Welcome to the forum!
Feeling some anxiety is totally normal going into a procedure like this. It helped me to think about the overwhelming success of this operation and to trust in my surgeon that I would be one of the 99%+ that wake up on the other side.
Mostly I am concerned about the first day upon waking up. And being stuck in hospital overnight not being able to get a nurse to answer
At my hospital, the policy is that you have one dedicated nurse, giving you her full attention, until 7am the next day after your procedure. She does not even leave the room. I would imagine that other top clinics operate the same way, but perhaps others can share. From day 2 forward in ICU there was one nurse for me, but she also tended to the guy in the room next door, and it stayed that way throughout my stay in ICU.
Additionally, there is a person on the floor whose sole responsibility is to sit in front of screens with everyone’s vitals on display. They get a beep and flashing red light should any vital get out of whack.
You will also have a call button that you can press to call them at any time if you have an issue such as sharp pain.
If your hospital policy is anything like mine, you will have immediate attention to any issues you are facing.
Here are some tips which might help.
Stay ahead of the pain with the pain meds. You may need to assert yourself a little bit here. I found that the old school nurses usually had this engrained into them in nursing school, but it seems that the younger ones had their heads filled with narcotic addiction as being the bigger concern, and some will be stingy with pain meds. My first night I was in pain, as my nurse would not give me anything other than light narcotic oral meds. The next morning, I explained to the new nurse my level of discomfort and pleaded with him to help. He immediately got approval from the head ICU nurse for a patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump. I was limited to one pump per 10 minutes but used it less than every 30 minutes. The next day I used it less than once per hour and did not need it after that. This really made a big difference to me, knowing that if I really needed it for the pain, all I needed to do was push a button.
If I had it to do over again, on that first night I would have asked to speak to the head ICU nurse immediately when my nurse would not give me sufficient meds to control my pain. I ended up doing this once later in the step down when my nurse insisted she take me off the oral narcotics before I was ready. This is a time when a few days of heavy pain meds are ok, and this is what they are intended for.
Also, the mattress firmness was adjustable. I found that the softest setting was the most comfortable. Your nurse will need to adjust this for you probably. Also, we experimented with the level of elevation of my head and legs that was the most comfortable, and then had my nurse write the settings on the chalkboard. This way, every time they changed the settings to get me out of bed, we could put it right back to the optimal settings.
I would encourage you to walk as much as they allow you. For me, the doc told me I could walk as much as I wanted to and I walked a lot, especially once I was in the step down unit and could self initiate my walks.
You will be given an incentive spirometer, which instructions to use it several times a day. Sometimes they will help you, but you will also probably be expected to do it on your own several times. I don’t recall how many times per day they tell you to do these exercises, but I think it was every 30 minutes. How ever often they tell you to use it, don’t cut corners here, even if you are tired and it is uncomfortable to inhale. Your lungs will be collapsed during the surgery and it is super important to get them back open again as soon as possible.
Wishing you a successful and uneventful procedure and recovery.
Please keep us posted.
