Surgery #8!
CAUTION – There are some pictures of my surgery at the end of this post. View them at your own risk.
So on Tuesday I had my 8th surgery. My gallbladder was getting increasingly sick and needed to be removed. I have had two ear surgeries when I was in elementary school. The first one was to repair my ear drum that had ruptured; the second was to fix what the first Doctor messed up. My 3rd and 4th surgeries were on my nose. The first was to reduce the size of my turbinate’s. The second was to fix my deviated septum. My 5th surgery was to fix an umbilical hernia in my stomach. The 6th surgery was to fix my ulnar nerve in my elbow. I had lost all feeling in my left side of my left hand. The 7th surgery was to add more support to my ruptured umbilical hernia.
This brings us to number 8. I started having these massive pains in my back and right side. On the 4th of July last year it hurt so bad, I went to the ER. After an ultra sound they found that I had gallstones. They told me I should get my gallbladder taken out. At that time I didn’t want any more surgeries, so I decided to wait it out. Over the last few months it had been getting worse and worse, until one night I decided it was time to schedule the surgery.
I was scheduled to be there at 11:30am. We got there, checked in, gave some blood, and they took us right back. I got in my sweet hospital dress and then the same guy that shaved my chest my last surgery came strolling in. Of course we recognized him, but he was a little embarrassed that we recognized him. They shaved my chest and then they came in to put in my IV. We waited for about an hour or so and then they came to get me. They took me into the Pre-Op room where the Dr. came in to see me and look at my belly. The anesthesiologist came in and had me sign some paper and asked me some questions. He gave me some medicine that made me feel really good. They wheeled me into the operating room and that is about all I remember.
Next thing I knew I was waking up in the post op room. My next challenge was to wake up and go pee. But of course if any of you have had surgery, they might as well ask you for your first born. Those drugs last forever and they want you to get up and walk around and pee before they will let you go home. To make a really long story short, I finally faked going pee after about 3 or 4 walks around the building and drinking a ton. The nurse was starting to get on my nerves saying “Wake up, or you can’t go home!” and “You have to keep your oxygen level up so this machine doesn’t beep for 20 minutes or you can’t go home!”. So for 20 minutes I took super deep breaths, almost hyperventilating mind you. On drugs, I get very short and angry. So I’m sure Beka just loved listening to me rant about this nurse. But then again this isn’t Beka’s first experience with me in surgery.
I finally got home and just slept off the rest of the surgery. The next day I woke up and my throat was super sore from having the breathing tube down my throat during surgery. But it was exceptionally sore and something felt swollen. I went to the mirror and low and behold my uvula was swollen and bruised badly. We called the surgeon just to have him tell us to call my family doctor because it was unrelated to the surgery. We then called the hospital outpatient station and they told us to just suck on ice and it will be fine. By 5pm the swelling hadn’t gotten any better, we called the surgeon and he finally talked to us, telling us that he isn’t an ear/nose/throat doctor so there was nothing he could do about it. Beka got increasingly frustrated at them and so she broke down. So then I laid into the Doctor. Just to basically get the same response that Beka had just gotten. We ended up going to the InstaCare because it was now after 5pm and my family doctor was closed. The Doctor looked at it and said that they had done a number on my uvula. She gave me an antibiotic and a mouth gargle to numb my mouth.
Over the past few days I have started to feel much better. My 4 incisions are not hurting much anymore, but the throat is still hurting quite a bit. I can at least tell it is healing though so that is a good thing. All in all this was a much easier recovery than my 2 hernia surgeries. I am a bland, soft, low-fat diet for at least 2 weeks. Then I need to slowly work fat back into my diet and see how my body reacts. We shall see.
Prep work on the Gallbladder.
Cutting one side.
Cutting the other side.
Gallbladder with it’s many Gallstones. Yes those are all Gallstones.
Uvula Day 1
Uvula Day 2
Uvula Day 3
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Wow.
Firstly, those stones… those are the little black things? Those are nasty. Do we all have those? like that? Or is that just special people?
And secondly – what the heck did they do to your throat? That’s awful.
Glad you’re feelin’ better buddy.