I’ve been too exhausted & sick for weeks on end, but finally finished the next update. The one after this will catch up to real time and won’t be as long. This update is suuuper long, i’m trying here. I’m already forgetting a lot and Kopo had to correct some things and timeline of events 🫠 Ok, back to the update. On Wednesday, September 11, the day after I was discharged from the hospital, my mum flew into Samoa. We decided to keep it a secret from our girls. Our friend picked her up and also picked up dinner from our favorite spot, Giordano’s (If you’re ever in Samoa, check it out. So yummy!)
What a blessing it was to have her here for a week and 3 days! It’s a bit of a blur for me because I was in so much pain and so out of it that I can barely remember her time here. It was short but my goodness we would not have made it had she not shown up. She stayed with the girls so Kopo could be at the hospital with me. Friday we went to the hospital, I was hopeful for surgery but had a gut feeling I’d have to wait. I was right, my leg was still too swollen for surgery. They scheduled me for Tuesday, September 17, yes one week and 3 days after my break. I cannot even begin to describe the pain I was in before surgery, it was constant, with no relief, it was unbearable and I thank God that He carried me through because my goodness I would not wish it on anyone! Anyway, I checked into the hospital on Monday morning, just getting from my bedroom to the car was torture. It was so excruciating, I screamed and cried as I did my best to make it to the car in the wheelchair. We had planned on calling the ambulance and paying to take me from my house to the hospital, but there was only one available and it was out. I could make it without the ambulance and I didnt want my need for comfort & convenience to be the reason why an ambulance couldn’t pick up someone in a life-or-death situation, so at the last minute we decided to just tough it out – it wasn’t impossible, we made it through 🙏🏽
Saturday September 14 – Kopo’s 40th Birthday!! My mum bought a cake for him and also bought lamb for him to cook – it’s his favorite. I wish we could do more. We will celebrate when i can be out and about. He’s the best and deserves a bigger celebration. I love you baby!
Surgery Day: The morning of surgery the doctors came in to let me know I was second in line for surgery, surgery would begin at 9am and I would be up at around 11am. Around 1pm someone came in to let me know that there was a shortage of general surgeons so my surgeon was helping out with other surgeries and I would be up sometime in the next few hours. I ended up being rolled into the surgery waiting area around 4 and waited for about an hour or so to be taken into the surgery room. It was FREEZING, that’s pretty much all I remember. They put me out and next thing I know, before I can even open my eyes I feel excruciating pain in my ankle and I start screaming. I opened my eyes and I couldn’t really see because I had no contacts or glasses, but I continued screaming and crying because I was in so much pain. I saw the nurses hurry about to try and get me some sort of relief. They gave me something but it didn’t help. They brought me out to where Kopo had been waiting in the surgery waiting area, he had my glasses – Praise God! I could at least see while being in pain and try to get a sense of what was happening. Even with heavy doses of morphine I was in such excruciating pain I could barely breathe. I knew that I would still be in pain after surgery but I didn’t anticipate this level of pain, which was worse than when I awaited surgery. That night I did not sleep, I was still in a lot of pain. I was given pain relief every 2 hours and by the time the morning came i felt some relief and like it was under control and i could breathe again and endure recovery. However, the hospital staff was concerned that I had been given too much & did not want to continue giving me pain meds. I went back to unbearable pain and never got the relief I needed, ever 😩Unfortunately they were unable to get my pain under control and it made my recovery unbearable.They spaced out my pain meds too far and I felt helpless and just worn down by the pain. I cried a lot and prayed that God would comfort me because I could not imagine continuing in this type of pain. My surgeon came by in the morning, he said I would be in pain but that i should be getting pain meds. He also introduced another surgeon, who was visiting from New Zealand, turns out he was assisting in the surgery! The rest of the day was a blur, but later that evening I asked Kopo to call for a doctor, because this pain was unreal and I knew something was wrong, I needed help! I could not continue in this pain for another minute. No doctors were available but the head nurse came in to see what was going on. I told him it looked like my cast was crooked; it was like déjà vu from when they cast it wrong in the ER 🫣He agreed it was crooked and told me to wait while he checked the x-rays to be sure it wasn’t some sort of special circumstance why they would put it on improperly. He came back and said they’d have to recast it. Since they were not setting any bones, he said no pain medicine was necessary, that they would give me something afterward. They re-cast it, and while it wasnt painless, it wasn’t nearly as bad as before, painful but somewhat bearable. I was able to have some relief but still in plenty of pain. In the morning when I asked for more pain meds they refused and gave me an aspirin. Then, to my surprise a cohort of 5-6 doctors came in who were visiting from various countries, They were doing rounds and apparently i was their patient case study, lucky me 🤣😭 They basically did a checkup on me,asking me to move my toes, asking what i could and could not feel, asking about how i felt and all that jazz, i felt like i had to just slap a smile on and get through this as painlessly as possible. When I tried to be real, one of the doctors nearly reprimanded me and it just felt awful. I was angry and in pain and then they wanted me to be poked and prodded and some sort of test subject all while only giving me an aspirin. Sheesh the Holy Spirit certainly had me hold my tongue because I was LIVID. My surgeon came in with another doctor and I was able to talk to them straight. I was able to express myself without yelling but I was firm and cried throughout my discussion with them. I let them know how I felt, how frustrating it was to not be heard and then to expect to perform for a visiting group of doctors with no pain relief or even a heads up. I let them know that I was aware that most of the other patients in the hospital would not likely say anything about their care or pain due to cultural expectations. I have no qualms about being non-Samoan and voicing my frustrations. I told them people should be able to be upfront and real about their pain and care, without it being perceived as a threat, and that they needed to hear from patients, the reality of situations, not just what the patients thought the doctors wanted to hear. THey were very apologetic & appreciated me speaking up and letting them know. They also advised that I had been given a strict pain medication schedule and they were frustrated that that wasn’t being followed. Sheesh it was like being stuck in the middle of arguing medical staff, something I did not have the energy for. However, it did empower me to advocate more for myself, which I did. The next time I asked for pain meds and the nurse tried to refuse me, I let them know that I was not going to mediate their disagreements. If they had concerns about the doctor’s orders, they would have to speak to the doctor directly to work it out and not expect me, a patient, to bear the brunt of their issues. It was not fair that because they could not agree, I was left in pain and to be some sort of referee between medical staff, it’s crazy!. He was surprised at my response but we managed to get a pain med schedule we could somewhat agree on. It wasn’t enough to give me the pain relief needed to recover well, but it was better than before.
My dr came by to visit me the following day (Friday Sept 20) and could see how exhausted I was and he said I should go home and recover. I wasn’t sleeping in the hospital, I was in constant pain so I needed a change of scenery. Later that evening I was able to go home and it was the best thing that could have happened. I got to see my mum again and hang out for a bit before she left the following day, which was Saturday.
Saturday, September 21: Goodbye Lita 😭 We had to say bye to my mum. Was a blessing having her here, we could not have made it without her ❤️🙏🏽
I was going to include the following weeks in this same post but it’s already getting so long I will put that in the next update, which will be shorter because these last weeks have been a BLUR. I don’t remember much 🤣🤣 If you made it to the end, you a real one! Thank you!!! Oh wait, let’s end on a good note – a MIRACULOUS one at that. Before being discharged from the hospital, we had to settle the bill. I had been a bit uneasy about this. I knew that God would figure it out, He would either sort it out with the hospital so it wouldbt be too much, or he would provide a way for us to pay the bill, regardless of how high it was. Well, when Kopo went to pay the bill, the total was $140 tālā (about $54 USD) . We were in shock, I was floored. I knew God would come through but my goodness. That was less than what we were charged for my first x-ray! This was for 9 days at the hospital & surgery!! I kept thinking they could call me back to say there was a mistake. Praise God for His faithfulness and goodness. He truly is our provider. He makes a way when there seems to be none and He does the IMPOSSIBLE. Still amazed by this – I still can’t wrap my mind around it. HALLELUJAH 🙌🏾
Tapelutopia 