Friday, November 17, 2006

Discharge and home

11:30 am Pressing on my belly, it’s sore and tender. When not pressing on it, it feels achy and like I am very hungry. Then again, I AM hungry. Two pieces of toast and orange juice didn’t exactly fill my empty stomach. Especially mine.

11:35 am As I lay here, thinking about the surgery to come. I realize no one has thought to ask me what my pain tolerance is. Mine is pretty low and that concerns me.

12:00 noon I decided to live a little and headed off to the bathroom. It’s the first time I have actually sat up in four hours. Everything came out fine. I can feel a bit more pain as I move around sitting up, moving and such. But it’s definitely not a problem.

These hospital robes suck.

12:10 pm I have dubbed the guy next to me listening to infomercials as Mr. Angry. He is not in great health and he is also in for a biopsy. Unfortunately his blood work isn’t within tolerances so they won’t perform the biopsy. Now he has to wait to see if they can stabilize the blood but he needs food to do that and he can’t have food before a biopsy. It’s a vicious circle.

12:30 pm I am ready to go. Hungry for sure. I am also getting twinges of pain. Not debilitating but noticeable.

1:00 pm The nurse that has been taking care of me is kicking me out. She checks my blood pressure and says it’s time to get dressed. After I dress she goes over the discharge papers with me and noticed that the consent form is missing so she got another one. I signed it and noticed something that most people probably don’t see or care about.

But I do!

On the consent form was a photo release. I understand this type of a release. I have used them too. But after my go around with the UPMC media relations department (specifically Maureen McGaffin) and them denying my request. Well, I was pretty pissed off about this. Especially after I had to sign it.

We bugged out of UPMC and headed to Red Robin for lunch.

2:30 pm Lunch is over and we are heading back home. I can begin feeling more intense pain but it’s not really bad. We’ll stop and get some Tylenol.

3:00 pm I took 2 Extra Strength Tylenol.

No comments: