Hospitalization

This is currently my first visit and stay at a hospital. Venue: Cayuga Medical Center. Reason: pneumothorax.

DAY 0: Monday, March 31, 2008
I got up on Monday, took a shower, did all the normal things that I would do in the morning (except hit up Muffinland for breakfast). I was still feeling shortness of breath and funkiness in my right chest area, so I figured I'd go to Gannett after turning in the dynamics lab report along the way. I got to Gannett probably around 9:45 AM, out of breath from walking maybe a quarter mile from my room.

They set me up with an appointment at 10:25 AM with a doctor, and he decided to send me downstairs to radiology to get a chest x-ray and blood work done to see what's wrong. After the chest x-ray, I sat around in the radiology lobby for maybe half an hour, waiting for word to begin blood work. However, word came in that the doctor called off the blood work and they told me to head upstairs to see the doctor again. At this point I figured they knew what was wrong.

The doctor told me that my right lung had completely collapsed, a sign of pneumothorax. Apparently pneumothorax is common in "tall thin males," which I precisely fit I suppose, and could happen spontaneously. And it did happen spontaneously - I remember it was Saturday at work in the Law School when I first felt short of breath, but I thought things would get better if I waited a bit, except things stayed the same by the time Monday rolled around.

Anyhoo, the doctor told me that he had already called an ambulance to take me to the ER, and to the ER I went, in an ambulance. It was strange looking at all the people in the lobby from a stretcher, and I guess it was strange for them to see a completely conscious guy in a stretcher being wheeled out. On the way out, the receptionists at Gannett said that my x-ray was famous, and they were surprised that I walked in to get checked out that morning.

Being in the ER was a completely new experience for me. There was a TV which I had no interest in watching, but other than that there was not much else to do. The surgeon came in to insert this small chest tube in the upper front of my right chest so that air surrounding the lung can be sucked out via a Heimlich valve, hopefully expanding the lung back to normal. So I waited an hour or two before they x-rayed me and found out that the valve wasn't working, so they hooked me up to suction to assist in pulling the air out. That took another few hours, during which Michelle paid a visit (I was completely surprised). After another x-ray at around dinnertime, they told me my lung should be ok but I'll still need the valve connected to me for the next few days. They told me that I could go home, except when I stood up I almost fainted, so they gave me a boxed lunch to eat (this was the first thing I had eaten all day long - at 6:30 PM). I then proceeded home via bus (and fainted on the bus but I woke up after a while) and went to bed after emailing about 32983403 people telling them I'm lame for the next few days.

DAY 1: Tuesday, April 1, 2008
I got up and walked to Gannett for a follow-up chest x-ray. After seeing that my right lung had re-collapsed overnight, they decided to send me back to the hospital as an admitted patient. I now have a patient room to myself (double-occupancy too, except I'm the only one in here for now). They now have me connected to wall suction 24 hours a day (except when I have to go drop a deuce - then they unplug me temporarily). The hospital food is ok, but after a while it seems like the same thing over and over again. This first day I spent just chillin' and sleeping. There are a lot of student nurses here in Cayuga Medical Center.

DAY 2: Wednesday, April 2, 2008
My second day as a resident in the hospital. They gave me the Ithaca Journal in the morning to help keep me occupied, seeing that I brought literally nothing with me because I did not foresee the need to come back to the hospital when I went for a follow-up at Gannett. I spent the day trying to read the newspaper, sleeping, and doing the sudoku in the paper...and I actually finished it (my first one - 3 stars, hehe). At around 7 or 8 PM, there was a surprise visit from Brian and Michelle, who drove down here to bring me some stuff and pay a visit. It was very nice (and surprising) to see them. Now I have a computer to check email and such (the hospital blocks Facebook for some reason) and my phone charger so I don't have to keep my phone turned off to conserve battery.

DAY 3: Thursday, April 3, 2008
As usual, I awoke at around 7 AM to get a chest x-ray done, except this time they wheeled me downstairs instead of using the portable x-ray machine in my room. After the x-ray came out, the surgeon came in and told me that they'll have to take out the thin chest tube that I've had for 3 days and replace it with a "real" chest tube - larger and more aggressive in sucking out air. This would involve a small operation in which they make an incision in my side and stick the tube in. This was not good for a few reasons - things were not getting better (namely, the lung re-collapsed the night before), and this tube fucking hurts to have inside you to say the least. I had the operation at around 10 AM, had lunch at normal lunch time (although my appetite was shot to death), and agonized until about 2:30 before the nurse decided the pain pills weren't working so they gave me some anesthesia through my IV. That knocked me out for the remainder of the afternoon until dinner came in on a tray. However, I guess the powerful anesthesia causes me to feel lightheaded and faint after sitting up for a while, so I ate dinner periodically sitting up and lying back down for the faintness to go away. I tried to do the sudoku in this morning's paper in the evening, but I kept feeling nauseous and dozing off. That kept up until around 9 PM, when I decided to actually brush my teeth and go to sleep, but not before the night nurse knocked me out with the anesthesia again. I think I woke up at 2:30 AM to take a leak. The tube really kills.