The surgery itself went well & thankfully was successful. But this recovery will be similar to my pituitary surgery. The hospital experience was much worse. The nurses were great but I swore the weekend doctor was trying to kill me. It was a long 5 days on my back. I was in the icu, so they did their protocol which was above & beyond what I really needed. I had 2 iv's, blood pressure cuff going off every 30 min around the clock, blood sugar finger sticks 3-4 times a day, bloodwork drawn (not using iv's) 2 times a day, pulse ox monitor on finger, tubes all over to measure my heart etc...
The nurses had to come in every hr on the dot to check my mental status so I couldn't have any pain relief other than Tylenol!! On top of all that other stuff, there's what I actually went thru... They went up my nose, scraped my sinuses, repaired the CSF leak, took a piece of fat from my stomach (small incision along my csection scar) & put a long tube up my back to drain the fluid giving my brain time to heal. They took that out on Monday & had to put a single stitch all w/o lidocaine or anything stronger than Tylenol! The draining of fluid from my back once an hour gave me the worst headache ever. I couldn't lay on my sides, so all around it was just uncomfortable. I was given 25mg Fentanyl the last 2 days in the hospital & at one point the on call Neuro had come in to check me after I had just taken the fentanyl & I was getting tired finally after not sleeping all night & she freaked out that I wasn't fully aware & awake. So again she cut the dose in half to 12.5mg & to twice a day only instead of every 6 hrs. Serious pain & stress!!!
Then...you add in the fact that normally I need steroids to survive & they had given me just such a large dose (not following my endo's orders at all!) & wanted to wean me right off them quick, as if I wasn't totally stressed out & in pain. Lack of steroids at one point added to the headache. I was at a ten for pain level & they gave me TYLENOL!! So you see my frustration. Thankfully I managed to fight w/the doc about how I needed the steroids & my husband got to the hospital on time to enforce the issue. She would wean no more & my endo could deal with me & the weaning process.
So that's where I am now. I just got out on Monday on 150mg of hydro to wean from. Again. As of today, I'm on 120mg. I take 50 in the morning, 40 in the afternoon & 30 in the evening. Slow and steady as they say. Literally & figuratively.
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