Chapter 3 - Stepping up in "Step Down"

The following post will chronicle 5 days of which I remember maybe all of 75 minutes thanks to copious amounts of drugs, my liver levels shooting all over the map and general "I just had my insides ripped out, gimme some time to heal" related mental fogginess. 

Welcome to The Step Down Unit!!!

Although easily confused with "Step Up" there is no dancing, no shirtless Channing Tatum and no Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull  soundtrack here.

Instead this is more the "groove" that this unit is rocking. But hey, if lab coats are your thing who needs to Step It Up when you can get your groove on in Step Down!

The Step Down unit is where patients who are not sick enough to be in ICU but too sick to be in a regular ward go. There is a nurse for every two patients and it's an open concept ward with no walled rooms so that nurses can quickly see and deal with any problems. Most patients stay in Step Down for 2 or 3 days. Yours truly was there for 5 days because...well to tell you the truth I can't really remember but apparently in keeping with the theme of this entire journey, take the worse case scenario and the Zeiler girls will embrace it with open arms. 

On day two here (at least I think it was day two) I learned as only a doctor with too big of a brain for bedside manner or common sense interpersonal skills can teach, that my liver died inside my mom and I just had my innards removed for no apparent reason. Goodbye gall bladder, goodbye 60% of my liver, hello mom with no liver. After quickly announcing this to me after a 7am needle in the arm wake up call, the doctor turned on her heel and leaves which leaves me in total shock and not knowing whether my mom is dead or alive or what the hell is going on. By this time I had managed to be able to stutter a moany cry rather than a scream which is what my dad and sister were greeted by as they came in a few minutes after Dr. Bedside Manner left. Thankfully, my dad and sister seemed to understand that leaving me in that state was not very helpful to my already fragile state of mind and were quick to clarify that after my liver died in mom she was put at the top of the Canada wide emergency transplant list and amazingly, there was a compatible liver available at Vancouver General Hospital (where we were) as soon as mine died. So by the time I woke up not only had my liver kicked the bucket but mom had already had a second transplant. Yay!

The next day I apparently turned yellow/orange like an Oompa Loompa. Which raised some cause for concern among my doctors but every time I asked my dad and sister "Do I look yellow?" they quickly replied "oh no, you look fine!!" Well done on the damage control Dad and Dez. The picture below is closer to the truth...

                                  

I guess that's why I ended up stepping it up in the Step Down for 5 days.... No oompa loompas allowed on the regular surgical ward.

My other big moment in Step Down was that I got to take my first steps which believe me was no easy feat. Hard to believe that walking 2 meters would be so hard that it would end with me breaking down in tears, throwing up and then sleeping for the next 4 hours but walking is a whole other post entirely. 

So with that we will leave the step down unit. Pretty much anything that happened between the events mentioned above has been lost to me and considering the rather unpleasant state of the things that I do remember it's probably for the best. 

Cheers from a much less "oompa loompa" state of existence

J