I checked in at 8:30 on June 2. It was very quiet as the hustle and bustle of the hospital hadn't happened yet. A hospital volunteer appeared to take me up to the unit I would be staying on. I got lucky since the ward had a whole bunch of people going home I got to have my own room at no extra charge. I sat around for about an hour which wasn't so bad then they called me up. So I got all prepped and they wheeled me to to holding area where I would have one last chance to talk to the doctor and the anesthesiologist. The doctor came up and chatted about how there was nothing to worry about but that he was still prepping for the surgery. Apparently he still had misgivings on where the tumor was located. He said that it was also possible it was attached to a nerve in my shoulder. He said it was rare but he did some googling (I swear to god I didn't make that up) and a successful graft on the shoulder nerve would not leave me with any permanent loss of use. Woah woah woah..who said anything about it being attached to my shoulder nerve? So suffice to say I was a little stunned to hear that the doctor was doing some last minute googling. Ha! Yes I can laugh about it now...a highly skilled very well trained doctor googles..it still makes me laugh.
So they wheeled me into the hallway, made me get off the nice warm bed and walk into the cold operating room. At this point I had no glasses on so I can't even begin to tell you about all the crazy neat things in that room...because they were all a blur. The guy with the needle took two seconds to get it in my arm and I don't even think they noticed I had gone to la la land. It all went like clock work but apparently the only difficulty was that they had a lot of trouble getting the breathing tube in. I still don't know what the story is on that but even my doctor was shocked how much effort it took. The next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery with the doctor by my side telling me about the difficulty and a big smile telling me that I was done. Beyond that is a mystery as I was so doped up. Surprising enough I had little pain from the whole experience.
By now its 4 PM and I finally get back up to my room and settle in. The worst part of it was that the nurses had to come in every hour to check my vitals. I was so exhausted from all the coming and going. The doctor came in to see me and ask if I remembered our conversation. I had no idea. LOL he reexplained that the surgery went really well and that everything he thought was wrong. The tumor was not on my vagal nerve at all but on some obscure little nerve in the back of my neck. The vagal nerve somehow got stretched over top of the tumor and thats why the scans showed it was attached. With the little nerve in the back, the doctor is unsure how the removal of the tumor will affect it. We probably won';t know until I am completely healed to find out if there is any permanent damage. So far there is no paralysis of my voice box (which he was really worried about) and no out of the ordinary numbness. He is completely satisfied with the surgery and did say the tumor was the size of a golf ball...it was pretty large. I am still quite swollen so I can't tell how everything looks and I am still bandaged up.
On June 3 I was released from the hospital at 6:45 PM I did so well with recovery and had such little pain that they felt it was not necessary to keep me in. It was quite a whirlwind trip. I am currently at home eating a semi liquid diet (my stomach can't take anything thicker yet otherwise it won't stay down) with hopes of moving up to oatmeal and pudding in the next day or so. I have lost my ability to be comfortable because I can't move my neck too far forward or too far back. I am currently on extra strength tylenol as tylenol 3s I felt were too much for such little pain I have. I have yet to actually see the scar but I will warn you it is pretty large. Pictures will be coming soon but I warn you they could be gruesome.
Oh by the way, June 3 was my 11th wedding anniversary so it was quite nice that I got to go home for it. Hubby wasn't prepared so there wasn't any celebration. Ah well...
Ooooh Pictures!
3 comments:
Fantastic news. Glad it all went well and that you are on the mend
It's difficult to tell which end of you is up. This is the side of your neck? Is that right?
This is looking on the left side of my neck right below my ear. If you look on the second picture near the center top of the photo you will see a faint purple checkmark...that is where my jaw is. I am quite swollen in this photo.
Post a Comment