Well, I'm alive. It's been quite a day. You are probably wondering why I'm sending this email after midnight. Well, the answer will be revealed below. If you are looking for the short answer, you can skip to the bottom paragraph. If you are looking for way too much boring detail, have I got a treat for you! Read on, Mac Duff! And don't say I didn't warn you.
For those of you that don't know, don't remember or don't care, I've been treated for a vocal chord granuloma for almost 2 years now. A contact granuloma is a little growth on my vocal chords that keeps getting cut off and keeps coming back. I was scheduled for surgery #5 on Thursday. The surgery itself usually isn't too horrible (outpatient and all that) but it is followed by some period of complete voice rest. That's the REALLY fun part. Late Wednesday night, I realized that I hadn't received an authorization letter from my insurance company for the surgery. This started me panicking a bit. Would I be having surgery or not? So, Thursday morning I called the surgeon's nurse but got her voice mail. Then I called my PCP and asked them what could be doing. Finally, the surgeon's nurse called back and assured me that everything was ok. I called back my PCP and said "oops". Not an auspicious beginning. (Why do they send those damn letters? I don't think I've EVER gotten one before the actual procedure. They usually come a day or two later. Thanks, that helps a lot.) Nita dropped me off at the hospital at 11:15 or so. (Our all-day baby-sitting plans had fallen through so she couldn't stay with me from the beginning. She was going to come back later to be with me and bring me home.) The surgery was scheduled for 1:15. Why do they tell you to be there THAT early? The surgeon was running late and they didn't even call me in until after 1 pm. So I sat in the waiting room for 2 hours as my lack of water and caffeine-induced headache got worse and worse. Finally, I get called into the prep room. I get changed, get in bed and wait some more. After a bit, they start my IV and do all that stuff. Then wait some more. Apparently the OR room isn't ready. There's another case that has run over "a bit". The prep nurse, the OR nurse and the surgeon's assistant are all standing near me talking. Finally, I hear one of them say "5 minutes"! Then, someone comes up and says "the C02 laser is broken". We'll have to wait for it to get fixed. A few more minutes pass. They are having trouble fixing the laser. Oh no. Have I gone through all of this for nothing? At that point, my head was really pounding, my arm hurt and I was feeling strangely jumpy. I decided to stop listening, as it was only making it worse, and try to take a nap. After some unknown amount of time, the surgeon came in and said they were going to do the surgery without the CO2 laser. I guess they used old fashioned scalpels! They took me into the OR and moved me to the operating table. I was starting to say, "uh, guys? Have you forgotten something? I don't mean to complain, but have you noticed that I am WIDE AWAKE!" At that point, they must have hit me with something because that's the last I remember. Next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room. The anesthesia did a number on me again. Woke up freezing and shivering uncontrollably. I was covered with lots of nice warm blankies and that helped after a while. Then I was moved to the second recovery room and they found Anita. Even though I was still pretty out of it, the nurse asked if I wanted my IV out so I could go home. You bet! As they did this, Anita and the nurse struck up a nice conversation about how the nurse's 4 year old son is apparently exactly the same as our 4-4 year old Andrew: out of control, full of energy, amazingly destructive, a wild-child. In other words, they are both boys!! IV out, I was wheel-chaired out of the hospital and on my way home. Immediately upon returning home, I popped a couple of Tylenol with Codeine (truly a wonderful drug) and went to sleep. This was about 5:30 pm, I think. Nita got the kids, who immediately came up on succession to check on me and give me a kiss. Then they went out somewhere, I can't remember where. (Nita did tell ask me if I'd be OK. I think I nodded an affirmative.) When they came back, again, the succession of kids coming in to kiss me good night. Still I slept on. Oh yeah, throughout this time the phone rang a number of times. Each time I woke up and started reaching for the phone before realizing that answering wasn't a good idea as I couldn't even say "hello?" If you called, thanks, and, sorry there was no answer! I got up a little while ago, around mid-night. Very hungry, very thirsty and hurting a bit. No food but a big drink (and 2 more Tylenol) later, I decided it was time to send a REALLY long email with WAY too much detail to all my friends and relations. Aren't you lucky! So, the long and short of it is: I'm OK. After 5 of these damn operations, I pretty much know what to expect. My throat doesn't hurt too much and I'm sure it will be better tomorrow. Just can't talk for a while. Yippee. Enough of that, I think I'll go back to bed now. - jmh _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
