Surgery.

I haven’t updated since the surgery because I spent the weekend writing the final paper for my Poetry course…and by the way, I found out this evening that I got a 95% on it! Whoo-hoo!

Friday morning, Shane and I went to Akron General Hospital for the surgery. We arrived around 11:30 for the 1:30 procedure. Check in was super easy and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they have a pretty streamlined system for getting you into the system and into a pre-surgery room. After we got our directions and the explanation for their sweet pager system to keep Shane informed all afternoon, we were taken up to a private room on the pre-surgery floor to prep and wait. And wait. And wait some more. I’m sure there’s a reason for making us be there two hours in advance, but the best I could tell was to let me have a really good nap. Shane watched TV on the silent set and I answered the same questions to about four different people: “yes, I’m on Metformin, no I’m not diabetic, no I didn’t eat or drink anything, yes I took my blood pressure meds” were the favorites. The long wait was a little longer because surgery was pushed back from 1:30 to 2:00. Around that time, Dr. Nash, the anesthesiologist, and the two nurses “huddled” in my room, discussed the plans, shot me up with some relaxing drugs, and whisked me away.

Once I was in the room, the procedure was quick. Shane saw Dr. Nash post-surgery by 2:20 and we were reunited by 3:45. Never having anesthesia, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I remember waking up the first time and being pretty disoriented, but cognizant enough to know that I wanted to get the heck out of there! There was some confusion between my nurse and the charge nurse about where we should get the pain prescriptions filled. Apparently that confusion was relayed to poor Shane who had no idea what was happening, just that he was getting conflicting information with each phone call from the recovery floor. When I was finally awake for real, I was still so disoriented (who forgot to tell me to bring glasses instead of contacts? EVERYONE.) and foggy but when I saw Shane’s shape approaching me, I scurried up out of bed, got myself together (I’ll spare you want that means) and we escaped! Or tried, anyway. The confusion over the prescription set us back about fifteen minutes at the hospital pharmacy…we finally made it out the front door and down the road at 4:30.

Shane was super hungry when I left him, so my first question when we were finally rolling was what he had for lunch – he told me “turkey sandwich” and my hazy self heard “chicken soup” – so I was DETERMINED to get some chicken and noodles from Bob Evans on the way home. I take that back…my actual first question was CAN WE GET SOME TACO BELL, PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE?! When he told me NO WAY YOU’LL PUKE, I had to settle for some chicken and noodles. I slept the whole way home but inhaled the food when we got here. Shane had to rush off to work with the promise that he’d check in on me every hour but, turns out, there was no need since I slept pretty much the whole night. I woke up at one point and called my dad but then went right back to sleep.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling great and did so all day until Sunday morning when the cramps set in (or the good pain meds wore off, more likely!). I’ve been pretty crampy since then…the bad news is that the pain medication doesn’t really touch the cramps. The good news is, I’m uncomfortable, not in pain. Turns out it was good news that I had to spent the weekend working on a paper – I had lots of time to recuperate. Today was a bit rough, but I’m hoping for some relief tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, we’re headed down to RGI for our consent meeting, blood work, and ultrasound. I got an email from the office today letting me know that today would be my last birth control pill so I expect that tomorrow will start injections. I’m nervous…but also so very, very excited. What a month it’s been already!