We got off on the 6th floor and I got wheeled through the large flap doors with a sign that read SICU !! Thanked Dr. Shahid in my mind. As I entered the SICU I wondered if this was the same one I was here back in January. There was something very different. I wondered if the good staff I had befriended in January was still there. I remember a few of the staff’s names, Nurse Krishna and Nurse Dilta. Nurse Jasmin. As I was parked in a bay, I felt I was in another SICU. Last time the whole place had a green color scheme, now everything seemed white !! and almost full. That’s when I heard the familiar voice of Nurse Dilta ! and then behind her was Nurse Krishna !! Both came up and said Hi 😊 I asked them if I was in another SICU, and they said no it’s just that they changed the curtains, from green to white! Frankly, it was an amazing change! Funny how color can completely transform the room! One of the 1st things I did when I met Nurse Krishna, was I asked her to write down Niveds number on my arm, just in case, I forgot ( apparently I had got the number wrong ! ) I actually thought I would be able to remember, crazy things hallucinations can make you do!

They asked me to rest, it’s very important to keep your head down when you are given spinal anesthesia. My 1st experience of spinal anesthesia was during my wound debridement surgery. When I had asked Dr.Shahid while recovering in the post-OT if they had done skin grafting coz my thigh felt heavily padded, He told me it was due to the numbness below my waist. By now I was used to being numb below the waist, and this time I actually did have paddings on my thigh!! 😊

I also had a visit from Hashim and Shalima. I had already met Hashim earlier that day at Pre-OT before my Surgery, and I was meeting Shalima for the 1st time. It was strange and nice in a way. I mean you are seeing the faces of people with who you only carried a conversation under sedation. Now meeting them in a conscious state seemed amusingly interesting. 😊 Shalima had come with a friend of hers Fiza, ( I learned later that her name is actually Riza!! , but for the time being let’s stick to Fiza 😂 just to go with the flow – Riza if you are reading this don’t worry I’ll correct your name in my up coming posts ok ? 👍😊) apparently, Fiza was also one of the sleep OT assistants along with Nived in the same OT as I was in a few hours back. I remember briefly having a conversation with her towards the end of the surgery. She looked familiar to me, but not having my glasses on made it difficult to see clearly. I told Shalima that I must have been a huge chatterbox while at surgery, she politely smiled and said no ( although I was ) but by her side, I could see Fiza nodding yes to it with a huge grin on her face, obviously! she was there in the OT with me and was a witness to all the crazy things that might have come out of my mouth that time. 😂 Anyway, it was really nice of them to visit me. After they had left I took a short nap until Nurse Krishna came to check up on me. I had the vac machine sucking out any exudate if any. But hadn’t seen any collection so far.

All the nurses I knew from my time there in January came up to meet me and wish me. We talked about my blog and about the time I was there in January. Funny even at a difficult time like this we could relate to lighter incidents like Nurse Krishna being ragged by the senior staff there and talking about Nurse Dilita’s “ Thar Vehicle” I guess the people and their attitude around you make a huge difference in how easy or how difficult a situation can make out to be. The staff at SICU sure helps to ease the situation. Dr. Shahid came to see me and told me once I am able to move my legs I could shift back to the room. He said we would catch up on rounds and left.

It must have been a little past 4 so I prayed my Asr prayers. I worked on trying to move my legs which seemed to be coming around slowly. Nurse Krishna was very particular about it. I would call her and show her that I can wiggle my left foot, and she would say “no that’s not enough!! you have to move it properly !” kidding me around.😊 Around 5 she came up by my bedside with a glass of water and asked to take a few sips. I was feeling fine, there was no nausea or no vomit “Phew!”. I could now head back to the room. The call was placed to T Block. The protocol was that the SICU staff has to hand over my details to the nurse from T Block. now, I had wait for the pilots and the nurse from T Block to arrive. This time I didn’t have to jump the trolley from here. They would send me back on the same bed and I would change the bed from my room. So while I waited, another patient got shifted in, I could see now most of the staff had gathered up by the new patient’s bedside. The nurse from OT was briefing the SICU nurses about the patient. In the meantime, the T Block pilots had arrived with the Nurse from T Block, and Nurse Krishna was briefing about my details to her. While I was being shifted I met Nurse Jasmin who had just walked in to take up Night Shift. We exchanged salaams, and she said she almost couldn’t recognize me with my beard grown so much. I replied that in spite of not having my glasses on she was easy to make out coz of her hijab. 😊

They wheeled me out of SICU around 6 I suppose, on to room 873. Where my family was waiting…..with a glass of Avil Milk 😃