So far so good! All the gory deets.

WARNING: Contains some medical details you may find skeevy. Read on if peeing doesn't offend you. I went under at 7:00 a.m. and woke up at 11 in a sunny room with a nice view of the City. The last thing I remember is the anesthesiologist loading up the IV. Status check: All four limbs present and accounted for and mobile. Left arm pain? Gone! Tingling? Also gone. Numbness in thumb and finger, improved but still noticeable. New symptoms: Neck and trapezius aching and moderately sore throat. Tried out the pipes and voice is weak but largely unchanged, just a little hoarse. Ginormous neck brace in place and tube present draining from the incision. Incision doesn't hurt at all but I'm still coming off the anesthesia. Two percocets later and I feel just fine. Too fine, apparently to use a bedpan in a crowded room. Apparently I'm shy that way. After transferring me back to the private room, the nurse gave me a sacral patch to ward off bed sores (?!). She peeled off the leads on my chest and back but I've still got the pulse Ox monitor on one finger and a second IV on my left hand. I've got electronic leg compressors which alternately squeeze my legs to promote circulation. Drank two ginger ales with ice which helped sore throat. Got a little hungry and had good success with some yoghurt. Crackers not so much because throat pretty dry and they stick going down. I'm juicing up on an IV for hydration which is making me need to pee quie a lot. I am pretty unsteady on my feet but got up with the nurses' help and shuffled to the bathroom. Little difficult to empty bladder, seemed to require some concentration. Not sure why since they said I didnt have a catheter. My oxygen saturations are occasionally dropping below 92% so nasal cannula replaced, yuk. Then she gave me a tube to suck into to work out my lung capacity. Kind of hurts my neck actually. I guess that's from being ventilated/intubated. Worst symptom so far is itchy, itchy face, nose, trunk. After a couple of hours, I needed a hit off the Morphine pump. Wow was that fast! Unfortunately, more itching ensued. Thank goodness my husband stayed all day because I can't really move around much at all. The neck brace started getting really uncomfortable and felt like it was allowing me way too much movement. We called the Resident who took it off and bent the tabs on the bottom up so it fits more snugly now. Much better. Only downside is it will not be much fun for sleep....but giving it the old drug-induced college try. Considering I only got about 4 hours last night, that should be no problem. Overall assessment: Pain, tubes, other interventions so much more manageable than feared. Day 2 post-surgery may change all that but we'll see. Positive Attitude: 7 of 10!