Surgery #30

Well, surgery #30 is done and it was the quickest surgery and hospital stay I've ever had.  Wasn't much to it.  Just some fancy scalpel work and rearranging of the skin and it was over in 40 minutes.  I don't think I've ever had a surgery go under 3 or 4 hours so this was kind of a whole new experience for me.  The day of my surgery, however, was the worst I've ever had...

Since my surgery wasn't scheduled until a 1:15 check in, my mom and I slept in for the first time on a surgery day.  So that was nice.  Then we just hung around the hotel watching TV and waiting.  From time to time I was tortured by having to watch my mom drink coffee.  Then it was special torture when she brought back some breakfast for her to eat and then some lunch later and the smell of delicious food filled the room and there was nothing I could to stop that deliciousness from being absorbed into my nose.  Oh the agony!  Then sometime that morning I get a call from the hospital.  Now, the previous night I got a call from my anesthesiologist and we talked about the usual anesthesiologists talk about with their incoming surgery patients.  Anesthesiologists are always supposed to call the night before the surgery to go over a few things like meds, allergies, any problems with anesthesia in the past, possible problems that can arise from anesthesia but sometimes they don't call, which I find annoying.  But I did get a call, which was very good because since my surgery was so late in the day and I'm not used to that since my surgeries have always been in the morning, I had some questions regarding my diabetes and what to do if my blood sugar dropped before I got in to the hospital.  At the end of our conversation she said to stay by my phone the next morning because if a cancellation comes up or something happens that they can get me in sooner, they will call.  So you can imagine my excitement when the hospital called the next morning hoping they were going to ask me to come on in.  Oh no.  Instead, it was to tell me that my surgery would not be until 3:45 so I didn't need to check in until 1:45 and since it would be after 1:00, I would need to check in at the main hospital as opposed to the Day Surgery area where I usually check in (even though my surgeries are never "day" surgeries that's just where you check in).  Oh GRRRR!!!!   Another 30 minutes of waiting and no food.

So it's time to go and we head to the hospital.  I get checked in in the main part of the hospital and then I am "escorted" a very long walk all the way to the Day Surgery area!  Just slightly ridiculous to me that the Day Surgery area closes at 1:00 but I end up there anyway for prep, just after a much longer walk.  Well, whatever.  I got over it, I was just more agitated than usual because it was a late afternoon surgery, which I'm not used to, and I was extremely hungry.  So one of the nurses goes through my medicine list and when I last took everything, and then through the excessively long questionnaire that I have gone through 29 times before, now 30 times and then she hands over the routine pamphlet to my mother that she always gets that says my name and who the doctor is that's doing my surgery, the time of my surgery and the time scheduled in the recovery room and O.M.G.!!  The time for my surgery is now scheduled for 4:15pm!!!  Oh this was turning into a long day.  The only thing that had really gone right and smoothly was getting my IV in, which NEVER happens, and by never, I literally mean NEVER.  So I put my head back, occasionally texting friends and waited while my poor mother had to sit and wait in an uncomfortable chair.  I always feel bad for her.

Around 3:45 my awesome duo come into my prep room.  Garrett and I start talking about what we're going to do today and then surprisingly asks if there's anything else.  So I mentioned the terrible contractures I have going on on each side of my neck and the awful scar band that has formed on my right elbow.  He has me turn my head left and right and takes a look at the contractures and then looks at my elbow and says he can probably go ahead and do a release on each side of my neck and a z-plasty on my right elbow.  All right!  I get all excited cause I've been bummed about this surgery being so small and just doing a z-plasty on my right eye when 1) I don't think it's gonna work anyway because the contracture problem is much more complicated than that and lies deep inside my cheek and is attached to the contracture on the side of my neck and 2) I just felt like so much more could be done at the same time.  So when he agrees to go ahead and do all those things my perspective on this surgery has completely turned around until, suddenly, it gets shot down.  Garrett suddenly decides it's probably not a good idea to go ahead with the rest of those things because he is worried about Medicare freaking out because they like to give pre-authorization to whatever is to be done in a surgery.  Damn.  There was a glimpse of hope and just as soon as it appeared, it was gone.  And I'm back to feeling annoyed about this surgery.  But Garrett and Steve (Garrett's PA) and I had a good laugh fest for awhile before they had to leave to do one more "quick" surgery before mine.

About 30 minutes after they'd left, about 4:15 which was the time I was supposed to go in for my surgery, one of the nurses comes in and delivers another blow:  surgery was now not expected to be for another hour! So now 5:15!!!  My mouth just dropped and I just threw my head back on the pillows and didn't say anything.  Around 5:10 I'm just waiting for a nurse to come back in and tell me the surgery's been delayed again but much to my surprise, and delight, the anesthesiologist came in.  Thank God!  Not much long after she came in, the head OR nurse followed and I was finally taken away.

As soon as I got into the OR, I saw Steve and, on the recommendation of a friend of mine, I hollered at him, "Steve!  Starvation is cruel and unusual punishment!"  He smiled and replied back in his dry wit, "Oh I'm sorry.  We just had burgers and fries, hope you can't smell how delicious it was."  He was just kidding about the burgers and fries but we both got a good laugh.  Then, as I was switching over to the operating table, Garrett puts The White Stripes on the stereo, says, "yeah man!  The White Stripes!  Let's rock!" and the last thing I hear is Jack's voice on "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" and the last thing I see is Garrett giving me the peace sign.  I love my surgical team.

(Just out of surgery)

And just a short 40 minutes later, surgery was done and about an hour after that I woke up in the recovery room.  Then once they got my pain under control and my oxygen intake was good, I was on my way to the OBC through the underground tunnel that connects the main hospital to the burn center with my mom walking by my side.  Soon I was in the burn center where everyone I passed said, "Sarah! Hey!" or "Oh it's Sarah!  So good to see you!" or "Yay!  Sarah's here!"  My mom left to go get me something to eat at the cafe since I hadn't eaten in 12 hours.  Shortly after my mom came back with some food she had to go because visiting hours were over and she was exhausted herself so I ate the food taking bites and stuffing my cheeks like a squirrel cause I was so hungry I couldn't chew fast enough.  Then I laid my bed back a bit, watched a marathon of Criminal Minds before turning off the TV and sleeping as much as I could.

Around 6am the next morning, an intern came into my room and took off the bandage on my eye, cleaned it up, put some ointment on it and went on his merry way.

(The next morning after bandages were removed.  This is a "z-plasty")

(Just a wider look at the surgical area and what a "z-plasty" looks like)

Then around 8:30am my awesome duo came in to see me and we talked for a bit and said I was good to be discharged and he wanted to see me in a month.  But then my first burn doctor, the doctor who continued to save my life on the operating table came in - Dr. Pulito!!!  I always love seeing him.  He always comes to see me when he finds out that I'm there and he even comes to see me in the prep room (which he did for this surgery) when he sees my name up on the board.  He's just such an awesome and soft-hearted man and we have a very close and special relationship, too.  A different kind of close and special relationship than Garrett and I.  Dr. Pulito was the first doctor to see me when I arrived at Legacy and he has said that when he saw me and got me on the operating table, he honestly wasn't sure if I was gonna make it.  Many nurses have told me that as well.  He said I was the worst burn he'd seen in a very long time.  But he saved my life and did a pretty good job working on me.  I can't tell you enough how lucky I was to have gotten him as my burn doctor as there were 3, well now 4 with Garrett, but 3 at the time I came in that work with burns and Pulito is truly the best out of them all.  I don't know how many times nurses and even other doctors tell me how lucky I was to have Pulito.  He wasn't even scheduled for that weekend, he was on call.  Lucky indeed.  He's like the fantasy grandpa for every young child and he makes you feel like his grandchild in a way, his only grandchild, his only patient.  He has incredible bedside manner.  I truly love him and I tell him so and he tells me that he loves me too :)

After I saw Pulito, the rest of the morning was spent getting discharged and then we were back on the road heading home.  And that was surgery #30.  The simplest and quickest surgery I've ever had.  As for what's next, I really don't know what the plan for that is.  Garrett's got me a little confused.  But maybe when I see him in a month we'll talk about what's next.  So since I've been home my pain has been here and there.  It's quite a sensitive area.  You'd be surprised that even though it doesn't look like much, it can really hurt.   But I'm on IR dilaudid for as long as the Rx lasts and then I'll be done with it.  I never have a problem with the IR pain medications so when the dilaudid runs out, I'll be fine.  It's the ER morphine that I'm having a problem with and what I'm needing to detox from.

Thanks everyone for your continual support.  Things have become rough for me again and still are.  So it would be much appreciated if I could get understanding and support, which I know I can count on from the people/friends who read and follow my blog as well my real, true friends in my life whether they read my blog or not.  I want you all to know that I read all your comments and really love it when comments are left.  I even often go back and re-read comments because even though all of them are always really great comments, there are always a few every once in awhile that brighten my day, put a smile on my face, or give me something to think about.  So thank you, everyone for being faithful followers.  But it would be really great if you spread the word and got my blog out there!  I want to get as many people as possible reading and following it!  This blog has become very important to me and to my recovery and healing.

(About 23 hours after surgery.  Starting to swell a little more and  looking more and more like a black eye)

(Three days after surgery. I look like I just got out of the boxing ring...)