On 7/10 I had some girl surgery and an appendectomy. When the surgeon went in for the girl bits Dr. Askinas noticed the appendix was not right and to prevent me from having surgery in the future took the appendix. That was good news and bad news. So this is my experience with the surgery and my stay in Chester County Hospital.
My surgery was scheduled for 7:30 am which meant that I had to be at the hospital at 5:30 am. Total yuck! But my Beloved David had me to CCH on time. Mom was already there. There were about 7 or so people in the waiting room. The nurse that took us back to start the process was one of the nurses that had taken care of Dad when he was having chemo. She is very nice. She put me in this purple gown called “Bair Paws” that had all these little ports in it. The ports were for hot air. According to the research, if the core temperature is kept up prior to surgery post surgery healing doesn’t take as long. It was nice. After all my vitals were taken, they took us upstairs to the recovery room. Mom stayed and David left, but only after I was settled in the recovery room. All the nurses and anethesia folks came over and introduced themselves. About 7:40 Dr. Askinas came over asked me if I was ready, the nurse said “I’m putting the medicine in” and within a minute I was completely out. It was like I was drunk. I looked to the right and next thing I knew I was waking up with a pain in my belly.
I have no idea how long I was in the recovery room. I think my co-worker’s Mom was in the bed next to me in the recovery room. Towards the end of my stay in recovery they brought in a little one who was in a lot of pain and he was screaming his head off.
They took me to room 157W. Mom left shortly after they brought me up. Which was ok because they started me on a morphine push when I was in recovery. I did a whole lot of sleeping. They wanted me to sit up to listen to my lungs. Ooooooowwwwwww!!!! That hurt like crazy. I had a perfect roommate. Her name is Elizabeth and she wasn’t in pain (no moaning or groaning) and she didn’t watch TV (no game shows or soaps). All she did was read. Which was perfect for me. The 1st night the nurse, Nick, didn’t like my pulseOx count when I woke up so he put me on oxygen. Anyway, the 1st night I had rolled on my side because my butt hurt. Well, in the middle of the night I had to pee like crazy. The problem was, I had a cathiter so I shouldn’t have had that problem. And the fun part was it was the middle of the night and my nurse call button didn’t work. So I asked my roomie to call the nurse for me. It turns out there was a kink in the tube and once they unkinked me all was good.
Since they took my appendix I had to “pass gas” before they would let me have solid foods. Day 2, they had me up and in the bathroom and sitting in a chair. Which hurt like crazy. But it was easier to get up to go to the bathroom. Mom & Dad came to visit. Terri came to visit and Maribeth came to visit. I was pretty tired by the time they left.
The rest of the stay was pretty uneventful. Except for Saturday night. One of the patients did a runner. The one nurse kept saying “Who’s his nurse? Stop him. Call security.” They found him a couple of hours later on a different floor in a laundry room. Then they sent a guy from across the hall to the ER at about midnight. And then at 2 am they brought in another patient. It was a long night.
The food was actually ok. After they let me have some. The nurses were fantastic. Over all I’d give my stay an 9 out of 10.