I Had Surgery

This is basically what I sent in a group email on Saturdayl, but I tweaked it a bit for the family history...

The surgery went well...with none of the common complications.  I was so scared beforehand, my BP was 188 over 118 and I had to get the bottom number down before they would even give me anesthesia.  The nurse was shocked to hear I do not usually have high blood pressure and was not on bp medication!  They gave me verstat, which Todd looked up later and is usually what they give kids before surgery to calm them down :)  When I woke up, I was in recovery and freaking out a little, but a wonderful nurse stayed by me and even did her charts at the foot of my bed so I wouldn't be alone.

Since I'm stubborn and won't use bedpans, I was up and using the bathroom before noon. On the way down to my room, I began to feel very sick and in pain.  They took me to my room in a wheelchair, which was like a cave with no windows and gave me more morphine...which I had a reaction too of anxiety. It was hard to sleep with my roommate's many visitors.  Turns out she had been there for a simple removal of a blockage, which is a much less traumatic procedure.

 It was a long and rough day with a lot of throat pain and back and neck pain as well as blinding migraines.  The head pain was awful.  I sent Todd home at 7pm so he could tuck in the kiddos, who somehow knew stuff was up and were pretty anxious.  And he looked so tired. I had horrible leg cramping and tried to walk it off but it took hours to go away.  I stuck to vicodin, never wanting morphine again.  My roommate's visitors didn't leave until like 10pm.

The next morning I felt like a living person again.  I was awakened at 6am by a whole gaggle of residents and interns staring at me....the head fellow for endocronolgy who works for my doctor just loved my case (the rare HYPER and HYPO thyroid combined with a gland completely covered with nodules).  They had no time to answer my questions, of course.  My doctor came in later and seemed to be in a hurry, too.  Must've been the sunny day ...perfect for a golf game. But all in all, it seemed I would be able to go home because my calcium levels were OK (biggest complication) and my vocal cords were not damaged (For those of you who prayed on this, thank you!! I was so worried I'd lose my voice). 

 But then the throat doctor...forgot about me.  I was the only one left on the ward.   Apparently she was in and out and didn't realize I was there.  Finally, she released me over the phone, I guess. The nursing and care staff were awesome in this weird ward of people who are expected to stay only one night.  (until very recently, this was like a 3-5 day stay, but with new technology, my skin is being held together with derma bond not stitches.  it is far-out)

I pushed it when I got home that night (even though Todd kept telling me to sit) and was in horrible pain.  This morning, with the help of a night's sleep with vicodin sitting up on the couch, I'm OK.  Have to stop typing as my hand is in pain from the IV (always happens to me, not sure why) and my neck is hurting.  Uncle Bobby will be here soon to help out.  Looking down and bending down is hard.  Can't pick up the kids:(

Adam keeps asking about my yucky boo boo but he let his Owl-y kiss it.  He was a bit off standish but I realized that he was confused and had a talk with him.  Abbey just cuddled me up a lot.

I guess I know I did the right thing as anything that can turn into cancer should be eliminated and also, I realized all that extra hormone pumping my heart was not good for it all the time. And maybe, just maybe, the 20 or so other issues I have, at least some of them will get better.