Time in the Hospital

So recently as many of you know I had to go to the hospital to have an operation to repair a hernia!!  REALLY SUCKS!  Originally I was told by my surgeon that I would have to wait until the end of August to have the procedure done. This was tough, since I was in quite a bit of pain.  I went ahead and had put my name on a waiting list, just in case they could take me early. prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /

2 days later they call me late in the afternoon to say they want to do the operation "tomorrow" since someone cancelled their procedure. So I jumped at the chance to get it over with (even though I was terrified to have it done).

Here is an account from my day from "hell"....

Alyssa and I got to the hospital at 5:45AM. Originally I was scheduled for and 8AM procedure. They alerted me that they moved me to 9AM. After waiting in the lobby for 90 minutes, they took me up to pre-op. Where they could put me in the funny gown and shower cap.

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After laying there for a few hours pondering all the things that could possibly go wrong during the procedure, I found out that the procedure before me was going to be more complex so I was on "standby"... No ETA on when they will be done. The anasteologist came in to ask me if I had any allergies... I told him (as I told the resident working with the surgeon) that I was allergic to penicillin. Turns out they had scheduled me to be pumped with that during the procedure despite me telling them that penicillin had almost killed my mom 20 years ago. They apologized, and said don’t worry; we can use another drug... Finally around 12:30 PM the doctor comes and says they finished the procedure and were going to go get some lunch... The nurse tells them that she had entered the proper info into the system, and it turned out she had reinstated the penicillin drug to be used since when the anasteollogist called to cancel it, the computers were down and she missed that "note" when they came back up...

SCARY...

Anyways... since the doctor is going to lunch, I figure, it will be another hour or so... so "DONT PANIC"... The orderly comes in and says they were going to roll me down to another room to make space for the next person. Next thing I know I am in an elevator going to another floor, and another doctor in that elevator makes the joke "Why are you taking him to 2? Is he scheduled for a hysterectomy?" Turns out that floor is usually used for women’s procedures... But considering the "area" of my procedure and the screw up on the penicillin, I was sure hoping they wouldn't remove ANYTHING!!! :)

They roll me into the room... and I suddenly realize that this is the operating room... They strap me down onto the smallest table known to man, with my arms outstretched in a Christ-like position. Then a nurse tells me that they put some "medicine" in my IV, and that I was going to be going to sleep... Before I knew it within like 30 seconds everything went black...

Then suddenly I feel the sensation of being lifted up, and hear "We're all done Mr. Brown..." And I was slowly coming to, and the pain was INTENSE... They took me to recovery, and were pumping me with morphine every 20 minutes (as I would request). And I was thinking to myself... I thought morphine was supposed to be "da bomb"... and this crap doesn't do anything!! AHHH!  As I lay there slowly coming out of my daze, I am seeing other patients rolled in... One to the right of me was a 35 year old woman... I overheard the nurses talking, and it turned out she had cancer. She had a right mastectomy previously as well as a hysterectomy. They had just completed a left mastectomy... I thought to myself... "That poor woman..." She had been through so much and is so young really. I thought to myself, I wonder if she has kids? If she didn't then, because of her cancer she never will. Did she wait in life thinking that later on she'd have the chance, only to find out she wouldn't be able to, and not only that she would be fighting for her life??  I am turning 37 this year and it made me think that we may have our plans, but life sometimes has its own... Best not to put things off...

So after 90 minutes or so I was pretty lucid, so they took me to the room where I am supposed to have some food, and start to walk around... LET ME TELL YOU... this was the most intense pain I have ever had in my life... I literally had no control of my stomach muscles... I couldn't get out of bed or sit-up without feeling like my guts were going to spill out! AHHH!  It took me a good 2.5 hours to finally get out of the bed enough to prove to the hospital that they could let me go... That being said, they pumped me with more drugs and a double shot of vicodin (in addition to the 4 injections of morphine I had in post op).

As they were wheeling me out of the hospital to my car, I was REALLY thankful to all the hospital staff... for the most part it is these people who the sick really feel cared for by...

I spent the next 7 days in bed, popping vicodin 2 pills every 4 hours. That being said, you can soon see me on the latest season of "Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab". I am kidding :)  Totally off the pills... ha-ha

But I am getting back to work on producing my film project. I am speaking with a few distribution companies as well as my Exec. Producer to get the ball rolling again. I am still very sore... but ready to get back to work!!