New Year 6 Days In

My this 2011 year is going so fast.  Can't believe that its the 6th.  One year ago I was still under the influence of anesthesia at this time.  I think that it was around 7 pm that I heard my nurse say, "I'm going to give you a bath and get you cleaned up", and she did give me a very gentle bath.  She was an excellent nurse.  Then I fell back to sleep in a deep slumber, and when I came to again, I was freezing cold, and still had the vent attached and couldn't say anything, and couldn't really move, so I just endured the cold and fell back to sleep again.  Then I awoke again, and my family had come in to visit.  It was such a glorious sight to see them, and they were so happy to see me partially awake.  L touched my arm and said "she's so cold."  I was saying to myself, yes, true and I am freezing, but could not communicate this to anyone.  Then S took my hand, and I started squeezing her hand, and she and I finally were able to communicate via hand-squeeze and going thru the alphabet.  She would say A,B,C... and I would squeeze her hand when she said the letter I wanted to spell the word.  They put several warm blankets on me after I communicated--COLD with hand squeezes.  Then I asked for DRUGS--PAIN.  I was having severe pain in my right lung with each breath (vent).  It wasn't time for the pain med yet, so then I squeezed the message, DRUG--RELAXATION.  They said that I was about to be taken off the ventilator, and if I wanted to come off the vent I should not have medication that would suppress my level of consciousness or resp.  I wanted off the vent,so I endured the pain.  I thought that Jesus I am sure had a trillion times more pain on the cross, so I could at least bear this pain for awhile. My family left shortly after, because that is all the time they were allowed to visit.  I fell back asleep, and then soon after that, I barely remember waking up for them to take me off the vent. That did help the pain to some degree.  Also, it was time for my pain med by then too, so that helped.  I remember after they took me off the vent, they wanted me to take a sip of water.  The nurse held the straw to my lips, and instead of taking a sip of H2O, I drank down the whole cup of water.  The nurse was surprised, before she could say anything about taking only a sip, the water was gone. But all in all, I was so happy that the surgery was over, it was such a relief.  So in retrospect, I am thankful all went well, my family was super supportive and caring, along with my friends. All in all, I  have had a great year since.  Later my friends and family.  Raffie