27 Days Post Op: I am so outta here in the morning

Tomorrow is going home day and I have finished my in patient rehab program.  The goals have been met and I will be able to cope with being at home.  There is still work to be done to get where I want to be and that will be under the care of the fantastic people at Body Leadership Australia.  I don't mean to sound like an advertisement, I just miss them and this change over point really marks achievement (as in I've learnt the things I need to learn to cope on the outside) and a change in philosophy for my rehabilitation program to one that I am more comfortable with and positive about.

The things that I have learnt / reinforced from this hospital stay are:
Private cover is worth every penny:  I think that if I was in a shared room I would have gone absolutely crazy.  I also think that public might have discharged me sooner than now when I wouldn't have been completely prepared to go home.  (This is based on some of the horror stories that I heard over morning tea in the rehab gym - absolutely crazy - they weren't about Mater Public but even so)

Don't book in for major surgery a couple of weeks before Easter or other holiday period: Even if you think you are going to be out before the holiday period, don't risk it.  Not as many services are available during holidays even in hospitals.  I hadn't really thought that I would be in here this long though if I had of been asked before hand, I would have expected something like rehab in a rehab unit to be an essential service.  Apparently it is not.  Even in a Private Hospital.  Disappointing huh?

People who complain about TEDs have never had to wear Venosans:  TEDs are a walk in the park in comparison.  The policy of my rehab doctor is TEDs for night, Venosans for day.  I'm sure they are excellent at doing the job of keeping clots at bay and are no where near as much difficulty as a clot but it doesn't mean that I have to like them.  I certainly don't like them being put on me. (Hip restrictions means I can't do it for myself either so there have been times where I've been flicked or there has been a part that is overlapped and digging in during the process of struggling to get them up my leg.

If the nurses have reason to ask you if you want a movicol, it's probably a good idea to take it.  If you don't know what I am talking about, don't ask.  I just hope that one day if you are asked you remember this piece of advice.  Especially if you are being fed codeine.

If someone offers to bring you breakfast/lunch/dinner accept:  Don't be a martyr.  Too much hospital food has to kill you.  It can't possibly be good for you.  I have been told that this hospital has better food than the others in Brisbane.  While this may be true, four weeks of it is far too much of it.

Stand up for yourself:  You have to know what your medication is, what your treatment process is going to be and anything you are supposed to or not supposed to do and if anyone tells you otherwise, correct them.  It could be dangerous not to know.  People make mistakes.  Don't be the one to suffer from them.

Accept that you can't do it all and accept help graciously:  This is a hard lesson to learn for the independent and stubborn like me.  I'm in hospital for a reason and that reason is stopping me from being the independent person that I am.  I hate being reliant on others however that being said, I am grateful for those that helped me and didn't make me feel like I was a burden to them.  I am especially grateful to my husband who helped me at least maintain some dignity and the little sanity that I have left.  I could have done this without him and survived but I would have been somehow less me at the end of the process and very probably on anti-depressants and in worse physical shape.  I don't know how people do things like this without the kind of support that I have and I hope that I never have to find out.

I'm probably still a little close to the situation since I'm still here so I may not have figured out yet all of the things that I have learnt out of this experience.