Day 1 Sept 19, 2007 written on day 38

Day 1: Sept 19. Still in hospital. Transferred from ICU to a general surgical ward.

In the first pic you can see the bulletin board that housed the weird religious picture, I think that bluish paper in the bottom middle is it, I had Ry flip it over. A little swollen and pooped out at this point. I was up, had a little sponge bath, wrote some notes with my nurses, my mom and Ry.

I was then transferred to a surgical ward...which I was sad and happy about. Happy because it meant that I was going to escape the weird religious picture and be able to go home soon. Sad because the care in ICU and on a surgical ward is much much different.

I got settled into my new ward bed, I was in a shared room. I was closest to the bathroom...woohoo. Speaking of bathrooms, I did have a catheter. It was removed before my transfer. It wasn't so bad, I couldn't really feel it. Don't fear the catheter.

This is the point where I started to feel crappy. I was pretty swollen, my nose was so stuffy and I was having trouble breathing. I was given some nasal sprays and I attempted to get some of the crud out of my nose with q-tips. I actually tried the breath-right nasal strips and as a non-believer my mind was quickly changed. I understand that this surgery is like one big kick ass breath right nasal strip but it really made breathing easier.

My family was around taking care of me all day which was beyond fabulous. I tried to drink my eats as much as I could, at first I used the syringe method and then Ry brought in the Zip-n-Squeeze that I had ordered ahead of time. I heart Zip-n-Squeeze. This product really makes getting fluids easier. The night of day 1 was not so much fun. My mom stayed at the hospital with me until 3am. I couldn't sleep again and was just uncomfortable. I eventually told my mom to go get some sleep. I tried to sleep but I just could not. I asked for some gravel thinking that might help...it didn't. I felt like I was going to have a little bit of a break down so I asked the nurse if she could call my Ry to come and be with me. The nurse asked if there was anything that she could do instead of calling him in...but it was anything specific that I needed. I just wanted some loved ones near by. Ry came in. I was thinking it had to be just about 6 or 7...it was 4am. I made it an hour by myself...