I was born with kyphoscoliosis which is curvature of the spine side to side and front to back. It is a combination of kyphosis and scoliosis. From when I was young until I was 14 I had to wear a back brace to stop the curve getting worse. Sometimes I had to wear the brace all the time or just during the day or just during the night. When I was 14 I stopped growing and a doctor told me that the curve of my spine couldn't get any worse and asked me if I wanted to have the scoliosis correction surgery. I said no at the time because I didn't want it but I was asked again if I wanted it in 2018 and I said yes so I was given an information leaflet and was told I would be put on the waiting list.
Fast forward to March 2019 and I received a phone call to say that I was next on the list so a short while later I got a letter in the post with information about a pre operation assessment. At the pre operation assessment I got to talk to a nurse and the surgeon about any questions I had and they tried to give me a blood test but they couldn't get enough blood out because my veins aren't that good. I was then told to go to a different department in the hospital and was taken into a room for a breathing test which involved me closing my lips tightly around a mouthpiece then inhaling fully, so my lungs were completely filled with air then exhaling as quickly and forcefully as I could to make sure I emptied my lungs fully.
Fast forward to 10th June 2019 and I was admitted to hospital to have the operation. My mum picked me up from my house and took me to the hospital and we went up to the ward the nurse told us to go to and waited, and waited, until my name was called. We were directed to a ward with lots of beds in it but were told we would only be in this room until they got my room ready. We sat on chairs in the room for hours until in the evening someone offered me a cup of soup for dinner but I didn't want it, another while passed and a nurse came and wanted to go over some paperwork with me. She noticed that I hadn't passed the breathing test so just so she could be 100 percent sure of what my lungs were like, she took me to the stairs and said for me to walk up them so the nurse, my mum and I walked up five flights of stairs!
Later a doctor came and offered me some toast and it was music to my ears. I was so hungry. Around 7pm I was finally taken to a room which was just for me and I got settled in and changed into my pyjamas and watched TV on my phone then my mum left to go back home. She had stayed with me for about 5 hours sitting in the hospital not doing anything.
I went to bed then in the morning my mum came back and then the surgeon came and talked to us more about the operation then I got prepped for the operation and was pushed on a stretcher into theater. I woke up that evening in the high dependancy ward and I remember seeing my mum then a while later, my dad but I was drifting in and out of sleep so much the memory is a bit hazey. I had really bad pins and needles in my leg when I woke up and a doctor came and made sure I was comfortable then later someone came with dinner for me and I had some but I threw up afterwards. The next day I was taken to a different ward and was there for a few days. On 15th June I had a video call with my sister on WhatsApp and I talked to her for a while but then after I hung up I threw up again. I was so sore and uncomfortable so they put me on higher pain medication. The next day I had to get a tube put up my nose and down into my stomach to try and get rid of an air packet then I was sent for an x-ray because they couldn't see down my throat but it went well and the doctor came back afterwards and confirmed that they were able to get rid of the air packet. I had a nap that afternoon then the next thing I know I woke up and was so sleepy and unenergetic then my stomach got so sore that I couldn't move it all of a sudden and I ended up screaming in pain. I was put on a nebuliser which is a piece of equipment used to change liquid medicine into a mist inhaled into the lungs to help me breathe easier. Every day I had blood pressure and heart rate checks. On 17th June my oxygen levels were low so they ran a few tests and x-rays but the results came back and it turned out I had pneumonia so I was moved to the high dependancy ward so I could get more oxygen. That evening a nurse came and washed my hair with shampoo and put conditioner in it and they had to trim some of my hair to get rid of some of the pieces of glue that were stuck in my hair from the wires that were connected to my head to monitor me while doing the operation then the nurse plaited my hair! The next day I was given a Nasal cannula to help me to breathe. On 20th June I started having really bad diarrhoea. A nurse told me it was because they had put me on so many different antibiotics to help me pass stools because I hadn't done so since the operation. During my time in high dependency I didn't do much physio with the physiotherapists because I was on oxygen, I only moved from the bed to a chair a few times. On 21st June I was moved back to the other ward in the hospital where I was before. I started feeling a lot better and was doing more. I had physio each day to help me get my strength back. For the first few days I had to hold on to a physiotherapists arm on both my right and left side to walk then gradually I only needed to hold on to one arm on one side then I progressed onto walking on my own with a zimmer frame which I had for about a month after I was discharged from hospital. I was discharged from hospital on 26th June and I was so glad because I was getting a bit fed up with being in hospital. I was only meant to be in hospital for about a week but because I got pneumonia I had to stay in for longer.
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