Surgery complete! 
All done. Wooohooo. Delighted.
Well. Here is a run down of how things went:
Got to St johns a bit early, about 7 or so. My admission time was 7:30am. I hung around outside - listened to some music and watched the passers by on their way to work. I checked the time - it was about 7:20 so i gave my girlfriend a call and told her i was on my way in. So in i went and gave my name to the receptionist. He told me to take a seat and someone would be along to get me. He came back around 5 minutes later and asked what time my admission was. I told him 7:30am but he said 'that's strange, we have you down for 10:00am'. He called Karidis's office and soon after a man (Matt or something like that) came and brought me up the lift to the 1st floor and the surgical day care section. He told me not to worry about the time the receptionist mentioned at the front door as they don't often tell
Dr. Karidis's office when 'they change things!' ( i can only assume that this had something to do with Mr Ks office not actually registering me with admissions - see pre-op day 5 for more on that). Anyway i went into the room as pictured below and my gown/pads/plasters/slippers were on the bed. Matt left me to get settled and 20 minutes later a nurse came in and we went over some paper work and she took next of kin details and my blood pressure and pulse rate (120/68 and 70 on the pulse rate i think). She mentioned that Mr K hadn't arrived yet but would be along soon. I asked if she knew what time i would be going down and she said i was 4th on the list (when i booked originally i was told i was second- again i can only put this down to the admission/ Mr K office mix up!). So she told me to get changed> i did and put on my DVT socks and slippers and gown and kept my boxer shorts on. Then i sat and i waited.
Round about 9 or so Mt K arrived. Asked how i was and told me to take my top off so that he could get some snaps. I asked him how he was feeling, to which he replied 'don't worry, I'm on good form' >
i was glad to hear it. He drew on me then with his felt tip and asked was there anymore questions. I just asked the main one again. 'Do you believe you can take it away?' He reaffirmed he could and told me i would see Mr Jessop? the anaesthnetist and with that he was off.
Shortly after Chantelle (his assistant) came in and went over some more details about the anaesthetic and what would be happening. She told me that Mr K was working behind today so it would probably be between 10am and 10:30am when i was called - she told me to relax and wait. So i did - i watched real rescues (lots of accidents etc probably wasn't what i needed to see) and homes under the hammer zzzz. All the while i was growing more anxious to get going. The original nurse came in again and provided me with my paper pants
. So i was well and truly geared up to go. Chantelle then returned to apologize again and said that Mr K was longer than expected on his first op and the second one was heading down now. She joked it would definitely be done today. I gave a nervous chuckle and asked what time she though i would be done. (By now i had watched all of this morning too - zzzz!) She told me it would be between 1pm and 1:30pm. I wasn't best pleased but decided i could wait another few hours. I think what annoyed me most is that i could have had breakfast that morning considering i was up at 5:30am
.
It came to about 12:15 and a heard a knock on the door. A small nurse came in and told me Mr K was ready for me
and to put on the thick gown (like a thick night gown). So i put that on and followed her. I was slightly nervous but there was no thoughts of backing out. To be honest not much went through my head other than 'this is it!'. We got the surgical lift to theater level and took a left. It was quite busy down there (freezing too!
). We stopped at the door and the nurse looked in. I kept my eyes well averted, i knew seeing the tools would make me more nervous
! Mr K then came out talking to the nurse and showed me and her to the correct door. He was all kitted out obviously and gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. I went into a smaller room next door and listened to the clattering. An older nurse came from the theater doors and introduced herself as the anesthetists assistant (the nurse left). She told me to loosen the gown and hop onto the bed. I did. She took my blood pressure/pulse and stuck a few of the ECG? stickers on me. She pulled the blanket up over me and told me to take off the gown. So i lay there naked with my paper pants and the blanket around me and we chatted away. She put pads around my shins which she told me inflated before surgery to protect my legs etc. She went over my details, confirmed the last time i ate and the op i was having and confirmed my signature on the forms. I asked her would he go in by the hand or arm, she looked at my veins and said you've good veins so he should go in by the arm. Good to go. Enter Mr Jessop, an elderly man, really friendly. He got to work straight away. Tied some elastic material around my arm and inserted the IV into my hand. I looked at the nurse who smiled having got it wrong
. Mr Jessop then took a larger syringe and said ok, here we go. I asked was this the gear to knock me out. He said no, this would just make me feel a little light headed. In it went and 5 seconds later i felt it sweep over my head and a nice mild buzz. The last thing i remember saying was 'whooaaa, i can feel that now'.
What seemed like 2 seconds later was actually an hour and 30 minutes. i opened my eyes and i was in a recovery room. There was a nurse sitting close by and i vaguely remember words being spoken as my eyes opened and close. I recall another other patients in the room of about 8 beds or so. I asked was it all done. I couldnt believe it was over , i didn't know they had started. Yeah all done they said. They removed my oxygen mask and brought me to my room and told me to shimmy onto my bed. i got a cuppa, followed by lunch and drank lots of water. The came and disconnected my drip and continued to take my blood pressure. i couldn't feel any pain but knew that something had gone on. Hard to describe really. Chantelle returned and told me they had taken 20g of gland and 250ml of fat ( i could be wrong on those figures! ). She ran over post op instructions and i got changed. They came and gave me my medications and i left shortly after 4pm. I have to say i felt great for the first few hours and walked the 15 minutes or so back to my hotel. Although I felt fine, i remembered the advice of some of the posters on the board (i.e thetodd) and took it easy regardless. I took some Arnica that night and two of the lightweight painkillers (co-drydamol?) and stayed away from the hard stuff (tremadol). I ate some pineapple and pasta salad and had an uncomfortable upright sleep.
Topic: Karidis pics - almost 1 year on!! (Read 23770 times)
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