Emergency C-section

I was laying in the pre-op room in the hospital bed. There was a flurry of activity around me. Lots of people coming in and out of the room. Everyone talking over me, very few actually talking to me. A nurse asked me for my husband's phone number. I gave it to her but thought it was strange that they didn't already have it, I mean what if I were unconscious? They called to tell him that I was having an emergency c-section. He told them that he couldn't come until he had found a sitter for our son. I wondered if I should ask to speak with him but then I thought ''He knows I love him and I know he loves me'' so we don't really have to talk, I'd just get emotional or something.

I wasn't sure if I needed to pee or not and was almost going to ask the nurses if they needed me to go before the surgery but everyone seemed so busy that I didn't want to interrupt them.

Someone came and took my wedding ring, that upset me a bit, but it came off quite easily. I told her not to lose it.

There was a big clock on the wall, it seemed like it was just staring me in the face. All huge and obnoxious, ticking the minutes away. Everything was on hold because we were waiting for the anesthesiologist. I overheard two people talking, one said that sure this guy was on call but he probably wouldn't get here until 8:30pm, and someone answered ''this lady doesn't have until 8:30!''

This startled me because the huge clock was just 7:10pm or something like that. And I thought to myself, why don't I have until 8:30, what is happening?

I was asked some questions I think, I probably answered them though I don't really remember. I do remember nurses talking about who could go off and have dinner first and someone laughing, it was nice to hear laughter. Someone else said there was a chopper coming in with a senile guy with a broken leg, and they were discussing who would go deal with that.

Finally the anesthesiologist came and asked me a whole bunch of questions that I thought he should have known beforehand. He was on my left, holding my hand, and someone on my right was clearly pissed off at this guy and was snapping at him to get a move on already.

I was relatively calm through all this, I knew with an emergency c-section I would be unconscious for the delivery. I wondered how they would put me to sleep, if it was with a mask or with an IV.

They wheeled my bed into the operating room next to the operation table. They then did the whole sliding the sheets maneuver, it was very smooth.

Someone put a mask over my mouth and nose and that's when I really had difficulty breathing. I yanked the mask away and said ''I can't breathe''. This person put the mask back on me. I yanked it away again, struggling and saying ''I can't breathe''. He/she loosened the hold of the mask against my face, I was grateful for that. I wondered if this was just a feeling people got before they had surgery with general anesthesia, this feeling of not being able to breathe.

When I woke up I had tears in my eyes and a big lump in my throat. My husband was on my left, telling me that I had been asleep for a while. I saw the wall behind him, covered with pictures of our son and a little baby I didn't know was a boy or a girl.

I had been in a coma for 3 weeks.

To be continued...