Hey guys,
Remember me, I am the single Mommy who had surgery on the 30th of
September.  I just got out of the hospital yesterday believe it or
not!

The surgery took over 3 hours to complete, but post surgery the ENT
felt he had cleaned everything out and it looked great.  I got out of
surgery at about 4:00 in the afternoon, the only intial complaint I
had was nausea.  I threw up several times and it was mostly brown
blood.  That evening I asked for a pain pill, but immediately threw it
up.  The pain was very mimimal, both sides of my nose were clear and I
could breath freely.  At about midnight I asked for 2 Tylenol and fell
off to sleep.  I woke up Friday morning to a terrible migraine
headache the worst I had ever had! (I have migraines)  The ENT decided
to let me stay a little longer to see if they could get the headache
under control.  At about 2:00 he came back to the room and still my
head was killing me, so they called in a Neurologist to look at me.
He was 2 hours away supposedly, and they felt I should have no pain
meds until he saw me.  Almost 4 hours later he showed up to see me.
They took an x-ray of my head to look for air which would indicate a
spinal fluid leak, it came back negative.
Finally at 9:30 that night they decided I could have a shot of
Thorazine and 4MG of Morphine.  At abut 10:30 I finally fell off
asleep.

Saturday morning I woke up and the headache was better, I got out of
the bed and headed for the bathroom, which was about 8 feet away.  By
the time I got there I could not breath.  I had been on a oxygen mask
since surgery.
As I sat on the toilet I realized the back of my leg was also in
excrusiating pain.  I could not even put weight on it, by the time I
got up.  I hoped back to bed and pushed the call button.  The nurse
told me that it was probably just that I had slept wrong it!
At about 10:30 the ENT and Neuro doctor show up and I tell them that
something is dreadfully wrong with me.  The say "well we are going to
send you home and I think you will feel better in your own
surroundings"  I said "boys listen to me, there is something wrong and
if I leave here, I am sure I will not survive it!"  At my insistance
they agreed to call in the hospitalist (internal medicine doctor) and
he comes in and first listens to my lungs, they were clear but
diminished, he took of my oxygen off which was at 99 and it fell to 85
withing a couple of minutes.  I tell him of my leg and he says didin't
you tell anbody about your leg.  I told him everyone who would listen.
He says, well I think you have thrown a clot to your lungs.

Now I am thinking great, I am going to die!  

They sent me straight to x-ray where they did an ultrasound of my leg
and a cat scan of my lungs.  Sure enough I had a blood clot in my leg
and several clots in my lungs!
They immediately started me on blood thinners and ordered 5 days of
complete bed rest.

Surprising enough my sinus were pain free!  On Wednesday morning the
ENT came in and told me that day 6 and 7 post op were the most high
risk for bleeding and with them giving me high doses of Coumadin and
Heparin I was a very high risk.  He left and about 2 hours later the
first nose bleed started.  I had three little bleeds during the day,
and then at 9:00 my nose really started pouring, mostly down the back
of my throat.  The finally called the ENT in at about 10:00, I called
my Dad and he rushed to the hospital.  Over the next 2 hours they
worked from my bedside to stop the bleeding.  They put Thrombin in my
nose and it did not work, so they put some stuff you mix up and I
swear it looke just like yellow wood glue, that finally stopped the
bleeding.  My Dad kidded me it was epoxy!  My Dad was white as a sheet
by the time they were done!  He told someone the next day, he swore
they had stuck the suction and tweezers six inches into my nose!

My right nostril is still oozing a little even today.  The left is
clear and feels great.  I begged yesterday to come home, as I could
not stand being in that bed any longer, but I had to promise I would
do nothing when I got home.  My son and I are staying at my parent's
house for a few days.

Monday I am seeing the ENT and he will attempt to clean out the right
side of my head, and I pray the bleeding doesn't get bad and they have
to put me back in the hospital again!

When I had surgery they did not put any support stockings on me.  For
such a long surgery it should have been done.  I would suggest to
everyone that if you have surgery insist on the hose.  Better safe
than sorry like me!
Perhaps a malpractice case, may be something I think about.

Now, I will be on Coumadin for 6-9 months and that brings a whole new
set of problems for you.  I have to be extremely careful about
everything I do, as a simple cut can land me in the hospital for a
trasfusion.  My lungs are still not good and I get winded just walking
around.  The leg feels like my veins are being ripped out if I stand
on it for more than 5 minutes.  They tell me that can take months to
resolve.  I will have to wear an alert bracelet for the Coumadin, plus
get regular blood work to check my clotting level.

As far as the surgery is concerned I will tell you that I had very
minimal to no pain, other than the nose bleed episode.

I will post tomorrow and let everyone know how the ENT visit goes
tomorrow.

Thanks for listening!

Laurie
Mommy 2 Cody