Surgery day has arrived!!!

Thursday 24th May 2007 finally arrived. I had been so excited for this date to arrive but at 5.30am when the alarm screeched my excitement had turned into sheer terror and apprehension. I was so scared.

I got out of bed and make myself a cup of coffee from my coffee machine and I added sugar and loads of frothy milk. I knew I should have had an optifast shake instead of a sweet cup of coffee but I thought I would be a rebel on the day of my surgery and one cup of coffee certainly wouldn’t kill me.

My admission time was scheduled for 10am my last “meal” had to be before 6.00am, hence why waking up so early.

It was such a serene morning. I woke up and put the central heating on and then sat sipping my coffee whilst hugging and kissing my beautiful dog Elvis. I whispered my goodbyes to him (just in case something was to happen to me on the theatre table). Elvis is the closest thing to having a child. I love him to bits and he is my best friend and my roommate. I best stop rambling about Elvis or better yet start a blog on Elvis.

Anyways…as I was saying, I warmed the house up and sipped my coffee and contemplated what was facing me later that morning. I then emailed my brother with a serious email requesting certain things IF something happened to me and notifying him that I was an organ donor and what I wanted to happen. (I know it’s a morbid, dark and gloom thing to do BUT death during surgery is a possibility and I like to think that I am a realist.)

My parents arrived and that’s when I started to pace around my home. The nerves started to kick in. I gave Elvis a last kiss and my parents drove me to The Avenue Hospital. I think my parents were a lot more anxious than I was.

I was taken to the Mackellar Ward and settled into my room. A nurse came in and went over the surgery with me and answered a few last questions that I had. By 12 noon I was emotionally exhausted and decided that I would take a nap. I had read all my magazines and my novel just wasn’t helping me relax.

My nurse popped in a few times and told me that I was 2nd on the list and she was sure that in 45 minutes I would be in theatre. That didn’t happen, instead it seems I was either forgotten about or I was bumped further down the list. That didn’t bother me because I knew that regardless of whether I was 2nd, 3rd or 50th on the list I was still going to be having my surgery today.

At 2.00pm, my nurse came barging through my hospital door and asked me to quickly jump into the shower and have my chlorhexidine shower. Folks this is the point that I shat myself. I jumped into the shower then placed my hospital gown and glamorous paper knickers on then waited…and waited and waited. By this stage I was becoming rather irate and quite honestly I was almost about ready to start buzzing the nurses station. Like I mentioned earlier I didn’t care when I was going to be seen but all these false starts were sending my blood pressure sky high.

I crawled back into bed and was napping again when my anaesthetist walked in and introduced himself. He asked me the usual questions and told me I seemed to be very calm. I told him that I think all this napping I was doing was really relaxing me. He left my room and I decided to watch some television when the orderlies arrived.

They asked me to hop into my bed and they made me comfortable and warm and the ride to theatre was hilarious!!! The three of us were singing as we entered the theatre. Anyone who knows me will tell you that, that is typical of me, I have a tendency of making grand entrances wherever I may go.

After my admitting nurse did all the relevant paperwork and had me sign a document my surgeon and his assistant came over and the giggles started again. My surgeon commented that I seemed relatively calm. He asked me f I was nervous or excited and I replied with “Doc, I’m really just very cold” he took my hands and said that they were cold. They then hooked me up with this amazing device that almost looked like a vacuum cleaner and they attached that to the end of my bed and it blew heavenly warm air directly to my body.

My anaesthetist then took my blood pressure a few times and I asked him as to why he was taking it so many times. He said that it kept reading 110/70 and he couldn’t understand why it wasn’t a lot higher. He called my surgeon over who examined the blood pressure machine and who then asked me if I was scared. I reported that I was initially but right at this second I was really very relaxed. They both said that I was the “calmest” patient they had ever had.

I was then wheeled into a theatre, which was freezing cold. I had to wiggle onto this very narrow table and the anaesthetist struggled to find a vein most likely due to me being so damn cold. I am usually pretty good with pain and I tend to tolerate it rather well but his needle prodding started to really hurt and I curled my toes from the pinch and sting. He apologised a few times and reported that my vein kept collapsing. In my head I was thinking “Buddy, just hurry the f**k up, because this is really hurting” and then my magical friends the sweet, sweet hum started to ring in my ears and I felt that glorious tingling feeling start from my toes and quickly climbing its way up. Ohhhhh I love going under in general anaesthetics. I can kind of understand the rush that some drug users yet. My eyelids were getting so heavy and I remember slurring out “oh my God this feels soooo damn good” but I think it sounded more long the lines of “ohhhhhshhhhmmmillljjgoooooooo”

I recall briefly opening my eyes as I was being wheeled into another theatre and then total blackness and nothingness.

Reney