Several Hours After The Surgery

Things had been going really well considering I had just had major brain surgery. I felt really good, seemed to have all my senses about me, and for the most part seemed to be myself and that was confirmed by John and others.

The first day had several objectives with the most important being to make sure that no pressure built up in my head. It seems a bit... interesting to think they were worried about pressure considering the huge amount they had just relieved but the concern is there and that was never going to be a question. In the first day it was typical ICU type stuff. I had an ART line (Arterial IV) in my left arm that didn't bother me near as much as I thought it would. It was there to continuously track my blood pressure, oxygen level, and I think it tracked something else but I don't recall. If they were to take blood I believe they could have taken it here as well so it avoided additional pokes. I guess I won't complain too much about it.

I also had a regular intravenous line in my right forearm that was feeding me fluids, received my steroids when they were required, and gave me pain meds if they were needed... which they weren't so that was cool. I also received injections here for blood pressure whenever that went up a bit. Unfortunately, this particular IV gave me a lot of problems and the injects for the blood pressure were very counter productive. The pain in my arm from this IV was so major that every time they put something into it, I wanted to scream in pain. It was not a pretty experience.

Here are some pictures of this particular one. I'm not sure you can get a true feel for how much it bothered me but maybe you'll get an idea.

It actually doesn't look too bad shortly after having it removed but a few days later the real damage showed up.


The IV probably wouldn't have been as bad if it hadn't taken me so long to get my point across just how much pain it was causing me. In the end, it was finally removed and another IV was put in my hand instead and I never had another problem with the IV other than it just being annoying. *Sigh* Did I ever mention I hate IVs?


Honestly, this picture may even have me looking a bit like a whiner. It's not as bad as what it actually looked. Heck the bruise, two plus weeks later is still this large so it got much larger. I think I have pics somewhere but I will have to find the right ones. Let's face it, post surgery will be a long work in progress for a time to come before I get it where I like it.

Other ICU fun stuff included an oxygen supplement although that one I still haven't quite figured out. It wasn't doing me much good. I was much too hyper and talking way too much for the thing in my nose to do me much good.

And, of course, that first night had the lovely fun urinary catheter since I was unable to get out of bed to go to the bathroom myself. Did I mention I really wanted to get up the first night but they wouldn't allow me to?