Today was the big day. My wife took the day off work to look after me going in and out of the hospital. I only needed to be there at 10am, so we didn’t set an alarm and allowed ourselves a sleep-in, although I woke up early and got up at the usual time anyway because I couldn’t go back to sleep.
I had nothing for breakfast but a sip of water. A bit before 10 we went up to the hospital and my wife left me outside, since there was a COVID check-in protocol to go through to enter the building. I was scheduled for the surgery for 11am, however I ended up waiting in the patient prep area with a surgical gown on for about an hour and a half. Nurses and the anaesthetist came in to see me and said that the patient before me had had some complications and the surgery was taking longer than usual. I’d packed my phone away tightly in the storage bag with my clothes, which they’d secured, so I couldn’t easily get it out to kill the time, so I just had to do my best.
Eventually they got me and wheeled me into the anaesthetic bay by an operating theatre. The anaesthetist was a cheerful woman who chatted with me for a bit, while putting in a drip and beginning the process. They still seemed to be finishing up with the previous patient, and I had quite a wait again before going in for the surgery. They wheeled me in…
And the next thing I knew they were waking me up in the post-op recovery room. I was groggy for a bit, slowly becoming more alert. They gave me an icy pole (a frozen flavoured water ice on a stick) to help soothe my throat, which was a bit sore. After a while when I was more lucid they wheeled me to a small private recovery room, and brought me a simple meal of jelly (gelatine dessert/Jell-o) and yoghurt, nice soft things. By now it was about 3pm, and this was the first thing I’d eaten since last night, so I was pretty hungry.
My wife came in to visit for a bit, but they weren’t discharging me until 6:30pm, so she had to leave again and come back later to pick me up. The nurses said that the local anaesthetic the surgeon put into my throat would wear off soon and it would start to get painful, and then I could have some painkilling tablets. But I actually felt pretty good the whole time. Even now later in the evening it’s not especially painful, and I’m sure the local must have worn off by now, so maybe I’m lucky and it’s not going to be very painful.
My wife made scrambled eggs for dinner – something nice and soft. Later I’ll have a big bowl of ice cream!
New content today:
Glad you’re OK!
Glad everything went well!