#And then there's just...... 2 Wheeled Wheelchair (Probably drawn mostly if not entirely from memory)

[yumenikkira]

not a dream - surgery 08/09/21

i want to briefly write about my experience before the details leave my memory. im writing this on august 11th, 2 days later.

the morning on august 9th 2021, i woke up at 7:30 am and was driven to the hospital by my mother, with my sister accompanying me. i checked in with the staff in the hospital and we all waited together for about half an hour.

when my name was called, i went by myself to walk into the preoperative area, and said goodbye to my family. i walked with the nurse down the very long room.

i passed by a number of elderly people on their beds. it was a sort of uneasy feeling. each of these beds were surrounded with a long green curtain that could be drawn to isolate and hide the room. if i had to guess a number, i think there were only about 4 or 5 of these secluded rooms.

she lead me to my area, and asked me some questions. she had a unique name but im struggling to remember it... luss? she gave me clothes to change into, and closed the curtain so that i could change in private. i set all of my clothes into a plastic bag they supplied me. i wore long white compression socks, with brown cushioned socks on top. (apparently i put these socks on upside down) and a green open smock which closes in the back with ties. 

after i was changed, more people came in to ask me questions. there were a lot of people coming in and out. the anesthesiologist was a kind, very old man named dr. rudolph. he just asked me medical questions. i believe another nurse, dana, asked me questions as well. 

dr. buchanan, my surgeon, came into the room as well. i saw him earlier in an orange mask, (his company branding is orange) but at some point he had changed into a more surgical green mask. he had an assistant with him, a med student who was shadowing him. i undressed in front of dr. buchanan so that he could make markings on my chest. 

it was a few minutes of him drawing on me with sharpie, and the three of us talked about unrelated things for a bit. it felt very casual and relaxed. i was not nervous at all yet. i asked dr if his other patients were usually nervous, and he said he had someone crying just the other day. i was feeling confident i wasnt going to cry. i asked him if he’d seen the movie repo. the dr hadnt, but the assistant did. it might be morbid to bring up that movie right before surgery, but it was on my mind.

after he was done, the dr left the room again. luss(?) and dana came back into the room. i lied back on the bed. i was talking to them about their nails, they both had nicely done nails. i told them i did gel nails for my family at home. dana said she had her nails done because she was going to see her granddaughter.

it was time to hook me up with the iv. im very nervous about needles, so i was looking away. dana talked to me while luss took care of the iv so i could take my mind off of it. the iv went into my hand, because thats a better position for the surgery. it hurt for a moment, but it quickly stopped bothering me. i thought it would have been more painful.

at this point, preperations were all in order. it was time to wheel me to the operating room. the two nurses brought up the bars on either side of the gurney bed and began to wheel me off towards another area behind swinging doors. at this point, i got really nervous, and i felt tears starting to form in my eyes, even though i was trying not to cry.

they wheeled me down a hallway, then into the operating room. i was on my back staring at the ceiling, so as i entered the operating room i saw very stark white, and knew exactly where i was. it felt eerie, and i was really scared. i never had surgery before.

things began to move very fast once i entered this room. they had me move myself off of the gurney onto the operating table. there were probably 6 or 7 people in the room moving around and preparing things, some of them asking me questions or moving me around preparing me. dr buchanan noticed i was crying. me took my hand and squeezed it while everything was getting ready. i thought about how this whole thing would be so much easier if i had a thing for getting cut open or something. LOL

dr buchanan told me people often dont remember being in the operating room at all, because the anesthesia causes memory loss. in my case, i remember it quite vividly. he gave me a code word to remember. the word was “butterfly”. ill tell him this when i see him again.

they placed an oxygen mask on me, which they said was oxygen and “something to help me relax”. evidently, that was the anesthesia. i was looking up at the surgeon and the anesthesiologist, attempting to talk to them a bit as i breathed through the mask. i felt myself getting slighty drowsy, but i wasnt feeling it very much. basically i was thinking, like, “this anesthesia aint shit”, but the next thing i knew i woke up back in the preoperative area, back on the gurney bed. 

i think at this point it was about 6pm. id been in the operating room for the entire day. everything was very blurry and hazy. to be fair, i didnt have my glasses, so thats probably why, lol. i felt myself waking up, but it was still hard for me to speak. my speech was slurred. however, i still tried my best to talk to everyone as they came by. i remember seeing the surgeon, and he said everything went well and my new chest looks great. 

a lot of the conversation i had at this point was very hazy. i think i must have put my clothes back on at some point? i believe it was luss as the last person there taking care of me. she helped me into a wheelchair and said my mom was on the way to pick me up. at this point, it seemed that mostly everyone had left, and just a few people were hanging around behind the desk in this area. she wheeled me out of the preop room and over next to the desk to wait for my mom. my phone was dead, so i just sat there and waited. i wasnt really in pain or anything, just bored. i was also bummed out because i wanted to take a post op selfie in the hospital. i should have taken more pictures beforehand, but i wasnt really thinking about it at the time.

eventually, my mom was there, and the nurse wheeled me out to the pickup area. another different nurse(?) there, a man, showed my mom how to drain my drains on either side. my chest in bandaged and under a surgical bra, with little drain bulbs on either side. 

they helped me hoist myself into the car from my wheelchair. surprisingly, i felt really good. i still feel good, even now. my pain is very minimal, and im able to get up and walk around easily. im hoping the remainder of my recovery will be just as seemless.