Curly Moments...: Hospital bound- Surgery

July 19th,

5am- A staff member comes in with a wheelchair to wheel me down to the operating room. Before I get there, we stopped in an open room that smelled like a dentist office where I changed from my wheel chair to a gurney bed that I was told to lie down on. He covered me with a warm sheet and lined me up with 4 other people in the same position. After lying there for 15 minutes only having the white ceiling to look at, the nurse came and asked me a few questions, one being where and what I was having surgery on. She checks the leg and sees the sharpie mark the doctor had left. This... not comforting. Then she gives me a shot of something and I’m told if I have nausea, need to vomit or itch to let her know. 3 minutes later one of the dudes of my Doctor’s entourage came and got me. He pushed me down a long corridor. It was a bit weird...the hall was a light sea green and was extremely long. Considering I was lying down all I could see were the florescent ceiling lights going by. In my peripherals, I could see the hospital staff all dressed in the scrubs and face masks as we pasted them. As we went further and further down the hall it got increasingly cold. Finally, we approached my OR, it looked like a typical operating room I’d say, big, spacious, light colored with all stainless steel appliances and two huge bright lights hovering the operating table. I switched from my gurney to the Operating table, I look up and behind the lights, a big bunny sticker is attached to the ceiling waving at me. Really? I laugh to myself...only in Korea. They give me an oxygen mask and I’m told to breathe. A minute later I’m tasting a horrible powder, obviously my anesthesia, and then I’m out.

When I wake up, I’m in the most EXCRUCIATING pain ever. I can’t breathe, the left side of my nose is plugged, I have the world’s worst cotton mouth and the oxygen mask makes me feel claustrophobic with it suctioned to my face. My body is uncontrollably convulsing from the intense pain and I’m moaning in agony cursing fuck to myself because the pain is so unbearable. I’m tied down to the gurney, so as I’m moving hoping to suppress the pain in any possible way, I can’t. The nurses are asking me why I’m shaking, are you cold? I tell them it’s because it hurts SO bad...pain.... OUCH!!!!! My body was obviously in shock but they decided I said I was cold and put a super heavy blanket on me with a hose blowing hot air. Now, I’m still in severe pain and feeling even more claustrophobic. They wont give me any water to help my cotton mouth/ breathing problem, no pain meds, and now I’m hot as F***. I see a clock hoping it will give me to something to focus on but each second it tics feels like an hour. I finally get them to take off the blanket with heat in between my profanities, still having no control of my shaking. 30 minutes and an x ray later, I’m pushed out of the nurse monitoring zone, given a wet gauze for my mouth, that I suck dry hoping to help the dryness and put in a line waiting for someone to push me to my room, still, in intense pain, moving about, moaning, and trying to remember to breathe. 5, maybe 10 minutes later I’m finally pushed back to my room where John meets me in the hall with a stuffed bunny and his iphone camera. “Smile!” he says. Thanks John, Dick. (I would have done the same if roles were reversed, but seriously?!) Once, I’m in my room they give me a shot for pain....in my butt! Why the hell do I have IV’s in my body if you are just going to put shots in my butt?!! The shot does nothing for the pain. My knee is KILLING me, and you are going to poke me in the ass to give me a pain med that doesn’t work!!! John asks if what they gave me is morphine. The nurse says, no, it’s less strong then morphine. John looks at me and I give him the WTF, Seriously, I’m in so much pain look, and he tells them I need something stronger. She looks at me, and goes to get another shot for my butt. This time I’m instantly relieved of the intense, unbearable pain into more controlled, moderate, can kinda hold a conversation pain.

An hour after I wake up from surgery you are going to give me something for the pain.....Are you kidding me?!!! F*** you, Korea. I think of the pain every once in a while and tears come to my eyes, it was that bad. I’ve had surgery before and the pain wasn’t anywhere comparable to what I experienced here. Whatever pain medication they gave me didn’t work very well. I got so many shots in my butt that my butt is polka dotted with bruises. When the doctor would come in, he’d push my leg into the bed to extend it, tears would run out of my eyes and he’d be surprised. Why are you crying? Um...because it hurts?!!! I went to the physical therapist to learn exercises I need to do. He’d push and poke my knee, and again, tears would run out of my eyes. Same question, “Why are you crying?” Are you people serious?!! I just had surgery, and you are pushing and pulling at my knee. I’ve been in pain the last 3 days with minimal sleep, it HURTS! He feels bad, and then tells my nurses they should change my pain medication. This was Monday, I had surgery Friday.

Things are done a bit differently in Korea then in the States regarding hospitals. Here, someone stays with the patient (24 hours) to take care of any needs the patient might have, not the nurse. The hospital provides a cot for this person to sleep. This person is usually a family member, and if family isn’t available they hire a private nurse. Did I know of this? Of course not. Do I have family here? Nope. Super. Thankfully, John is here and I consider him familly. I owe him so much! He stayed with me my entire hospital stay. He only got 4 days of vacation from his two jobs and he used them to help me. All I can say is that John has seen more sides of me then I would have ever wanted... The good, the bad, the ugly, the really ugly.. and now the crippled and helpless. He’d tell the nurse if I needed more pain meds, he’d get ice for my knee, hook me up to the knee exercise machine, fill my water, bring me food, take my food tray away, help me to the bathroom or shower, wheel me around the hospital, (though hitting every bump possible. Using the wheelchair brakes, to only find out they weren’t brakes but release levers to make the back part drop down, which made me think I was going to fall out backwards! Needless to say, I wasn’t too stoked with John and the wheel chair.) The only thing John didn’t do was help me pee in the bedpan the day of surgery. Thankfully the nice night nurse helped me with that. I did however pee a few times while he was next to me passed out. Awkward? ...A bit.

Upon discharge, the doctor’s intern changed my knee dressing. He told me it needed to be changed every 3 days. I asked if I could do it myself, considering all it was was putting iodine on the incisions and bandaid to cover. His response, no. Seriously, doctor? I had to do everything by myself in this hospital, and I’m not trusted to rub iodine on my incisions and put a bandaid on them? He said, I could either come back to this hospital, go to any other surgical hospital and have them change it or have a nurse come to my house. Really?!! Go to a different hospital to change the dressing? That’s weird, let alone a pain in my ass to find one, and explain what I was doing there considering I don’t speak Korean. “Could you change my surgical dressing for the surgery I didn’t have here, please.” I opted for a nurse to come to my house thinking it’d just be the easiest. Well, jokes on me.....Do you know how much it’s costing me for a nurse to come to my and change my bandaids? 150,000w!!!!! That’s roughly 150 bucks! For a nurse, to come to my house, twice, and change 3 bandaids!!! I should have just gone to the pharmacy and bought my own damn bandaids, I have iodine from my last surgery. Uggghhh, Korea!

I’ve been home the last few days, which is so much more comfortable then the hospital. A bit challenging to do things for myself. I’m not suppose to put any weight on my leg, which makes my other leg’s muscles burn from trying to keep balance. Whatever I eat, is whatever I can throw to my bed from the kitchen. The thing I look forward to is a shower, which is a hassle upon it’s self, but so satisfying once competed. I have a couple of friends who stayed in Seoul for vacation, that cook dinner and entertain me at night. I had to go to back to the doctor’s office to day because they screwed up on my paper work. I only had to crutch about a quarter of a mile to my house form the main street where the cab dropped me off but I had to stop and rest 4 times, my clothes were damp and I was dripping sweat all over my body from the heat. I can only imagine how I’m going to feel when I have to crutch to work in the typhoon expected to hit next week.

My newest battle I’m dealing with is my work expects me to be back at work on Monday even though my doctor recommends me to rest until my follow up appointment on Wednesday. This is how good, communication is in this country. The doctor tells me I shouldn’t work for another week because if I do, I risk losing full extension in my leg from all the swelling that will occur being on my feet, and I’d lose it for the rest of my life. This is all I need to hear. Though, my co- teacher comes to visit me and asks the nurse about my condition. The nurse tells her it’d be fine for me to work on the 8th, Monday. My co-worker tells me this and in return I tell her my doctors says otherwise, and I explain. Well...apparently she didn’t believe me, or didn’t understand and in turn relayed what the nurse said to my school director. While in the hospital it was clear to me that the nurses had no clue about my situation. They would always tell me different information then the doctor would. Very few times the nurses would say the same as what the doctor would say. I would always tell ask the doctor questions about what I needed to do, and then nurses would then tell me to do something different. I’d tell them the doctor advised me to do something different. Their response, “Oh, really?” and then they’d have me do what the doctor recommended. Who do I believe, you ask? The doctor...at least here in Korea, as far as I’m concerned the nurses here are worthless. Anyhow, now I’m dealing with the school if I have to work Monday or if I can start after my follow up appointment 2 days later. Yay, me.

These pictures are from John's collection. I'm pretty sure I've never looked so good!