Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Post-op party? OK wouldn't go that far

It is nearly 4:20 a.m. Tuseday, about a day after I started Round 2 of surgery here at Florida Hospital.

Went to Rapid In and Out a bit before 5 yesterday. Thankfully I didn't have paperwork to fill out. That was done last week.

Soon I am in a prep room not far from the one I was in a little over two years ago. A couple of notable moments: Warm blankets and "Shave and a chest cut, two bits!" The tech comes in to shave my chest and side and i aked him to avoid a lirrle skin tag on my chest, and he did. Remarkable because when I asked last time the request was ignored. Further, after the young man was nearly done I asked if he could balance me out and shave the other side. He did, gladly.

IV and main lines were injected and before you knew it -- or better phrased, before I knew it -- i was out like a light.

I awakened in post-op recovery, were a person to my left was in far graver shape than I. There was no one to my right, until a 5- or 6-month-old child was wheeled in on a gurney topped with a crib -like contraption.

Soon enough I was ready to move to a room, but there was a "code blue" on the way and so I had to wait.

Finally I was brought to my room, 8840.

As described in an earlier post, it is quite amazing: Wide-screen TV, a view of the sunset to -- um -- live for, and a great nursing staff.

The one downer of the day came when I found out the thumb-size "soft-tissue mass" in me was far larger than thought -- as if you' attached four thumbs together like a raft of thumbs. (Do i get a refund on the CT scan or radiology report from August or December?)

And it no longer is a mass but a tumor -- hopefully benign.

Hopefully, I will find that out today.

2 comments:

WIlloughby said...

Keith, our cats say "hi" and offer their services as room attendants. I wouldn't take them up on their offer, though. Their lack of thumbs makes it hard to bring you a glass of water.

Anonymous said...

I went code blue once.
It wasn't a big worry for me. I was in ICU at the South Shore Hospital at the time. My surgeon said it was a good idea if I could stand up and get around. i did that. And I happened to tug all these stickies with wires off. there was this loud buzy sound. A bunch of people rushed in with these carts and things.
They seemed ... somehow disappointed in me.
Feel better my friend