Just moved from Post-Op Recovery Ward to a private room (I
don't know how I rated a
private room) in Medical Center North
(Round Tower)
at Vanderbilt University
Medical Center - Tuesday, September 27, 2005, 6:00 PM.
It was a long trip on a gurney
from post-op in the main hospital building to Medical Center North, rolling through
endless, empty, echoing underground tunnels. Everything was very surreal, with the
general anesthesia still
wearing off.
I experienced considerable nausea as an after-effect
of the anesthesia,
and the cold cloth over my forehead and eyes helps with nausea.
I had never experienced that treatment
before, and it was surprisingly effective.
The night after surgery is a blur, but I do remember a number
of things. My hospital
bed broke - it would no longer adjust up and down, so they brought in a newer
one
and transferred me over. These new hospital beds have an automatic air
adjust, so they
are constantly adjusting when you move around. But on the second bed they
brought in,
the adjustment apparatus would periodically start up and shut off for no reason
when I
was laying perfectly still, and it was quite loud, vibrating through the bed
frame. Also,
they have one of those pneumatic tube systems throughout the Vanderbilt Medical
Center
complex for sending medical records around, and the receiving station was just
outside
my room. Every time a canister came in, I could hear it rattling along the
tubes, until
it finally arrived with a loud "KERTHUNK!" I had to wear earplugs, or I wouldn't have
slept at all. Also, it was very strange
to wake up in the middle of the night with the
circulation stimulator constricting my left
leg like a large snake. It was not an unpleasant
sensation, just a surprise.
Also, I had a morphine pump, and I must admit that I pushed
that button frequently during that
first night. So the whole night was pretty surreal.
I woke up about 4:00 AM, not in
pain, but unable to get back to sleep, so I turned on the
TV, and the second half of
Martin Scorsese's new documentary film on Bob Dylan was on.
I watched it for
several hours, and somehow, it seemed appropriate
to my state of mind at the time.