So I had my surgery with Fielding this week... here's how it went...
I showed up at St Joseph's hospital at 6:30 AM Wednesday. They had me fill out a few forms and change into a hospital gown. By about 8 AM they were ready to let me in. One of the nurses sat me in a chair in the hallway with a hot blanket on my lap and I waited for about ten minutes for Dr. Fielding to show up. He was in a great mood and could sense that I was pretty nervous. He brought me into the surgery room. This was my first-ever surgery and the room looked exactly like I thought it would, with those huge mirrored lamps and tons of strange machinery. Three nurses were waiting for me, sharpening their tools. Nobody said a word. I sat on the edge of the bed and Fielding took one last picture of my chest, instructing me to relax my shoulders to "make them look as bad as you can". One of the nurses stuck an IV into the back of my hand and then an oxygen mask appeared over my mouth. The last thing I remember was Fielding saying "this is gonna be a work of art."
I woke up in the recovery room about two hours later, a little groggy but in good spirits overall, and in no pain. One of the nurses came over and saw that some saline fluid had leaked the side of my vest. She patted me down with towels, refastened my vest, and wheeled me off to my room. I fell asleep again, and when I woke up they were bringing in my new roommate. They brought me a plate of Hospital Food as I hadn't eaten since midnight the previous night. At that point I would've eaten anything. In general, the hospital staff was excellent, very responsive and knowledgable about this procedure. One of them even snuck off to Second Cup to get me a coffee.
After a few hours the pain started to set in. Moving the upper half of my body in any way became an agonizing chore, and after reading in these forums about hematomas I really tried to take it easy. Unfortunately after draining two full IV bags and a good litre of water, I was constantly getting up to pee. They gave me a couple Tylenol-3s which helped a bit, but for the most part I was a slow-moving object waddling between the bed and the bathroom all day long.
It wasn't much fun. For one thing, the vest was very tight and uncomfortable, since the nurse in the recovery room did a poor job fastening it. I had to get it readjusted several times because of the pain, both in my chest and my abdomen (since it was so tight it was starting to give me intestinal cramps). The foam pads kept shifting around under the vest and they still don't look right. The first time I tried to leave the hospital, a wave of nausea suddenly hit me and I had to spend a few more hours in bed fighting it off before they'd let me out.
Anyway, now I'm in the nearby Four Points Sheraton and relaxing a little. The pain is still there but it's pretty easy to ignore, and I've got more Tylenols just in case. I'm meeting with Fielding tomorrow for my post-op followup and I'm hoping he'll straighten out the pads a little. The pads + vest combo seems awfully bulky and I hope it hides well. Also, I just tried showering while wearing a makeshift vest made out of a garbage bag, with so-so results. All in all, it's been a challenge, but I'm happy I did it. Besides, when I look in the mirror my chest definitely has a different shape, a much better shape. Fielding wasn't lying when he said it was a work of art. Can't wait for the unveiling.
Topic: Just got Fielding'd! (Read 3265 times)
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