After getting situated I laid in the bed and this really funny nurse came in and introduced himself as being the teller of bad jokes. (i.e. what do you call a bear with no teeth? .......... a gummy bear!) Needless to say he lived up to his introduction. He shook my hand, then grabbed the tips of my fingers, then when I put my hand back at my side he coaxed me to "finish it!" so we pounded knuckles. I have got to say that's the first time i've received "knucks" in
a Hospital!
He prepared to give me my IV so i did my usual and looked away. He gave me a local, then put the IV in and asked if i was okay. I told him I was, i just didn't like to watch. He responded with, "me neither, I like to close my eyes!" The man got jokes, I tell ya what!
He told me he'd see me in recovery and another nurse would look after me. When she walked in it was a very familiar face. I had seen her just two weeks previously before my Orchiectomy surgery! I said, "yooou look familiar!" and she told me how she bragged about me to other nurses for the past two weeks about how i just had a great attitude, and was at a rea
lly good place mentally during that surgery. I thought that was cool.
Eventually I had to go to the bathroom, so a nurse helped me down the hall, and of course as luck would have it, the Anesthesiologist tried to come visit my little room while I was gone. My Mom recounted the details when i came back. After i got re-situated she came in a short while later. She explained the anesthetic and how the meds i take make me more tolerant to it. So she'll have to give me more. She also explained they would give me a breathing tube, so i might wake up with a sore throat.
A really nice nurse wheeled me into the Operating Room and I started to get a little nervous. It always kinda gives me the willies to see how laid back the surgeon and surgeon's assistants are when you first get wheeled in. They were chatting about the Iron Man competition in Kona, Hawaii. Then the lady at "The Long Table of Sharp Pointy Objects" asked the guy who wheeled me in, "what's missing in here today?" and he said, "music!" so she asked me my favorite band. I was a little busy being transferred over to the Operating Table and getting my gown untied to answer. She asked again later though and I told her.
They set me all up then they p
ut the oxygen mask on my face and the Anesthesiologist hooked something up to the IV. She told me that most people feel a sting that goes away right away -- within thirty seconds -- and that i'd feel the wetness that i felt last time. Then, I started to feel really tired but kept my eyes open, the large Operating Room lights started focusing and unfocusing and my eyes were involuntarily listing lazily from side to side.
The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room with a killer sore throat. They had one of those oxygen nose things on me and it felt insanely uncomfortable to my still heavily sedated self. Instinctually I trie
d to pull it off, but the nurses stopped me. When I wake up in the morning usually I rub my eyes a lot to get the sleep out of em, it also seems to help me feel more awake. I tried that and the nurses batted my hand away again, thinking I was going for my new nose-piece. I told them I wanted to rub my eyes -- no relief. It was a deep feeling, clear in the middle of my head, rubbing my eyes wasn't going to help.
As soon as I could I asked for ice chips, cuz the thing that hurt the most was my throat! They told me it'd go away in about a day. I started feeling more awake, I joked with the nurse. She kind of looked at me like "is h
e serious?" They must get a lot of boring people in recovery or she must have thought i was talking nonsense because I was still high off Anesthesia. It may have been nonsense. I remember it being about my robe, but I can't remember it all. I just remember her laughing. In my state it was not a good idea to keep making jokes, but i made another one. It was about wearing so many clothes into the hospital i had to have two bags. I remember feeling disappointed to hear her say, "oh was it cold outside?"
They forgot to take an X-Ray to make sure that the Catheter feeding the vein was in the right spot, while I was in the OR. So they did it there.
They wheeled me into the next room which is basically the wait to be released. They were waiting for the phone call from radiology to confirm it was in the right spot. While we waited my mom took a picture of me. I sat there with my ice chips, with no modesty, looking stoned out of my mind because the sun was shinning in through the window i was facing, but life is good!
No more IVs!
Finally the nurse caring for me went on a calling spree and tracked down radiology and asked them herself if my results were back yet. They were and I was fee to go.
A really close friend of mine named Craig recently had collar bone surgery, so I can imagine that he looked something like me in this picture after he got out.
I got home and felt pretty good. I just feel like I have a sore neck, like I slept on it wrong. Other than that, i feel pretty good. The Doctor said no spiking of any Volleyballs for a while. Darn, that was on my to-do list!
I start Chemotherapy on Monday and my wonderful friend Dibe is going to be picking me up at 6:30 in the morning so we can make it there by 7. Then the 4 hour treatment, but hey... no IV! Plus she's an EMT so she knows medical speak and will be able to help me out with all the stuff they tell me.
oh man, good luck and you really do have a great attitude,
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