vifferman

After the slicing'n'dicing, I spent some hours in ICU in a drug-induced coma, with a machine doing the breathing for me. I don't remember this bit at all, but my wife and #2MutantSpawn came to visit me, and viewed the antics that ensued when I was fighting for domination over the respirator to see who would do the breathing bit. Once the tubes were out, I was apparently talking (probably complete and utter shite and interacting with the nurses. I do remember the period after this, when I was doped up to the eyeballs and beyond on morphine (mmmmm... morphiiinnne..) The things that stand out are the thirst, and the nausea; the morphine made me thirsty, the thirst made me drink the water I was supposed to be rinsing my mouth with, and more than about 100ml of water in my stomach made me immediately vomit. The one thing that I really remember well is the care and compassion I felt from the fantastic ICU nurses: Graham, Wendy and Yvonne. They did a fantastic job of calming me down, easing my pain, and soothing my jagged nerves. (Sorry for vomiting on you, Wendy)
Yvonne had the brilliant idea of getting some ginger ale from somewhere; this solved the thirst/nausea issue. The ginger killed the nausea, and while the softdrink made me even thirstier, it was enough for me to sip that, and just rinse my mouth with water before spitting it out.
I was in ICU and drug-addledness for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Before I left ICU there was one more scary bonus: removing the drain tubes from my chest. Yvonne got me to practice looking at her intently while breathing in and out, then once I had this down, she snipped the stitches, I took a breath in and she skillfully (and painfully, despite the morphine), whipped tube one out. A moment's recovery then repeat for #2.