Hi guys, so I'm typing this from the hospital bed at St. Joseph's hospital in Toronto. Had my surgery this morning with Dr. Fielding. Thought I'd put my story in here as reference for future patients.
So I began the day (yesterday) going to work, then to my class and finally getting home to prepare for my trip. I'd left most of my packing to the last minute since I figured I wouldn't need much (only going for 3 days). I decided on a small messenger with: laptop (pre loaded with a bunch of games and tv shows in anticipation of boredom) and 1 shirt.
For my last meal pre-op, I decided to grab a tuna sub at subway and headed for the airport. I had told my parents about my decision to get an operation so my mom was driving me. Also in the car was my brother who thinks I'm going for a training seminar for my job.
We get to theVancouver International Airport at 9:30PM, surprisingly my mom keeps the goodbye short. I thought she'd break down at the last second and my brother would think something was up. Crisis averted. Going through the check points at the airport proved to be painless. I had opted for the E-boarding pass through online check in (they email you the boarding pass to your phone) the night before and all I had to do was hold up my Iphone screen for the guards to see.
The flight over was pretty uneventful (for better or for worse) the pilot was definitely the best I've flown with; none of that random up and down BS during take-off and landing. The flight landed early at 6:10AM and I followed the signs out the airport to pole 10 for my bus. After about a minute of waiting, I took the "Airport Rocket" out to Kippling subway station. From there I took the subway to Dundas West and the street car 504 (Reicester or something, it was trolley at the very front). I got of at the St. Joseph's stop and walked a bit into the hospital.
I was early, the entire bus-subway-trolley trip took less than an hour. My surgery wasn't for another 4 hours. I went to the second floor and followed the signs to the day of surgery. Waited there for an hour among a group of other people there for both surgery that day and pre-surgery appointments; a pretty standard waiting room with a TV. Finally I get called up, the nurse asks me to sign three documents and tells me to proceed through the doors.
The next room is full of people in hospital gowns waiting for there surgery, there are also people in small beds recovering from surgery. They ask me to change into a gown, wait about an hour and a nurse takes me to a small room to ask questions, take my BP and other readings. I passed the next 2 hours watching the first two episodes of "House" on my laptop... not really digging this show at this point, seems pretty generic. The anesthesiologist finally comes to get me, he takes me to the other side of the room to another smaller waiting area, this one is for people about to go into surgery. He asks me a few questions and a minute later a male nurse comes in and takes me down through some doors, through a hall into what turns out to be the surgery room.
I gotta be honest here, my nervousness shot up walking into this room. They sit me down on the bed and a man in a surgical mask starts talking about the procedure, takes me a minute before I realize it's Dr. Fielding. He takes off the top portion of my gown and marks my chest with 2 circles, takes 2 pictures and asks me to lay down. The nurse and the anesthesiologist go to work attaching things to me; the bed is shaped kind of like a cross for your arms and I can't help but think I'm about to be crucified. Someone asks me if I feel nervous, I answer no... but it's hard to lie with the heart monitor beeping away. Finally the IV is attached to my hand and I start counting in my head.
I have no idea what number I got up to but I woke up completely dazed and confused; all the reading the past two months didn't prepare me for the following. At first I didn't even remember I'd just had surgery. I woke up thinking it was a normal day, there was no alarm ringing so I immediately thought I'd woken up in the middle of the night and should go back to sleep before I have to go to work. Then I realized I was extremely dizzy/groggy and in a foreign place. There were people walking around and I couldn't make out what had just happened. It must've taken me a few minutes until I finally realized I'd just gotten out of surgery. I was still dizzy when a nurse came around to ask some questions, I answered only to realize my throat was extremely parched and sore. Another few minutes pass until I'm finally completely concious. My chest doesn't hurt, the vest doesn't itch... it just feels secure.
They cart me to my hospital room for the overnight stay. I fell asleep instantly, waking up intermittently to take some calls. Woke up a few hours later, there was a food tray laying beside my bed which I went through in record time; it wasn't bad. My chest starting hurting about 8-9 hours after the Op so the nurse brought me some tylenol 3. It took a few minutes but the pain went away completely (for now as I type this, it's 12 hours from when I think I went into surgery).
Right now I have no idea what my results look like. It does hurt if I poke the area under my neck. The vest isn't bloody and the giant sponges under it don't seem bloody so hopefully no hematoma so far. Throat is getting better and the nurses keep bugging me to take a piss; they're threatening to put a cathedar in if I don't
(I peed just before surgery so I don't need to right now).
Anyway I'll update as time goes on.
Topic: Surgery completed with Dr. Fielding in Toronto 5/20/09 (Read 3675 times)
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