5 days post-op and still hanging in there

So, I figured it was time for a decent update.

October 30, 2007: We woke up at 6ish in the morning, since we had to be at GBMC - Greater Baltimore Medical Center - at 7:30. The way the scheduled worked was there was a surgery at 7:30 and then I'd be in at 9:30. As we're about 10 minutes away at 7 a.m., I get a call from the hospital asking if I could get there earlier as they could possibly get me in earlier than scheduled. Yay!

We get there t 7:10.



We sign in to the registration area and everything moves really fast; I sign a few papers, I pay my $200 deductible and I am sent to the prep area, with Dad and Jeff. They had me put on 2 robes, one the right way, one the other way so I wouldn't be mooning people, put in my IV, ask me a bunch of questions about allergies and medications etc. As I am sitting there, the lady scheduled for before me walks by and stops to speak to me. They realized that she had taken some medicine the night before that would have interfered with anesthesia and possibly killed her. That's how I got to get in early.

Something I found really cool and hadn't seen till now were mobile computers that all nurses had. They used those to enter all patient data in and it spit out a report that was put in a folder. The anesthesiologist brought the folder over and started going over some things. He said, "So you are allergic to blah blah, blahidy blah, and morphine?" And, my response, "Umm, no, never have been." So, he crosses that out and looks at another page. Says, "So, you are on medication zyrotimoferonium?" (A made up name but since I had no clue what it was, it sounded like that). My reply, "umm, no, never heard of that." Well, that caused an angry moment between him and intake nurse but they got things settled.

The walked me to the surgery room and within 2 minutes, I was out like a baby who'd been give some whiskey. When I woke up, things were very hazy. Dad and Jeff were there, I was moved to my room. I kept saying how there was pain and they handed me my morphine button, mmmm. I sent Dad and Jeff home because I was pretty sure I'd be out of it for a few hours. And I was. They came back at 7 and could only stay an hour because I fell asleep again.

Guess what? Typing all this has tired me out and I'm going to go lounge in a chair watching Jeff annihilate some enemy troops in Medal of Honor.