Day of Surgery - July 16th

Surgery was planned for 8:45am Wednesday morning, July 16th. I had to be at Northside Hospital for surgery prep by 6:45am. We made it to the hospital by 7am. Surgery was expected to take 2 hours and then recovery another hour or two. I was wheeled into the operating room by 8:35 and woke up at 2:45. I couldn’t believe it took so long. I thought something had gone wrong. I later learned that I still had fluid in my body so they had to insert a catheter. This extended the surgery and recovery time in the OR recovery room. After I was awake for 30 minutes, I was wheeled into a private room and Melinda met me in the room. I was pleased to see her again. I was still feeling groggy and my throat was sore and raw from the breathing tube. The anesthesia had a side effect on my tongue, rendering it numb with no taste sensation. The nurse gave me some Cepacol to help relieve the soreness in my throat. The nurse provided dinner for me around 5pm. Dinner was a warm cup of beef broth, lime jello and orange popsicle. That Popsicle felt so good and soothing in my mouth and throat. The beef broth was just too warm for my throat so I let it cool off for awhile. After finishing off the meal, the nurse wanted me to get up and start walking in the hallway. I was looking forward to going home so I walked around the nurse station twice. Walking made me go to the bathroom and I then was able to see the bandage around my head in the mirror for the first time. (See pictures of my head bandages.) I was in good shape and ready for discharge by 6:30 pm. We stopped at Walgreens by the house to drop off the prescription for my anti-biotic medicine. We were home from the hospital by 7:30 pm. Melinda went back to Walgreens to pick up the medicine and returned home. After taking the medicine, I was plumb tired and slept on the sofa throughout the night. It wasn’t that bad after all.