Exhausted

Last night was long. Yesterday was long. Longer than I'd been through in a while.

The history is that Ray injured his knee at work about a month ago. He went to the hospital, then to the assigned orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Okezie, then on to Chilton Hospital on Thursday, 16 November to have the arthroscopic surgery. He was groggy but pretty much okay on Thursday afternoon, but on Thursday night he was in agony.

I spoke at length to the doctor on the phone and he prescribed Ray some Oxycontin (ye gods!) and I ran out to the CVS to get it. It took some time but they finally got it in and I was able to get back to the house around 2300. I stayed until just past midnight to see that he was OK.

Friday was uneventful and Saturday I had one phone call at night that Ray was in pain again. Ma stuffed him full of more pills.

Sunday morning, after not sleeping at all, Ma called around 0830 - Ray is in agony and she is calling 9-1-1 to come and get him as she can't move him. (Not surprising, since he weighs 300lbs.) So Luis and I get showered and dressed, and we make it Chilton just as the EMS team is moving his stretcher through to maneouver him to a bed. It took all four of the EMTs, an orderly and myself to move him onto the ER bad. It wasn't fun for Ray, but he could not tie up the emergency services stretcher.

We were there from around 1000 until just before 1600. Not fun. We were thinking that he would be released, although after a shot of demerol and then another analgesic, he was still in a lot of pain... not good at all. Then his blood panels came back and his white cell count was elevated. I wasn't surprised. I was surprised that I could see Ray's lymph nodes that are under his jaw protruding and the doctor had not... So they decided to admit him.

Yesterday, I went into work to get payroll run and finish up a few details and then head to the hospital, knowing that by then they'd have aspirated the knee to reduce the swelling and start him on antibiotics. By the time I got there at 1400, the knee was enormously swollen, but still not hot to the touch. But Ray was in much more pain than Sunday. So we stayed and waited for the 1600 surgery to take place.

Ma had to leave at 1630, as it was getting dark out and she can't drive at night. I remainded with Ray, and around 1720 we were able to go down to the presurgical area. I was allowed to stay with him. He was in constant and unbelievable agony. By the time they decided to take him to the Recovery area to administer more pain meds, it was close to 1800 and Ray was crying and yelling and reduced to a wreck. After they wheeled him out I sank down onto a chair and began to cry. I can put up with a lot but seeing my father crying - like a baby - from pain is a lot more than I can handle. I'm just glad I stayed very cool and calm about it all until he was not in the room.

The surgery, which should have been an hour, took two. I'm OK with that if this meant that every last bit of contagion came out and the knee is clean. They put in a drain to consistently discharge the fluid and keep the knee lavaged. He is on pain medication and on antibiotics, and I would not leave until his pain had gone down to a midrange number. When I first went in to the recovery room, Ray was completely disoriented and confused and kept asking again and again why he was there. Then he was muttering that this is a conspiracy. (Ah, the mind when still in the influence of general anesthesia...) It was disturbing but amusing. I wasn't particularly worried... I know enough about general anesthesia and how it works, to know that this is all normal. He knew who I was after a moment. He knew my age. He did not where he was, why his legs hurt and why he was there. He did not know what year it was. He would wander into a daze for a few moments until the pain in his knee woke him and then was confused again. After about 2145 he began to recall a lot more - where he was, what had transpired to put him there, remembering the state he was in just before going in to surgery, the date, who had called while he was in surgery, and the paranoia just faded away as expected. The nurse from Respiratory showed up with a C-Pap, and they gave him a shot in the rear of morphine. Then an hour and a little later they finally administered a higher dose of morphine. I left around 2335, head home, and finally sank into bed. I was in to work at 0645, out of work at 1330, at Chilton from 1400 to 2340 and then got home around 2350... That is a really, really long day...

But worth it.