Post-op update
Hi everyone!
As Luke said last night, surgery went well and I'm already feeling pretty good after a decent rest. I think he gave you a pretty good play-by-play of yesterday, so I'll only add a few rambly notes:
Nurses are great. Love 'em. Lots of extremely bilingual gossip happening across the hall from me -- I will never cease to marvel at people who can switch back and forth across languages mid-sentence without pause. I kind of envy that I'll likely never have that kind of fluency in another language.
NP Gabriella (Gabby) took very good care of me while waiting to hear from surgery, along with another nurse whose name I didn't get but who was very diligent on butt-guard both times I had to walk across the hall in the gown. Both Gabby and the receptionist who checked me in each looked at my chart and started gushing about Dr. Chu being the best -- Gabby explained that Dr. Chu and Dr. Greer are the breast care specialists, and even though one of the general surgeons could do this operation, she thinks they have the best outcomes because they have the most experience out of all the staff. Though I guess it may come out of their charisma stats, because Dr. Chu is great but definitely not as warm and fuzzy as all the nurses, who call their patients and each other "love" and are just absolutely darling.
I don't believe I was at all as crabby with them externally as I was feeling inside after several hours with a nasty headache, but when I mentioned it to Gabby, she got one of the docs to give me an order of Dilaudid, and then when she came to administer it she said "He ordered you just a tiny smidge, I'm going to give you a bit more since we want it to actually do something, not just wave it in your general direction."
Now, I have heard great things about opioids, even maybe had a good time with them pre-appendicitis (though I don't really recall that experience much), but maybe they are not for me. The initial rush was... unpleasant, for sure. The worst bit only lasted 10-20 seconds, which felt similar to the adrenaline rush you get pre-dental surgery only more sick feeling, but the following period was still a mixed bag. The headache didn't actually go away, just became less urgent -- which was good! And I felt more dopy, definitely -- but also quite jittery, like my nerves were extra ready to fire, which is a weird combination. Maybe the experience was amplified by not having eaten anything for 10 hours. Ultimately I think it helped me doze off for a while, which was a net good under the circumstances. Gabby speculated that I'm "opioid-naive" and not much of a substance user generally, which is reasonably accurate. Anyway I don't see much recreational appeal if that's how I respond to them. Alcohol is much more my drug of choice.
Not that I'm drinking anything for the time being. I promise I am being Very Good.
Okay, what else? I told the anesthesiologist that I though he seemed like a professional, and in the OR before I passed out I made sure to thank everyone in the room as they were getting me all bundled up ("Except whoever pushed the button on the blood pressure cuff because that thing is very rude"). I asked if I was going to forget this experience ("Most likely"), but I do remember the first couple minutes on the table, particularly how well-lit and shiny the OR is, lots of really nice high-tech looking gadgets like a fancy octopus of screens and lights overhead, but also lots of open space, I guess because they don't want to be tripping over everything or blocking the light. Good feng shui. The team did a whole rehearsed pre-op spiel (name, role, their personal checklist) and that's about when they must have put me out.
Recovery was comfortable - no pain, a few instructions, then they got me dressed and out the door. I'm on a regimen of 1000mg acetaminophen every 6 hours, ice pack periodically, no heavy lifting, supportive bra (the surgical bra is pretty comfortable actually), and supplemental ibuprofen if needed every six hours staggered with the acetaminophen. That seems to be plenty to manage pain -- it's actually much less debilitating than that headache, or the itch from the bug bite (thankfully much diminished now). Actually I anticipate the main difficulty may be remembering not to do things with my left arm, since it feels almost normal except if I overextend or try to pick things up over a few pounds. I'll check back in with Dr. Chu on Wednesday, maybe there will be initial pathology report by then or maybe it'll be a little longer. Dr. Chu will be out after that, so my case will switch over to the aforementioned Dr. Greer for the interim.
Other miscellaneous things, just for recollection:
The tracer they put in is a radioactive isotope called technetium (technetium99m, probably). When the nuclear medicine doc told me that I thought, that's not a real element -- sounds like adamantium or unobtainium. But no, apparently it's real. Half life of 6 hours and they give a super tiny localized dose so it's pretty benign, I guess. She told me I would pee it out over the next day and it would turn my pee green, but so far I'm not seeing any green and that's kind of a disappointment.
The number of times they check my name and birthdate is interesting. What would happen if I made a mistake? Gave them the wrong date, or blanked on my name for a second? It's on the wristband - do they really expect their semi-sedated patients to cogently answer questions? Dr. Chu came by when I had just been napping and seemed to think I should have a lot of questions for her. Truly all I could think of was the smell stuff, to which she said "bowel surgery smells like poop. The other types, not much - I guess cauterizing has a smell." Makes me wonder if she doesn't have a strong sense of smell. May be handy in her line of work just like it is in mine. Anyway, this was followed by another long stare, so I said "okay" a few times and this seemed to satisfy her.
Well, that's it for now. We're going to go out on slow walk, see how that goes. I really do feel pretty good today.