American Red Cross Youngblood Van Round 2

American Red Cross Youngblood Branch round two started off pretty rough. Once again, I woke up in a puddle of my own sweat and was running a cool 102°F temperature. We, as in me, Josh, & Mom all had to be at the hospital for Josh’s surgery by 8AM. But, given the fact that Josh was nervous and wouldn’t admit it…we practically got there at 7AM. God bless Josh. He truly didn’t have any idea what he was in for as far as surgery. I knew…I just kept it to myself. That’s what good wives do…keep information that could potentially change his mind about the surgery to myself until AFTER the surgery. I just knew from my own experiences with surgery in general that recovery sucks. I don’t care who you are…it’s unpleasant. So, I convinced him to help me make the bed before we left for the hospital because crawling in to a made bed always makes it feel so much better. He didn’t see the point of why I was making such a big deal about him being comfortable when he got home. In fact, he thought he’d be up and doing crazy things such as mow the lawn the next day. Boy, was he in for a rude awakening. So, anyway, I left him live in delusional land all morning.
We arrived at the hospital and signed in. I took a few pictures for my own personal entertainment and it really annoyed Josh. But since I was the one holding the camera…he didn’t have a choice.
They finally called him back and we went to the out patient surgery center. The nurse asked him a bunch of questions, took his vitals and temp, and then made me sign a bunch of stuff. We then were taken to his temporary room where he had to change into his hospital gown. Let me take this opportunity to describe the gown. In the past, he’s been graced with the lovely stars and moons gown that tie in the back. I’ve even seen some nice shades of teal before but never in my life have I seen a purple paper/dryer sheet consistency gown with “ports” for the warming hoses. The company that makes these gowns named them Bair Paws and there is an attachment that hooks into the gown that basically blows either hot or cold air to keep the patient’s body temp regulated. It’s actually a pretty cool idea…but the execution is TOO funny. Josh and I had a few really good laughs about this one. Here’s a picture of Josh making a BEAR paw while wearing his Bair Paws gown. So, after Josh got dressed I went to the front waiting room to get my mom so she could join us in Josh’s room while we waited for his surgery. We were both laughing at Josh because he basically couldn’t get comfortable and he didn’t fit in the hospital bed… Notice his feet hanging off the bed. That was pretty funny. Then I realized there was something on my Mom’s pant leg. I looked closely and realized (after smelling it) that it was dog pee. Evidentially, my mother had set out her outfit the night before by placing it over the desk chair in her room so she could quickly get dressed in the morning. Unknowingly to her, Scrappy and Snicker (based on the two heights of the points of origin) both whizzed on her pant leg! Please see Exhibit A & B Josh and I laughed about mom’s pant leg the entire day. It was very funny to us…not so much to Mom. Finally, the nurse comes by to get Josh and wheels him off to surgery. Mom and I then found the cafeteria to get some breakfast and chat. I realized after Josh was wheeled away that I was pretty anxious about his surgery. It wasn’t until that moment that I started feeling scared and uneasy. I was so nervous for him. Dr. Yunis said the surgery should take about 30-45 minutes unless there were more issues when he got in there. Mom and I sat and talked in the cafeteria and then eventually made our way up to the tiny waiting room. We checked in and sat down. About 15 minutes later the phone at the desk rings and the volunteer announced “Youngblood Family” so I got up and took the call. It was the nurse letting me know that they were about to start the surgery and were running late. I thanked her for letting me know and then sat back down. Mom and I sat quietly in the waiting room and waited. We waited and waited. 30 minutes had passed and we waited some more. 45 minutes passed and we waited some more. An hour passed by and yet we were still waiting. At this point, I grew more anxious with each tick of the clock. An hour and a half passed and we were still waiting and I had no finger nails left. An hour and 45 minutes passed and my foot was tapping a mile a minute, I had no finger nails, but yet I still waited. Two hours passed and by this time I was ready to lose it. I resorted to searing for split ends to pass the time. It didn’t really occupy my time very well and I believe the ticking of the clock began to mock me. Two hours and 30 minutes had passed and I was a nervous wreck! I couldn’t take it anymore. It was awful just sitting there having Dr. Yunis’ voice echoing in my head, “Well, it should take about 45 minutes if all goes well.” What does well mean? Is he okay? All sorts of thoughts flooded my head and I couldn’t think straight. Finally, my thoughts were popped like a bubble floating through the air with the sound of the phone ringing. The volunteer announced, “Youngblood Family” and sprang up from my seat and practically ran to the phone. The nurse said, “Your husband is out of surgery but not awake yet. Dr. Yunis will come out shortly and speak with you.” That was it. Two hours and 45 minutes of waiting and that was all I got. About five minutes later Dr. Yunis came out and explained to me the surgery was a lot worse than he expected. When he got in there, the entire nasal cavity and sinus cavities were very badly infected with both fungus and polyps. He originally thought he was only going to have to remove about 3 of the really big ones and he ended up having to basically scrape Josh’s entire nasal passage clean. Dr. Yunis also informed me that Josh had a deviated septum that had to be broken and reset. He also let me know that he had to use a balloon to open up the sinus cavities above and below his eyes on both sides. Finally, he found a hole in the sinus cavity behind his eye area caused by the fungus that he had to fix with stints. Then he went on to say that there is a good possibility of a second surgery to remove the stints if he cannot do it in his office through the nasal passage. But, other than all that, the surgery went well. That was a lot for me to digest at one time, but I managed. He then went on to briefly talk about after care and to call his office and schedule the post op appointment. That was what I got. So I sat down and waited for the nurse to call back and let me know that Josh woke up and was doing fine. That phone call came about 20 minutes after Dr. Yunis left. The nurse let me know that Josh was awake, doing fine, and being taken to recovery. Then about an hour later I was called and told that I could finally see him and to go back to the out patient surgery area from this morning to room 11. I was so fast getting to room 11 that Josh wasn’t even wheeled in yet! When he came around the corner he looked so pathetic and sad. I actually had to fight back tears because it broke my heart to see him like that. He had this bandage under his nose that looked like a super mustache and it was soaked in blood. He looked all swollen and weak. I tried to keep it together and be strong but it was so hard. After a few minutes a nurse came in to discuss discharge instructions and teach me how to change out his bandages. Then Josh got dressed and we left. He was in good spirits but said he was really tired.
When we got home he crawled into bed and fell fast asleep. Mom changed her pee pants and then we had to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things since we were told he couldn’t have anything but clear liquids for the rest of the day and night. When I we got home from the grocery store Josh was awake and feeling awful. I gave him his medicine and told him to go back to sleep after I changed his bandage out. He surprisingly didn’t even argue with me. I then had to leave again to take mom back to Garland for her post op appointment and patch removal. We took one picture of the patients with their bandages on since mom was getting her eye patch off at this appointment and then we were on our way. Mom’s post op appointment went very well. She was pretty nervous since she had blood soak through on her patch but it turned out to be just fine. She was pretty HILARIOUS when they took her patch off because she could actually see out of her left eye. The nurse had her read the chart out of her left eye and she did really well. Then the nurse showed her what the smallest line she could read prior to her surgery and they were like 3 inch tall letters. It was really sad that was the smallest line she could read! One day after surgery and she was 5 lines smaller! That’s great results because apparently her vision will improve even more over the course of the next week. The funny thing was the difference in colors she could see between her two eyes. She looked down at her shirt through her left eye. Then closed her left eye and looked through her right eye. Then she looked at me and said, “Oh my gosh…did you know this turtleneck is purple? I always thought it was dusty rose.” I laughed so hard. Her new and improved left eye saw purple while her cataract right eye saw dusty rose. Mom’s so funny and she doesn’t even try! It was a successful appointment and then we were sent across the hallway to the eye glass store. They popped Mom’s left lens out and replaced it with a clear lens so she could still wear her glasses for her right eye. The funny thing was Mom had forgotten that she was wearing her transition lenses…so now…if she goes out in the sun it’s only transitioning on her right eye!!!! HA HA HA!!!! I’m still laughing about that one. We left to go home and I called to check on Josh. He said he was feeling sick to his stomach and thought he was going to throw up. I got home as soon as I could and tried to get him to eat something. He got sick and threw up. He missed the toilet by the way. It was basically just blood that he threw up. I think I threw up in my mouth a little seeing it. Taking care of him is preparing me for the parts of motherhood I don’t really want to be prepared for…oh,well…such is life I suppose. Anyway, the rest of the night was ROUGH. He continued to vomit up blood (from it draining down his throat) and I continued to run 102°F fever. We made it through the night without having to go back to the hospital and thank God for my mother there to help me even though I was supposed to be helping her.