posted Friday, 3 February 2006
Surgery yesterday went much better than expected. I actually woke up feeling better than I felt before the surgery... no pain... no nausea.
I arrived at Robert Wood Johnson at 7am (I had to get up at 5:30am, which is by far, the earliest I've woken up in many months). I was experiencing a bit more pain in the left side than I had been, which made me thankful that we were going in to check things out. Check-in was a breeze - I registered, got changed and climbed into bed at Pre-op Station #7. This was a much busier hospital than Princeton, but they were still very nice/friendly. The nurse got ready to start my IV, and I found myself fully reclined, with my arm hanging down over the bed, trying to find a vein to use... it isn't getting any easier... but she did a fairly good job and got a return with just a few jabs. Once I was all set, Mike was allowed to come back and wait with me until it was time for the surgery.
The anesthesiologist stopped by and I made sure to emphasize my history with anesthesia... he promised to try and get me through this without feeling sick on the other side. Sounds good to me! Another half hour or so later, he came back to take me into the OR. He gave me a beautiful paper hat to put on (which he told me was part of the new spring line for versace... but when I told him that I would keep the hat forever, he said he hadn't told me "which" Versace... Pablo Versace... it made me laugh). We got into the OR, where there were 6 or 7 people in there waiting. I slid over onto the table and prepared to be strapped down. The anesth. continued talking to me, which was a nice distraction from the folks preparing to slice me open. He gave me a shot of fast-acting valium... which definitely took the edge off (and made the room spin a little bit... not in a bad way though...) Dr Borah was running late, so we sat there for a good 10-15 minutes before they put me to sleep. Just long enough for me to:
• Find out that the anesth. was married to a woman from Belaruse, but he had never met her family -- she had applied for assylum in the US, so she can not return home
• Share stories about all the places I've travelled recently (in the past few years) - Jamaica, Cancun, Grand Canyon, etc
• Discuss the pleasantries of upstate NY - I am from Rochester, he went to undergrad at SUNY Buffalo, I went to school in Albany...
• Call the anesth a dork (he was excited to finish his last year of residency so that he could spend more time on things he enjoys... like playing chess)
• Convince him that "dork" really was a compliment in my book
• Explain the ins and outs of ultimate frisbee -- and all about Wicked
• Invite him out to play in a pickup ultimate frisbee game held on Saturdays at Buccleuch Park (which is right around the corner from the hospital)
The last thing I remember is seeing the clock -- just past 9... and then the next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room, just before 11am. I felt groggy... but no pain... In fact, I felt remarkably well - I was wrapped in blankets (which reminded me of when Vanita had to "swaddle" her baby, Tara, in blankets, wrapping her arms in close to her body, to keep her still enough to sleep and prevent her from flailing and waking herself up), which were heavy and warm. They had even wrapped a blanket up around my head, so I was in a full "coccoon" from head to foot. The nurse came over to "check my drain".... GRRRR.... I couldn't believe that they had put another drain in! The anesthesiologist stopped by to check on me and said "maybe I'll see you out at Buccleuch!". Somebody else came by to check on me (not sure who) and I asked them what they had done. She explained that they had to remove the expander on the left (which is why the drain was needed - the human body doesn't like random voids in it and tends to fill these voids with fluid). They also "cleaned up" the right side, which had a spot that was looking like it might open up too. They did not have to remove the expander there.
By 11:30, I was eating ice chips and sitting up slightly. They moved me over into the 2nd stage post-op recovery area, where they gave me some cranberry juice and let Mike come back to see me. A nurse came by to take my vitals. She then helped me up for a quick walk (hobble) over to the ladies room (in order to go home, you have to drink & pee... according to the nurse). I passed the test and they brought me back to the next station over, where there was an armchair (as opposed to a hospital bed). I sat for a while, drinking my juice. The nurse came back and took out my IV so I could get dressed. She then gave me my discharge instructions (it always makes me laugh that they make you sign a paper that says that you are not allowed to sign any legal documents for 24 hours...) As I was leaving (at around 12:30pm), she gave me a flower, which was really sweet (even though it was Jessica T's least favorite flower in the world!). They wheeled me out and Mike took me home.
I was a little bit tired, but didn't have any pain -- I didn't even take a tylenol! I took a brief nap and by the time I woke up, mom was here. We watched tv for a while and I ate some mac & cheese. Yum. The three of us laid pretty low, but if you didn't know it, you would have been surprised that I had just had surgery that morning. Perhaps it was lingering effect of the anesthesia, but besides being a little bit tired, I felt pretty ok.
While I feel ok physically, I am a little bit disappointed with the results of the surgery... it turns out that I don't really have enough skin left on the left side to go through the "expansion". I believe that in order to do the reconstruction, I may need to have a "latissimus dorsal flap", which is a procedure where they take skin & muscle from your back and tunnel it around to the front to use for the reconstruction... sounds a bit scary, so I am not going to think too much about it until my follow-up appt next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment