My Surgery Journey

I know it has been awhile since I last updated my blog but to be honest I just haven’t felt like doing much of anything. My recovery from this surgery has been a slow, painful process. I have spent my days and nights taking pain meds and sleeping. I am so tired of just laying around; I think I am becoming a good candidate for bed (or recliner) sores!!!!


Our good friends invited us to spend this past weekend at their lake house. We are always excited to get together with our friends, and like camping, I knew I could lay around and recuperate at the lake house just as well or better than at home. (After all, my sister Kim and friends Karen and Carolee were there to baby me!!!) The girls and Wendell had a great time knee-boarding, tubing, and boating. And as always, we all had fun just being together and eating Wendell’s constant cooking!!!!

I will try to start my update of this past surgery "journey" from my perspective now. It will take several blogs to say all I want to say, so here goes…..

Wendell and I drove to Nashville on Monday, June 1, 2009 and spent the night at a Motel to be there early the next morning. We arrived at 6:00am and checked in. Teresa and my Dad arrived at about the same time we did, and I began to have cold feet. They called me back fairly quickly and began prepping me for the surgery. As time passed I began to become more and more uneasy about this surgery. I had no peace. I was to the point of tears but was afraid to back out. I let them proceed. I really believe in my heart now, that it was not the Lord’s will for me to undergo this surgery. I know I should have backed out when I had no peace, because I didn’t, I feel I have suffered physically things the Lord did not will me to go through.

This is a picture right before surgery, cold feet was setting in and I felt no peace.

The surgery lasted about 12 hours. Before my eyes opened in ICU that night I knew they had performed the tracheotomy. I was more afraid of the feeding tube than I was the trach, before surgery, Boy, all I can say is: ignorance is bliss!! People have asked if it was weird trying to breath through the trach, and the answer is no, it was automatic, just like breathing through your nose. The problems arise, I learnt the hard way, when the trach becomes clogged with mucus. When I woke up I had the trach, a feeding tube, a catheter, three drainage tubes coming from my neck and one drainage tube coming from my arm, an IV in my foot, an IV in my arm, a cast on my left arm where they took the blood vessels and tissue, and a clear bandage on my leg where they took the graph for my arm. All in all I felt like I had been run over by an 18 wheeler!!!! To look at me you would have thought my neck or arm would have caused the most pain but surprisingly it was my leg. When the pain meds would begin to wear off it would feel as if someone was taking a blow torch to my leg. The pain was almost unbearable until the pain meds would kick back in.

I debated on whether or not to post this extremely unflattering picture or not. I finally decided if I was going to be honest and tell my whole story, why not?

My arm was positioned back in an awkward, uncomfortable position so as it healed I would have the full range of motion as normal.

This picture of my leg was took about four or five days into the healing process, so it does not show the true effect of how it looked right after surgery.

Well it's time for my hourly nap!!! more later.