Waking up

“Hi Amanda, how are you feeling?” As I slowly open my eyes and come back to this world after being under anesthesia for nearly 8 hours. I could barely keep my eyes open and was trying to reorient myself- where am I? What just happened? How am I feeling? Not sure. I didn’t have any pain when I woke up, mild soreness from being sedentary for so long and placed in weird positions during surgery, but no pain. I was slowly sat up in bed to adjust to being upright, given some water and jello (I was pumped they had sugar free). I hadn’t had jello in years and I remember it being SO DAMN GOOD. I was eventually taken to a recover room where they removed some lines and my oxygen…

My husband, Austin, was able to join me at this point and I was still having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I was sitting upright in a recliner chair and I would nod off and tilt my head back against the chair. My oxygen levels started to tank when I fell asleep. At one point they dropped down to 76%. Austin kept telling me to wake up and “breathe!” I would try and open my eyes and take big deep breaths. Eventually, we had a nurse come in and place me back on oxygen. I could then relax a bit more and not have to wake up as frequently to breathe. They ordered a chest xray to see what was going on.

One of my good friends from high school, Chad, worked as an X-ray tech at the hospital at the time and he was the one who came down to do the X-ray. I remember having my eyes closed and when he came in to do the X-ray I was so happy to see him! I can’t imagine what he was thinking when he saw me, I looked dead- no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, oxygen, lines, pale. I felt pretty good though and was just so happy to see another familiar face.

Chest X-ray came back with “inflammation” in the lungs. They attributed it to the effects from chemo and being under anesthesia for so long. So they decided to keep me overnight and send me home the next day. I was supposed to go home SAME DAY of surgery. Looking back, that seems insane to me. They got me a room on the floor and sent me up. Visiting hours ended at 8, so my husband had to leave and come back in the morning. I got settled in, met my nursing team, and went to sleep…