DAY ZERO - 10 HOURS POST OPWell it's been 10 hours since my op. It's done!!!!! So far so good, minimal pain. Here's my update:
Was picked up in the very early hours of the morning to make the 2ish hour drive to the hospital. The driver was very friendly and fortunately was happy enough just to let me doze in the back as I'd gotten not much sleep. We arrived at the hospital in good time, very secluded location and looked more like a hotel from the outside.
I was ushered into the room after a 30 minute wait in the reception ( no biggie.) The nurse showed me where to shower, to put on a really fetching pair of underpants (completely see through, didn't achieve much of I'd expect of underwear) and hair net!
As soon as she left he anaesthetist came in and introduced himself to me, asked a couple of standard questions. I stressed that I was quite nervous having never had general anaesthetic and he just told me "general anaesthetic is the easiest thing in the world." I know it sounds a bit cheesy but I just kept saying that to myself over and over and it helped a lot.
Another nurse came and checked all my details. She was Chinese and her English a bit ropey but very lovely and polite. She checked my height, weight, blood pressure, medical history etc. She accidentally put my birthday wrong, and came back with files and stickers with an incorrect birth date, and had to go through and correct dozens of them by hand. After doing that and looking a bit frustrated I jokingly told her she'd got it right the first time but she didn't really understand so I just chuckled to myself at how funny I am.
I had a shower and sort of forgot why I was there and started enjoying the shower and washing my hair then realised I had to get sliced up in ten minutes so got out, dried off, and put on my extremely stylish/indecent underwear and gown (which thankfully did completely cover me.) I tried to take a couple more before snaps at this point.
Dr. Sulaiman came in and absolutely radiated confidence. I was told mine would be the first surgery or the day, so i would be going up at 8.30am. He took a load of photos and drew all over me. I joked that it was a pity it was cold in the room, making the Gyne less noticeable, so the before->pics might not be so impressive. He laughed and answered a few of my questions about scarring and th procedure, and he made light of any anxiety of GA ("I'm very anxious about the GA as I've never had it before" -> "everybody is! it would be strange if you weren't." In particular I referred to the issues I'd seen in cratering and abnormal scar tissue formation and he assured me that he'd never had to do a revision but if anything like that occurred he would fix it free of charge. If anyone in UK is considering Dr. Sulaiman I have to say his confidence and friendliness was a massive boost for me at that nervy moment. I signed all the release forms and that was that, off he went for me to pace awkwardly around the room for a short time, the next part I wrote on my phone while I was waiting:
"5 minutes to the op and I'm calm. Weirdly calm. Wish I could've taken better before pics.
The emergency oxygen pack has actual dust on it. That's good.
8.30 now. Doobie doobie doo. "
Back came nurse 2 and the moment was finally here.
Nurse 2 led me to a private lift around the corner. I asked her if she'd ever had general anaesthetic, she told me she hadn't, but asked if I went out partying on weekends. I told her I did, and she told me "you'll like the anaesthetic then." Which made me laugh. Then it was a short walk to a room adjacent to the operating theatre. A rather stern and highly efficient chap asked me the same questions everyone else had (name, DOB, any teeth falling out of my head etc.) and then led me into the operating theatre where there were various people milling about tinkering with equipment. This was probably the most anxious I got at any point. Mr. Efficient had me lay down on the table and I really felt like I'd made a huge mistake and was going to have a panic attack. I think the anaesthetist noticed that so he came over and started talking to me about university and my current job. Mr. Efficient said he was going to apply the cold press, and when I flinched the Anaesthetist joked: "well he did warn you." So then the needle went into my hand, which I hardly noticed. Very peculiar cold feeling down my arm as the antibiotics, and then on to the good stuff. Like he had said I really didn't have anything to worry about. I felt dizzy and light headed and then wham!
This part is very sketchy on account of the lovely, lovely morphine. It felt like I'd been asleep for a few minutes and that I was just a bit hungover. I didn't clock where I was or why for a minute or so, and spouted a lot of nonsense to the person keeping an eye on me. Whoever the hell that was, maybe mr efficient. As things started to click together and I became conscious of the vest and slight pain in my nipples, I realised it was done and felt this enormous rush of relief. It was very surreal, I couldn't really believe it.
Back came nurse 2 who wheeled me back to my room. At the point there was definitely pain in the chest, not that bad, but certainly noticeable.
After an hour or so I could hardly notice the pain. Since then it's been great, drifting in and out of naps, watching the TV, playing on my iPhone, drinking cranberry juice. The nurses have been very attentive and checked in every half hour to take my blood pressure.
Dr. Sulaiman came in a few hours after the op let me know it had gone well and he thought the results looked great, so can't wait to see.
Had a really hard time urinating at first, which was something I was sort of aware of but hasn't really thought about so was a bit of a fright. Nurse said it was very common and just been again and back to normal.
More painkillers at 3pm. 2x co-codamol and still feeling peachy. Very surprised by general lack of pain.
Well done if you made it this far! Long I know but I want to remember as much as possible for myself as much as anyone else
Well I've got a cheese and bacon panini to eat now. Will report back when I'm home!
Oh and of course, before photos attached..
Topic: Surgery 22/2/13 pre/post diary (Read 5989 times)
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