Recovery

At home resting today after my surgery yesterday. I had to be to the surgery center at 1:00. Brian drove me and we got in right away. We had a nurse who actually was quite entertaining; she was very good at her job. We went over all the paperwork, and what to do after the surgery and then just sat and waited for a bit. The anesthesiologist came in to tell me the risks and ask questions. He was pretty cool too, and even better, he listened to me when I said I puked last time I had general anesthesia and he said he'd do his best to make sure that didn't happen. Around 2:30 the nurse and doctor came in to tell me it was time to head back, and out I went. Everyone in the operating room was really nice. The guy told me," Ok, good night, don't let the bed bugs bite and if they do hit 'em with a shoe," and that's the last I remember.

I woke up and was going to tell them that they needed to give me more sedation cause I was waking up during the procedure, but turns out I was done and waking up like I was supposed to. Once I was kind of awake, the cramps started. Wow. Pretty painful. Painful enough for me to tell the nurse that, "I've got cramping and it really hurts." So she asked the anesthesiologist what to give me, and since he didn't want me to puke (which I hadn't) he didn't give me a narcotic, but something else that started with a T which was put in through my IV. That didn't go so well. About a minute later, I told the nurse I was feeling light-headed and I thought I was going to pass out. "What?" she said like she didn't totally believe me. "I'm going to pass out," I told her again, and that's when my monitor started beeping and flashing cause my blood pressure was dropping. They laid me totally flat (a few more nurses came over) and my pressure leveled out at around 60/30. I think I freaked the one nurse who was in charge of me out, cause she kept checking my pressure then almost every 5-10 minutes for the next hour, and she jokingly kept shaking her finger at me.

Around 4ish, I went back to my room where Brian was waiting. He looked a little worried when I was wheeled in, and when I asked him later what he was thinking when he saw me, he said he wasn't expecting me to look so pathetic and crippled. "I felt like taking care of you," was how he put it. I finally started to feel better (that medicine must have kicked in) and my blood pressure was coming up. I was freezing so they have this cool gown thing where there is a plastic liner between the gown and your body. They hook a vacuum hose thing into the liner and then blow hot air into it so it isn't touching your skin but you get nice and warm. They covered me in like 4 warm blankets and then I was feeling pretty good.

Around 5, I was able to leave....my blood pressure was up to 93/53. The nurses post-op were just great. Brian drove me home and then went to get Thai food (I hadn't eaten since midnight) and my pain killers. What a guy. He is such a sport. I fell asleep around 7:30, woke up today around 6:30 to see if I could go to work but felt a little woozy from the drugs, so went back to sleep til 8:30. Feeling pretty good at the moment, and that's not due to pain meds either. Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts and prayers. I really appreciate every one of you. I'll keep you updated with the news of the pathologists results and where we go from there.