After my subtotal colectomy

I opened my eyes and immediately I felt several people around me holding me in position on the bed. I felt a rush of incontinence, and a nurse spoke to me. "Ellen you're out of surgery, you've had quite a lot of your large bowel removed."  I remember feeling relief. I may have soiled the bed again, but that must mean I still had function and they hadn't had to put in a stoma. I would still be going to the toilet normally after all.  People bussled around me, changing the sheets from under me. I looked at the clock, and calculated it was about for hours since I'd gone into theatre. I wanted to let my husband know I was out.

The next thing I know I was being wheeled on to a ward. My body has been put into the "lazy W" position. My knees, were up, feet down, and my head and chest were raised. This is the best position when when trying to rest the abdomen. I had wires attached to my chest; monitoring my heart, a tube hooked over my ears and across my nose; for oxygen, a tube dangling from between my legs; a catheter, and a drip in each arm. I was very drowsy, and thirsty.

The nurse came up to me and explained I was out of surgery. She put a lead in my hand with a button on it. She said if I press the button, it would give me a dose of morphine for pain relief. I could press it every hour.

I asked if my husband knew I was out.  I can't remember her answer. She gave me a sip of water through a straw, and put the glass on a table that was lower than the bed and I couldn't reach because the rails on the bed were up. I looked at the clock. It was ten thirty in the evening. In the bed opposite me was a girl, who looked a similar age to me. She must have come from theatre 2. She'd been put in the same position as me. Her boyfriend was with her. I wondered why my husband wasn't.  I layer discovered her boyfriend worked at the hospital so was able to come in, out of visiting hours. My husband I found out afterwards had not yet been told I was out of surgery and my whole family were worried about how long it seemed to be taking!

The night passed in a haze. The nurse seemed to be on her own. She spent all night carry carrying out observations on us - blood pressure, temperature, pulse. In between times she was complaining to someone about how she was on her own and something needed to be done about the staffing issues.
  There was a lot of pain high up in my chest. It hurt to breathe. I was thirsty, and an alarm kept going off if Moved. The nurse kept shouting at me to breathe in through my nose. The alarm was my oxygen levels or something. I don't think there was anything wrong with my oxygen, it was just the tube thing moving away from my face.

I felt very dizzy and sick, and I quickly discovered it was the morphine button doing it. I had an epidural in still. I decided that was enough pain relief f2f or me. I was used to pain, but I just can't stand feeling nautious!

Finally morning came around and one of the surgeons popped in to see how I was getting on. She smiled in a kind and caring sort of way. She told me the operation was successful and they had managed to join the small bowel to the sigmoid, so there was no stoma. Then she called over to the nurse in a rather brash and annoyed tone "Nurse this patient doesn't look very comfortable, she seems to be in a lot of pain.  The nurse was immediately on the defensive "I told her to press her button!"

Now I know I hadn't asked the nurse for anything, but somehow I had felt a little neglected over night. The surgeons words to the nurse confirmed how I felt. Although the nurse had been taking my observations - blood pressure, temperature, pulse, she hasn't ensured I was as comfortable as I could be. The surgeon simply moved my bed position so that I could breathe more easily, and it made such a difference.  There was a lot of air within the cavities of my chest and abdomen as a result of the surgery and it felt like chronic stitch. Simply stretching out my chest so that I could breathe more freely was all that was needed, and not necessarily an  hourly shot of morphine.
I think this illustrates the need for more nurses on the wards. Whilst the nurse on that night was doing her most important tasks - observations and providing medications where needed, she was too stretched to do the fundamental thing that we expect of a nurse and the very reason people want to go in to nursing -  to provide comfort and care! I was to be on hospital for the next four nights, and this problem was something I was going to encounter time and again.