The Surgery Chronicles - Day One & Two

8:30 am

Well – here it is – July 5th - THE DAY! I am waiting to be picked up to go to the hospital. My friend Jeff has been kind enough to do so. I will leave here in about an hour (which will be 9:30 am) I have to be at the hospital by 11:00 am for check in. I’m suspecting that will make surgery about 1:00 pm.
Am I nervous? Yeah – a bit…I think I will be a bit more as I near the operation time.
I am quite hungry…and thirsty. I have not been allowed to eat or drink anything since 11:00 pm last night.
I am just about to step into the shower to clean me up. I will dress in comfortable clothes – easy to get back on type clothes and they suggested no T-shirts etc., as it wouldn’t be wise to wear anything that has to go back over my head after the operation. I’m sure my head will be a bit tender.

Now I will let you one more thing about me. I have had kidney stones 5 times. The first two times I had them I didn’t know what they were, and frankly neither did the doctors in emergency.
I thought I had severe constipation actually. I was begging them for an enema. It sounds funny now, but you have to realize how delirious you are when you’re in THAT kind of pain. I guess by the time I had taken the enema (they resisted giving me one for some reason) the stone had passed through the ureter (the tiny tube that runs between your bladder and kidney) and the pain subsided. I went home.

On the thirst time, I finally had a good doctor on call one night that diagnose me properly.

I said,
“No it can’t be a kidney stone, that’s supposed to be the worst pain a man can have!” (in between screams)…

He said,
“Well what the _____ kind of pain do you think you have now?”

(or something to that degree – but the expletive was firmly in there)

Regardless, he had X-rays done immediately, and showed me the stone as it traveled down the ureter from the kidney to the bladder. You have two ureters, so he was able to show me the ‘normal’ one and the one in question, which looked like a snow plough had made it’s way half way down the tube at that point. He also told me that that particular area is full of nerve endings, so while the stone is scratching it’s way through the tube, it sends terrible waves of pain to your brain…and yes – that is true – you really do wish you were dead at times.

I had great painkillers after that. I was surprised to feel what morphine does for you. It’s the wildest thing. You still feel the pain – you just don’t care anymore…that’s it! What a strange thing. I expected it to get rid of the pain, not have it re-program my brain!

Why did I tell you this?

Well – to let you know that I have an idea of what ‘real pain’ is. Now Dr. McDonald told me at our last pow-wow that I wouldn’t be ‘in pain’ so much as ‘in discomfort’. Well we’ll see… I plan on letting you know here…

It’s now 10:05 am. Waiting for my ride still… I am to be there by 11:00 am so I’m hoping this will be okay, because there’s no doubt I will be late now. I would like to think they make allowances for these kinds of things. I’ve been using my time re-reading the postoperative instructions Dr. McDonald’s office gave me as we went through it all on the last visit.


Here’s some stuff from Dr McDonald’s website:
Click here








Now that being said: I apparently won’t have any wiring done, so some of that doesn’t apply to me.

11:35 am – I am now at the hospital and have been admitted…vital signs all done. There seems to be a problem with my laptop however. All valuables are to be placed into a safe, but the safe cannot accommodate my computer – at least I think that’s what they’re trying to tell me. I am in my hospital issue clothing, which is, of course, stupid. I do not understand the reasoning behind these things…but whatever - everybody knows this and I’m not breaking any new ground with my observations here.
New thing – guess I overlooked the part in the pamphlet I was given that states that I should’ve left all my valuables at home…. so now they’re trying to figure out what to do with my cash, credit cards and watch…
Dexamethadrone was just given to me intravenously. (Yes they just hooked me up – so my two finger typing has been reduced to one now…lol The nasty side effect of this drug is itchiness in the crotch area. I’ll be sure to report if this happens…
So here I sit on the gurney with my bag plugged into me, one finger typing and a possible case of itchy crotch pending….oh joy!!!!
I just signed a waiver for my laptop. They don’t want to be responsible for it’s disappearance from the lock up…and frankly – I’m a little nervous now too…but I’m sure it will be returned unharmed. I am left with a fairly empty wallet – as the cash and credit cards have all been taken away in a big manila envelope with my name on it…I’m to collect it upon release….
I may have to close this up soon…they want to take my wallet, cell phone and laptop away I think. I won’t be having surgery for at least another hour…but so be it hm?
Well – now I have been told that my wallet, laptop and cell phone will be in my closet with everyone else’s stuff in the room – so depending on the quality of the visitors my roommates get, I could be in jeopardy of losing my things to a thief. I have no one available to come and get my things, so I will have to chance it.

I have just been informed that they will do me early…off I go…

I awoke to Bill telling me it was a huge success. Must have been late afternoon. I awoke again at 5:30 *** as well. I pretty much went back to sleep right after and awoke again at 9 pm.

I feel like my jaw has been hit by a truck and I can’t feel anything in my face… so I’m drooling a lot – every so often one of nurses comes by and suctions out spittle – mixed with blood. I can’t talk very well – depending on the words I’m trying to say…but Lord knows I try to still…lol.

I imagine I will get my nighttime drugs soon and I will drift off…just wanted to report in because once I’m out it will be for the night I’m sure. I have a whole lot of apparatus around my head…things to help with swelling… oxygen up my nose…IV drip of course. I keep hacking up crap from my lungs – probably due to the tube they insert during the operation I would imagine. I have the table across my lap with my trusty laptop plugged in to report back to you here. I will upload this when I get home tomorrow morning.

I am pretty hungry. I ate for the last time at about 6-7 pm last night and had my last liquid at 10 pm last night. I won’t be able to chew for quite a while, so ‘Ensure’, Smoothies and liquid type soups will be the order of that day for the next while.

On a side note, I am rooming with a pretty old woman across from me. Every so often I get a wonderful whiff of what smells like a septic tank on steroids. Not pleasant….nope…not at all…

Well with that, I will try to report back in, in the morning. Dan Weeks is coming to get me at 10:00 am.

6:01 am

I got up and watched TV for a while in the common room. I was finally able to see my face in the mirror when I went to the bathroom – yuck! My lips are huge and protruding out, my cheeks are plumped up about the size of grapefruits and even my nose is wider at the bottom.
The nurse came in about ½ an hour ago to check my blood pressure and it’s quite high. I never get high blood pressure…I just hope this isn’t the shape of things to come. I’m trying to be optimistic about it. I’ve had an operation and a lot of drugs put into me. I’m no medical professional, but could that not elevate your blood pressure temporarily? We’ll see…

I talked of eating earlier and realize how this will be a challenge. Just trying to drink water is quite an ordeal.
Dr McDonald came in at 7:00 am checked me over and thought the surgery was a total success. He says my teeth are lined up perfectly. He also suspects that my high blood pressure reading was due to the operation, and not to let it bother me. He says I should go to my Family Doctor in 2-3 weeks and check it again…it’s okay I have a blood pressure machine at home and I will know on my own.
I am waiting to be discharged at this point. Cleaning up etc.
I have a bit of a ‘catch 22’ situation. I am to keep my head as erect as possible (even elevated during sleep) to keep swelling in my face and neck to a minimum. But because I can’t feel anything in my lip area I drool all the time. I don’t drool when my head is back…and it’s not just drool, it’s mixed with blood as well…I will have to deal with the bed issue when I get home. Don’t want bloody sheets…!!!
Well – I will probably check back in once I am home and somewhat organized.

11:31 am – Okay I’m home – Dan came to get me and promised to be here in a heartbeat if I needed him. Nice guy…amazing how you can have a friendship with someone again after all these years.

I just syringed some Ensure down my throat with my anti-swelling and antibiotics. I will now get myself ready for bed…propped up etc. My nose is bleeding quite a bit – probably from the high blood pressure, so the sooner I get laid down the better.

With that I will take a break. I will enter more later tonight possibly, but right now, I need rest.