When I told my husband the date of my surgery he asked me why I didn't wait till after my birthday so I could still celebrate. Well the reason I wanted to go before July 1st is because, as any nurse who's worked in a teaching hospital knows, July 1 is when all the new interns show up.
While they are supervised, they do have a lot of opportunities to impact patient care, not always positively. As it turned out, the house staff arrived early this year and two very nice first year residents (that's what they call interns now) were writing all my orders. My discharge instructions included returning to the same insulin regimen as before the surgery. There was no way that was going to work. I'd be in insulin shock before it got dark my first night home.
When I got home I checked my blood sugar which was 144 and called my endocrinologist. She advised me not to take any insulin at all and call her in the morning with my fasting blood sugar. In the morning my glucose level was 140. So I am continuing not to take any insulin at all with instructions to call the doctor if my glucose goes up to 200. So far, so good. The glucose level has been steady every day.
The orders also instructed me to resume all my pre-op oral medications which included metformin, for the diabetes. Since I knew I was not to swallow any pills larger than an M & M, I knew that this inch-long football-shaped tablet would be a problem. My endocrinologist agreed that I should not take that either.
Heaven help the non-medical people who do not know when orders are wrong and should be questioned!
Anyway, back to my birthday. True, I did not have a birthday cake (and I love cake with LOTS of butter-cream frosting) I did inform my family that they did still have to sing "Happy Birthday" and I would blow out a candle. I still wanted my wish! They were fine with that.
I refuse to feel deprived. Instead I feel like I have given myself an amazing present. Rev up the DeLorean because I'm going back in time! I am going back to the time when I could wear jeans comfortably (I'll tell you right now Mom Jeans are fine with me). I am going back to the time when I could sit in an airline seat with the tray properly down. I will be back to having seatbelts fit without an extender. I will be able to "walk and not be weary or run and not faint" Time travel is an amazing gift and I am not at all worried about messing up the "space-time continuum"!
Marlena of Mohegan
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