Surgery is difficult to do because it leads to changes that occur immediately following it and last a few days after it was completed and you begin to feel better. In fact, when you begin to turn around and feel predominantly better instead of worse, it seems like maybe it is not that at all so you repeat all of the advice the medical team gave you to find out what kind of swing you are having and what direction it is going. The vector is challenging because it is not the surgery itself but something else entirely … recovery.
In recovery, bleeding happens in other places in order to deliver all of the repair materials to you and the primary surgical trauma heals. This is one time to try to give yourself what you need for your best health and outcome. For instance, you don’t really want to stop bleeding entirely at this point at all, but you want protein, carbohydrates, oxygen, and water. The environment needs to be improved overall during recovery.
Listen to these vital signs not long following the admission of a teenager into a hospital. I’ll tell you the admission report after the vital signs: BP 140/80mm Hg, HR 110bpm, Respirations 26 breaths/min, Temperature 98.6 degrees F, and SaO2 97%-98%. When she arrived the report was, “she is awake, alert, and oriented to person, place, and time as she is brought in via spinal board with cervical collar intact, on 2 L/min nasal cannula, with 16-gauge intravenous (IV) lactated Ringer’s at 100cc/hr. She is complaining of midsternal chest pain nonradiating of 2 to 3 on a pain scale of 1 to 5. The only visible marking are ecchymosis and redness across chest from seatbelt.” The CT ruled out neurologic involvement and she was admitted for 24-hour observation, whereupon her vital signs and the initial 24 hours decided she should stay through her recovery. She was discharged on her eighth postoperative day after the care she received.
They must have needed to compare complications with necessities, such as esophageal injuries with expected nosebleeds in a safe environment or conduction defects or shortness of breath during communication in a safe environment to provide her with lower risks, decreased pain, and fluids.
