Escape From The Hospital

From: Joel
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 8:46 PM
Subject: Escape from the hospital

Well the order was given for my release from the hospital today at around 12:30pm.  I ended up leaving by 2:00.  I know that many of you tried to find out information and probably couldn’t, or tried to call or whatever and ended up being unsuccessful.  So here’s a basic run-down of the events of my life since Thursday morning for those who are interested.

On Thursday, I went to All Saints Hospital at 6am and was called into a room at 6:20 to get ready to move in to surgery.  At 6:40, I was taken to the anesthesiologist to learn some more about what would end up happening and all with the surgery.  Pastor Bill found me around 7 and prayed with me and my mom.  He made a comment that it was nice for me to have a nurse who joined us in the prayer.  I remember going into the operating room and moving over onto the operating table, but that’s about it.  I have some vague, unpleasant memories from Thursday, but I am hoping they will go away eventually.  I regained some sense of consciousness around 11am, but it was mostly in and out until late Friday.

The actual surgery only took around 45 minutes, and it took them about an hour in preparation, trying to put more IVs in me and monitors and all that.  My parents said they came into the waiting room to tell them the surgery had begun around 8:30 and then the doctor came to talk with them by 9:20.  So what did they find?  Still haven’t gotten final pathology reports back, but Dr. Nazarian said that it was larger than expected (large grapefruit-sized) and that was probably because it was compressed until they opened me up, so that would explain the problems finding a pulse in my hands and feet before the surgery, with it against my heart and all that stuff some.  Probably what it was is some sort of germ-cell based something or other, possibly a teratoma, but it was almost certainly benign and is all gone.  Nice to have that behind us!

I was in Cardiovascular Recovery from Thursday until Friday night.  Most of the other people in the sections I was in at the hospital were elderly and were having some sort of bypass or other open heart surgery.  Essentially what they did with me was open heart except they didn’t mess with my heart any; but they were there and everything.  I had a chest tube on my left side that was taken out on Friday, and the scar will match the chest tube scar I have that was put in back in 1997 when my right lung collapsed in a car wreck.  All told, I lost very minimal blood, and had no transfusion.  I ended up getting what we later found out was a VIP room in the hospital in the Progressive Care Unit that opened in late December around 9:30pm on Friday.  It is very nice to have relatives who work for Doctors who are interested in my case and can pull some strings here or there.

On Saturday morning, I had my first food or drink (except for a few contraband sips of water in the CVR on Friday).  It was nice to be able to have moisture in my mouth and lips again!  Saturday was a big day of firsts for me.  I was so upset at the nurses who made me sit up on my own and get out of bed on my own, and all that stuff, but love often must be tough in order to get the desired results.  I am so glad that they made me work on my own, even though I didn’t seem glad at the time.  I sat up pretty much all day Saturday and that was good for me.  I walked some, and got dizzy when I tried, but it was okay.  I had so many visitors come on Saturday and I was sitting up in a chair to talk with most of them.  People came on Thursday and Friday and I looked forward to it, but I don’t really remember a whole lot of that.  Saturday is a day I remember a lot better!  At the same time, I’m glad I didn’t go home Saturday night, there’s no telling what I would have done.

On Sunday, I woke up and was feeling a lot better.  I had pain sleeping Saturday night because I was using muscles that didn’t want to be used or whatever.  The whole time in the hospital, I never slept longer than 3 hours at a time, mostly because the pain medicine was on a 3-hour regimen and when it wore off, I knew it was gone.  I walked a whole lot on Sunday, and ended up exploring the entire fourth floor pretty much throughout the day.  I had more visitors, and made vast improvements.  It was hard to believe that I had been cut open merely three days earlier.  I had to stay in the hospital overnight and was disappointed, but the adjustable hospital bed made up for it because it’s hard for me to be on my back, so sitting up straight is almost the most optimal position for me and most beds don’t do that very well.

This morning, I had a couple of chest X-Rays done.  I am feeling worlds better, and I have more energy now than I’ve had in months.  I had no doubt the doctor would send me home, it was just a matter of waiting around for him to come release me.  He eventually did, and it was such a relief.  I still have some pleural effusion, but he said it’s getting better, so I have a medicine that will continue to help that.

I thank all of you so much for your prayers and sympathy and cards and flowers and cookies and visits and phone calls and everything else.  It is such a nice feeling to know that there are people in the world who love me and who go out of their to make that known.

The next few weeks will be lighter, and I am really not supposed to lift anything heavy for the next three months, so that will be hard, but it will help my bones to heal right, so I’ll obey.  I am taking this week and next week off from most of my teaching lessons, but I will begin a few more next week in preparation for solo & ensemble contests coming up soon.  I am so happy to have support from the faculty and staff at the Middle School, as well as from my professors and friends at college.  It is comforting to know that people understand where I’m coming from and are working to help me make this recovery as easy and quick as possible.  I’m going to church on Wednesday night, but I won’t be playing my horn in the praise band for a little while yet.  I may play trumpet some as it is lighter than my horn and I want to get back to serving where I have been called as soon as I can.

I hope this answers questions many of you may have, and I’ll get around to answering individual emails as soon as I get the energy to sit at my computer much longer…