Claire out of the OR

Pulled from my post on GenderPeace:

Claire came out of the OR sometime just after 5pm PST. I arrived slightly before 8pm to find Vivianne already in her room who said they had just wheeled her in. We stayed until about 11:30 to make sure she was doing OK.

Most of her responses over the first hour or so where mainly just "uuugggghhhhh" but she was able to tell us later that her throat was sore and she was thirsty. The nurses weren't too big on letting her drink anything since she was in and out of consciousness and they were afraid she would choke. [Note to self: take a spray bottle of water]

They had the pain meds already running, then hooked up the suction and IV after a while. At that point, most of her conversation was "I feel like shit." We spent a little time educating her on the pain-med button, with her taking to that pretty fast. We also did a little manual suction and hooked the air tubing back up to the leg massage machine that probably came loose after an accidental kick. (Claire was a little tall for the bed)

Claire then became conscious enough to again request water, and instead of running off for the nurse, I gave her a sip. She seemed to like that. She also wanted a mirror, but I said that wouldn't be a good idea, and that she was doing OK...plus there weren't any mirrors around

Then, Claire wants me to hurry and take a picture of her before she pukes or loses consciousness again. OK, now, Claire never lets me take her picture while she is looking fabulous, but here she had Princess Leia blood bags, tubes sticking out of her bloodstained mouth, gauze wrapped around half of her head, a wrapped nose, a swollen jaw, and two black eyes...and she wants me to take a picture of her. Imagine the irony.

Anyway, Claire had the usual bruising around the eyes and was doing OK with the Princess Leia blood bags. The color in her cheeks was really good, although she was probably feeling like butt. The nurses said she will probably be feeling much better on Tuesday.

Going to get some sleep now....Kara