swallow.

It looked like hair gel, and I am pretty sure if I ever eat hair gel, it will taste exactly like this.

I got to eat delicious pudding.

I feel back asleep.

I had lunch.

Went back to sleep.

And then as luck would have it, my sweet friend Robert was down for the weekend from San Francisco for work and so he stopped by the hospital with these lovely balloons.

I am sure I was a vision of beauty.

Pale skin.

Pink incision.

The breath of someone who has been throwing up for a day.

And a hospital gown that was soooo flattering, and as I found out later, completely open on one side.

That afternoon around 4:30-5:00 they cleared me to go home!

My grandma brought over different kinds of soups and smoothies and I just relaxed.

It felt so good to be home.

I was super surprised when I woke up from a nap last night and found out that the girls in my Relief Society and dropped off these beauties

and the sweetest card, with such wonderful sentiments.

I have only had a few little set backs since then, but other then that I feel great!

I woke up this morning, after my first good nights sleep in 4 nights and I feel good.

The back of my throat still kind of hurts, but nothing like it did before.

And my incision still does not hurt, but it just tight, and it reminds me when I try to move my neck in certain directions, that that is clearly not going to happen.

I just really feel so grateful for wonderful parents who have taken such great care of me.

I don't know how people get sick without anyone to take care of them, and pay for all their medical bills for that matter.

I am grateful to be living at home so that they can watch over me and make sure I am ok.

I am also grateful for all your thoughts and prayers and concern. It really is true that you can feel them and it gave me so much more peace.

I am down for about 1-2 weeks, so I'll probably be watching a lot of Oprah's Life Class and figuring out what I am going to do with my life!

These beauties are still going strong and are making a lovely addition to my surroundings!

(excellent choice with the yellow roses, totally compliments the color palette of my room)