Miki's Knee Surgery!

Monday, August 17, we went to Victoria General Hospital at 11 am. Sunday night we had stayed at Mary Lois's condo so Miki could do her Big Antiseptic Shower before bed and again just before we left to go to the hospital. They checked her in, gave her a most attractive gown (???) and put in an IV line. At 5 to 1 they took her off to the operating room. Someone introduced her individually to every member of the operating team (impressive!!!), including the wonderful Dr. Stone, and in true Miki fashion she thanked them all for all their hard work just before she went under.

At 3:45 Dr. Stone called me on my cell and said everything had gone really well, and did I want to talk to Miki....?? So there she was all chipper, awake and happy. Around 5 pm they brought her from the recovery room up to the orthopedic ward and settled her in Room 508. For about an hour, she was all happy and cheerful and then suddenly her anesthetic started to wear off and within 20 minutes she went from no pain to about an 8 out of 10. They gave her an injection of Dilaudin and just as it started to work about 20 minutes later, she turned paper white, started to shiver violently, and was freezing cold!!!!!! The nurses treated her for HYPOTHERMIA and said she was the 3rd person to come up from surgery that day to have that reaction - either to the meds, the shock of the surgery, or.....?? So they applied hot blankets, oxygen, and tried to warm her up in a hurry. About 20 minutes later she felt terrible nauseated, so they gave her a shot of gravol, which mercifully helped both the pain and let her sleep. Her colour started coming back, but every time they gave her a shot, she had terrible nausea and then vomiting (just bile, of course, as she had not eaten in 36 hours). It was a very long night - they kept her out of pain, but the nausea and poor colour was miserable. I brought her sips of water, ice and did some healing touch with her, and she did sleep off and on.

By 6 am I had to leave to go to work, and when I got back there after work at 4:15 there was a whole new Miki!! They had slowly given her some food and had changed all her meds to pills rather than injections, which really did the trick. This woman doesn't take any medications other than the occasional advil for her sore knees, but I think it was just too much too intensely for her system. So she had had some breakfast, some lunch, been up to the bathroom, used the walker a couple of times and even sat in a chair to eat. Wow - what a difference a day makes! She had lots of company that evening, with Mary Lois, Terri, Rick, Helen and I coming by. Off to sleep now, pretty lady, let's hope day 2 is even better!