Surgery Day!
We left the apt at 7am for our 8am check-in
appointment at CES hospital. We arrived 20 minutes early confirmed my surgery
and showed our receipt showing we already paid the 8,000,000 pesos for use of
the clinic. We took a seat in an outside waiting room and were allowed back at
8:20. I took a seat and a nurse confirmed my identity and wrote down my
scheduled surgery information. Teresa and I went into their private bathroom
where I changed into a hospital gown. When I came out the nurse put a sticker
over my heart with the surgical procedure I was having today.
I said goodbye to Teresa, actually it was more like
“Don’t worry everything will be fine” as they led me into the surgery prep
area. This room had space for about 6 gurneys with a clock high over the exit
doorway. At a desk they took my blood pressure and oxygen saturation readings
then had me climb into one of the gurneys. By this time I think it was just
after 9am. Most of those in gurneys were old like me but there was a younger
lady and soon they brought in a young man in a wheelchair with rods coming out
of his left leg. My thought that he had a motorcycle accident was confirmed when
a nurse came over and talked to him and the only Spanish I understood was
“accidente de moto”. An older (than old) woman was taken behind a curtain on
the other side of the room and some time later she was wheeled out of the room.
One-by-one all the others spent some time behind the mystery curtain and were
then taken out of the room for surgery. It was now 10:15 and I’m still here
while newbies are being brought in. At 10:45 I informed a nurse I had to pee
and she directed me back to the bathroom I had changed in.
They soon took me behind the curtain where they put
about 6 electrodes on my chest and metal vices on my wrists and ankles and took
an ECG reading. They the moved me to another side where I was pretty much under
the clock but could see it at an angle. A nurse tried to put an IV line into my
hand but messed it up somehow and started over with a new location. I’m
wondering what’s holding up my surgery as I watch the clock: 11am, 11:05,
11:10, 11:15.
Finally, at 11:20 a nurse grabbed my gurney and
wheeled me halfway through the doorway and then left me there for a couple
minutes. They then wheeled me around a corner to the operating room.
If you, the reader, are at all squeamish you might
want to stop reading here because I’m going to describe in the best detail I
remember 2 days later of my laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and umbilical
hernia repair.
The operating room was probably the size of a large
master bedroom and they wheeled me next to the operating table. My first
impression was it was freezing. With some difficulty, due to the osteoarthritis
in my lower back and having laid on the gurney for over an hour it took time
for me to skootch from the gurney to the table. Not far overhead were 2 large
lamps with 6 large bulbs in each. As I shivered violently there was lots of
commotion and fussing going on around me by about six doctors and nurses
although I didn’t see my urologist, Dr. Castaño. They put something thick over
my chest which wasn’t a sheet or a blanket but helped a little with the cold.
They pulled off my pants and told me they were going to begin. I estimate it
was now about 10:30. They put a mask near my face and was instructed to breathe
deeply. After 4 breaths I had the fleeting thought I’m not going to be under.
The next breath I felt I was going and I said “adios, pues” and I woke up (what
seemed like) a second later in the recovery room. (It was actually 3 ½ hours
later.)
This was a much larger room than the prep room with
about 8 gurneys on each side of the wall facing inward. Dr. Castaño stopped by
in his wheelchair and asked how I feel. He informed me they removed my prostate
and lymph nodes and all looked good but… (it wasn’t until talking to another
doctor later that I learned about the “but”) because I was still groggy from
the anesthesia. I asked him what time it was and he said 3pm, so my surgery
must have been about 3 hours.
I’m not in pain but it feels like someone is
stretching the skin around my stomach. I reach down and feel the catheter
coming out of my penis leading to a urine bag. It looks to be about 2mm wide
and I’m wondering how they got something that large inside me all the way up to
my bladder. Later google tells me that the part inside is quite a bit smaller.
The young man from the motorcycle accident was across
from me and I could see the rods had been removed. A couple beds down from him
was a woman that was still “out”. A doctor stopped by and talked to her but she
didn’t wake up. A few minutes later five doctors and nurses, probably 4 nurses
and the anesthesiologist, stopped by and the doctor again called her name and lifted
her eyelids and checked them. I was a little scared she wouldn’t wake up. Five
minutes later her eyes pop open and she looks around and we lock eyes, I give
her a wave and without raising her arm at all she waves back.
My feet are freezing as I’m lying there for some time
wondering when they will take me to my room. Finally, at 5pm they wheel to my
room. Teresa joins me on the way and asks how I feel. “Uncomfortable” is my
answer. I’m on my back on the gurney so I didn’t notice until later that
there’s a little waiting area with a small sofa and a couple comfortable chairs
and a bathroom that I never saw the inside of.
I have to skootch from the gurney to my hospital bed
which took some time. When I finally get a cellphone in my hands I take a photo
of the operation sight but I can’t even make out the laparoscopic holes because
the area is covered with tape.
I start texting family and friends that I’m out of
surgery.
A doctor comes in and I learn the “but”. They removed
my prostate and lymph nodes but didn’t touch the “nerve bundles” so I should
not have erectile dysfunction. The “but” is that one of the lymph nodes
appeared to be inflamed. I’m not sure what the consequences of that are but I
understand we’ll learn more after we get the pathology report.
Besides the catheter, I’ve got an IV line from my hand
up to a bag that looks suspiciously like saline solution but I find out later
it’s something to prevent infection. (I also have a line running into my side
but I don’t see that until the next day.)
About 7pm they bring me dinner which was chicken mixed
with rice, a little potato and piece of “dessert”. Everything was so dry I was
happy they also gave me a little container of milk.
I don’t like sleeping on my back to I skootch on my
right side which took some manipulating of wires and tubes to accomplish.
Teresa curled up on a nearby sofa for the night.
At 9pm a nurse comes in and takes my blood pressure,
oxygen saturation level and temperature. All normal.
At 10pm a nurse gives me an injection in my hand IV
site which burns as it enters.
At midnight another nurse comes in and gives me what I
think were mainly pain pills. One looked different so I asked about it and was told
it was to facilitate a bowel movement. Something I was hoping to avoid for few
more days.
At 3am another nurse comes in and repeats the process
from 9pm.
T-shirt
of the day
Live now. Worry later.
No comments:
Post a Comment