Finally, Surgery Update

Sorry it has taken so long to update you on my husband, Chris', surgery. He is still in pain. I hate seeing him this way.

As far as surgery day itself...it was a long day. We got to the hospital at 7 am with a planned time of 8:30 for surgery. The doctor was late arriving to the hospital and he had one small case to do ahead of us.

I use to work as a RN on a surgical floor for 5 years at one of the hospitals in the city. The hospital Chris had surgery at I did some per-diem work 4 1/2 years ago for one summer. I thought the chance of me knowing anyone at this hospital would be slim (compared to if he had it done at the 5 year hospital). I try not to mention that I am a RN. Sometimes medical personnel feeling that you are stepping on their territory, so with that my lips were sealed. Sure enough, 5 minutes after he gets there, one nurse comes over to put his IV in, she looks at me and says "Didn't you use to work here?" Busted! I told her I did for a short time (still leaving out it was as a nurse). Not 3 minutes after her another nurse (the patient advocate) came over to introduce herself, looked at me and said "Weren't you a nurse here?" The cat was out of the bag. The three of us started talking nursing while the first nurse was putting the IV in Chris. All-of-a-sudden, Chris says "I don't feel good" and starts passing out!!! YES HE DID!!! I looked over and all the color was gone in his face, his eyes were flickering and he was going. I couldn't believe it. I felt so horrible.

That was the start to the day. From there they gave him 3 doses of med to relax him....IT DID NOTHING!!! They gave him 2 more doses on the way to the OR (operating room). In the OR they had to give him double the med to put him to sleep and 1 1/2 times the normal does of a muscle relaxer (which they later told me they should have given him more). He had a lot of board.

I was told the surgery would take an hour. It ended up taking almost 2. The surgeon came out to see me after and said Chris' nose was a mess and not a surgery for a new or inexperienced surgeon to preform.

About 20 minutes later the nurse patient advocate came out to give me an update. Chris was in the recovery room swinging and trying to grab his nose. I was afraid that was going to happen. Chris was a Marine for 4 years and he has been in the law enforcement field for almost 10, I was afraid all his training was going to kick in when he was out of it. And boy did it. Thank goodness they were able to calm him down (I believe they probably game him pain medication to knock him out).

After 2 hours in the recovery room I got to see him. He was so pale and looked miserable. They had to put oxygen on him because his oxygen level had dropped to 85% (after surgery you want to see it above 95%). For the next 2 1/2 hours they would go back and forth between putting the oxygen mask on him and taking it off. He was very close to being admitted into the hospital overnight. Finally, he started waking up more and was able to maintain his oxygen level.

On Wednesday they removed the nasal packing and tubes. He has been feeling a lot of pressure around his face. I think he feels worse than he expected to.

Thank you for the prayers. Please continue to pray for him and our family. Lots going on.
Judy