Day 1 - Monday February 2
So I get to the airport and when I try to check in it says I can't check in more than 24 hours before my flight......awwww crap, isn't the flight in 2 hours?? So Ben gets a coworker Robert to come help me. Turns out that when Scotiabank tried to fix my flight they booked me on the flight for Wednesday and when Robert looked it up he noticed the flight but not the date so he didn't realize it was wrong. No biggie, he can still get me on a flight to LAX in two hours but from there I will need to drive or figure out another way to San Diego. No problem, I can do this.
The flight change has cost me $78 and the flight was 3 hours
Sia and Sean are both texting me info about Amtrak so I can catch the train instead of driving, seems much more sensible to me. We figure out that it will cost me $8 to catch a shuttle to downtown LA to the Amtrak station and then another $37 to catch the train to San Diego.
The transfers have cost me $45 (USD) and took another 4 hours.
Le sigh, this rather large fellow gets on the train next to me and reminds me quickly of one of the reasons I no longer want to be a larger person and have people looking at me the way I'm looking at him......sorry I couldn't help it, he got on carrying a LARGE pizza under his arm munching away......you also need to remember that I now have not had anything but clear liquids for 3 days and today have had ONE tea, so I want to throat punch this guy.
I'm trying to communicate with Abraham the driver about where and when to meet him the following day and he keeps trying to call me and my phone is now down to 8% so I can't answer. I ask sean to communicate with him and let me know what's going on......I seem to have the only seat on the train that has a non working charge station. Sean and Abraham get it worked out so that Abraham will pick me up at the hotel between 1030 and 11 the next day. Sweet!!
So I arrive at San Diego station and catch a cab to the hotel. $20 and he guy seems less than impressed that I have to pay with credit card. Whatever....fuck off.
Cab cost me $20 (USD) and takes 20 minutes
So.......Days Inn Airport San Diego' here we go. Okay where do I start......I got to the motel and and it has two parts, and I (lucky me) am in the second part behind the first building and across the street. Now on top of this.......
A) it smells like freaking mold
B) because I'm right near the street there is something similar to a car alarm beeping non stop.......so I turn on the A/C and lo and behold it rattles......loudly.
C) and here's the kicker, I booked this hotel (for my return on the 6th) because it's close to the airport and has a complimentary shuttle. Well turns out the shuttle doesn't start running until 630 so I will have to spend another $25 to catch a cab to the airport. FUCK THAT.
I run to the Walgreens next door looking for some jello or Popsicles and some water......I only have a few hours of clear liquids left and then I can't have anything. Remember I have had ONE tea all day......oh wait and a cup of water on the plane. So I get my water and manage to find some kids Popsicles and razors.....can't forget those.....and head back to the hotel.
Water, razors and Popsicles.... $11.49 (USD)
So after some research I find a Motel 6 that's also close to the airport and has a shuttle that's only $5 and starts running at 430.....much better. So I cancel my reservation at the Days Inn and book at the motel 6.
Ben calls me to tell me that, uh oh, apparently it looks like the "coupons" for my flight are still valid but the return portion of my flight has "fallen off the itinerary". God only knows what that means lol, so I call Scotiabank and talk to this guy who says no everything is in order I've talked to US Airways and your flight is good no worries. Okay I can relax. Thank god because I'm freakin exhausted.....I promptly pass out. Which is good cause as of 9pm before surgery I can't eat or drink ANYTHING!!
So today I have travelled for 7 hours and 20 minutes to get here.........
Can't really sleep so I'm up and tossing and turning, finally give up at about 8am.
Day 2 - Wednesday, February 3
I go and sit with my feet in the pool, damn I wish I had brought my bathing suit......I even have shaved legs.
At 10:10 I head over to check out cause there is NO WAY I am going to be late for Abraham picking me up.....well damn if he doesn't show up until 12:15.....le sigh.....good thing there was a charger and I had my phone and iPad. Please remember that it has now been 15 hours since my last Popsicle or water and I am getting very bitchy. Lol
They finally show up and Abraham hops out and gives me a huge hug and says I'm supposed to give you a big hug and a kiss on the lips from Mary Ann.....what a little flirt. They have two people in the van, Dave and his mom Judy. Lovely people from North Carolina and we chat all the way to the hospital which is less than 30 minutes. Judy is shocked that I'm going straight to surgery and that I've come alone lol.
We get to the hospital to sign in and do our blood work. Doesn't take very long to do the blood work and to this point nobody has said when my surgery will be. I'm having a good time laughing and joking with Abraham and Raphael (the other guy from the company that was in the van with us). A gentleman named Jack and his counterpart Jasmine (who have no accents at all surprisingly) call me into another room to sign my life away on some paperwork. Done and done. Now Jack says Dr. Ortiz is just finishing up with a patient and then wants you right away. OH.....UM......OKAY. I get put in a wheelchair and shelled up to my room on the fourth floor.
They give me a gown and ask me to change into it and take out all of my jewellery. Well no sooner do I have my nose ring out than they're back in to do the EKG. A very young guy who speaks NO English at all. I quickly finish taking out my earrings, nose ring and tongue ring and tell them the two ear cartridge piercings can't come out (PERIOD) and don't even mention my piercing south of the border lol.
So young no English boy starts hooking me up to this whacked out EKG machine. It has these suction cups and he opens the top of my gown so my tatas are hanging out getting some air and he starts trying to strategically place the funky suction cups in various areas around my boobs. Well fuck this is uncomfortable. It's even more uncomfortable because his readings are obviously not coming out right and he looks confused but I can't even ask what's wrong so I'm starting to think maybe something isn't right and they are going to cancel my surgery when the next Dr. Doogie comes in......I swear these guys are 18.....but at least he can speak English so I ask if everything is okay and yep he says it is. Okay great can I put my boobs away?
So no English Dr. Doogie puts my IV into my left hand. Again I can immediately tell something ain't right. The look on his face is priceless....then I start to feel liquid on my hand.....yep it's my blood. This guy is making me bleed my own blood. I mean wtf?? Just kidding I wasn't upset, he cleaned it up and away we go. Next he puts these nylon type things on each leg to keep me from getting blood clots......okay again awkward, I have no pantaloons on and he has to shove pretty hard to pull these things up and I keep thinking damn if his hand slips he's going to punch me in the box so hard his ring might disappear.
Anyways gets them on and then with me trying to pull the back of my "baby" gown together so my ass isn't showing to the world they take me to a wheelchair and away we go to the operating room. Before we go in they give me these little blue paper booties......God knows why, I mean I already have my sexy hot nylons on.
Now I have to admit I'm slightly getting nervous for the first time......ummmmm surgery???? Wtf are you thinking penny? Anyways the anesthesiologist comes out and introduces himself and is the sweetest man and we chat a bit and then Dr. Ortiz comes out to talk to me and again such a sweet guy. Feeling a bit more at ease now.
They get me up out of the wheelchair and again I'm trying to cover my ass and then oh crap......I lost one of my booties so now I'm cracking jokes. No biggie they say. They get me to hop up on the table and fuck me is this room ever cold......what's the deal? Do they need it that cold in case something goes wrong and they have to harvest your organs? Anyways. I lay down and make a comment about how cold it is and the anesthesiologist asks me to lay back and says if you're feeling tired you can close your eyes......I think it was some kind of trick cause that's the last thing I remember.
Okay so I have no clue what time it is or where I am but I do know that I have a massive pain in my shoulder from the gas and I'm crying to the nurse standing over me so she gives me some pain killers and then I'm off in sleepy land again. Same thing again a while later and then out.....again.
I vaguely remember waking up another time and having them say okay we're going to take you up to your room now.....okay sounds good thanks.
I'm in and out every time the nurses come in to put more meds in my IV and then one time I'm finally not super groggy and I actually manage to sit up. The nurse comes in and I ask if I can go to the bathroom and if I can get my phone. Holy crap it's like 930pm. When we got to the hospital it was like 1pm so I have no clue how long surgery was and how long I've been "out" but I do know it's been at least 9 1/2 hours since I've talked to sean or crystal so I start texting. Crystal has been pretty freaked out I guess so she's glad to hear from me and so is sean.......ummmm don't remember much else since I passed out again.
I do remember waking up once and my whole left side being soaked.....my IV had come right out so they had to put it back in.
Day 3 - Wednesday, February 4
So I've woken up on and off throughout the night. The beds not too bad as far as comfort goes and the nurses have given me some ice chips. They keep pumping me full of pain meds and antibiotics so even when I do try to watch tv or text I'm falling asleep again. The pain in my shoulder is pretty bad.....okay really bad....from the gas they have to fill you with for the surgery. I knew this was going to happen but still didn't expect it to hurt this much. I'm supposed to get up and walk it off cause they say it makes it better but I'm SOOOOOOO tired and thee really isn't anywhere to walk so I keep going back to bed.
At one point one of the nurses came in and looked at my IV funny and said she had to change it. Dr. No English Doogie must have done something wrong (apparently other people had to have theirs changed too) but whatevs, the nurse was sweet and changed it and then told me to go have a shower and remove my bandages so she could put on new ones. Done and done......I needed a shower😒
It was awkward trying to shower and remove bandages with an IV sticking out the side of the door but I did it......I rock.
And then......I slept some more lol
Day 4 - Thursday, February 5
So this morning I got to do my leak test to make sure nothing was leaking. They took me down.....again in a wheelchair which I find funny since they want you to walk so much......to the medical room which has this funky X-ray machine and you have to drink this disgusting liquid but the X-ray machine monitors how it goes down......yay success, NO LEAKS......this Chiquita gets some apple juice and Gatorade, yeehaw!!🎈🎈🎈 I think this had to be the best apple juice I've ever tasted!!
So I had another shower and changed the bandages again and drank some more Apple juice and Gatorade.....as much as I could anyways and then one by one the Drs started showing up. Dr. Ortiz came in to check on me and give me some info and ask if I had any questions. Then Dr. Morales came in. He says, hi do you remember me and I said um no I'm really sorry and he says oh no worries I'm Dr. Morales I was the assistant surgeon but you were pretty much passed out before I came in lmao. So he chatted with me some more and gave me some more info and then him and his hottie sidekick guy left.....have I mentioned yet how adorably cute some of these guys are? No? Well DAMN.......I could stay a while longer I think!!
Anyways after a while Eduardo (my patient advocate) came to see how I was and to see if I was ready and I told him I was all ready except for the IV was still in so he said he would be back in a bit. By the time he came back my IV was done and I was good to go.
We got to the Marriott and they said our rooms wouldn't be ready for an hour and a half so we hung out chatting and then I went to check out the room and the pool. Pretty nice.
Hung out and relaxed a bit and then Abraham came and picked us up to go shopping. First we stopped at the pharmacia and then on to Revolucion Ave. we wandered around a bit and I found some stuff to buy. A skull and a shot glass for my collection.
Then we went to the taco stand everyone talks about and had the amazing beef broth......mmmmm it was good.
Met up with my new friend Lorinda for some (more boring) chicken broth at the hotel for dinner which was nice and then crashed early.
Day 5 - Friday, February 6
So Abraham came and got us this morning at 9am and we made our way back to the hospital. Dr. Morales and his hottie sidekick met up with us to tell us some more info and answer any questions we had and then we took some group shots of everyone. It will be cool to see what we all look like in a few months.
We dropped off Susie and Tim at the parking lot and then they dropped me off at the motel and everyone else made their way to the airport.
Okay now the Motel 6......what was I thinking?
A) right beside the airport so this is what I see and hear every 5 minutes, no lie.
B) apparently their amazing $5 shuttle to the airport is run by another company on Saturdays and usually isn't on time so I'll need to call a cab for $10......should have just stayed at the moldy Days Inn.
Anyways I decided since it was like 11 that this would be the perfect time to get some walking in to get rid of this gas pain in my shoulder. Walked for like two hours along the boardwalk where all the big boats are.
Then I hit this little spray park thing so I sat there with my feet in the water for a while because my ankles had swelled to double their size.
Then I made my way back to the hotel where I realized that......
I burnt quite well lmao.
Anyways now I've spent the rest of the day/evening watching Netflix and trying to choke back my fluids. I tried to go to sleep about 2 hours ago and then with the planes every 2 minutes I decided to catch up on my writing.......so there you have it......the past couple days and everything I've experienced.
I guess I should try to sleep again so I don't miss my plane lmfao.......I have set 3 alarms though and double checked them. Hmmmmm maybe I'll just watch some more Netflix.
Adios por now
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