Day 1: Surgery!
Well, I am actually writing this the day after my surgery
for reasons that will become quite apparent but sufficed to say that after
almost 18 months of waiting the surgery has come and gone in the blink of an eye
and I am now the proud owner of an exceptionally swollen face and lips that
rival those of Angelina Jolie!
Yesterday truthfully was a long day - we needed to be at the
hospital at 6:45am (picture on left showing pre-surgery face) and the surgery was scheduled for approximately 9am. They
prepared me for surgery by asking a gazillion questions (seriously why would
anyone try and pretend to be someone else?!) and then they asked me to dress in
to the largest set of hospital gowns I have ever seen.
Apparently I am so tall
they don't have regular gowns and they only had a pair which was intended for a
500lb human being. No comments about my weight please. The IV was inserted next
to my vein which proved to be a tad painful and that was that, I was rolled off
to have a quick chat with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist.
Let me just sat that I love my surgeon, Dr. Gregory Egbert, he is fantastic! He was
recommended by so many people and once I met him, I could see why; he has an
infectious personality, he has performed over 2100 surgeries of this type, and
he is most definitely a perfectionist in how conducts his work not to mention
that he is passionate about his clients and making sure that we understand the
entire process.
I believe that I have mentioned on more than one occasion how
nervous I was for general anesthesia. Completely irrational fear I understand
but simply acknowledging this does not make it better! My anesthesiologist was
great; he explained everything that would happen in terms of oxygen and having a
tube down my nose. He told me that he would be giving me large doses of
anti-nausea medicine so I would not vomit when I woke up. Let's face it, for
anyone having this surgery, is there anything worse than vomiting into a wired
mouth?! Visualise if you will . . .
That was that. I was wheeled into the operating theatre and the
last thing I remember is shaking uncontrollably because of nerves! As they
transferred me to the operating table, I tried to calm my nerves by singing a
verse from the Primary book, “We have been born as Nephi of old”. Don’t
ask me why, it just popped into my head! After that, the oxygen mask was placed
over my mouth and I was out . . .
The next thing I remember was waking up in my hospital room. I
have never recovered well from general anesthesia and yesterday proved to be no
exception. Apparently, I was in recovery for an hour or so but they decided to
take me to my room instead, as even though I wasn’t coming out of it, all my
vitals were good . . .
My memories are vague from here on out but here is what I
remember:
Well, that was my first day on
the road to recovery. . . Hopefully future entries will not be as long, sorry to
bore you! You can see additional photographs, other than the couple in this
post, under the ‘Photo Journal’ section above.
I'm glad you survived! Sounds like quite and ordeal. Take it easy now. Watch some TV or something!
ReplyDeletePaul
Just found your blog! I am almost ready for my surgery, and both excited and scared to death! I am in Colorado, but we share the same "primary" book you mentioned, lol! Funny I never thought of primary music to help calm my nerves before surgery! You ate looking great and I'm so happy I found your blog!
ReplyDelete@ HEather: So when is your surgery? As for the primary book, it made me laugh when I started humming the words and tune but it worked! :) Good luck on your surgery - Do you have a blog?
ReplyDeleteI AM a nurse and I think your wife is better than me! :) I do not have high hopes for my husband being a good nurse, however. :) Hopefully he surprises me.
ReplyDelete@Alyssa: There is something about looking at someone with a truly miserable and huge face (not to mention huge lips, sorry eyes, and a wired mouth, etc) that brings out the best nurse in everyone. Your husband I am sure will be surprise you! :)
ReplyDeleteYou were right. He is being very good! He had surgery a few months ago so I made sure my care of him set the bar high! Luckily, he hasn't forgotten. And the kids aren't too scared either. My trusty companion dog, however, must have smelled that something was amiss and wouldnt lie with me until I showered off the " injured smell".
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that you are being 'supported'! :) Funny things about the dog! :) Glad to hear things are going well!
ReplyDeleteAre you in utah? I am having Cameron Egbert do mine and was wondering if they were related!
ReplyDelete