Day of the surgery

     The morning of the surgery I went in at 4:45 a.m., they told me to wear loose close and no bra (I wouldn't be able to wear a bra for the next few weeks).  They do a pregnancy test, just routine, and then stick a bunch of IV's in you.  The nurse I had could not get the needle in my hand into the vein and poked me about 5 times before I told her that if she didn't get it the next time I wasn't having it, luckily 6th time was the charm!  They wheeled me into the Pre-Op room where they hold you until it's your time, at that point I said goodbye to my boyfriend and waited in the room till the doctor came to see me.  Dr. Mitchell then came in and measured my ribs so that he could shape the bar correctly for the size of my chest wall.  Then the Anesthesiologist came in and gave  me an epidural to numb my chest, surprisingly that hurt a lot less than the IV pokes in my hand.  They then took me to the surgery room and all I remember is counting backwards from 100 and only getting to 98.......

     As soon as I woke up I was in intense pain, it shocked me so much that I took a deep breath which was a bad idea.  I felt like something was just crushing my chest from all sides, nobody had noticed that I woke up yet, and then I started crying, which again was a very bad idea, I couldn't catch my breath from the crying and every time I breathed in it was a new wave of pain going through me.  The nurses had to quickly call the doctor back in to check on me and that is when he realized that my epidural had been turned down.  I guess while in the surgery my blood pressure started to get REALLY low so they turned the epidural down, when they wheeled me into Post-Op they forgot to turn it back up, so I woke up feeling A LOT!  Once they got that under control, which took 2 hours in Post-Op,  they were able to take me to my room.  A few hours later when the doctor came into my room he told me that he wanted me up and walking around in a few hours, I looked at him like he was CRAZY, I was in so much pain I couldn't even sit up in bed by myself and he wanted me to take a stroll around the hospital!  Even though I had drugs and an epidural I was still in shock with how much pain I was in, I didn't feel like eating anything so I just drank water, I tried to sleep through the pain but I couldn't get my muscles to relax so I would have 5 min cat naps throughout the day and that was it.  They told me I would be in the hospital for 2-3 days, I actually ended up being in there for 5 days!  On the 5th day they finally told me that they HAD to take the epidural out of my back or else I could get a serious infection and they made me go home.

     Being home was not any easier!  The doctor gave me some pain killers and nausea medicine but I was still in so much pain.  I had to sleep sitting up, laying down flat was too much pressure on my chest, and I would have to have someone sit me up cause I couldn't do it alone.  It was at this moment that I realized just how much I use my chest in everything that I do each day.  The doctor told me to get a lot of rest, but I wasn't able to sleep through the night for the first month, I would wake up every few hours in pain.  It wasn't until my Grandma came into town and saw how much pain I was in and called and got mad at my doctor that I got the pain meds I needed ha ha, go Grandma.  She figured out that I wasn't sleeping because my muscles were constantly contracting from the pain and without them relaxing they couldn't heal as fast.  So I was given muscle relaxers that day and that was the first time I slept through the entire night!! So if you have this surgery be sure to ask for muscle relaxers!!!!  My Aunt was also really nice and gave me a hot stone massage sitting up which actually helped relax me a lot.

                                                         
Just rubbing the hot stones on your back can feel really good, just a suggestion.  Once my muscles were able to relax I felt better and better each day.  With this surgery recovery is especially difficult because your chest is constantly moving, we have to breath we don't have a choice.  Normally when you break something the doctor will re-set it, cast it, and tell you to try your best not to move it until it heals right?  Well this is the same thing, your ribs have all been broken and detached from your sternum, they have reset it in the correct spot, but it can't hold still.  So your healing time takes 3 times as long as any other broken bone because it can't just hold still and heal itself.  (I hope that made sense).