Sunday, August 5, 2007

Christmas Finally Arrives! Saturday, Post Surgery! (Very Long)

Christmas Finally Arrives! Saturday, Post Surgery! (Very Long)
THIS IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH! BE FOREWARNED!

****LIGHTS ON****

I become aware of some caustic fumes deep in my lungs and start coughing.

My body is racked with agony. In the distance I hear someone saying something to me but I can’t make it out…

Again I feel the fumes in my lungs.

“Come on Sandy, take deep breaths…” I begin coughing again.

“That’s it girl, keep taking deep breaths and try to cough”

The agony now becomes more focused more in my upper chest and face. I wanted to run away from it all.

I say something that I never though I would ever say:

“My God! Why have I done this to myself! What was I thinking?”

Actually, my lips were still numb from the anesthesia and the surgical changes made to them. So as a result, I think what came out was:
“Mwe Fd! Ha ha I dom thr to mslf!”

“Come on Sandy, keep taking deep breaths, you’ll be fine!”

“Here, I’ve placed your feet against my legs I want you to try to push yourself up if you can.”

I pushed some and made a little progress.

A female voice then says “Sandy, I want you to push against me. Ben will help pull you up on the cart.”

I try but I don’t want to hurt her.

“It’s OK, Sandy try push hard against me. Really I can take it. I do this all the time!”

With a massive effort on my part I push against the person holding my feet. I feel arms under my armpits helping to lift me into position.

I try to open my eyes, but the light is too bright and my eyes fill with tears. I’m not sure whether it is from the light or the agony or my emotions. I’m still not conscious enough to make out much of anything.

The pain is nonstop. I think that if I had gone bobbing for French fries it wouldn’t have felt this horrid!

Someone wipes my eyes and asks me to open them. I try but I still can’t focus on much of anything. I can make out some indistinct shapes that I think are the ones who have been talking to me.

I blink a few more times and my vision starts to clear. I become aware of an incredibly tight bandage around my face. I can’t breath through my nose. I can barely move my head because of the constriction from the bandage.

The male voice says;
“Sandy, how do you feel?”

“Mbe kl cp!”

“Try that again, I can barely make out what you are saying”

With a prodigious effort and trying to make every word distinct I say;

“I FEEL LIKE CRAP!”

“Good! That means that the anesthesia is wearing off. Keep trying to take deep breaths. But don’t breath through your nose. It’s packed from the operation. You’ll have to leave it there for the next couple of days. Just keep breathing through your mouth.”

This guy is just a fountain of good news…

“I HURT A LOT!”

“Well what did you expect? You’ve been operated on for about the last ten hours or so, how do you think you should feel?”

I swear, I’m going to hunt this guy down when I heal and beat the crap out of him.

“We’ll get you some Vicoden in a little bit, but you have to stay awake and take deep breaths!”

The female voice says;
“Sandy, when we get you stabilized, we’ll be taking you back to the hotel, OK?”

“WHAT?”

“In a little while we’ll help you to get to the wheel chair and take you back to the hotel…”

“OK”

In my mind I know there is nothing to do for the pain but to endure it. I try to muster my pain mantra but to no avail. I cannot take myself to a different place, a happy place that is away from the pain. It keeps coming over me in waves.

I keep blinking and the light becomes more tolerable and the shapes start to become clearer. I can detect the difference between the male and female staff that were trying to stabilize me, make me conscious and get me moving.

I had entered the clinic just a little past 6:30 in the morning. Only the operating staff was there at the time.

It was now well past 11:00 PM in the evening and everyone except we three had left. The doctor could come back to the clinic on a moments notice if necessary, but actually I was recovering as well as could be expected and coming around after all the anesthesia they had pumped into me quite well. At least that is what I had been told later.

“Sandy, we have to remove your catheter now”

“YOU COULDN’T HAVE DONE THAT WHILE I WAS ASLEEP!?!”

“Don’t worry, this will only take a second. You’ll feel some tugging but it shouldn’t hurt.”

I feel some severe tugging then searing pain.

“OOOOWWWWW!!!!! IT HURTS LIKE HELL!!!”

“That’s ok, Sandy, it’s out now. Yeah sometimes when the catheter is in that long it can get a little stuck…”

I’m going to find the truck that hit me and make sure it hits him! I owe this guy big-time!

Speaking of trucks, I’m still feeling like the truck that hit me actually went around the block and came around for another go at me. Then backed up and made sure he did the job right.

“I’M STILL FEELING LIKE CRAP!”

“Ok, Sandy, we’ll have something for you in just a second. Hang in there, girl”

Like I’ve got somewhere else to go? This guy is just a full of good news.

After what feels like an eternity later someone is trying to open my lips. My mouth is so dry that my tongue doesn’t feel like a part of me. I try to push my lips apart. I feel a part of a tablet enter my mouth. Then the female says “I’m going to put some water in your mouth. Try to swallow the tablet.

I feel a few drops of liquid enter my mouth and like someone dying of thirst I gulp it down. I completely forget about the tablet. It is now stuck at the back of my throat. “Here try again.”

More liquid and this time I manage to swallow the tablet. I wish I had about a gallon of that wonderful liquid they had given me. I think it’s called… water.

“Ok, now, Sandy, we’re going to help you sit up and help you get into the wheel chair.”

All this “we” stuff. I just want to be left alone for about the next ten years or so. Then maybe I could try climbing under a rock somewhere where the pain couldn’t find me.

“OK…”

I feel the hands of the guy and girl help lift me to a sitting position and gently spin me around move my legs off the table. The movement makes the fire on my chest burn more.

“Ok, now Sandy, we’re going to help you stand. The wheel chair is right next to the bed. Just lean on us and we’ll help you get into the chair.”

“OK”

The hands help me to slide off the gurney and as I try to get my feet under me I realize I have to lean on them. I have no strength whatsoever to stand on my own. I lean into their arms and they move me to the wheelchair.

Then I feel hands lift my legs and place them on the footpads of the wheel chair.

The female asks, “How do you feel, Sandy?”

“I FEEL VERY DIZZY”

“So I guess you don’t want to go back out to that bistro we went to last night for a quick snack?”

After some deep mental calculation and thought and sifting through my memories that feel like they’ve been scattered to the four winds, a name comes to me…

“LISA?” The lady from Compassionate Care that I had dinner with just the previous evening. When I thought about it real hard I seem to remember I had a fun time.

“Yeah, hon! I was just joking about going out. You’ll be eating through a straw for the next few days.”

“I’M VERY TIRED”

“That’s ok. We’ll get you to the car and get you back to the hotel and get you bedded down for the night. You did great! You came through with no problems at all!”

“I STILL FEEL LIKE SHIT”

“Well, hon, you’re going to feel like that for a while I’m afraid. You will get better though. Just keep thinking about that!”

“I CAN BARELY SEE”

“Well, your eyes are really swollen right now. Actually it’s surprising you can see anything at all!”

“We’re going to unlock the wheelchair now and start moving you to the car, OK?”

“OK”

I feel the wheels unlock and the chair begins to move. The male voice says; “I’ll open the doors so you can just move her straight to the car.”

I feel movement. Lisa says; “How are you feeling? Are you dizzy or nauseous at all?”

“NO”

“Ok, we’ll be at the car in just a few seconds. Hang in there and keep taking deep breaths. It will help clear the anesthesia.

Soon I feel the night air on my body. Somewhere along the line I realize I have my clothes on. My Einsteinien brain after only a few seconds of deep thought comes to the conclusion that they must have dressed me while I was drifting in and out of consciousness.

Over and over in my head I keep asking myself, “Why did I do this to myself?”

What in the world possessed me to put myself through such agony!? There must be a word that is more appropriate than agony for the way I felt, but I can’t come up with it.

Eventually the memory comes back to me:

“Sandy, you had no choice. You had to run out of the burning building that was your deteriorating masculinity. If you hadn’t taken these steps, you would have been dead by now.”

Oh yeah, that’s why.

“I’M FINDING IT HARD TO BREATH! MY CHEST HURS AND FEELS TOO TIGHT”

“Sandy, you just had breast augmentation. Your breasts are bandaged tight against your body to keep them from moving for right now. Just keep trying to breathe as deep as you can. The bandages are elastic and will stretch.”

Oh yeah, that too… I’m feeling like a bit of a dim bulb. Actually a dim bulb is smarter than I am. My brain just recently checked back in from where ever it went while I was having my “overhaul”.

Soon we are at Lisa’s car. She is going to be taking me back to the hotel. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the thought that if I felt embarrassed before when I was waiting for the doctor to come pick me up, I can just imagine what I’m going to be looking like when they wheel me into the hotel now! About then, really couldn’t care less. My ability to be embarrassed was still backlogged in my brain that was still busy trying to unpack from its vacation.

“Sandy, we’re at the car now. We’re going to lock the wheels and help you into the care, OK?”

“OK”

I appreciate how they explain everything they are about to do to/for me. I really have the mental capability of a hockey puck right about then so this is very helpful.

Much like the gurney, Lisa and the guy almost physically lift me into a standing position and maneuver me into the car.

Someone, the guy, I think, buckles me in.

Lisa gets in the drivers seat. Ben, the guy with all the joyful news and finesse removing my catheter takes the wheelchair and folds it into the back seat.

“I’ll follow you back and we can get her into bed” he says.

Lisa starts the car and we head back to the hotel.

As my brain continues to unpack, I realize that this hotel is one of main hotels that the Doctor uses for the recovery of his patients. They must see people like me roll in all the time.

I think my IQ is up to 12 or 14 by then…

Along the way I fell asleep.

What seems like just a couple of seconds later, Lisa is trying to wake me up and Ben is trying to unbuckle my seatbelt.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’m thinking that these two have put in a full day’s work on me and would really like to get to bed themselves. I can be so considerate… But I haven’t a clue how to help them.

“Sandy, we’re going to put you in the wheelchair and take you upstairs now, ok?”

“Mo’ ke’”

My ability to speak in English has obviously been replaced by some language not yet known in this part of the universe.

Ben swings my legs out of the car and helps me stand up. He holds me tightly as he swings me around the unfolded wheelchair that Lisa has placed there and locked the wheels. Golly! These guys think of everything! I can feel my IQ hitting a Mensa class rating of 20 or so.

Ben helps me sit in the chair and puts my legs into the footpads while Lisa unlocks the wheels.

I feel like a Raggedy-Ann doll. Actually I kind of look like one also between the bandages and my limp body,

They wheel me back to my room. As part of my pre-op preparation, I had given Lisa one of my room keys. That way I wouldn’t have to bring anything with me to the clinic.

They get me to the room and Lisa unlocks the door.

They wheel me to the bedroom and turn down the bed closest to the bathroom.

“Sandy, do you need to go to the bathroom?”

“YES”

One of the things my brainicac mind noticed was that I felt very swollen. When I looked at my hands I couldn’t see any tendons or veins. Again some deep thought produced the supposition that they had been pumping my body full of saline while I was under and I had absorbed it like a sponge. I would all come out sooner or later. But I was so swollen I could barely make a fist.

I remember from my orchiectomy operation just a couple of months prior, I was under anesthesia for less than an hour. A similar swelling happened there but nowhere near as severe. In that operation I gained about two and a half pounds of water overall. I could only imagine how much I had gained then.

They wheel me into the bathroom lock everything in place, help me sit and give me some privacy.

In the background I hear them talking about how to get me bedded down and how much medication I should have prior to sleeping.

A few minutes later they check on me and help me back to my wheelchair. They wheel me back to the bed and help me to lie down.

Lisa said; “Sandy, I’ll be right her for you from now on. Don’t sit up or try to get out of bed on your own for now. Just call me and I’ll take care of anything you need,”

“OK” I’m such a deep conversationalist. I should go on one of those deep intellectual talk shows like Maury Povicich,

Lisa gives me some pills and more water and says;
“That was the vicoden and valium. Just relax for now. You should fall asleep soon. Just remember don’t get out of bed, without calling for me first OK?”

“OK, THANK YOU LISA”

I try to relax. I’m propped up with a lot of pillows in at about a 45 degree angle. I try to relax.

Lisa says; "Sandy, I've made a wad of gauze. Hold it between your teeth so you can breathe through your mouth. That way your lips won't stick together, OK?"

"OK" I feel Lisa open my lips and push the gauze between my teeth. I can breathe but my mouth feels like a dessert.

My pain mantra does start to help. I take deep breaths and try to relax my body as much as possible.

I close my eyes and feel my muscles relax from the effects of the meds and meditation.

Finally I drop off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

As I feel myself losing consciousness, I ask myself one more time why I did this.

The answer is the same. I did this to save my life. I truly had no other choice. But if I had to do all over again, while I wouldn’t change a thing, perhaps I wouldn’t be skipping into the operating room next time!

-Sandy(it was a BIG truck!)

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