Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | When it rains, it pours!

in the recovery room. I remember waking up and screaming that my foot was hurting, and hearing the nurse say, "We gotta give her something else for pain." Well, whatever they gave me caused me to stop breathing on my own. I had the surgery around noon, and I was supposed to be home by mid-afternoon. Instead, I woke up at 7 p.m. to hear them discussing whether they were going to put me in ICU or not. I thought to myself, "My God! What has happened to my foot? Did they have to amputate it or something?" They finally found a regular hospital room to put me in overnight for observation.

In the recovery room, I was so frightened. I was in total darkness but could hear this wicked nurse from hell yelling in my ear, "BREATHE!" She would shake my right (good) foot and scream at me every few minutes. I remember thinking, "What is that broad's problem? Why is it so important that I breathe?" Then I panicked because I thought to myself, "If I'm not breathing, am I dead?" Then the alarm would buzz again, and that nurse would shake my foot and scream, "BREATHE! You have to breathe!" This went on for HOURS.

I heard her say, "Oh my gosh! I forgot about her husband!" She ran to get him and I could hear him fussing at her for leaving him out in the waiting room for hours.

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was my surgeon walk in the room. I saw the look of shock on his face (he'd been in another surgery after mine), and he said, "Why is she still here"? I had tubes sticking out of my nose because they were giving me oxygen. I couldn't believe it when they told me it was 7 p.m.

Once I got settled in the hospital room, several nurses came in and woke me up. They were upset. "Your box is not working! Why are you not hooked up? Where are your wires?" one of them said, as she lifted my gown and searched my chest. Then they would look at my foot---in a hard cast---and say, "What did you DO to your foot?" I thought I was in the twilight zone! I said, "I didn't DO anything to my foot. I came into this hospital to have surgery on it. Doesn't anyone have my medical records?"

My husband screamed at them, "LOOK AT HER CHART, WOULD YOU?" We finally figured out that they had put me on the cardio ward and they were freaking out because they couldn't figure out why that "box" (the heart monitor)wasn't hooked up to me!!!!

Needless to say, I was glad to get home, where I was safe. I made the nurse who discharged me write down the medicines they gave me in the recovery room so that I make sure I never have them again. I am supposed to have surgery on the other foot in 3 months, and now I am terrified of having surgery again. I've had surgery in the past, and never had this problem. I live in a large city and this is supposed to be a great hospital. Yikes! I dunno wanna go back there again.

Also, I have to tell you what my neighbor, who's Jewish, said to me. She said, "When all of this was happening in the recovery room, did you see a white light at the end of a tunnel? Did you see the pearly gates? Did you see Jesus?"

I said, "No! All I saw was complete darkness!"

My husband laughed and said, "That oughta worry you! You need to start going back to church."

HA! We have laughed and laughed about this.

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