The 29th of January was not a good day for me.I was kinda amped up about the surgery and not dealing with it well. I had been out late the night before working. I was so intent on getting to work on time that I ran for the train when I heard the doors closing and I fell down the last three stairs in the station. The conductor was kind enough to hold the train for me but I went down hard. I fell hard enough that I was able to scrape my knee in two places through my pants and my elbow through my coat. It was not a great start to my day.
The doctor's office called me around noon and told me to be at the hospital at 10 AM for a noon surgery. Then I received a call an hour later telling me to be there at 8 AM for a 10 o'clock surgery. I liked that a lot better especially since I would not be able to eat or drink any thing from midnight on. I passed the word along to everyone who wanted or needed to know, went home, did some last minute shopping, had a nice big dinner late in the evening and went to bed.
We arrived at the hospital at about 7:45. Coral and my Aunt had both had small breakfasts, planning to eat lunch while I was in surgery. The staff at Roosevelt Hospital's Ambulatory Surgery Unit were wonderful. They were friendly, cheerful, helpful and generally warm. They had me fill out some paperwork and we waited. I was called in once to do a pre-interview. I was asked some questions and the interviewer wrote "yes" in purple marker on my left shoulder and I was sent back to wait some more. Then I was finally called to be interviewed by the intake nurse.
She asked me another bunch of questions, made sure they had written yes on my left shoulder, asked about my fresh scrapes on my elbow and I told her about my little fall. While I was being interviewed, Dr. Hershon's office called asking where I had my MRI done because Dr. Hershon was looking for it. I explained that I hadn't been asked to have one and she said ok. I didn't feel good about it but I moved on. The intake nurse said to not be worried and asked me to change into a gown and got someone to show me to a locker.
Coral and my Aunt Gen were then allowed to come and sit in the waiting area with me. We saw a young woman come out from what appeared to be hand surgery. She was very alert and seemed rather chipper and pain free. I was hoping I would come out in as good a mood as her. We were sitting there for a short time when Danielle came looking for me. Danielle is one of Dr. Hershon's Physician's Assistants and as soon as she said she wanted to talk to me in a private room, I knew some thing was wrong.
Let me interject an observation in my narrative at this point. Ever wonder why they make you strip completely to the skin underneath your gown for even the simplest of procedures? I mean, I was going to walking in and out of the hospital on my own power and the chances of complications were extremely minimal so there would be really no need to insert a catheter or anything else so why make you get naked? It's a power play. It gives the medical staff the upper hand in all situations. You're not going to argue too much with them while you're sitting there , in a rented gown with your bits hanging out. They could say whatever they want and you are at a disadvantage because you're not even wearing underwear. But I digress...
As it turns out, Danielle was there to deliver the bad news that Dr. Hershon had wanted me to have an MRI and somehow that little fact had never gotten to me. The good news, in her opinion, was that they had secured an appointment for me at a nearby facility and I would still be able to have the surgery today (I thought I might escape!), it was just going to be later in the day. She wrote me my prescription for Vicodin so I could have it filled before the surgery, gave me some post-op instructions, the address and phone number for the MRI place and begged me not to eat or drink anything while on my way to or from the hospital. With my 10 o'clock surgery out the window and an 11:30 MRI appointment, I got dressed and we headed over to the MRI facility.
At that point I wanted a big, fat bacon cheeseburger. I also felt badly for my Aunt and Coral. It was getting close to lunch time and instead of being close to going home I was still hours away from going into an operating room. They were both being sympathetic and would not eat in front if me so they were fasting too. It was not fun for any of us and I was cranky due to hunger and my frustration with the situation. But we moved on.
The people at the MRI facility, which was a short walk from the hospital, were very nice and accommodating. The technician was very pleasant and talked me through the whole procedure. That being said, I was not a fan of the MRI. If I was not convinced before I can tell you for sure afterwards that I never want to be buried alive. We waited for the films, called Danielle on her cell phone and headed back to the hospital. Apparently, there was no need to rush.
We hurried back to the Ambulatory Surgery unit only to wait. Maybe you remember how I wrote earlier that they changed my surgery time from noon to 10 AM. As we sat there, after returning from the MRI, it became clear why. The case that was originally scheduled to be before mer was more involved than mine was so the switched my case to the earlier time to get me out of there more quickly. Now, due to the MRI SNAFU, we sat there waiting till 2:15 PM when the finally called me again.
I go through the whole routine again. Many of the nurses and the staff greeted me with "You're still here?" and they made me put my underwear back in the locker (power play). My escort meets me as I'm coming out of the changing room, hands me a paper hat I was more inclined to put on my chest than my head and escorts me to the pre-op area. Coral and my Aunt were directed there via another route.
I was given a blanket, wished well and left alone to talk and wait some more. A few other staff members came over to check on me and ask me questions and then around 3:15, Dr. Hershon came over to see me. To his credit, he apologized, right off the bat, for the mix up. That meant a lot to me.
Those of you who know me may be surprised that I was so forgiving, given that I hadn't eaten or drank anything in 17 hours and normally I wouldn't have been. It meant a lot to me that he came over, apologized personally and immediately and didn't make any excuses. Also, I thought it unwise to argue with a man who was about to take a scalpel to my unconscious body. Plus, I wasn't wearing any underwear!
He left and the anesthesiologist, Dr. Rice, eventually came over to talk to me. He asked me a bunch of questions, filled me in on what he was preparing to do and then his assistant began the catheter for the IV. This was the nice treatment: After an extensive search for a vein, he gave me a local anesthesia shot at the site where he was going to insert the catheter. I never felt a thing. Coral left for class and my aunt went to grab something to eat.
He chatted with me, told me he was going to give me "the good stuff" via the IV and start looking for my nerve in my neck. He was feeling around on my neck and asked if I was nervous.
I said "Yeah. Why? Is my pulse racing?"
"No but you are sweating a bit."
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The next thing I knew I was waking up with a big clock in front of me. I was fighting the anesthesia, trying to wake up and the clock said 7 o'clock. I was very very thirsty and was able to see a nurse in brown scrubs. In my foggy state I was able to weakly call out "Brown Nurse! Brown Nurse!" Hey, it made sense at the time.
The nurse came over, got me some juice and I started to wake up some more. I saw Dr. Hershon at the nurse's station and called him over but my recollection of the encounter was vague since I was still slipping in and out of consciousness. Eventually they brought my aunt around and I started to become more lucid. We had a nice talk with the nurse. I was able to wiggle my ring finger and pinky pretty well and my hand was tingling. Danielle had told me that when my hand started to tingle, it was time to start taking the pain meds. I asked for pills, Brown Nurse gave me 2 Percosets and sent me to recovery.
In recovery my Aunt and I talked for a while, I ate some crackers and drank some more juice. I still felt a bit foggy so I wanted to wait a little while. I didn't feel terrible but I certainly was not as alert as the woman I had seen earlier in the day. A short while later, my aunt helped me to get dressed (thankfully that hospital robe was long enough to spare us both a little embarrassment) and we headed home.
We walked to the parking garage around the corner to where my aunt's car was. I was a little cold since I just had a sweatshirt on under my coat and it was kind of windy. At that point, I didn't care much. I just wanted to get home.
The ride home was uneventful. Even though the shoulder block was still well in effect, I felt every little bump. I wasn't really in pain. It was more a tingling sensation every time we hit a bump that ran down the length of my whole arm. Around 9:30 PM we finally arrived back at my apartment.
It had been a long day, much longer than if I had gone to work. We got me settled into the chair and worked on ordering some take-out. I settled down with a nice plate of pasta puttanesca and we waited. Coral arrived home around 10:15 PM, my aunt went home and the day was finally over.
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