I wrote this the night after my surgery before going to bed. I wanted to get it all out. Now, I don’t really feel like editing it, so you get some stream of consciousness rambling. 🙂
We were told to check in to the main hospital registration at 6:30 am.
The alarm woke us up at 5:30 am, and I was wanting water but Don remembered I wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink after 4:30 am.
We walked from the inn to the hospital figuring it was easier than finding parking in the garage (even at 6:30am? not sure) and because the parking at the hotel was already paid for. Don would just go get the car and pick me up when it was all over, same as the garage.
Got there right at 6:30 on the dot. Waited half an hour in the first waiting room then did check in and got wrist band, etc
Up to the 4th floor and then no wait at all practically in the upstairs waiting room. A nurse took me into the pre-care area, gave me a gown to change into and a blanket in case I was cold. I wasn’t cold all day and am still very warm. Strange for me as I have a heater under my desk at work and the temperature in there is always 72 degrees.
Waited some more.
A nurse came and did blood pressure…
Dr. Buchman came and initialed under my right ear to label it so they wouldn’t get the wrong one. All along he has let me just tell him which ear I wanted done. He acts like he knows that I’ve done my research and know exactly what I want.
Then the anesthesiologist came. He asked me if I could hear him and I said ‘yes, but I missed your name.’ He laughed and said he’s just Dr. Z. Unpronounceable last name apparently.
He asked me if I had ever had surgery before, no. Asked if anyone in my family had had a problem with anestisia or surgery and I Said not that I know of. Asked me if I’m pregnant and I said Not That I Know Of! See, I still had a sense of humor. 🙂 He said that they would take me to the OR and I would fall asleep. When it was done they would call my name and wake me up “and you’ll hear it right?” I said no, I won’t because they don’t leave the CI on but he didn’t listen to me just said “hopefully, right?” so I shrugged and let it go since he was leaving. I told his nurse that I would not hear them at all because I wouldn’t have my hearing aid either and she shook my arm and said they’d do that, no problem.
The first nurse came back and did my IV (or maybe that was before Dr. Z, can’t remember). It was easy and fine. She numbed the area (ow) and found my vein no problem. I didn’t remember this being a problem back when I was in the hospital in 1993 when I lost my hearing and had to have an IV.
The anesthesia nurse came back and added some length to the IV because the room was kind of cramped or so they could reach during surgery or something.
At 8:30 on the dot they put the anesthesia drug into the IV and wheeled me off. Don took my iPhone and hearing aids. I was still wide awake all the way into the OR, remember moving over to the table, talk about awkward. I remember all the face looking down at me (just like TV) I remember them sticking electrodes on me and I remember thinking that I had better fall asleep sooon or they’d just have to stand there waiting and looking at me. Someone gave me a thumbs up and I was out.
I did Not want to wake up. I remember the oxygen mask being on and a nurse shaking me and shoving a clipboard in front of my face. I don’t remember what it said. It said it was 11:45am. It asked if I wanted them to find my boyfriend or maybe told me that they were going to find him. I read that first before reading the rest and said or nodded yes yes yes! I drank some water. Had some apple sauce. It tasted weird but I felt hungry. Then I felt sick. Oh, it asked my pain level and I said 2 or 3. They gave me 2 pills (percocet I know now) and I took both and had more water. The paper asked if I felt nauseous and I said no, just very sleepy. Then I felt nauseous! But by the time she found me a pan I felt ok again.
Dr Buchman came and scratched on my bandage and asked if I could hear it. I could. He was happy about that. And I am too! I fell asleep again.
Don came in and I Think he gave me my hearing aid for the left ear. He told me that everything went well. He told me that he hadn’t been able to reach my parents that the number didn’t work. He tried to give me my iPhone but I didn’t want it yet. Then I think he left and I fell asleep for who knows how long, at least an hour.
I remember being able to keep my eyes open long enough to look around and the nurse came to check on me. I used the rest room, they asked if I could walk and I said I wasn’t sure, so they wheeled my chair the 2 feet over there. (I had to sit a long time but could tell I needed to go (Something in the IV?)). It was a struggle to stay awake. Finally done, I pulled the cord and they came back to get me. Then I got wheeled back to the pre-care waiting area. The clock was right in front of my little room there (the room had 3 solid walls and a curtain directly across from the desk) and I was amazed that it was after 12:30.
They asked if I wanted them to find Don, Yes! of course.
I remember waking up more around 2 pm. I was awake enough to ask for my iPhone and to remember that he said he hadn’t been able to reach my parents. He showed me the email that I sent him with the number and the last digit was wrong. D’oh! I told him what the right number was and he called (and it was busy but he tried again) and talked to them and told them I was awake (ha! not really) and everything went fine. Later he told me that my dad had answered and then given it to my mom after a minute.
I posted to Twitter and fell back to sleep. I remember waking up long enough to write 140 characters on my iPhone… and my accuracy was quite low, but the phone’s auto correct was fixing half of the words correctly (and the other half became random words that didn’t fit the syntax at all! gotta love the iphone’s way of dealing with typos).
I remember I kept asking if they were waiting for me to do something, to wake up more, and Don said they were working on getting me everything I needed to leave. I figured, why wake up when I’m just going to sleep in the car anyway. I guess I forgot I had to get dressed. They didn’t bring my clothes until around 3. I hadn’t had any more nausea and my pain was less than a typical headache (not the same location as a headache).
I got prescriptions for generic percocet for pain as needed, methylprednisolone which I believe is the antibiotic, take 6 then 5, 4, 3, etc
and generic for keflex, a steroid that helps my poor little ear hair cells working, 4 times a day, may cause dizziness.
We weren’t sure the best way to handle the prescriptions since we’d be in the car still when I was scheduled for more percocet… and we weren’t sure how late the pharmacy was open…
I was quite nauseous from the car moving and lip reading or iphone reading so I slept most of the way home.
We got home at 8:30 after filling prescriptions at the CVS down the street.
