Well, I had my "procedure" yesterday (hysteroscopy with D & C) and everything went fine - well, sort of.
The nurses and the RT were terrific!!
The RT came to see me before going into the pre-op area and she checked out my BiPAP. She was delighted and surprised that I had written all of my settings in the Owner's Manual and was impressed at the settings. When I told her that I had brought copies of my sleep studies, she was in heaven (The nurse had asked me to bring them in case the EKG information would be enough for the pre-op stuff. It wasn't.) She said it was so nice to work with someone who was so participatory in their healthcare. I think she read every bit of those summaries and studied the charts. She checked out the machine, then checked out my breathing rate (22) and O2 levels, on & off the machine, sitting and lying down. (Lying down without the machine my O2 level dropped from 95 to 91 in less than 5 minutes.)
Just before she left, she gave directions to the nurse that she wanted to be paged when I was ready to come out of surgery, and she emphasized that she, personally, wanted to be paged. She said that she wanted to make sure that the machine and mask were set up correctly as soon as I was out of surgery. When I got to pre-op it was clear that she had already been at work here because two different nurses approached me about my "sensitivity to oxygen". I was perplexed. They said that they were told that I stop breathing if I am given Oxygen. I explained that I probably wouldn't stop, but that my breathing would slow down and allow CO2 to build up. So they put a pulse oximeter on me and it stayed there until I was ready to go home!
Sure enough. When I came out of surgery my mask was perfectly in place and the machine running. After a little while a nurse came over and took the mask off & turned off the machine. "You're doing so much better now, we'll just take this off." (Guess she missed that part of the lesson where I need the machine?) I could immediately feel that I was not breathing well, but I was too out of it to say anything. Then I heard someone say, "Very shallow breathing" and "O2 desat". Pretty soon someone was putting the mask back on me and I managed to tell her to start the machine first!!! <LOL>
But then a curious thing happened. I started shaking. So they put another warm blanket on me - but I wasn't cold. The shaking got worse, so they put another warm blanket on me... and another, and another... but the shaking got worse. They gave me a shot of something and then put something else in the IV. But the shaking got worse. I started getting cramps in my muscles - especially my neck. More warm blankets. Must have been over half an hour before the shaking began to subside. Next I knew I was back in my room - with the machine on - and more warm blankets (still shaking a little. They must have given me at least a dozen of those heated blankets!) But I had heard the head nurse tell the others that "it's from the anesthesia." So Now I have to ask the doctor about it next week. My aunt (a nurse) said that sometimes that happens from the shock of the anesthesia. Something to do with the shock to the nerves.
My surgery had been scheduled from 1 to 1:30, so when I was back in my room I asked what time it was - 2:00 maybe? Hahaha! It was after 4 PM!!! WOW! Half an hour for the surgery and 2½ hours to wake up!!! (Well, sort of. I wasn't awake enough to leave - with lots of help - until around 6:30. We were the last people in the place besides the cleaning staff.)
This was done as same day surgery. I know we say that procedures that are expected to be done as same day surgery should be done overnight (because polio survivors typically take much longer to come out of anesthesia.), but this was a procedure that usually is done without anesthetic and in a doctor's office. I did warn the dr. and the anesthesiologist (she was great!!!) about the long time it supposedly took us to recover, but she said that I had no personal track record because I hadn't had surgery since 1980. (But she did read the article Gail sent from the PHI Conference! Wonder if she changed her procedure at all? Thanks once again, Gail!!)
So I'm here - dozing off now & then.... even more than usual!!! <LOL>
It was an adventure. Me & my PAP!!!
- JB
Me and My PAP
3 posts
• Page 1 of 1
Re: Me and My PAP
Judy
I have shaken a lot to post-op. Hope you are feeling better. The whole CPAP/APAP thing confounds them.
Glad you're doing better.
Gz[quote="ahujudybear"]Well, I had my "procedure" yesterday (hysteroscopy with D & C) and everything went fine - well, sort of.
The nurses and the RT were terrific!!
The RT came to see me before going into the pre-op area and she checked out my BiPAP. She was delighted and surprised that I had written all of my settings in the Owner's Manual and was impressed at the settings. When I told her that I had brought copies of my sleep studies, she was in heaven (The nurse had asked me to bring them in case the EKG information would be enough for the pre-op stuff. It wasn't.) She said it was so nice to work with someone who was so participatory in their healthcare. I think she read every bit of those summaries and studied the charts. She checked out the machine, then checked out my breathing rate (22) and O2 levels, on & off the machine, sitting and lying down. (Lying down without the machine my O2 level dropped from 95 to 91 in less than 5 minutes.)
Just before she left, she gave directions to the nurse that she wanted to be paged when I was ready to come out of surgery, and she emphasized that she, personally, wanted to be paged. She said that she wanted to make sure that the machine and mask were set up correctly as soon as I was out of surgery. When I got to pre-op it was clear that she had already been at work here because two different nurses approached me about my "sensitivity to oxygen". I was perplexed. They said that they were told that I stop breathing if I am given Oxygen. I explained that I probably wouldn't stop, but that my breathing would slow down and allow CO2 to build up. So they put a pulse oximeter on me and it stayed there until I was ready to go home!
Sure enough. When I came out of surgery my mask was perfectly in place and the machine running. After a little while a nurse came over and took the mask off & turned off the machine. "You're doing so much better now, we'll just take this off." (Guess she missed that part of the lesson where I need the machine?) I could immediately feel that I was not breathing well, but I was too out of it to say anything. Then I heard someone say, "Very shallow breathing" and "O2 desat". Pretty soon someone was putting the mask back on me and I managed to tell her to start the machine first!!! <LOL>
But then a curious thing happened. I started shaking. So they put another warm blanket on me - but I wasn't cold. The shaking got worse, so they put another warm blanket on me... and another, and another... but the shaking got worse. They gave me a shot of something and then put something else in the IV. But the shaking got worse. I started getting cramps in my muscles - especially my neck. More warm blankets. Must have been over half an hour before the shaking began to subside. Next I knew I was back in my room - with the machine on - and more warm blankets (still shaking a little. They must have given me at least a dozen of those heated blankets!) But I had heard the head nurse tell the others that "it's from the anesthesia." So Now I have to ask the doctor about it next week. My aunt (a nurse) said that sometimes that happens from the shock of the anesthesia. Something to do with the shock to the nerves.
My surgery had been scheduled from 1 to 1:30, so when I was back in my room I asked what time it was - 2:00 maybe? Hahaha! It was after 4 PM!!! WOW! Half an hour for the surgery and 2½ hours to wake up!!! (Well, sort of. I wasn't awake enough to leave - with lots of help - until around 6:30. We were the last people in the place besides the cleaning staff.)
This was done as same day surgery. I know we say that procedures that are expected to be done as same day surgery should be done overnight (because polio survivors typically take much longer to come out of anesthesia.), but this was a procedure that usually is done without anesthetic and in a doctor's office. I did warn the dr. and the anesthesiologist (she was great!!!) about the long time it supposedly took us to recover, but she said that I had no personal track record because I hadn't had surgery since 1980. (But she did read the article Gail sent from the PHI Conference! Wonder if she changed her procedure at all? Thanks once again, Gail!!)
So I'm here - dozing off now & then.... even more than usual!!! <LOL>
It was an adventure. Me & my PAP!!!
- JB
I have shaken a lot to post-op. Hope you are feeling better. The whole CPAP/APAP thing confounds them.
Glad you're doing better.
Gz[quote="ahujudybear"]Well, I had my "procedure" yesterday (hysteroscopy with D & C) and everything went fine - well, sort of.
The nurses and the RT were terrific!!
The RT came to see me before going into the pre-op area and she checked out my BiPAP. She was delighted and surprised that I had written all of my settings in the Owner's Manual and was impressed at the settings. When I told her that I had brought copies of my sleep studies, she was in heaven (The nurse had asked me to bring them in case the EKG information would be enough for the pre-op stuff. It wasn't.) She said it was so nice to work with someone who was so participatory in their healthcare. I think she read every bit of those summaries and studied the charts. She checked out the machine, then checked out my breathing rate (22) and O2 levels, on & off the machine, sitting and lying down. (Lying down without the machine my O2 level dropped from 95 to 91 in less than 5 minutes.)
Just before she left, she gave directions to the nurse that she wanted to be paged when I was ready to come out of surgery, and she emphasized that she, personally, wanted to be paged. She said that she wanted to make sure that the machine and mask were set up correctly as soon as I was out of surgery. When I got to pre-op it was clear that she had already been at work here because two different nurses approached me about my "sensitivity to oxygen". I was perplexed. They said that they were told that I stop breathing if I am given Oxygen. I explained that I probably wouldn't stop, but that my breathing would slow down and allow CO2 to build up. So they put a pulse oximeter on me and it stayed there until I was ready to go home!
Sure enough. When I came out of surgery my mask was perfectly in place and the machine running. After a little while a nurse came over and took the mask off & turned off the machine. "You're doing so much better now, we'll just take this off." (Guess she missed that part of the lesson where I need the machine?) I could immediately feel that I was not breathing well, but I was too out of it to say anything. Then I heard someone say, "Very shallow breathing" and "O2 desat". Pretty soon someone was putting the mask back on me and I managed to tell her to start the machine first!!! <LOL>
But then a curious thing happened. I started shaking. So they put another warm blanket on me - but I wasn't cold. The shaking got worse, so they put another warm blanket on me... and another, and another... but the shaking got worse. They gave me a shot of something and then put something else in the IV. But the shaking got worse. I started getting cramps in my muscles - especially my neck. More warm blankets. Must have been over half an hour before the shaking began to subside. Next I knew I was back in my room - with the machine on - and more warm blankets (still shaking a little. They must have given me at least a dozen of those heated blankets!) But I had heard the head nurse tell the others that "it's from the anesthesia." So Now I have to ask the doctor about it next week. My aunt (a nurse) said that sometimes that happens from the shock of the anesthesia. Something to do with the shock to the nerves.
My surgery had been scheduled from 1 to 1:30, so when I was back in my room I asked what time it was - 2:00 maybe? Hahaha! It was after 4 PM!!! WOW! Half an hour for the surgery and 2½ hours to wake up!!! (Well, sort of. I wasn't awake enough to leave - with lots of help - until around 6:30. We were the last people in the place besides the cleaning staff.)
This was done as same day surgery. I know we say that procedures that are expected to be done as same day surgery should be done overnight (because polio survivors typically take much longer to come out of anesthesia.), but this was a procedure that usually is done without anesthetic and in a doctor's office. I did warn the dr. and the anesthesiologist (she was great!!!) about the long time it supposedly took us to recover, but she said that I had no personal track record because I hadn't had surgery since 1980. (But she did read the article Gail sent from the PHI Conference! Wonder if she changed her procedure at all? Thanks once again, Gail!!)
So I'm here - dozing off now & then.... even more than usual!!! <LOL>
It was an adventure. Me & my PAP!!!
- JB
CPAP and surgery
Good job! You handled your own healthcare and took your machine and gave lessons......good for you!! A respiratory therapist who was very responsible.....wonderful. A nurse who missed the part about breathing.....hmmmmmm....needs a refresher course in the importance of oxygen to life.
The heated blanket thing is really, really common. Also, remember the Operating Room and the Recovery Room are always quite "COOL". It is not a good thing if they are dropping sweat beads on you under the hot lights!! When I get the shivers like that, it takes quite a while for me to stop...drinking something hot helps. But, since you were postop, forget that.....
Glad that all went well! Wish you a complete and quick recovery!
The heated blanket thing is really, really common. Also, remember the Operating Room and the Recovery Room are always quite "COOL". It is not a good thing if they are dropping sweat beads on you under the hot lights!! When I get the shivers like that, it takes quite a while for me to stop...drinking something hot helps. But, since you were postop, forget that.....
Glad that all went well! Wish you a complete and quick recovery!
Life is not a dress rehearsal
3 posts
• Page 1 of 1