Surgery

Surgery (May 10, 2005)

The night before surgery, I couldn't get to sleep, even though I didn't think I was nervous. We had to be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m., so Shelly, Angie (my older daughter), and I left home shortly before 4:30 a.m.

That morning I was fairly calm (probably because I was half asleep), until we had to sit for 20 minutes and wait for one more resident to come see me before they could start the surgery. At that point, I was too nervous to sit, so I stood and waited. They took me in to the OR at about 7:20, where they had me scoot from the stretcher to the operating table. They draped warm blankets over me, the anesthesiologist started an IV line, and Dr Jacob (Dr Welling's fellow) reassured me. I was asleep by 7:30, and my next memory was awakening in the recovery room at 11:00. It took me a minute to get my bearings when I awakened. It seemed as if I was awakening from a sound sleep at home, and the nurses seemed to be walking around in my dream.

Someone took me back to a private room at about noon, and Shelly and Angie were waiting there for me. I slowly woke up over the next couple of hours. Looking in the mirror, I saw that I had a huge white pressure bandage around my head. At about 2:00 I was able to eat some jello and chicken broth, and not long after that they said we could leave. We were home shortly before 5 p.m., with a quick stop at the eye doctor to have one arm of my glasses removed. (It would be pressing on the incision site otherwise). I thought I'd be dizzy, but I wasn't When little Ryan saw me, he did a double-take, stared at my head, and said "What's that?"

When we got home, Shelly started a pot of spaghetti and then left to get my post-operative prescriptions filled. I felt pretty good at that point, and actually drained the spaghetti and helped to get dinner ready. I ate some chicken noodle soup and sat down at the computer to send an e-mail update to some of my friends. As I typed, I found myself becoming very sleepy. I watched some TV, ate some apple sauce, and then went to bed. The pressure bandage was uncomfortable when I laid down, so I ended up taking a pain pill and spending a restless night in a recliner.

Recovering

Shelly cut off the pressure bandage the next day. We could have removed it in the morning, but elected to wait until the afternoon to help reduce the chance of swelling. That day I felt great, and was able to go to my daughter's softball game, wearing a floppy hat. I again spent the night in the recliner, sleeping off and on.

On Thursday, I was very tired, as if the last few days had caught up with me. Sitting up in bed that morning, I fell asleep and dozed for several hours, and relaxed and read books for the rest of the day. The upper portion of my ear was numb, which was a strange sensation. At times I'd brush my hand against my ear and think "What's that?"

Friday I was able to shower, which made me feel better. I visited the barbershop to get a shorter haircut, so the shaved area would not be so obvious. However, the barber asked me to wait a few days, as he was afraid that he'd nick the incision and cause an infection. I went home and spent an hour or two matching socks. I continued to have a persistent earache, which I was mostly able to control with acetaminophen or naproxen. At bedtime I would sometimes take a prescription pain pill if I thought the earache would keep me awake.

Over the weekend, I continued to feel more like my old self. Before church on Sunday, I was self-conscious about my haircut and incision, but Shelly and the kids reassured me that it was not too gruesome.

On to page 4, reflections during the waiting period

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