franjo

Hermit~

I've had 15 surgeries, and after most of them I remember waking up in recovery with "the tube". Only once do I remember them actually taking it out while I was still awake. It's unnatural, to be sure, to have something like that down the throat. Mostly, it just makes me mad, because I'm still goofy and disoriented from the anesthesia. It's a helpless feeling, not being able to communicate just how ****ed off I am with that thing in the way.

I don't think that I've ever had them keep it in for longer than a few hours though. I'm sure your throat was pretty sore after that. But that slow to react nurse....are you saying that you were thrashing as a result of not being able to breathe? If so, that's scary enough to make me have your nightmare! I keep thinking of a scene out of "Misery" or something.

If this was the case, and you were struggling for your life's breath, then you may have been traumatized and suffering from a temporary form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The nightmares, as you probably know, are your psyche's way of forcing you to deal with that. Most trauma's are too overwhelming to look at straight on, so our minds dose us with little snippets at a time. If the nightmares increase in intensity and/or frequency, you might consider seeking counseling.

The nurse, on the other hand, should consider a new line of work, if I understood your post correctly.

I hope your nightmares are only short-lived, and your experience with that will simply fade into the background over time.

Wishing you sweeter dreams,

~Teri



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Spina-bifida occulta; Congenital Scoliosis (dextrorotatory and 'S' curve, 42 thorasic and 57 degrees lumbar); Meningomyelocele (split cord @ L1); Diastematomyelia (re-sectioned at L2-3); tethered cord @ S-3; cysts on cord; various developmental abnormalities of the spine: narrowing of all disk spaces, defects in posterior arches, ectasia of the spinal canal and dura, segmental disease, sclerosis in L. iliac bone and adjacent sacroiliac joint, unilateral osteitis condensans ilium, hypertrophic facet disease L4-5 and L5-S1.

Surgeries include, but not limited to:
Lumbar fusion-1968
Fusion with Herrington Rod instrumentation-1970
Femoral osteotomy-1971
Tethered cord release-1987
Rod removal-1987
Chiari-type pelvic osteotomy-1988
Trochanteric osteotomy-1989

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Spina-bifida occulta; Congenital Scoliosis (dextrorotatory and 'S' curve, 42 thorasic and 57 degrees lumbar); Meningomyelocele (split cord @ L1); Diastematomyelia (re-sectioned at L2-3); tethered cord @ S-3; cysts on cord; various developmental abnormalities of the spine: narrowing of all disk spaces, defects in posterior arches, ectasia of the spinal canal and dura, segmental disease, sclerosis in L. iliac bone and adjacent sacroiliac joint, unilateral osteitis condensans ilium, hypertrophic facet disease L4-5 and L5-S1.

Surgeries include, but not limited to:
Lumbar fusion-1968
Fusion with Herrington Rod instrumentation-1970
Femoral osteotomy-1971
Tethered cord release-1987
Rod removal-1987
Chiari-type pelvic osteotomy-1988
Trochanteric osteotomy-1989
Tethered cord release-2003
Fusion with instrumentation with lots and lots of screws-2003