So im now 7days post op and have just taken the plasters off so thought its about time to update this post. In the days leading up to the Op i was very excited and wasnt really nervous simply because of this site, reading other peoples accounts of what the whole thing is like from start to finish with Karidis meant that when the day came for me to take the leap it kinda felt like i had already done it or atleast that i knew pretty much exactly what to expect.
Anyway this is my account of events...
HOTELI stayed at the Daniubius hotel which isnt the cheapest (£396 for 4nights through booking.com) but its a really nice hotel and the staff were great. The bedroom and ensuite were both large and had nice modern decor. There is a nice flat screen tv and the channels were perfect quality, the main ones are channels 1-5, eurosport and every news station u could possibly ever need the other ones were foreign. I had my Op early on thursday so got the train into london on the wednesday and stayed overnight before the op and 3 nights post op gettin the train home on the Sunday.
SURGERY DAY PRE OPOn the day of the op i woke up about 6am had a shower, got ready and got a cab 2 the hospital(i could have walked its only about 10-15mins away but it was raining there was still snow on the ground and I had a cold and didnt want to make it worse as the pack u get from Karidis Pre op says that they wont do the Op if u have a cold) when i arrived at the hospital just befor 7am I went to the reception the guy took my name and told me to have a seat, i waited there for about 10 mins before he collected us and told us to go to St claires ward. Once on the ward your nurse takes you to your room which is an alright size for you and maybe 1 or 2 other people it has a tv and an ensuite so I can't complain about that. The nurse goes through some genereal health questions and you fill out a questionaire with next of kin ect on it. She then left and told me to get changed into the gown and these tights/socks you wear to help circulation, if u are familiar with niguy13's post just to clear it up you only need to wear those rank see through pants if you are wearin nylon boxers luckily i had cotton ones so i was saved that embarresment
. She came back and took my blood pressure, pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation levels said everything was fine and told my that the anaesthetist would be up shortly. Sure enough about 5mins later he was talking me through the procedure and asking me if I had fillings ect. I just want to say now that everyone that works at the hospital the nurses and the anaesthetist ect are super, realy friendly and take away any nerves you might have. Next to speak to me was the man himself
Dr. Karidis he, like everyone else, is so calm and collected that you feel like your in the best hands possible. He made pleasant small talk, marked me up for surgery and took some pre op pics. About 5mins later at roughly 7:45am I was being walked down to theatre and looking dashing in a hospital gown tights up to my knees and these funny slippers they give you. In the anaesthesia room i met the anaesthetist again and his nurse who asked me a final set of questions and joked that i was the perfect patient as i didnt have any fillings and wasnt allergic to anything. I have never has anaesthetic before but basically I lay down on the bed, they found a vein in my arm and gave me two solutions, the first like the anaesthetist tells you gives you a "happy drunk feeling" that kicks in straight away and lasts for about 30seconds the second he said would put me to sleep and thats the last thing i remember.
SURGERY DAY POST OPI woke up in the recovery room a short time later and thought to myself is that it. It didnt feel like anyhing had happened and I wasnt in any pain, I think I was probably still drowsy. The people in the recovery room were very nice and one of them kept on telling me how much I looked like her son before she went away to get a pic to prove it haha. They wheeled me back up to the room and helped me on to my bed. The only thing bugging me was the vest.. it wasn't on straight and was realy digging in, the nurse soon fixed that and I lay back drinking gallons of water, watched a bit of T.V, listened to my Ipod and relaxed. I didnt end up goin back to sleep but jst rested with the nurse popping in every so often checking my blood pressure etc. The lunch came about 12:30 and I had selected pretty much everything there was to have and so tucked in. It was nice and very filling as i had a starter, main and desrert aswell as a fruit salad haha. I lazed around some more until about 5pm when Chantelle,Karidis's nurse, came and spoke to me. She gave me all the post op info, I already knew most of it from this site but it was nice to have it confirmed, and said i could get ready to go and that the nurse would be round shortly to give me the medication. I couldn't have the stronger painkiller because its basically like a really strong version of ibuprofen with anti-inflammatories in it but it could have kicked off my asthma. As it turns out I didnt need them anyway as its more uncomfortable than painful.
POST OP IN LONDONI felt good enough to go for a meal in the hotel the night of the op and actually had a decent nights kip the only thing I would say was that I woke up at one point lying flat on the bed with my hands above my head even though I had requested extra pillows and was propped up when I fell asleep. This didn't happen again as I bought a travel pillow which really made sleeping upright comphy, I reccomened getting one as they only cost a fiver and that was in the centre on london. The next day I was well enough to window shop and do other touristy things that London has to offer. The only times the "pain" was really noticable was when I forgot about the Op and streched for something. That night I replaced the dressings with the water proof ones they give you and had my first shower. It was akward as I had very restricted movement but I was glad to have one after walking around London all day. The swelling wasnt too noticable on the whole but there was quite abit on my left side under my arm. The scars were barely noticable even 1 daypost op which I think tells you how good Karidis is. Over the next couple of days the swelling probably increased but I was still able to do pretty much everything I would have done in London if i hadn't had the op without too much trouble.
DAY 7 POST OPI have just taken off the dressings I put on 1 day post-op and wow the results are coming along nicely there is still quite a bit of swelling but the brusings all but dissapeared and the scars are still only noticable if you really inspect the area. Overall I am happy with the results for this stage of healing and am really looking forward to the next couple of months to see how the healing develops. Sorry this is so long I didnt plan on it being so long but on when I was pre-op these sorts of things really helped me not only in the decision to get the op done (absolutly no regrets so far) but also when it was my time for the Op the diarys of other people on this site made sure that I wasnt nervous and knew what to expect. Anyway hope this helps you in your decision if you have any questions please feel free to ask. Thanks
Here are some pics 7days post op...
Topic: Karidis Surgery 14/01/2010 with pre op pics, 19 Days post op pics with questions (Read 9688 times)
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