ICU

Surgery was fairly successful because I remember waking up in a room, unable to speak with a tube down my throat. Apparently this was my introduction to ICU.

ICU is one of the worst places to be in a hospital and the one at St. Vincent is no exception. Because of my chemo I was in a single room. This room had the back of the bed against a window and I was facing a door to the main ICU area. This was going to be my home for the next week, enough to make you go crazy. 

I remember drifting in and out of consciousness for that day with no clue what had happened. Finally I got the tube out of my throat so I could talk which was a relief. I had lots of pain so I got a morphine button which meant I could deliver morphine to myself when I needed it. Sounds like fun but you can only have 1 hit every 5 minutes and it made me feel sick. So even though the pain went away it felt like I was going to throw up. Needless to say I didn't use much morphine. 

I spent the next week in ICU before finally being transferred to the ward.