A week ago today - Day of Surgery

Well I had my surgery a week ago today, and I feel like crap!!! OK, maybe not quite that bad, but I don't feel as spry as I did before surgery.  What was I expecting, I would come out of surgery dancing and singing. If you have those aspirations, let them go now.

So I am going to take you through this last week, and the things they did not tell me that were going to happen, and what I did and did not expect.

Day of Surgery.

I was scheduled to be at the hospital at 5:30 am, and so I packed a bag (like a dork) and went to check in like I was about to stay at the Hilton. I showed up at the check in counter, and got all my information processed, and then my wife, daughter and I went and sat down: Waiting for the nurse to come get me.

We were escorted back to the pre-op room, which was the size of a small walk-in closet, so don't do what I did, surgery is not a family gathering, just bring one family member, or at least leave everyone else in the waiting room. My poor daughter was standing in the corner for two hours, and she was not even in timeout.

I met with the anesthesiologist first, he told me they were going to put a breathing tube down my throat, and I might have that still in when I was in ICU.  I was not looking forward to that. I did not know how I would react to a breathing tube down my throat, but it does stand to reason that a breathing tube would need to be done, since the insertion point is through the nasal cavity. To say I was not looking forward to this procedure of the breathing tube is an understatement, it quite frankly freaked me out. The anesthesiologist reassured me, and he left.

Then I met with the Ear Nose and Throat doctor, and he let me know that he was there, and he would be taking care of me.  They also noticed multiple tumors inside my nasal cavity, and he said he would also be removing those.

Then I met with my Neurologist, he told my wife he was going to take about 5 hours to do the procedure, and he would come and get her when it was done.  The nurse also came in and told my wife that she would call when the procedure started, and when it was completed.

I got in my gown, and I was wheeled down to the operating room by this time 2 hours had already passed. So this is not the express lane, but more like Hannibal taking the elephants over the alps... OK not quite that bad, but it did seem to take a while for them to get their feet under them.

I was rolled into the OR, and introduced to three other nurses, transferred over to a bed, I looked up at the oversize light, talked to the anesthesiologist and was given a shot.

Goodnight.

I woke up extremely tired. my face felt like somebody stomped on it with a boot, my neck hurt, my ankle hurt and I was real dizzy.

I had something taped to my nose, and I was disoriented to say the least.

I looked over and saw my wife, she was crying, my daughters and son were crying, and I could not understand why. Apparently I was so swollen and bruised they could not hardly recognize me. I asked my wife to take a picture, but she refused. I looked up at the clock, it was about 1:30. The nurse told me I was in the ICU, and the surgery went well. She asked how I felt, and wanted me to do tests almost immediately.

She had me squeeze her fingers, touch my nose and then her finger, hold out me hands stick out my tongue (which at the time I felt silly, but was not able to really laugh) and then press my feet against her hands. Because my ankle hurt, I did not press too hard with that foot, and the doctor was brought in. He had me press again, I was trying to tell them my ankle hurt, but they were not understanding me. I did not have the breathing tube down my throat, but my throat felt like someone pored sand in my mouth and I washed it down with grapefruit juice.

I was in and out of consciousness until about midnight, when I started being aware of my surroundings. My ankle still hurt, so I started rotating it clockwise and then counterclockwise, I did this for about an hour, and the pain finally started to fade. My neck hurt, almost as bad as when I had my accident (another post, bike accident which led to the discovery of the adenoma).

I tried to massage my neck but it did not help. I also tried some of the exercises that the physical therapist told me to do, but the pain would not go away. I was given some pain meds and I went back to sleep.