Whistle-pig *

I was going to title this post with something cute about groundhogs and poking my head out of my den, etc. except Stephanie beat me to it. As Yogi Berra would probably say, "Groundhog Day is like Deja vu all over again."

The gall bladder was finally taken out last Thursday! Woot! Knowing that I always sleep much, much longer than most folks, they decided to wake me up from the anesthesia and send me home the same day. This turned out not to be the best plan. Apparently, it takes four full days for anesthesia to completely leave your system. So for someone like me, who is very sensitive to medications, this can be a problem when combined with prescriptions at home for pain. ToolMan called the surgeon on Friday, concerned that I was having very severe headaches and nausea with double vision and roaring in my ears. The surgeon issued prescriptions for changes in meds, but because it was Friday and the doctor was back in surgery, meant he had to go pick up the 'scripts and drive them to the pharmacy to be filled. He did and we changed meds, which worked for a day. By Sunday, the headaches, nausea, and roaring were back with a vengeance, this time with not only double vision, but flashing lights. Another phone call to the surgeon, a check of my blood pressure, and we were off the the emergency room. Turns out the anesthesia, combined with the increase in blood pressure medications before surgery, and the new pain meds were not all playing nicely together. My blood pressure was very low, my potassium was nearly non-existent, and I was dehydrated. A couple bags of IV with potassium and meds to clear out the lingering anaesthetic worked wonders. They did run a CT scan of my head to make sure nothing bad was in there (and to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure they actually found anything in there at all) and then sent me home where I continued to do what I had been doing for the previous four days. That is, sit in the recliner, hold the television remote in one hand, a bottle of water in the other, and stare off blankly into space, drooling occasionally. By Monday, I could actually retain a thought process long enough to choose something on the telly and by Tuesday I could actually track an entire one-hour program. Today, I went back to work and thanked all my co-workers for the lovely flowers which were outside our door on Saturday.

See, all those hand knits finally paid off.


* Another name for a groundhog.