Post-op Day 4

Everyday since waking up from surgery my throat has felt hoarse and i have had a little cough. Well, I woke up Saturday morning to a horrible cough. I felt as if I were choking because of how much fluid was in my lungs. I was wheezing, hacking, coughing, had a low-grade fever, short of breath, and my ribs hurt. Crap. Of course these are also symptoms of having a blood clot in your lungs. I read the packet they gave me at the hospital and the info the gave me at my pre-op appointment several times and knew I was supposed to call the hospital back if these symptoms presented. I left them a VM that morning. I tried my PCP's office but learned they are not open on Saturday so they couldn't help me. My husband and I figured we could always go to urgent care if I needed to. that afternoon I still had not heard from anyone at OSU East hospital so I decided to email my surgeon. I was really nervous about emailing him b/c I didn't want to bug him....what if these symptoms were no big deal? Maybe I just have a chest cold? He responded right away to my email and told me to go to urgent care. He thought it might be bronchitis. So, off to urgent care we went. Now I am not the biggest fan of the urgent care facilities around where I live. I just feel like my visits in the past have been a big waste of my time. The nurses asked several times if my surgeon said to go to the ER or did he say urgent care. They definitely seemed more concerned than the doctor. He came in and listened to me breath. At this point I actually sounded okay. He decided I was fine just a little atelectasis from surgery. Acute atelectasis is a common problem after surgery. During an operation, portions of the lung may not expand as well as usual. This leads to the collapse of the small air sacs. The doctor didn't take a chest x-ray, didn't think there was any need for medicine, and told me to contact my PCP on Monday if my symptoms got worse. I ended up asking him to at least give me a script for an albuterol inhaler and spirometer. I have had bronchitis several times in the past and the inhaler typically helps. The spirometer probably should have been given to me in the hospital but since I was in ICU, I think they forgot. I found that hot tea seemed to help out just as much as the inhaler did. To try to decrease the amount of fluid in my lungs, I tried to sit propped up more often. I had been using my CPM machine for 8 hrs laying down flat and then sleeping. Too much laying down seemed to be what caused me to get sick. So, I started using the CPM for a couple of hours while I slept and also crutched around more.