A Glimpse Into My Life

My hubby had his knee scoped on Thursday. He was a total surgery virgin, so it has been an ordeal with him from pre-op until this very moment. He was nervous about going under so from Tuesday until they wheeled him into surgery, he was acting really weird and cagey. I kept trying to reassure him that it would be the best sleep that he would ever have, but of course he didn’t believe me, he never does.

They had us arrive at 1100 am to the hospital, of course, they didn’t take him into surgery until almost 3. He is not a man who is used to missing meals, so of course as time went on, he complained about how hungry and uncomfortable he was because of course he couldn’t have anything to eat or drink after midnight the night before.

Apparently when he was wheeled into the OR, he was under the anesthesia, but didn’t know it because the doctor said that he was quite the comedian. I can’t imagine what he could have said in there and frankly I don’t even want to know. After the procedure, he was still high from the anesthesia and still talking way too much. But everything went well, and I was able to take him home. Suffice it to say, since Thursday, I have not had a full night’s sleep. I love him, but i gotta say he is quite the difficult patient.

In order to know what I am talking about when it comes to my patient, you have to know that he is an incredibly Type A, no nonsense, Army Officer who still looks 18 years old and is very fit and has never been seriously ill. Having said that, anyone who takes care of people for a living knows that this is the worst kind of patient. These types of patients have a sense of entitlement, they have to be reminded to say please and thank you. They drive the kids crazy because they order them around, and they try to recover too fast, almost ensuring a set back, which means that you have to take care of them even longer.

He was prescribed Percocet for the pain, but he can’t really take it because it makes him kind of loopy, and renders him unable to censor himself. The first two days I thought I would strangle him, but the feeling soon passed. He is now taking the Tylenol, but because his threshold for pain is not terribly high, the slightest bit of discomfort is just unacceptable for him. It is amazing to me how such a normally strong, strapping man, can be such a baby when he is in a little pain. Makes me proud to be a woman. We have can have debilitating PMS followed by even worse periods, birth the babies, still clean the whole house and still go to work the next day.

Last night he woke up at around 3AM complaining that he was cold and wanting to finish a conversation that we had earlier (during normal waking hours) where I did all of the talking and he just looked at me. I got him a blanket and told him to take his ass back to sleep. He will be on leave for another week. After that, I guess I will be able to get some sleep.

I do hope that his knee heals properly and that he is okay, not just for his sake, but for mine too. I am pretty much, running on coffee and adrenaline, but I am trying to be here for him. Still, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t wish for him to hurry up and get well soon.